A long-forgotten character from the age of mascots might be poised to make a return if a batch of new IP trademarks is to be believed. That character is the Namco platforming character Klonoa who appeared in multiple games between 1997 and 2008. He made his first appearance on the Playstation with Klonoa: Door to Phantomile in 1997, before going on to appear on consoles ranging from PlayStation 2 to the Wonderswan.
As spotted by Gematsu, Bandai Namco has filed multiple trademarks and among them are “Waffuu Encore” and “1&2 Encore“. Waffuu is the name the games have been released under in Japan, with encore being a common term for remastered games. In this case, a Klonoa Encore was registered in America back in 2019. Nothing has come of that yet but since the Covid-19 pandemic hit shortly after it is possible a timeline for the title was delayed or rearranged.
Klonoa himself hails, as stated above, from the age of gaming mascots known for the cute characters that could represent brands. While Sonic and Mario long survived this era intact, many other characters fell to the wayside and only recently began making comeback. This includes Crash Bandicoot which got remasters of its classic games, before getting a brand new game after years.
In the case of the Bandai Namco character, Klonoa has features of cats, dogs, and rabbits though he does not fall under any category in terms of what animal he is. He was also well known for his outfit, mainly his hat, which had pac-man on the side of it. Most of his games played as 2D or 2.5D platformers in which he navigated his fantasy world in an attempt to save it from other cute but evil characters.
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