In the 1980s, Sega had had limited success with Genesis ports of its arcade games, but wanted a stronger foothold against its main competitor, Nintendo. In 1988, Sega of Japan began an in-house competition to find a rival to Nintendo's Mario. Programmers and designers at Sega worked on a brand character to rival Mario for the next three years. In 1990, Sega ordered its in-house development studio to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. Sega wanted a character to rival Nintendo's mascot Mario; president Hayao Nakayama wanted a character as iconic as Mickey Mouse. Sega had previously used Alex Kidd as their mascot, but he was considered too similar to Mario and deemed unsatisfactory.