Platform games
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| Artwork for the upcoming Super Mario Odyssey |
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| Recent render of Crash Bandicoot |
Platform games are good for mascot-types since there is usually just one protagonist. This allows all attention to be focused on that character meaning there is plenty of opportunity to make the character interesting to look at and to play as, it is also importance for the world the character inhabits to be fun to move around in.
Along with the successful platformer characters and game series, there are a plethora of less successful or memorable ones that didn't stand the test of time. A few examples of this are Bubsy, Blinx the Time Sweeper, Croc and Gex.
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| Blinx the Time Sweeper |
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| Gex the Gecko |
This doesn't always boil down to the characters being bad or the games being bad, in fact some of these games might have sold just as well as their competitors. Sometimes these games just fade into obscurity because there isn't enough substance there to make them unique. That could be something like a character design that isn't memorable (too simple or too complex), a game world that doesn't stand out or mechanics that are complex to the point of detriment, or adversely mechanics that don't stand out enough against other games of the type. As such, making a platformer, whether it's 2D or 3D, can be risky.
Role-playing games
Role-playing games are ones in which you play the role of someone else, as the name implies. These tend to be split by two major types, WRPG (Western Role-Playing Game) and JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game).
WRPGs tend to feature a protagonist that is customised before you begin the game and they are often a blank slate in hopes that the player can project their own personality and opinions on to them, as such I don't feel that looking too deeply into these will help me very much.
On the other hand, JRPGs often have multiple protagonists who share the limelight, though the player usually assumes the role of just one of the group. The characters' personalities and stories are pre-determined, though the player can often name their character. The protagonist will occasionally voice opinions that might veer the story towards a "good" or "bad" scenario.
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| Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series |
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| Ness from the Earthbound/Mother series |
There are some JRPG characters that have become well-known and are heralded as mascots due to their popularity, like Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7, Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series, Ness from the Earthbound/Mother series or the protagonist from Persona 5. However, when I think of mascots within JRPGs, I am drawn to characters who are usually not playable - like Moogles or Chocobo from the Final Fantasy series - or characters who might not have even been "good" to begin with - like Jack Frost from the Shin Megami Tensei series. These characters in particular exhibit traits that I have noticed within mascot-types.
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| A Moogle as seen in Final Fantasy IX |
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| Jack Frost from the Shin Megami Tensei RPG series |
Jack Frost is a particularly interesting example, he started off as a minor enemy character in the early Shin Megami Tensei games but eventually rose to become the mascot for Atlus as a company and ended up being the protagonist of multiple games in his own right.
As much as mascots are important for RPGs and the dynamic of a small group can make for interesting characters in terms of personality, I feel that it might become too complex mechanically and therefore draw away from the character I decide to create. Plus I'd also have to consider making multiple characters who can work with and against each other in terms of narrative.
Fighting and team-based shooter games
When it comes to fighting games, the mascot is usually the character who is featured most prominently on promotional artwork and is the flagship for the series. Examples of this include Ryu from Street Fighter and Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers. While there is a whole roster of characters who are equally considered "protagonists", there is always going to be one character that the company uses as a simple way to identify the series.
Like fighting games, team-based shooters such as Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch have a whole roster of playable characters but there tends to be one flagship character who is at the forefront of promotional material and tends to be the character most people know about. For Overwatch, this is Tracer and for Team Fortress 2, this is the Scout.
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| Ryu from the Street Fighter series |
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| Tracer from Overwatch |
Since these kinds of games have a varied and often quite large roster of characters, I feel that creating a game like this would be detrimental to demonstrating the value of a mascot character within the context of my project. Also, these games need to be balanced so that each character has a fair advantage when in combat. Since I want to focus on the impact one character can have alone, or at most as part of a small group (no more than 3), I probably won't be looking further into these genres.
Action/adventure and hack & slash games
Similar to platformer games, action/adventure titles usually have one protagonist who is seen as the mascot for that series. Examples include Link from The Legend of Zelda series or Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.
Hack & slash games being (in my generalised opinion) a subset of action/adventure games, also feature a singular protagonist in the same manner. Examples are Dante from the Devil May Cry series, the titular Bayonetta and 2B from Nier: Automata.
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| Link as he appears in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask |
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| YoRHa 2B from Nier: Automata |
It is important for these genres to have a memorable protagonist, but the gameplay is usually at the forefront of any design choices. A lot of these games have a third person camera, which means the protagonist often won't be seen from the front. With this in mind, it is probably a lot more challenging to express the personality of a mascot character through one of these kinds of games.
Puzzle games
Less common than other mascot types, some puzzle games have characters that are used as a sense of branding and for promotional material, they can also add appeal to an otherwise simple game (mechanically) with bright colours and fun designs.
Puyo Puyo is an example of this, it is a series of colour-matching games. The recent cross-over game Puyo Puyo Tetris expands the roster that was founded by the Puyo Puyo series, though it still features a flagship character, Ringo Ando.
Another series of puzzle games that features a flagship or mascot type character is the Candy Crush series. The series is a match-3 puzzle game inspired by the likes of Bejewelled. I imagine the creators decided to add a mascot and a set of reoccurring 'enemy' characters to the series to keep a potentially stale game type fresh for a casual audience. The main character for Candy Crush Saga is called Tiffi, short for Toffette.
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| Ringo Ando from Puyo Puyo 7 |
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| Tiffi (Toffette) from Candy Crush Saga |
While it isn't of optimal importance for puzzle games to feature mascot characters, it definitely adds appeal to them when faced against competitors without them. For example, it may be the case that someone would prefer to play Candy Crush Saga, because of its bright colours and fun character designs, over something like Bejewelled which doesn't have any mascots and doesn't feature anything too special aside from the core mechanical elements.
After looking through a variety of game genres, I feel that creating a platform game is going to help me demonstrate the values of a mascot character that I would like to show. It will also be a firm nod to the impact that the genre has had on game design and on the importance of mascots within gaming. I'll have to be weary of keeping the game from being over-complicated or too simplistic, but I feel that I will be able to show all facets of the importance and relevance of mascot characters this way, as well as expanding on some different skills such as level design and texturing.
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