Why dont we have mario/sonic type iconic characters anymore?

[Heartattaq]

I was watching my son play sonic today, he is 8 and has asperger's syndrome. He LOVES Mario and Sonic. And I got to thinking, when I was his age I loved Mario and Sonic, and here 20 some odd years later my son loves the same characters. They are video game characters that stood the test of time, how pump out continuously successful sequels. To a lesser extent various Pokemon, Megaman and some others fit this bill as well. But I cant really think of any off the top of my head that were released in the last 10 years

[Slipper]

I was watching my son play sonic today, he is 8 and has asperger's syndrome. He LOVES Mario and Sonic. And I got to thinking, when I was his age I loved Mario and Sonic, and here 20 some odd years later my son loves the same characters. They are video game characters that stood the test of time, how pump out continuously successful sequels. To a lesser extent various Pokemon, Megaman and some others fit this bill as well. But I cant really think of any off the top of my head that were released in the last 10 years

Crash Bandicoot?

Ratchet and Clank?

You are confusing "good characters" with "old characters" - The only reason Mario & Sonic are so iconic is because they are so old that many different generations have grown up with them and they are "kids games".

You grew up playing Mario and Sonic as a kid. They were your first encounter with video games as they are what you were introduced to. You now look back on them fondly because of that and that's the first kind of games kids get introduced to now so the cycle continues.

[gcsmith]

Crash Bandicoot?

Ratchet and Clank?

You are confusing "good characters" with "old characters" - The only reason Mario & Sonic are so iconic is because they are so old that many different generations have grown up with them and they are "kids games".

You grew up playing Mario and Sonic as a kid. They were your first encounter with video games as they are what you were introduced to. You now look back on them fondly because of that and that's the first kind of games kids get introduced to now so the cycle continues.

The fact that mario and sonic still sell and how much they are wanted shows they are good characters. Admitedly they are only good because the games are good.

[Achaman]

thing is none of the 3d sonic games were as good as the old 2d ones

[Deleted]

Well the thing is, the characters you're mentioning are iconic because they've been around so long, across generations - not because the games that feature them today are innovative or even great gameplay, a lot of the more recent games from large franchies such as Mario and Sonic have not gained much critical favour - but are still popular because they're from such a well known franchise and format.

They were also created at a time when they were new, innovative and amazed us. It's a lot harder for a video game to do that now than in the 80s - creating an entire new franchise right now tends to pull on a wide range of influence from games already in existence - as you'd expect.

There are a LOT of games that have a successful franchise but whether or not they'll stand the test of time, well, we can't really say that yet but I doubt new franchises will ever be "iconic" in the way that Sonic and Mario are simply because of the era that they've been created in. There's no empty hole to fill anymore, if that makes sense.

[Duronos]

thing is none of the 3d sonic games were as good as the old 2d ones

Sonic Adventure (1 and 2) are both very good games. I'd venture to say Sonic Adventure 2 is amazing.

[Lazy Gecko]

The furry/mascot figure era was mostly a thing that peaked in the 90's. Every company needed their own little "official mascot". Konami had Sparkster, Capcom had Mega Man, Accolade had Bubsy, and then there were those promotional figures from non-video game companies like Cool Spot. This trend started winding down fast in the 00's, the last ones being rather futile attempts like Blinx from Microsoft, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger from EA. That was around 2004 I think which was the final nail in the coffin.

Hell, does McDonald's even use their mascots anymore?

[Duronos]

The furry/mascot figure era was mostly a thing that peaked in the 90's. Every company needed their own little "official mascot". Konami had Sparkster, Capcom had Mega Man, Accolade had Bubsy, and then there were those promotional figures from non-video game companies like Cool Spot. This trend started winding down fast in the 00's, the last ones being rather futile attempts like Blinx from Microsoft, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger from EA. That was around 2004 I think which was the final nail in the coffin.

Hell, does McDonald's even use their mascots anymore?

Well you could say Assassins Creed is the official mascot of Ubisoft meaning the Assassin is the mascot.

[Dasffion]

Master Chief has become rather iconic and Solid Snake, those are the first two that pop into my head.

[Deleted]

The Freeman!

[Deleted]

There are a lot of iconic characters. Mario and Sonic are just really old iconic characters, same with Link, Yoshi, Samus, etc.

Some ''newer'' iconic characters could be like, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Master Chief from Halo, Gordon Freeman from Half-life, and a lot more, just to name a few.

[mvaliz]

The furry/mascot figure era was mostly a thing that peaked in the 90's. Every company needed their own little "official mascot". Konami had Sparkster, Capcom had Mega Man, Accolade had Bubsy, and then there were those promotional figures from non-video game companies like Cool Spot. This trend started winding down fast in the 00's, the last ones being rather futile attempts like Blinx from Microsoft, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger from EA. That was around 2004 I think which was the final nail in the coffin.

Hell, does McDonald's even use their mascots anymore?

Wow... I'm glad I'm not the only one who still remembers the short-lived "Mascot Wars" during the 16 bit era. ^_^

Also, lets not forget that the 8-bit generation you really couldn't do good character design unless you went cartoony. Sure, Simon Belmont and Bionic Commando are identifiable, but that is mostly due to the game design - not their character design. You couldn't identify/design a piece of art depicting Simon Belmont unless you have the whip in his hand as he himself has nothing "Defining" about him physically. Samus is also a great example of merging the two. They didn't just make her a "girl" - but they made her a straight bi-colored armored suit with large flat pieces of metal that's easy to identify via 8-Bit graphics.

Also consider that everything back then was aimed squarely at kids. Particularly Nintendo - which back then enforced VERY strict pro-family/anti-visual violence restrictions.

[zito]

I miss Banjo and Kazooie.

Fuck you microsoft

/cry

[Mechazod]

Well you could say Assassins Creed is the official mascot of Ubisoft meaning the Assassin is the mascot.

Rayman is disappointed in you.

[Smokinya]

Master Chief!

[Xalzel]

Rayman is disappointed in you.

Ezio is much bigger than Rayman.

[Digglett]

You are confusing "good characters" with "old characters" - The only reason Mario & Sonic are so iconic is because they are so old that many different generations have grown up with them and they are "kids games".

Don't confuse games that are able to be played by both adults and children to just be "kids games". Mario is well known because it was a HUGE deal, do you really think it's just remembered for being old? Then why aren't many upon many Mario knock offs just as famous and long running?

Mario is so well known because Nintendo made his franchise diverse. Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Mario Party, Mario Tennis (other Mario sports games too).


Not only that but because Mario Bros was such an enormous huge deal back when it was released. That's why it's remembered fondly. It introduced a new avenue for gaming as a whole, it helped changed things in the industry.

[Thallidomaniac]

Hell, does McDonald's even use their mascots anymore?

I don't think so, although Ronald's likeness is used in their "Dispose responsibly" symbol. Burger King's King was retired a while ago, same with the Taco Bell chihuahua, and Jared Fogle is no longer the sole spokesperson for Subway. The only fast food restaurants I seem to see with their mascots is Jack from Jack in the Box and the Colonel for KFC.

[Digglett]

Lol. Nintendo is still milking all their franchises. It's all they have.

Fastforward and we will have Mario 64. Not the Nintendo 64 release but actually the 64th release.

You know why? Because Nintendo does what most can't, they still make phenomenal games after their series passed a certain mark. And people enjoy the games they make.

Just look at Sonic in comparison to most of Nintendo's long running franchises.

[shokter]

Isaac, from Binding of Isaac!