The Untold Truth Of Miyamoto Usagi

While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got an animated series and toyline before Usagi, the ronin rabbit starred in his own video game before they did. "Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo" was released on the Commodore 64 in 1988. Sure, it wasn't a world-renowned beat 'em up like the Turtles' first arcade game, but it was a pretty big deal at the time and legitimized the character in popular culture. The developer was Beam Software, a company that was very much into comic book properties.

"We were into '2000 AD,' 'Love and Rockets,' 'Raw,' 'Critters' (where cult title Usagi first appeared), and so on," programmer Doug Palmer told Retro Gamer. "'Usagi' was lying around, everyone enjoyed it, and Melbourne House founder Fred Milgrom spotted something." In 2015, Usagi received another video game in the shape of "Usagi Yojimbo: Way of the Ronin," developed and published by Happy Giant. Made in the style of the classic TMNT arcade title, this button-bashing retro brawler dropped to mixed reviews.