Which company created the character Mario?
Answer : Nintendo
Mario first appeared in 1981 in Nintendo's arcade game Donkey Kong under the name Jumpman, before becoming the company's mascot.
Questions and answers: Video Games
Revise Video Games: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Video Games quizzesVery easy
Which character is a super-fast blue hedgehog?
Answer : Sonic
Sonic has been Sega's mascot since 1991: this blue hedgehog was created to rival Mario on the Mega Drive console.
In which game do you build with cubic blocks in an open world?
Answer : Minecraft
Created by Markus Persson and later developed by Mojang, Minecraft was bought by Microsoft in 2014; players explore, gather resources and build freely.
Which company makes the PlayStation console?
Answer : Sony
Sony launched its first PlayStation in Japan in 1994, after a joint CD-ROM console project with Nintendo fell apart.
Which company makes the Xbox console?
Answer : Microsoft
Microsoft launched the first Xbox in 2001 to compete with the PlayStation 2, with the game Halo as its big showcase at launch.
In which game do you guide a yellow character that eats dots in a maze?
Answer : Pac-Man
Released by Namco in 1980, Pac-Man is about eating dots in a maze while dodging ghosts; Tetris, Pong and Space Invaders work on very different principles.
Which Pokémon is the mascot of the franchise?
Answer : Pikachu
Pikachu, an Electric-type Pokémon, is the mascot of the franchise created by Satoshi Tajiri, whose first games came out in Japan in 1996.
In The Legend of Zelda, what is the name of the hero you play?
Answer : Link
In the Zelda series the hero is named Link, while Zelda is the princess, Ganon the main villain and Epona the hero's horse.
Easy
In what year was the full version of Minecraft released?
Answer : 2011
Minecraft reached its full release on November 18, 2011, after a long period of playable alpha and beta versions in early access.
Which villain often kidnaps Princess Peach?
Answer : Bowser
Bowser, king of the Koopas, regularly kidnaps Princess Peach; Ganondorf, Sephiroth and Dr. Eggman are the antagonists of other series.
Which studio developed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
Answer : CD Projekt Red
The Witcher 3, from the Polish studio CD Projekt Red, came out in 2015 and adapts the world of Andrzej Sapkowski's novels.
Which company publishes the Grand Theft Auto series?
Answer : Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, publishes the GTA series; GTA V, released in 2013, is among the best-selling games of all time.
In which game series do you play as Master Chief?
Answer : Halo
Master Chief is the hero of Halo, a Bungie series whose first game, Combat Evolved, was a launch title for the Xbox in 2001.
What is the name of the two-tailed fox who is Sonic's loyal friend?
Answer : Tails
Miles Tails Prower gets his nickname from his two tails, which he spins to fly, and has accompanied Sonic since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992.
Which studio developed Fortnite?
Answer : Epic Games
Epic Games developed Fortnite, released in 2017 and made famous by its free battle royale mode; the studio is also known for the Unreal Engine.
Which studio developed Assassin's Creed?
Answer : Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed is an Ubisoft series launched in 2007, born at the Montreal studio, where you play assassins across different eras of history.
Medium
Who created Mario?
Answer : Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto conceived Mario for Donkey Kong in 1981 and then the Zelda series in 1986; Satoru Iwata was a Nintendo president, not Mario's creator.
Which studio developed Portal?
Answer : Valve
Valve released Portal in 2007 as part of The Orange Box; the game is built around a portal gun and the artificial intelligence GLaDOS.
In what year was the first PlayStation released in Japan?
Answer : 1994
The original PlayStation came out in Japan on December 3, 1994, before reaching North America and Europe in 1995.
Who created the Metal Gear Solid series?
Answer : Hideo Kojima
Hideo Kojima created Metal Gear in 1987 at Konami, a pioneer of stealth games; Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation dates from 1998.
Which studio developed Street Fighter?
Answer : Capcom
Capcom launched Street Fighter in 1987, but it was Street Fighter II in 1991 that set off the craze for fighting games in arcades.
How many Pokémon are there in the first generation?
Answer : 151
The first generation has 151 Pokémon, from Bulbasaur (no. 1) to Mew (no. 151); the second adds 100 more, for a total of 251.
Which studio developed Overwatch?
Answer : Blizzard Entertainment
Overwatch, a team shooter from Blizzard released in 2016, grew out of the remains of a canceled online game project called Titan.
Which 2004 Nintendo console has two screens?
Answer : Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS came out in late 2004; its name comes from Dual Screen, and the lower screen is a touch screen.
Hard
Which studio developed Dark Souls?
Answer : FromSoftware
FromSoftware released Dark Souls in 2011 under Hidetaka Miyazaki, popularizing very demanding action games; the studio also made Elden Ring.
In what year was Super Mario Bros. released in Japan?
Answer : 1985
Super Mario Bros. came out on September 13, 1985 on the Famicom and helped revive the video game industry after the 1983 crash in the United States.
In what year was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild released?
Answer : 2017
Breath of the Wild came out on March 3, 2017, alongside the Nintendo Switch; this open world profoundly shaped the Zelda series.
Who is the creator of the Final Fantasy series?
Answer : Hironobu Sakaguchi
Hironobu Sakaguchi launched Final Fantasy in 1987 at Square; Tetsuya Nomura is mainly known as a character designer, not as the series' creator.
Which programmer is one of the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog?
Answer : Yuji Naka
Yuji Naka, a programmer at Sega, created Sonic with designer Naoto Ohshima and game designer Hirokazu Yasuhara; the game came out in 1991.
What is the name of the heroine of the Metroid series?
Answer : Samus Aran
Samus Aran is the bounty hunter of Metroid, released in 1986; in the first game, a good ending reveals that she is a woman.
In what year was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released?
Answer : 2011
Skyrim came out on November 11, 2011, or 11/11/11, developed by Bethesda Game Studios; it is the fifth main entry in The Elder Scrolls series.
In which game series do you visit the underwater city of Rapture?
Answer : BioShock
Rapture is the underwater city built by the entrepreneur Andrew Ryan in BioShock (2007), a game from the studio Irrational Games.
Expert
In Ocarina of Time, what is the name of Link's fairy companion?
Answer : Navi
Navi, the fairy of Ocarina of Time (1998), is famous for her Hey! Listen! call; Tatl, Midna and Ezlo accompany Link in other games.
In what year was Nintendo founded, originally as a playing card maker?
Answer : 1889
Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto by Fusajiro Yamauchi to make hanafuda playing cards, long before it entered video games.
Who designed the game Pac-Man at Namco?
Answer : Toru Iwatani
Toru Iwatani designed Pac-Man at Namco in 1980; he has said he was inspired by a pizza with one slice missing.
What was the first commercially sold home video game console?
Answer : Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey, designed by Ralph Baer, came out in 1972; the far more popular Atari 2600 only dates from 1977.
Which composer wrote the main themes of the Final Fantasy series?
Answer : Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsu composed the music for the Final Fantasy games, including the famous victory theme; Koji Kondo, by contrast, is the composer behind Mario and Zelda.
Which studio developed the original 2005 Shadow of the Colossus?
Answer : Team Ico
Fumito Ueda led Team Ico, a Sony studio, on Shadow of the Colossus (2005 on the PlayStation 2), the follow-up to Ico (2001).
Who designed the game Tetris in 1984?
Answer : Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Pajitnov designed Tetris in 1984 in Moscow at the Soviet Academy of Sciences; Henk Rogers later helped export it, notably on the Game Boy.
In what year was Half-Life released?
Answer : 1998
Half-Life, the first game from Valve, came out in November 1998; this shooter pioneered storytelling without cutscenes that interrupt the action.