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Doomed or forgotten videogame mascots

Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Here are a few I remember that seemed to disappear like a fart in the wind.

1. Bubsy

2. Gex (I liked these ones) which I believe was also the mascot for Crystal Dynamics

3. Croc

Dishonorable mentions: Blinx, Turok, Parappa (they weren't mascots but I thought they would have stuck around loner)

What are some you remember? Would any of these be worth resurrecting?
 
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Jack Videogames

Jack Videogames

Member
Happosai said:
2. Gex
Click to expand...

This thread feels like a midnight luau at Ricky Martin's house!

We can count the myriad of "rodents with attitude" that appeared after Sonic. Sparkster, Aero the Acrobat, Zero the Kamikaze Skirrel, Awesome Possum...

But if I have to choose one it will be Zool, the mascot for Gremlin Interactive.

zool-2-1.png


Sponsored by ChupaChupsⓇ
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
DunDunDunpachi said:
The graveyard of mascots on SEGA systems could fill a thread. Alex Kidd, Kid Chameleon, Ristar, Dynamite Headdy, Rocket Knight / Sparkster, Vectorman, etc
Click to expand...
They were trying. 3DO had Gex as their mascot and they cheating bastard ported himself to Sega and Nintendo hehehe. I still feel it's strange that he never made it to the 6th gen. The Sega mascots you mentioned were contending against the ever growing list of Nintendo mascots. Remember this one? (I had this game, too) High Seas Havoc...very Sonicesque...hmm...

 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Happosai said:
They were trying. 3DO had Gex as their mascot and they cheating bastard ported himself to Sega and Nintendo hehehe. I still feel it's strange that he never made it to the 6th gen. The Sega mascots you mentioned were contending against the ever growing list of Nintendo mascots. Remember this one? (I had this game, too) High Seas Havoc...very Sonicesque...hmm...

Click to expand...

Nope, never tried High Seas Havoc.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
DunDunDunpachi said:
Nope, never tried High Seas Havoc.
Click to expand...
You didn't miss very much. I remember seeing the advertisements for this game in old magazines and it seemed like they were really pushing for it to be something. I remember the introduction had a sub-menu where the seal character would conduct an orchestra...kinda weird.

Another honorable mention...Toe Jammin' Earl pretty much vanished. I vaguely recall them having made a 3D version for possibly the original XBOX. After that, I never heard anything about them again.
 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Happosai said:
Another honorable mention...Toe Jammin' Earl pretty much vanished. I vaguely recall them having made a 3D version for possibly the original XBOX. After that, I never heard anything about them again.
Click to expand...
They made a sequel / revival recently!

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove

ToeJam and Earl have crash-landed back on Earth in ToeJam Earl Back in the Groove, a funky fresh roguelike adventure infused with old skool hip-hop and jam packed with awesome throwbacks to the 1991 classic. Original Funk Lord and co-creator Greg Johnson is back at the helm with the sequel that...
store.playstation.com
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
MisterBrimstone said:
Where is my main man Jim? From earth.. You know the guy. The worm.
Click to expand...
not sure if this is still in the works but...
www.engadget.com

'Earthworm Jim' returns after 20 years as an Intellivision exclusive

It's been 20 years since there was a genuinely new Earthworm Jim game, and longer still since the original team was involved. However, the gang is coming back -- if you're willing to take a chance on a retro console. Intellivision Entertainment is reuniting ten members of the Earthworm Jim team...
www.engadget.com www.engadget.com
 
Jack Videogames

Jack Videogames

Member
Happosai said:
They were trying. 3DO had Gex as their mascot and they cheating bastard ported himself to Sega and Nintendo hehehe. I still feel it's strange that he never made it to the 6th gen. The Sega mascots you mentioned were contending against the ever growing list of Nintendo mascots. Remember this one? (I had this game, too) High Seas Havoc...very Sonicesque...hmm...

Click to expand...


That one is so forgettable that I forgot to include it in my list of forgettable Sonic clones.
 
Nymphae

Nymphae

Banned
How are we defining video game mascots? Like most of the things people are saying are on the wiki for "videogame mascot characters", but I don't feel like nearly anything in here was presented as a brand or company mascot as I understand the term. They're the featured characters in pieces of media, but to me that's not a mascot necessarily.
 
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theHFIC

theHFIC

Member
Trevor McFur managed to be not only a weak mascot on Atari Jaguar, but also a cheap clone of Star Fox's Fox McCloud.

But the actual Star Fox ripoff was that horrible Cybermorph game.
 
Shrap

Shrap

Member
I still despise Bubsy to this day. I can't get that annoying "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?" voice out of my head... :messenger_pouting:
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Unknown? said:
Blasto comes to mind. Only one game! Tomba as well.
Click to expand...
Both were amazing. Pretty sure that Blasto never kept up because Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife not long after doing the voice-overs. Tomba is fairly rare and not what I would consider a mascot but it was a great and extremely rare game.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Nymphae said:
How are we defining video game mascots? Like most of the things people are saying are on the wiki for "videogame mascot characters", but I don't feel like nearly anything in here was presented as a brand or company mascot as I understand the term. They're the featured characters in pieces of media, but to me that's not a mascot necessarily.
Click to expand...
I agree, most discontinued or forgotten characters in a thread like this are not going to all be mascots. No, I didn't use Wikipedia or others recycled info from YouTube either. I pulled some from the top-of-my-head that I realized are no longer appearing. Pretty sure all the big name consoles wanted multiple mascots. Mario is one of many mainline Nintendo mascots, for example. Sonic, was all Sega chose to redeem as a mascot although I recall them really pushing Bubsy even though it wasn't exclusive. Gex was admitted to be represented by 3DO for a short time and was their mascot for Crystal Dynamics. Croc to me seemed like something Sony was pushing for like Crash Bandicoot...or my memory could be poor. The others, I said in parenthesis they were not necessarily mascots.

dictionary.cambridge.org

mascot

1. a person, animal, or object that is believed to bring good luck, or one that…
dictionary.cambridge.org dictionary.cambridge.org
 
Nymphae

Nymphae

Banned
I was probably just being overly pedantic :messenger_grinning_sweat:

For my own personal definition, I feel like the character would need to be used to sell other things for the company than the primary property it was known for to be a mascot, for example Mario was used in all kinds of software from Nintendo that wasn't just SMB games.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Nymphae said:
I was probably just being overly pedantic :messenger_grinning_sweat:

For my own personal definition, I feel like the character would need to be used to sell other things for the company than the primary property it was known for to be a mascot, for example Mario was used in all kinds of software from Nintendo that wasn't just SMB games.
Click to expand...
Well, they tried with Gex but interest by the late-90's had gone down (especially, after people saw what was being offered from the then-new Sega Dreamcast).
 
RAIDEN1

RAIDEN1

Member
Birdo said:
Cool Spot.

The first game was great too.

51TS7%2BpcDVL._AC_.jpg
Click to expand...
Difficult as probably Donkey Kong Country I'd say having recently added it to my SNES Mini, you can't even complete a dam level without the neccessary amount of "spots" I am there at the end of the boat level ready to break the padlock, but I can't as I don't have enough "spots" which then means traversing ALL the way back
 
Silvawuff

Silvawuff

Member
Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt is my contribution to this delightlful retrospective. OH WAIT WHAT ABOUT AERO THE ACROBAT AAAHHH. OR ZERO THE KAMIKAZE SQUIRREL?!

FGR05kg.jpg
 
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