EGM's Sushi-X - Unmasked At Last?

Thanks to CJ Johnston's weblog for its discussion on the true identity of U.S. videogame magazine EGM's secretive early/mid-'90s writer, Sushi-X. Johnston, a former EGM staffer, muses on the origins of the character: "The way I figure it (and I'm guessing here, since he appeared in EGM before my [1994-era] time), the Sushi-X persona was inspired by [Japanese videogame magazine] Famitsu's Taco-X, a reviewer often dressed as a ninja", and goes on to claim that the Lloyd Mangram-esque Sushi-X, "often the 'swing reviewer' who would pan something the other guys 'liked'", was originally writer Ken Williams. However, "soon everyone else on staff was taking turns playing Sushi-X", and, even post-EGM removal, the often composite character was resurrected for the now defunct GameNow magazine in 2003.

As a Long Time EGM Reader...

[FlipmodePlaya]

Sushi's stuff was always fun to read, but it was fairly obvious it wasn't a 'real person'. I can't reference any specific clues, but you certainly got that feeling from reading the magazine. CJ's blog displays a guess no better than any of ours, so I'm not too sure this deserves a ./a article.

What bothered me from the blog is that he thinks EGM created this character of SushiX, and then had him hate on certain games just to develop it. Does that mean games were given bad reviews just for that purpose? That makes me question the integrity of my favorite gaming rag...