Back in the '80s and '90s, cutesy playable characters were all the ra🍷ge and vit🍬al to moving hardware off store shelves and into people's homes. Several big names ruled above them all and usually represented an entire console, but several studios managed to make their own mascots that weren't tied to a specific system.
Mascots weren't just for sales, however. Aesthetic is also important to a game's design. Smooth gameplay and unique mechanics mean nothing if the world and main character are uninspiring. Before voice acting, cinematics, and—in some cases—3D were realities, developers conveyed a world through visuals alone. When done right, t𓃲hey resulted in some of the greatest titles ever made. When done poorly, they were annoying and hampered what was otherwise a solid experience by making people play as a bland character in a dull world.
To celebrate both the good and the bad, the following list will present the five best mascots to ever grace the medium and five that left people wanting mo⛄re.
10 W🔯orst: Aero The Acro-Bat
Aero the Acro-𝐆Bat is exactly what his name implies. There's really not much more to it. His games were relatively well received in their day, but the series fizzled out of existence in the mid-'90s. He feels more like a relic o♛f the past than a relevant video game icon.
9 Bes⭕t: Sonic 🐼
Any mascot that went toe to toe with Mario demands respect. Sonic's games on the Sega Genesis made the console a worthy contender to the SNES. Mario and his pals were cutཧe, but Sonic was too cool for school, and nothing characterized this better than his love for speed.
The third dimension wasn't as kind to him as it was to his rival. Sonic Adventure is decent, but it is difficult to convincingly capture a sense of speed in a 3D environment. While the blue hedgehog has seen better days, his classic titles will forever make him Sega's champion.
8 Wors♉t: Gex ♉
The Gex games were all pretty good. The first was a typical side-scrolling platformer, which was followed by two three dimensional titles. The gecko's image didn't manage to stand the test of time like the legends from the era, however. Everything about him screams ofﷺ the 1990s. He also had a human lover in the third game, which is bizarre, but also commendable for beating Sonic to the punch by several years. The best mascots are timeless, and Gex is too much a product ꦜof his decade.
7 ꩵ Best: Master Chief
Not all mascots are for children. The console space is a scary field to go through, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Microsoft was prepared to stake its claim with the Xbox. The system was powerful and friendly to developers but didn't quite make the spꦯlash the company ⛄hoped it would.
However, one killer app made it a worthy presence — Halo. The revolutionary first-person shooter felt like a true PC experience finally brought to consoles. For saving Microsof𓂃t's console, Master Chief earns his place on the l♉ist.
6 🐻 Worst: Croc
The Croc trilogy won't make anyone wish for death while playing, but it also comes off as entirely unremarkable. But being a good mascot means having exceptional games. It also doesn't help that ꦆhis design is bland. He's a friendly looking crocodile, and not much else.
5 ♎ Best: Lara Croft
The '90s signaled a major shift in gaming. Along with the transition to 3D, companies were acknowledging and trying the draw in an older audience. Games weren't just for kids, and ignoring this ignored a ♕huge part of the market.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tomb Raider appealed to a wider audience not just because of the character, bꦅut because the games themselves were more c💙omplex than their contemporaries.
4 Worst: Blas🍎to
On paper, Blasto sounds like an awesome idea. Make up a wisecracking superhero and have Phil Hartman provide the voice. Unfortunately, the end result was not the comedy gold it promised to be. This 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation exclusive didn't birth another classic Sony mascot and instead faded into obsꦛcurity.
3 ﷽ Best: Crash Bandicoot
1996's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crash Bandicoot is an incredible platformer, and its two sequels 🏅were🔴 even better, and thankfully not as difficult.
Naughty Dog went on the make Jak and Daxter and eventually mature games like Uncharted and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us, but their original mascot has a special place in many gamers' hearts. Fortunately, the character is seeing something of a renaissance with the recent remakes. With any luck, a new Crash Bandicoot game will come out in the next couple of years.
2 ꦇ Worst: Bubsy 💯
Bubsy's first game couldn't hold a candle to its peers, but it had solid, challenging platforming. The sequel did not fare as well, lacking all the charm fro🐼m the first game. Little did fans know, that was far from the worst to come.
The character's first foray into 3D, 1995s Bubsy 3D on the PlayStation, was a real piece of work. It is a textureless mess that resembles nothing of its two dimensional older siblings, and the cat controls like a World War II tank. The title, developed by the studio that would eventually go on to release 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Days Gone, is considered one of the worst games ever made. Two more games were released in the frไanchise just a coupl🌌e of years ago, but they did little to repair the feline's reputation.
1 ❀Best: Mario ꩲ
How could anything else beat out the king? Mario put Nintendo at the forefront of the medium and revived the industry as a whole after its popularity had waned. Since Super Mario Bros., the p🐈lu🍌mber has almost never starred in a bad game.
Sure, there were some lackluste𒈔r spin-of🤡fs, but every core title is pure joy from start to finish. Mario will never fade away and is a name synonymous with the medium.