How ArtDink’s Train Obsession Led to One of the PS1’s Unsung Mascots

How ArtDink’s Train Obsession Led to One of the PS1’s Unsung Mascots

What if a train was a man, who was also domino?

Gaming mascots come and go. Every now and again, though, one of them scratches an itch that the world didn’t know it had and ends up lingering in the hearts and minds of fans far longer than their games remain in circulation. For every Mario and Sonic, there’s a Gex, or a Bug! And above—and in some cases, below—them all stands one little weirdo who just won’t stop.

Mr. Domino, the star of No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!, is still finding new fans to this day. Just search for “No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!” in your search engine of choice and you’ll see that streamers, Let’s Players, and games essayists all over the world have continued to go back to this PS1 classic. Its humor, music, and constant action make it timeless, and maybe even influential. Would we have the Katamari series or the entire endless runner genre if it weren’t for Mr. Domino? Probably, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Mr. Domino got up to a lot of runner and Katamari-style fun long before either caught on with the masses.

But where exactly did Mr. Domino come from? What inspired him to start, before he later pledged (as we all know) not to stop? Details are scant, but taking a step back shows a potential throughline between Mr. Domino and, of all things, the world of trains.

But do we wish someone had stopped those localized, angry eyes from happening…

Mr. Domino was created by ArtDink, a game development studio that wasn’t originally intended to be a game development studio at all. Founded in 1986, the small team wanted to create software that were “interesting to create and would show off a computer’s power.” The fact that those works could be considered “games” was an afterthought.

Their first commercially released title was called A-Train (no relation to the character from The Boys ), which tasked players to observe and manage the function of a high-tech train system. That’s right: This is a game that sold itself on the ability for fans to simply watch it play itself, which is true to real-life train management. As long as the speed of the cars is set correctly and the switches on the tracks are hit at the right time, the train will safely get to where it needs to go. This sense of semi-passive interaction is a big part of what people love about the A-Train series. The most recent title in the franchise, A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism, was released for Switch and PC in 2021, proving that the enduring appeal of the modern railways also can’t be stopped.

Not pictured, a cute mascot that will sell your game to train non-enthusiasts.

“But what does that have to do with Mr. Domino?” you may ask. Well, the track between the distinguished domino in question and the trains his creators banked their careers on becomes clear when you take into consideration how Mr. Domino actually plays. In the game, your character (either Mr. Domino or one of his friends) is always going forward. They need to shift left and right so that they can hit certain spots on the course they’re running through, dropping dominoes as they go. Then, on their second loop on the track, they can hit the dominos that they previously dropped to create chain reactions that, if placed correctly, will lead to every switch in the level being flipped in one go.

In retrospect, and with that context, it feels like Mr. Domino may have been an attempt by ArtDink to give an inviting face to the train-based gameplay they were most well known for.  Like a train, he’s always going. And, in his own way, he can lay down tracks that can make or break his attempts to meet his goals. As it turns out, the real Mr. Domino was the trains we played with along the way.

The last sight of a man who was murdered by dominos…

This just leave us wondering, why is it that ArtDink hasn’t revisited their most personable, memorable game character since his solitary game release in 1988? The studio itself is doing great, with the recent Dragon Quest 1 & 2: HD-2D Remake being their latest project. And at least one other developer, namely Red Entertainment, tried taking the No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! formula to use for their own, in the form of the obscure Wii title Domino Rally. And yet, Mr. Domino has never seen a digital re-release, let alone a sequel. So, it must be said that, in a sense, he did in fact stop. But only for the moment. It feels inevitable that the little game piece that could will someday rise again, offering his steely smile and determined march to all in need once again.