Budcat Creations

Background
Budcat Creations was founded on September 1, 2000 by Jason Andersen, Isaac Burns and Jonah Stich. The Iowa-based team has produced original titles and system conversions of previously or concurrently produced sports games for companies such as Electronic Arts and Majesco. On November 10, 2008, it was acquired by Activision and began production of the PS2 ports for the Guitar Hero series since Neversoft took over in 2007. On November 16, 2010, the studio was closed by Activision.

1st Logo (June 22, 2005-September 22, 2009)
Nicknames: "The Budcat Controller", "The Bud Cat", "Abstract Cat"

Logo: On an ebony green background, an abstract-looking cat, colored in, white, and black, is seen. It suddenly raises its head up and regurgitates out a strange-looking controller, with wire and all, which drops down. The controller has a startling resemblance to the cat's face. As the camera follows it, it reveals the word "BUDCAT" on several different buttons, with the "B" in black with a white border on its button and the rest in white with black borders on the buttons. Below the buttons is the text "Creations, LLC". The wire then flickers out of existence.

Variants:
 * On Our House: Party! for the Wii, the logo is constructed haphazardly out of random work supplies, while the name is carved out of a metal plate.
 * On The New York Times Crosswords for the Nintendo DS, the logo takes up both screens, showing it in 2:3 full frame. It reveals that the cat just closes its mouth and looks at the screen, with the wire still in its mouth before disappearing.

FX/SFX: All CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A 5-note rock entry followed by the cat yawning and vomiting the controller out of its mouth. Then, we hear the controller fall to the ground and a zapping sound accompanies the disappearing wire as a final rock chord plays. At the end, we hear the cat belch.

Music/Sounds Variant: On The New York Times Crosswords, the belch sound is removed.

Availability: Uncommon. The animated version appears on Nacho Libre and The New York Times Crosswords for DS and Psychonauts for PS2. The still version was seen on Wii games.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (October 28, 2007-November 3, 2009)
Nicknames: "The Budcat Controller II", "The Bud Cat II", "Abstract Cat II", "Rockstar Budcat"

Logo: In a olive green space, we see the cat from the previous logo, but with a humanoid bipedal design and slightly rearranged facial features. He is holding a guitar, of which base also resembles the logo, and is surrounded by a ton of speakers in various sizes, along with a pedalboard and amp. He blinks twice, before he raises his arm and strikes down a loud chord on the guitar, which is played through the speakers. The resulting sound is so loud, it throws the cat towards the screen and imprints a 2D version of the controller logo from before, while he falls down off-screen shortly afterwards. The controller design is slightly different, no longer having a white ring around the face, and now appearing to have a white base. Then, the speakers fade out before the letters of the word "BUDCAT", in the same style as before, appear one-by-one as each music note plays. After that, "Creations" appears below.

FX/SFX: All CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A blinking sound, the cat going "HEOW!" and a short electric guitar tune. At the end, if you listen very closely, there is a faint voice saying "Budcat".

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes, the blinking and/or the "HEOW" are removed. This depends on the game.

Availability: Common. Appears on the PlayStation 2 versions of Neversoft-produced Guitar Hero titles. It also appears on the Wii versions of said titles as well (although the first three said titles don't have the logo on the back cover of the Wii version).

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (March 15, 2011)
Nicknames: "Buckcat"

Logo: TBA

FX/SFX: The camera panning down to the logo.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Seen on Top Shot Arcade for the Wii, which was released posthumously after Budcat Creations was shut down.

Editor's Note: TBA