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Editorial Entertainment Games

The Decline of the Video Game Mascot 144

Posted by Zonk from the get-hooked-on-the-brother-huh! dept.
Ant writes "Ryan Cullen, of Access Gamer, writes: "This is the beginning of a recent fad that I have noticed the past couple years. Lately it seems that the mascot video game character has declined in popularity. Names like Mario and Sonic, characters who were once able to make the video game world suddenly stop and pay attention, are now either shells of their former glory, or they are just not as huge as they once were. Why is this?""
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The Decline of the Video Game Mascot More

The Decline of the Video Game Mascot

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  • Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)

    by brilinux ( 255400 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:33PM (#10978881) Journal
    It is because everyone was intimidated by the best mascot ever from the best game ever [nethack.org]:

    @

  • Mario (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DavidLeblond ( 267211 ) <me@dCOFFEEavidleblond.com minus caffeine> on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:40PM (#10978979) Homepage
    I remember when Mario was a somebody, but now Nintendo is insistent on putting him in every type of game EXCEPT a platformer. Lately they've put out a cart racing game, a golf game, an RPG and a tennis game. Then they announce "here it comes! another Mario game!" and what is it? Baseball!

    What happened to "Mario 128"??? Is Mario Sunshine the only thing us Gamecube players are going to get? Say it isn't so!

    • Re:Mario (Score:3, Informative)

      by SetupWeasel ( 54062 )
      Mario 128 is in production. Miyamoto recently said it would be for the GC, but even with that there are reports to the contrary.

      Nintendo is keeping a lid on "Mario 128" so no one else steals their ideas.

    • Re:Mario (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Rayonic ( 462789 )
      In their defense, the Mario side-games are pretty great. I especially loved "Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga" and "Mario vs. Donkey Kong".

      Shouldn't a mascot be somewhat flexible?
      • MarioKart is a kick-ass game, although I don't think they've really improved on the original with any of the sequels. Mario Tennis and Mario Golf are both more fun than their straight-sports counterparts, so I have high hopes for Mario Baseball. The Mario franchise is going strong on the back of a lot of really fun games.

        Conversely, the Sonic franchise has largely died. Partly because it doesn't have its own console but mostly because the new Sonic games suck. The Sonic Advance GBA games try to maint
        • As far as the games go, the Sonic franchise is in a lull. They do lack gameplay.

          However, the following of Sonic is still very strong. On the cartoon front, the anime Sonic X is very recent. The English dub sucks, because it, once again, turns a fairly good youthful action series into American mush.

          But whatever. Look around, and you will find that quite a community exists. (Google is surprisingly unhelpful, BTW.)
        • I hear ya, I originally bought the GBA just for the port... Damn, I miss the old days.
      • Its not that I don't like the Mario side-games, its just I'm sore that the only "pure" Mario game (by pure I mean platformer) they've put out for the gamecube is Super Mario Sunshine. And that game (IMHO, I know it got good reviews) was horrid.
      • Yes. I have a special place in my heart for "Super Mario Land 2" (Original GB) and "Super Mario World" (SNES).

        They just don't make them like that anymore.

    • Re:Mario (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Rie Beam ( 632299 )
      These things aren't exactly new. Mario has been in an RPG [Mario RPG], a racing cart game [Mario Cart], and even a tennis game (I don't even need to note this one). It's really not that people have turned against mascots - rather, the competition for mascots has filled-out a bit since then. Master Chief, anyone?

    • Re:Mario (Score:3, Funny)

      by centauri ( 217890 )
      On the flipside, I'd love to see Master Chief in some sports games. Nothing would liven up a baseball game more than beaning a batter with a plasma grenade.

    • Re:Mario (Score:2, Troll)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
      "Lately they've put out a cart racing game, a golf game, an RPG and a tennis game."

      I see "lately" for you means "ten years ago." Super Mario Kart is an SNES game, the characters in the old NES Golf game look suspicious, Super Mario RPG is another SNES game and Mario's Tennis was a pack-in with my Virtual Boy.
      • Then again, he could be referring to Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube), Mario Golf: Advance Tour (Gameboy Advance), Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GameCube), Paper Mario II (GameCube), and Mario Power Tennis (GameCube)?
      • Have you been in a coma for the past year or something? Nintendo has a new console out called the Gamecube. Over the past year or so Nintendo has put out Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Paper Mario 2 (the sequel to a game that was released for their past console, the Nintendo 64.)

