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

[PuppetShowJustice]

Konami had Sparkster

Rocket Knight Adventures was AMAZING.

[Fencers]

Well there are still iconic video game characters. They are not necessarily associated with a particular game console though. Though some are- Halo is synonymous with Xbox for example.

[KCguy]

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.

The same is said of DC Films. Batman and Superman. It's all they ever seem to do as well. A little off topic I know.

On topic, I guess the only thing we can do is bump this thread in 15 years and see what is considered "iconic" for this generation. lol.

[Jester Joe]

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.

I see Ronald McDonald in like every commercial. I'll agree with the Burger King's King...after those XBox games came out like Sneak King I think people were afraid of him.
He's still lurking around in the Burger King buildings though, at least in mine, after they rebuilt it, he's on the wallpapers and stuff.

And I guess companies just don't find it needed anymore, possibly it was just an easier way to make it known that "Hey, this system has this cool exclusive thing" whereas nowadays it's pretty common knowledge among most people.

[autotrendauto]

How about Pikachu?

[Kalyyn]

Like many other aspects of current culture, video game characters are becoming extremely homogenized. Mario and Sonic are very unique, very distinguishable, and most importantly, very original in there design (how many other chubby, red plumbers or blue hedgehogs are there?). Meanwhile, today's most popular characters are all super-fit human men who are all stereotypical badasses and are often vaguely the same character. I mean honestly, Master Chief and Commander Shepard are practically interchangeable...

[Unionoob]

we have quiet many iconic characters now, Master Chief, Duke Nuke - game failed but self character still lives strong, Solid Snake, Gordon Freemen, Lara Croft, Dante from DMC, Glados and so on. I am pretty sure most famous out of them all are Gordon Freemen and Master Chief, if you just look they only have very few games what you can count on both hands compered to Mario who have like 64 games and they still can be as famous and will be for some time.

I think only reason why Mario is popular for 20 years is because that was one of first games what they played back at the time and just stuck in the heads and not that game is any good now.

[Deleted]

I agree with OP. There's nothing iconic about mentioned characters like GLaDOS that people will forget about in a few years. Hell, even SHODAN is more iconic.
Very few "new" characters are widely known - like Crash Bandicoot. Ask your parents if they know who Master Chief is.

What most of you are talking about is - a meme. Popular amongst current gamers.

[Sky High]

a lot of iconic game characters in games now a days are not really in "kids" games. kratos? master chief? Nathan drake ( well its a T game but you get the point)? personally I would feel for you if Mario and sonic well mostly sonic were in recently released games that were....good, and again in Sonic's case...playable.

I guess it's a statement on where the gaming industry is where they wont really open up to new POSSIBLY iconic video game characters that aren't men with crazy amounts of strength and stamina and guns. IDK there are a few characters out there that have come out in the past decade anyway that I think will stand the test of time.

[barackopala]

we have quiet many iconic characters now, Master Chief, Duke Nuke - game failed but self character still lives strong, Solid Snake, Gordon Freemen, Lara Croft, Dante from DMC, Glados and so on. I am pretty sure most famous out of them all are Gordon Freemen and Master Chief, if you just look they only have very few games what you can count on both hands compered to Mario who have like 64 games and they still can be as famous and will be for some time.

I think only reason why Mario is popular for 20 years is because that was one of first games what they played back at the time and just stuck in the heads and not that game is any good now.

Mario galaxy & mario kart are still strong, idk why people say that mario isn't an strong contendor, it's still going on quite strong, even my little cousin that's 5 Y/O can identify mario over a fuckton of characters, he can also identify pikachu over all the bajizilion pokemons that are still going.

Characters like pikachu and mario are pretty much the sign that mascots are really important for a company.

As stated before by kalyyn, nowadays you get the "Generic Badass guy that goes around kicking butt with their ubber strength and sweatdrops pewpew bangbang" and up to a certain point that engulfs samus aran character.

[inboundpaper]

Character's have changed, a lot of characters are written so you identify with your own character. Its the reason Master Chief said like 10 lines in Halo 1-3.

