Most of them failed spectacularly.
Yet, there are lessons to be learned from those swings and misses.
Were there great games and mascots that got lost along the way?
After all,Bonks Adventurewas a very good game.
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In the end, that was Bonks biggest problem.
The TurboGrafx-16 had a lot going for it, but it just never caught on in international markets.
Hes also a reminder that not every failed video game mascot earned that status by being in terrible games.
Thats only true of most of them.
SNK even had various employees appear as G-Mantle at promotional events.
If, for any reason, you happen to be wondering, that costume apparentlysmelled truly terrible.
SNK seemingly aspired to get people to ask Who is G-Mantle?
before gamers everywhere collectively answered, Who cares?
In fact, those games were officially part of the Captain Commando Challenge Series.
In 1991, Captain Commando would finally get his own video game.
And that is where things went wrong.
Its not thatCaptain Commandowas a bad game.
Its a 1990s Capcom arcade beat-em-up, so its actually pretty damn good.
Its just that after so much hype, Capcom put themselves in a classic Poochy situation.
Ole Captain Try-hard is destined to be a curious historical footnote.
It was…fine.
By the timeDoomcame out in 1993, games likeZoolwere practically fossils.
The 90s were weird, yall.
Yet, you could make the argument that Bubsy was something of a success.
Not in terms of things like quality or sales but rather as a pure marketing tool.
Then why is it wearing sunglasses?
I dont know what you know about dots, but most dots just dont do things like that.
Such was the overwhelming personality of one Mr.
Even still, its short-term success was modest and its long-term legacy is slightly better than non-existent.
It wasnt due to a lack of effort, though.
Aeros first two games were solid, as was the series only spin-off title,Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel.
Try as they might, though, developer Iguana Entertainment couldnt turn out anything more substantial than interesting.
Actually, the name Iguana Entertainment is more interesting than Aero in this instance.
Its also worth noting that 1993 was a particularly chaotic year for mascot titles.
Developers spotted a small gap in the release schedule that year and decided to shoot their shots.
Many werent great and others simply simply got caught in the stampede.
AsEarthboundshowed, that approach could even hurt the perception of a game in the short term.
It was a brutal time for the mascot gaming, and things were quickly becoming worse.
Developer Crystal Dynamics originally intended for Gex to be the 3DOs biggest mascot.
That never really happened, though.
Yet, Gex became a kind of icon in his own right.
His meta-style humor appealed both ironically and unironically to multiple generations of gamers.
Despite initial enthusiasm on both sides, the deal fell apart.
The results were mixed.
Crucially, though,Crocwas released on the PS1; a console notably devoid of N64-like 3D platformers.
It stood out on that console and was reportedly one of Argonaut Games most financially successful projects.
In Japan, though, the Saturn continued to perform reasonably well.
How to describe Segata Sanshiro?
In marketing terms, hes a combination of Chuck Norris memes and the Sneak King.
Later ads featuring Sanshiro became increasingly unhinged, slightly serialized, and typically showcased a specific Saturn title.
Theyre some of the best video game ads ever.
Seriously,check them out.
The failure in this instance is reserved for the 1998 game, Segata Sanshiro: Shinken Yugi.
Hey, I guess Segata Sanshiro really was the perfect Saturn mascot.
Instead, Glovers unique design was incorporated into the gameplay.
My word, yes.
But despite its strange set-up and various shortcomings, there was genuine brilliance in this title.
However, thats also the reason whyGloverfeels like a sadly appropriate game to end this discussion on.
The early 2000s saw the influx of mascot games, some of which were certainly better than others.
Yet, many of them failed and were ultimately forgotten for similar reasons.
A handful of video game mascots had been grandfathered into a new generation.