        See? I can be a smartass too!
      • That and he was in Donkey Kong. He's a mascot. That means he is a mascot for Nintendo, and therefore appears in Nintendo games, whether they be Kart, Tennis, or Jai Alai.
    • They've always been putting him into weird games, many more than mentioned in the other replies... Most of them never made it out of Japan (thankfully).
    • I agree that Mario, as a sports mascot, is a bit overused. I think there is room for Mario in other types of games, but sports is starting to get a bit overdone.

      But I liked Mario Sunshine, dammit -- once you've built up enough skillz, clearing void levels is a lot of fun.

      The rumor is that there's going to be at least one more major Mario Gamecube game, and it's *supposed* to pioneer entirely new gameplay. No one outside Nintendo really knows what it's going to be like, but if it *is* truly different and
    • At least we are getting a new Mario platformer [gamespot.com] for the DS (not Mario 64.) I can't wait, it's been far too long.

  • Laura Croft (Score:2, Funny)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 )
    Speak for yourself, when I see Laura Croft [google.com] tv commerical, I pay attention. ;)

  • Beginning? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:41PM (#10979018) Journal

    This is the beginning of a recent fad that I have noticed the past couple years. Lately it seems that the mascot video game character has declined in popularity.

    Uh, so isn't this really the end of a fad? Games are being judged on gameplay and word-of-mouth instead of how many photo-ops some guy in a oversized fur suit attends?

    GMD

    • Uh, so isn't this really the end of a fad? Games are being judged on gameplay and word-of-mouth instead of how many photo-ops some guy in a oversized fur suit attends?

      Pfffttt... kids today with thier "game X is really good because of A,B and C". Back in my day we used to buy games because of the mascot. This fad of games being juged on gameplay and word-of-mouth will pass believe you me. Just like the Pokemon fad did... oh wait... um...
    • Mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously

      I would just like to add that we do it discretely as well.

  • What? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vasqzr ( 619165 ) <vasqzr@@@netscape...net> on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:46PM (#10979081)

    Since when?

    Samus - Metroid
    Pikacho - Pokemon
    James Bond
    Jak+Dexter
    Crash Bandicoot
    Mario is still going strong

    • You forgot one (Score:5, Funny)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @05:10PM (#10979420) Journal
      John Romero - Daikatana
    • Master Chief - Halo
    • That Pikachu character has even spawned several ridiculous kid movies, and a cartoon show. The movies apparently did so well that Nintendo is creating their own division to make MORE cartoon movies using their mascot characters. The reason people think the mascot is dead is because Nintendo is the only company still taking advantage of the mascot marketing premise. That may be because they know that the childrens' video game market is still a profitable industry that Sony and MS have yet to tap into.

  • Why no Mascots? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shawb ( 16347 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:47PM (#10979094)
    I'd say that mascots are declining because so often you don't see one character anymore. Recently games tend to be FPS, MMO or RTS which don't have the one ubiquitous character.

    The mascot's domain lay largely in the side scroller.
  • I'd say this rule applies to everything, not just people. Of course, some things have longer runs at being famous than others (painting: Mona Lisa), but all end up being neglected by something else, newly famous.
    • well.. that's kind of it exactly.. it used to that you could play the same game for couple of YEARS, the same game could be on the shelf for that couple of years as well.

      who killed it? they did, when they started making games with lifespan of 3 months.
  • If anything, I would think the lack of platformers, especially with respect to Mario, has to do with the fact that as consoles get more complicated, the expectations for innovation in sequels are raised. We've been hearing about Mario 128 for how long now? If Sunshine had recieved a warmer welcome, maybe we would have gotten a half-assed sequel. But Miyamoto feels the need to re-invent the franchise with each iteration, and thusly we may not get a second Mario platformer in this generation. Besides, wh

  • Well (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Golantig ( 231102 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @04:52PM (#10979186)
    They didn't start out as mascots, they started out as characters in a game which became so popular that they became synonymous with the hardware vendor they were created by.

    Sony's original IP is tied to their methodology of creating new markets which requires innovation in technology and is not character based.

    You could argue that Halo is synonymous with the Microsoft XBOX, but the faceless dude in a space suit wouldn't be recognised by many people outside of gaming circles.

    Pokemon is synonymous with the Gameboy for many kids. All their parents would know this too - they buy the shit.

