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you know it.. in the 90s fighting and platformers with a cute or "cool" mascot ruled video games... mario sonic, sparkster, ristar,aero the acrobat, bubsy, boogerman and the list go on and on.. but those days are buried inthe past... now we live in a era were first person shooters rule and are the new fighting and platformers of the 90s... in your opinion its time for the return of the "mascot platformer" era?
We have Master Chief and...
...
...
...Sackboy?
Nah, the mascots were cool in the 90's but I think if new ones were to emerge they would be lame. The 90's had a cool, edgy attitude in the general pop culture and media, and the mascots reflected that. This decade... it's all about social media and political correctness, I'd hate to see what kind of a lame-ass mascot that would spawn.
The typical 90's mascot was Sonic or Cool Spot - cool, fun loving guy with an in-your-face attitude and happy-go-lucky lifestyle.
The mascot of this decade would probably be a hipster glasses wearing, iPhone using panda with a youtube channel that focuses on social issues... :yuck:
I think I prefer to fondly remember the mascot era as it was.
There's a whole generation of kids who grew up on games like GTA and COD, games with realistic violence, sex, and bad language. Good luck convincing them and future generations to play cute and cuddly mascot platformers. Mascot games will never sell as well as they once did.
No mascots?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdWkKKSckNk
That commercial is great, but none of those characters are really mascots. The closest that any of them come to mascot status might be Kratos... but even that's questionable since he never really appears anywhere outside of his own games (and I guess that soon to be released Playstation themed Smash Brothers game).
The furry mascot era lasted a long fucking time. I think the final nail in the coffin was Ty the Tasmanian Tiger by EA, as late as 2003/2004.
That seriously almost made be vomit. How did they come up with that many completely pretentious characters? I wasn't fond of Sonic and Mario back in the day, but if either company had tried to sell me these I would_not be a gamer today.Quote:
Originally Posted by profholt82
For the most part I largely agree with your assertion. However I disagree with the idea that social media and political correctness would produce a waterdowned mascot. In fact this generation has just been the opposite. Especially with respect to the games developed for the PS3 and XBOX 360. The problem this generation is that games are now tailored to a more adult audience. Games produced in the 90s were largely made for a teen audience. In my opinion, if a mascot was to be created for any one gaming platform, it would not ressemble a Mario or Sonic character of yore. But something more edgier and mature, akin to a God of War or Gears of War type character.Quote:
Originally Posted by djshok
I don't really miss the mascot era. I'd rather have good platformers with thought put into them come out once in a while than return to the glut of mediocre to terrible ones saturating the market.
I liked the mascot era, I would not mind a new one
I think you guys are looking at it through rose tinted glasses. Not all of those mascot games were all that great. Only a few like Mario and Sonic were really good. There was just a many bad mascot games floating around back then as there are bad "gritty realism" games out today. I think a lot of people would appreciate a fun cute game though. I figure we'll see one take off here in the next few years and shake things up some.
The cheesy ones were especially fun. It was just a surreal time when you could play a video game starring the same guy that was trying to sell you chips or soda. I think everyone knew the games were bad but it was still fun playing them because of how silly the whole scenario was. Some of the best times I've had were playing the Chester Cheetah games, eating cheetos and laughing how stupid advertising works. That's the thing about the 80's and 90's people didn't take games like uber serious business, most of them were just there for fun and weird product placement. Now every game has a production team and budget bigger than most movies so it's all hyper realism and serious business.Quote:
Originally Posted by old man
Also, there seems to be this misconception that the mascot games were "cute" I think that's a trapping of today's hindsight. That if something is animated or cartoony it's automatically assumed to be cute. Sonic wasn't really cute, animated yes, but not quite intended to be cute (like a my little pony or something), neither was Cool Spot, Chester Cheetah, Mega Man, etc... They had a certain animated silliness about them that wasn't quite Nickelodeon style gross out humour (think Ren & Stimpy) but it wasn't quite saccharine Disney cuteness either. I think that's the problem with people trying to make mascot or cartoony games today, they automatically assume that because it's a cartoon it has to be cute. They end up overdoing it with big watery eyes and squeaky voices and end up with a product that looks like it's marketed at 8 year old girls (ie: new Sonic friends vs old Sonic friends).
agree
Definetely want new mascot era. I loved those designs on these characters a lot and that's why I love drawing too, because those mascot games influenced me to draw too, when I saw how many cool character people made up.
I always liked the characters that nobody else was into as a kid, like princess daisy.
I liked Joe Musashi, Gillius Thunderhead and Strider Hiryu more than any of the faux Disney characters that the 90s came up with. By the time Crash Bandicoot came along I thought it was a bad joke, but apparently all of the kids that migrated over from the Genesis/SNES to the PS1 felt differently. I am just as sick of the hardened soldier/spy/assassin craze of today, but thankfully the murdering pimp/criminal sandbox craze has died down.
I highly dislike Sonic as a character and I'm a Tails fan, and my fav character on Street Fighter saga is Dee Jay. So, I think we are on the same boat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drakon
The mascot era is dead now. Crash, Jak & Daxter and Ratchet and Clank have been quite popular, but nowadays, at least in my country, kids and adults alike have only one mascot in mind: Kratos. The Xbox doesn't have mascots and is quite profitable, isnt it? (Well, Banjo & Kazooey...)
Mainstream retail release? Not that many. But there's still a ton coming out on XBLA/PSN/Steam from Indie devs.
The Xbox pretty much depends on Gears of War, CoD and Halo characters as far as mascots go.
I honestly cannot believe how stupid Kratos is when the Legacy of Kain games have died off entirely. That alone is one of those things that just really makes me sick of modern gaming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheath
This is how I felt. I hated those kinds of Disney/Looney tune rip off characters. Just looking at my SNES games, the only things I have that could be considered mascot characters were Mario, Battletoads, and Pocky & Rocky. Like you I always tended to favor the cool, heroic type characters. And good riddance to the gangster games. I do want some of those cheeto's djshock was eating, though. Those chester cheetah games were terrible man ;P
Yeah you don't need a mascot but characters are always fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigladiesman