Being A Video Game Hero Is Hard, Ask Master Higgins

In the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal, it’s good to know not all gaming heroes are dogs. Take Hudson’s Master Higgins, aka Takahashi Meijin, star of the Adventure Island series.

During the 1980’s Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) boom in Japan, Takahashi Meijin became the idol of Japanese kids for his ability to press buttons quickly. “Because I was a famous figure for kids, I was told, and myself believed, that I had to be careful not to get too close to anything too shady, to avoid the “grown-up” areas of Japan,” Master Higgins told game site 1UP. “Because even though I might not have been going anywhere or doing anything specific, the fact that any gossip magazines were looking for dirt on me, and tailing me, if they got a shot of me just walking around those kinds of places, that alone would have been pretty damaging.”

So Takahashi Meijin had to, in his own words, “lead an extraordinary careful life”.

The means that the game spokesperson had to stay sober. “But there was one time when I got really really drunk, and even though there was nothing bad going on, I was just drunk, so I was concerned that might have been damaging, but I guess that wasn’t enough,” he recalled. “I used to smoke back then — I don’t now, but I was really careful not to be photographed while smoking, obviously, because of the whole “role model” thing, but a lot of my colleagues smoked, and that was one thing I was extra careful not to have exposed.”

Not only does Takahashi Meijin look like Mr. Clean, he is Mr. Clean.

Master Higgins Speaks… [1UP]