    • Re:Well (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Headcase88 ( 828620 )
      "the faceless dude in a space suit wouldn't be recognised by many people outside of gaming circles" I dunno, both covers of Halo have him on the front. Maybe people outside of gaming circles don't know him by name, but... I mean, take this for instance: some people will pay $3500 for Master Chief armor. Not as popular as Mario, but this is only two games and he's probably more popular than Samus, who has had (I think) 6 games + 2 cameos.

      But yes, outside of gaming circles he will probably never be popular
      • Well, the thing is that gaming circles are pretty big thse days. And just about everyone who went to see a movie recently has probably seen Master Chief. There are huge billboards in downtown Toronto with Jak and Rachet on them. Everyone know who Lara Croft is.

        I think that Mascots are doing just fine, just that it's different mascots.
    • They didn't start out as mascots

      Which ties mascots to specific time periods. It's alot like teen idols. They have a shelf life becuase the targeted demographic grows up. The NES,SNES, and N64 Mario titles were huge with the kids of the time. I am included in this group (I loved the NES Super Mario Bros.) Now, however, I won't make the impulse buy based on just a character. So, I am now a harder sell. My younger nephew, however didn't have the same great gaming experiences with Mario, so Mario isn't an

      • Speaking of impulse buys based on just a character, anyone play "Mario is Missing"? My brother and I bought that at Kay-Bee Toys when I was in the fourth grade. We got it home, and played it for about five minutes before we were back in the car with my mom taking us back to the mall. Of course, they had a "We're Sorry this Game Sucks Ass, but No, You Still Cannot Return It" policy. What a major waste of my hard-earned allowance!
  • He's pretty much considered to be the mascot for the XBOX and all the XBOX owners seem to really love him.

  • ... how about ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ninjagin ( 631183 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @05:01PM (#10979302)
    ... Sanrio's Hello Kitty franchise?

    Okay, so maybe it's not quite on the same level as Sonic the Hedgehog (who looked more like a blue fox than a hedgehog), but there is an all-new Hello Kitty MMORPG ready to debut.

    The editorial points to a kind of shift from the happy game landscapes of Mario and Sonic, but I didn't see any welcoming treatment of Hello Kitty. How can you get much more happy, fun and vibrant than Hello Kitty?

    The assertion in the editorial is that mascots are just too cutesy-kidsey to have much appeal anymore, but I think that the recent slew of game concepts/storylines is probably not easy to align with a mascot image... but this could change.

    Consider this game premise: You are part of a band of mutant gun-toting grenade-lobbing prairie dogs who must encircle and destroy a hedgehog settlement as you defend against the attacks on a horde of evil gophers. Find something cute and fuzzy, put a chaingun in its hand and a bandanna on its head and you've got a mascot. In the premise, it could be "Hank the PO'd Prairie Dog"! Pick another name for the gopher-king and the hedgehog sultan and you've got mascots Galore!

    • I love your signature. Where's it from?

      • Re:OT: sig (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ninjagin ( 631183 )
        It's an old English prep school song (one of many), first sung (to the music of "Frere Jacques") primarily as a mnemonic device for remembering the esoteric name for "The line segment through a focus of a conic section, perpendicular to the major axis, which has both endpoints on the curve.", and sung most often after the geometry test because it has the word "rectum" in it. My dear old math teacher, Dr. Kelly, taught it to us back in 6th grade and I've never forgotten it.

        Thanks for asking.

  • Perhaps we should talk about the niche that games built on character have found.

    Yes, the growing-up on the part of the gaming population has driven mascots away from the mainstream. However, due to the Internet, sizable followings have arisen. Fans who seek story just as much as, if not more than, gameplay can gather in online communities. It doesn't hurt that games started leaving the realm of pure gameplay and started becoming more complex forms of entertainment, driven probably by the advances in techno

  • Immersion? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by UWC ( 664779 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @05:05PM (#10979358)
    Might the slight decline in prominence of mascots be due to the relatively recent possibility of semi-immersion? Many a game places the player in the shoes of an everyman of sorts. It's kind of hard for "the GTA guy" to become a mascot. To borrow a phrase from Gag Halfrunt, "He's just this guy, you know?"

    Mascots are still around, and definitely provide brand identification. Nintendo still uses its stable of characters, especially Mario. Jak 3 just came out, starring the closest the PS2 might have to a mascot (worth noting that Naughty Dog is the studio behind both Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter). Master Chief, while definitely the faceless everyman, is now quite iconic, and you can't see him without the XBox immediately coming to mind.