[ShadowJester]

I miss Banjo and Kazooie.

Fuck you microsoft

/cry

this is sooo true, why did they do that to them. WHHHHYYYYYYYYY GOD WHYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

[endersblade]

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

I beg to differ.



Ratchet and Clank are by far my favorite characters. The games are so superbly done, and the characters are so fleshed out. So much more than Sonic and Mario ever have been. Jak and Daxter sort of fell by the wayside, which is good, they games were not that great. I do agree that so many have come and gone and barely made a blip on the gamer radar, but R & C I personally rank much higher than Sonic and Mario, and I was born with an atari joystick in my hand just to let you know how long I've been playing games lol.

[Afrospinach]

Maybe you are just at the age where you lost the perspective to make characters special in your mind like you did with sonic and mario. Nowdays there is a lot more out there besides, which has probably diluted the superstar effect. Some people like gordan freeman, some people have no idea who in the #@$^% he is etc. Back then you had sonic and mario in your face everywhere as soon as you stepped near a console.

[barackopala]

Maybe you are just at the age where you lost the perspective to make characters special in your mind like you did with sonic and mario. Nowdays there is a lot more out there besides, which has probably diluted the superstar effect. Some people like gordan freeman, some people have no idea who in the #@$^% he is etc. Back then you had sonic and mario in your face everywhere as soon as you stepped near a console.

Yeah, specially when you totally know the name of your hero.

[Zeta333]

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.

Just becuase they are still pushing out games with mario and sonic in the title doesnt mean they are worth a shit. The last good sonic games i played were the sonic adventure series. And mario was sunshine.

[Pull My Finger]

There's so much stuff out there today. It's hard to establish something as universally iconic because the interest of the audience strays into so many different directions, sub-directions, individual interests nowadays. It's not like 1977 when Star Wars came out and just was the most mindblowing, definitive thing ever you just couldn't ignore, or 1982 where EVERYONE was into Michael Jackson when Thriller came out, or like 1991 where everyone was a Metallica fan.

The other factor is that today's media landscape and entertainment industry are extremely originality-unfriendly. It's very difficult to establish a new brand, character or franchise. Both publishers as well as the audience has become strangely conservative in that matter. Almost every big company would preferably do licensed stuff, sequels or spin-offs instead of coming up with a new story and character.

Today, everyone has very defined interests and expectations, and likes to believe that they know what they want. Somebody already said something about today's characters being homogenized, and that's certainly true. Nobody would even come up with a guy like Mario today. It has nothing to do with character design in a professional sense.

When you work in the industry today, you try to come up with something that's specially tailored to appeal to the expectations of the audience. You try to do it "right". Which is understandable, but actually totally overrated, and leads to homogenized and bland stuff without sustained recognition value and potential for cultural impact. You should never listen to your customers too much as a creative person. There's a reason why they're the audience, and not the artist, after all.

[axell]

I agree with OP. There's nothing iconic about mentioned characters like GLaDOS that people will forget about in a few years. Hell, even SHODAN is more iconic.
Very few "new" characters are widely known - like Crash Bandicoot. Ask your parents if they know who Master Chief is.

What most of you are talking about is - a meme. Popular amongst current gamers.

Well of parents don't know who master chief or gordon freeman is. They weren't around when they were young. When the current generation of gamers will be parents , then those names will slowly start to replace mario and others.

[Deleted]

The previous generation of Gamers turned Parents were the reason for the hype of Sonic/Mario/Zelda etc the new generation of gamers turned parents will be responsible for Master Chief/Solid Snake/Pikachu/Assassins creed being the iconic characters.

Although the older icons will still be just as prominent.

[LocNess]

If you grew up with them they would be more prominent. As many have said, Master Chief and Pikachu and such have been some of the biggest things in the last 10 or so years and will be iconic. Modern icons in the making? I would say Big Daddy from Bioshock is pretty big. Ezio/Altair are well known. There is also a huge increase in indie games and a larger influx of games in general kind of lessens the hugeness of these icons however.