Flicky

Flicky (フリッキー) is a platform arcade game that was released by Sega in 1984 and licensed to Bally Midway for U.S. manufacture and distribution; it runs upon the company's System 1 hardware (which predates Atari's by a year and Namco's by four), and the player must use a two-way joystick to take control of a bluebird (the eponymous "Flicky") who has to collect chicks named "Piopio" (which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for chirping) and take them home (represented by a pair of double doors with his name above them) while watching out for two cats called "Nyannyan" (which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for meowing). If either of the Nyannyan should touch Flicky it will cost him a life - but if they should touch a Piopio, he will merely be separated from Flicky and must be collected again. The game also utilises a button (which is normally used for jumping), but when Flicky collects a flowerpot, hammer or trumpet on a platform (depending on the current round) it can be used to make him throw it at the Nyannyan and temporarily eliminate them; in later rounds small newts named "Choro" join in the pursuit of Flicky and their threat to him is posed by running round the edges of specific platforms.

This game's main character went on to appear in many later Sega games, including TeddyBoy Blues, SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative, Flash Point, Bloxeed and Super Monaco GP, but is most famous for being the basis for the bluebirds that emerge, alongside other animals, from defeated "badniks" in the Sonic the Hedgehog series; the inceptive Flicky character also accompanies Sonic in Sonic 3D Blast.