    Anyway, while mascots don't seem to be as important for sales as they once were, many game characters still can become instantly recognizable and elicit mental associations with their respective platform or developer. Who doesn't think of Valve and headcrabs when they see Gordon Freeman?
  • I just saw Sonic on a cardboard cutout at MdD's. I have no idea what it was promoting because it only kind-of caught my eye.
    • It was at McD's, so I think we can narrow down it to what it was promoting. Most likely either:

      1. Fries
      2. Burgers
      3. Shakes
      4. Burgers and Shakes
      5. Fries and Shakes
      6. Burgers and Fries
      7. Burgers and Fries and Shakes
      ...
      8. Profit!!!

  • Not everyone is a college student. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ectospheno ( 724239 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @05:12PM (#10979443)
    I don't know why the slashdot crowd has such a hard time with this concept, but not everyone is like you and sometimes video game companies market to those people who aren't you.

    My daughter is in love with Mario. When she plays pretend the people at her tea party are Mario, Peach, and Luigi. She's in the age group that browses Nintendo's web pages and plays the little flash games they provide.

    Mario isn't any less popular. Polls exist which show that Mario is more recognized among kids than Mickey Mouse. What's changed is that you grew up and are no longer in the Mario demographic.

  • Innovation (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Gamefreak99 ( 722148 )
    Gamers don't want rehashes for the most part. A mascot is used over and over... and over... and over.

    Everyone has been waiting for games like Half Life 2 and Halo 2 to come out; why? Because they hadn't really seen anything like them before and wanted more. Now when we get on down to Half Life 23 and Halo 42, gamers won't be excited. Why? Well, just look at the Tony Hawk games. The first was pretty sweet so we waited for the second. Now that the 6th or 7th is out (depending how you count) it's no longer
  • Mascots are very closely equated with "sequel" these days. "Sequel" means "more of the same that you love, plus some." It doesn't detract from the game, unless you HATED the previous game.

    So you're dealing with diminishing returns on character mascots. Each sequel game is purchased by those who loved the former. Some new customers come on board, but they're probably less than those who hated the former (unless it was a sleeper hit) and just dropped the franchise altogether.

    Judging from the "soft elect
  • Back in the day Mario used to represent the innovation and 2d platforming goodness. He even made the jump to 3D. Sonic represented speed and "Blast-Processing." Once we hit PS One, we're looking at the machine and going: What the hell does this Bandicoot thing represent. What about is it about this game that makes it stand out from every other on the current system or any other system. Nothing. Fast-Forward to today. None of the company mascots represent anything special about the systems. They're all rel
    • >> You don't need representation for what essentially is a custom, yet standardized PC in a box.

      hehe. You my friend, have obviously never developed software for the PS2.

      I have.

      Let me assure you that it has no internal resemblance to the inner workings of a Win32 PC. Within this current generation of consoles. And the consoles are all very different from one another internally.

      Though in terms of raw power, they are close enough to make porting from one to the other a reasonable enough idea.

      END
  • Personally, I think it is because we have all grown up. The generation that grew to love and admire Mario and Sonic are all in their 20's and 30's now, and the younger generations aren't really into what Mom and Dad played when they were kids, even if they are new versions. This question is kinda like: "How come nobody likes wearing bell-bottoms, peace symbols, and huge 'fros anymore? We just grew out of them, and our kids don't have any reason to grow into them.
  • If you're like me, you probably see the mascot for one of the best PC games of the year: Gordon "da Man" Freeman.

    If Gordon were to show up and endorse some other game, I'd likely buy it.

    Gordon's never done me wrong yet.

    --AC
  • In the beginning of the film era there was the studio system that had one or too big players that were instantly recognisable. This declined into a more open and free market.

    This is the same idea with video games. The original big players are starting to fade and beome on par with some of the newer studios and there is a free market.

  • Yes. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This reminds me of a flash movie [newgrounds.com] I seen earlier this year. It's pretty accurate.

    I think the problem is they're trying to hide the same old games with a few central innovations, whether it be with a water pack (for Mario) or wind control (for Zelda). I also believe that games in general are starting to feel stale because there are no major revolutions to speak of, like there was when they moved from 2D to 3D. When this happened, they were more or less forced to create new genres, and the concept as a whole
  • Didn't that character fuel a lot of sales for Playstation (original)consoles with the 1st 3D version of Metal Gear?

  • I don't really understand the article. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SetupWeasel ( 54062 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @06:48PM (#10980551) Homepage
    A mascot is not for staring in his own platformer. A mascot is for promotion.

