Tiki

(First Appearance: The New Zealand Story)
Platform games come in all shapes and sizes, but usually you can expect some definate inclusions: They'll be an ice level that drives you up the wall with frustration, Fire, water, or spikes will provide some sort of hazard and usually, but not always, the hero will be a small cutesy animal, or at least have the ability to change into one.

Taito checked every box ever written in the platforming game bible when they created The New Zealand Story. When it came to the hero, someone, somewhere down the line was convinced that a Kiwi wearing massive sports shoes was most assuredly the way forward. Enter Tiki.
After a large walrus kidnaps all his friends, Tiki takes to the mean streets of New Zealand in a quest to free them all, dropping all bizarre chibi opposition with his trusty longbow. Jumping on the heads is not the order of the day for this platform kid, probably the only platform cliche the game misses. Despite this, Tiki bravely pushes on through a series of strangely familiar worlds, rescuing a friend at the end of each zone and doing battle with a range of wacky bosses.

Tiki basically performs as to be expected of a late 80's arcade platform hero, he looks cute, dies adorably and fails to stick the landing of tricky jumps. Regardless, he holds a place in the hall of fame of cutsey platform characters, a hall of fame that features a vast array of dot-eyed, squeaky animals whose bravery far surpasses their eight-pixels-high height.
Not much can be said about Tiki and his ilk. Designed to be played in rapid fire arcade sessions, they are often given little backstory and only the basics of any kind of emotion. All we need to know as players is that they are willing to brave death and beyond in order to save their world, rescue their friends and vanquish evil. They are innocent fairy-tale protagonists created to be experienced in a couple of credits of fast-paced fun. With the arcade-era long dead, we most certainly will never again see this type of 2D valiance and determination.

Which is a shame, as I really want to know where the hell he learned longbow?