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Whatever Happened to the Gaming Mascot?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sonic-now-in-rehab dept.

Ground Glass writes "Back in the days when consoles were measured in bits, they were also measured by their mascots - interestingly-designed characters that easily encapsulated everything the machine and its parent company stood for in gaming. Today they are no more than hangers-on, surviving either by cynically marketing to the very young or by remaining vestigial elements in games that would have been great with or without them. The next generation is coming, but mascots are nowhere to be found - so where did they go?"

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. The have all been replaced by slntnsnty · · Score: 2, Informative

    By E3 Booth Babes!

  2. Re:Wait, mascots are normal? by Cadallin · · Score: 2, Informative
    "Mario will probably put in a showing on the Wii"??? Do what?!!

    Super Mario Galaxy anyone? It's only one of the most hotly awaited titles for the console! It's not going to make launch, but it's scheduled for an early 2007 release. The demos shown at E3 this year generated a huge amount of buzz, since as shown it demostrated a return to Mario 64 style gameplay (at a silky smooth 60fps even in alpha/beta).

    Sonic to some degree has migrated to Nintendo's camp as well, since all the Sonic titles will be available for the Wii, and there's a new title announced for the Wii sometime near launch as well.

  3. Re:Akuma by Mark+Maughan · · Score: 3, Informative
    "Sheng Long" doesn't refer to a character. In the old Ryu victory screen where he says "You must defeat sheng long to stand a chance", he was talking about one of his signature moves.

    Right. It's the chinese translation of the dragon punch. In Japanese it's the rising dragon (shoryuken), in Chinese it's the spirit dragon (sheng long), in English it's the dragon punch.

    Akuma is Akuma, and goes by no other name.

    Nope. Gouki is his true name. Akuma is Japanese for demon. Gouki's brother is Gouken (the master of Ryu and Ken) and their master was Goutetsu.
  4. Re:God dammit by Whatistehmatrix · · Score: 2, Informative

    If i could mod you up i really would. I bought sonic rush for the DS and i was heavily amazed about how much fun it was, and the nostalgia came back from the genesis days.

    On the other hand, i haven`t really seen anyone mocking them either, so to his their own.

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    visitor from www.slashdot.jp