    For Nintendo their mascots were once only Donkey Kong and "The Plumber." Now Mario and DK share the duty with a small army of characters. Nintendo is a company of mascots. Saying Mario is Nintendo's mascot is like saying Kermit the Frog is Jim Henson's. You have to factor in the Pikachus and Elmos into the mix too.

    Not only that the mascots purpose is to carry the banner for the company. If the game says Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Luigi, Pikmin, Link, Pikachu, or any other Nintendo mascot on the box, you know who made it and you have formed an opinion based on that.

    It is true that while Nintendo use of mascots have grown, there doesn't seem to be a rival mascot anymore.

    Back in the day, Sega and Nintendo were two of a kind. Both were powerhouse game developers that happened to make hardware. They both made great creations, and these characters would automatically be exclusive to their hardware.

    Now you have companies like Sony and Microsoft who make hardware and hire developers to make games for them. For these companies, the hardware itself becomes the trademark. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, it is just a difference in philosophy.

    There are still many many mascots, but most of the ones that don't belong to Nintendo can show up on any platform. So there isn't as much jawing and emphasis placed on Sonic vs Mario. Now you have the PS2 vs. GC vs. XBOX in the wars, and Rayman, Sonic, Mega Man, Pac-Man, and Mario can all play nice.

  • current trends (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    video games (and many other forms of popular entertainment) currently are concerned with gangster rap and violence. many players seem to be embarrassed if their games are not badass shit where you get to kill motherfuckers. "many gamers" includes children. mario and sonic are cartoons and do not fit the image of pimped-ass motherfuckers. that fucking gay fucking old-ass shit.

    • Re:current trends (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bersl2 ( 689221 )
      (I am going to assume that your expletive-laden speech against these "cartoons" is simply an extension of the character conveyed within your post and therefore not declare you a troll.)

      I agree that these symbols of traditional gaming are not thug and therefore unappealing to the modern mainstream gamer. Nor should any attempt be made to connect the two, as they are flat-out incompatable.

      Hey, the people have spoken, and they want (virtual) blood to be spilt.
  • I have a feeling that the mascot is changing - before about 2000, the mascot game, such as Mario, everyone had. Other posts have mentioned Jax & Daxter as a big time mascot, which is not so because not everyone has that game. I think mascots are changing to that like Master Chief. If you look at the game libraries of all XboX owners, I'm guessing more than 75% have that game. For PC gamers, that is Hl1, PS2 is probably J&D, but I dunno, and for Gamecube owners it seems animal crossing or pikmen are
  • This relates to a recent article in WIRED regarding the declining power of name brands in general. [wired.com] Consumer research seems to indicate that more and more people are starting to realize that quality requires more than just a popular name.

  • Mascots arent dead (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Svenheim ( 723925 ) on Thursday December 02, 2004 @08:35PM (#10981600)
    You know what the biggest selling game on gamecube is?

    Super Smash Bros. Melee.

    Do you know what that game is? IT'S A BUNCH OF MASCOTS FIGHTING EACHOTHER! The mascots aren't dead, they are still a huge deal for Nintendo, that's why they use them so much, they sell hardware and games. How much do you think "Mario Tennis" would have sold without Mario? 10 copies?
  • ... they're all busy being worked to death by e.a., et al. ;-)

  • I believe it's a side-effect of the FPS phenomenon.

    It's less of a case of the person "playing" the character, as it is the person playing as his/her self in the character's world.

    That's not to say that game companies can't create characters good FPS characters. They still could, but would have to introduce mechanisms that would identify the character as unique from the player (ala Duke Nukem's one-liners and whatnot). However, this could also have the negative effect of pulling the player out of the vir
    • I wouldn't say that. I'd say that developers are trying to create a more immersive world, and by doing that, they have to eliminate other parts that traditionally make up a character. In HL2, I really did feel like I was Gordon Freeman, fighting for the survival of human kind. I didn't feel like I was my self because of the fact that your character interacts with other characters in a way that you can't affect, but still felt completely natural.
  • Simplistic but fun games dominated the 80's and early 90's. In pong, people were fascinated by two paddles moving and a ball and would pay over $1000 for a system that only did that. Super Mario Bros was a watershed game that introduced a new level of complexity into gaming. Suddenly, there were secret warps, character power-ups, tight controls, and great graphics (for the time). Mario and then Zelda became a symbol of this innovation. As the video game generation aged, we became savvier and realized t
  • What a silly, pointless article that I didn't read but could judge.

    Masterchief?

    Snake?

    Hot chick from Bloodrayne?

    The cast of DoA?

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