Video Game Mascots

[Bubbapauls | 252]

I was wondering what some of the mascots where over the years for the big video game companies.  I know Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic, and Xbox has Master Chief but what about the other companies. 

PlayStation seems to have had a bunch of different ones. I’ve never heard of Atari having a mascot. I’m also wondering who had the first video game mascot. 

[Tulpa | 3,684]

Atari sort of did, Commander Champion.

 

He appeared in the Atari Force comics that came with certain games, like Star Raiders.

Sega had a few before Sonic, like Alex Kidd and Opa Opa from Fantasy Zone.

Hudson had the bee, and Bonk as well.

Compile has the landers that appear in several of their games. The little red guy in Zanac is one of them.

[PineappleLawnchair | 88]

Blinx was originally suppose to be the xbox mascot, but the poor cat was mocked so hard they dropped that idea.

 

[Tulpa | 3,684]

As for the first one, the original Space Invaders artwork might have featured the first.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Tulpa

[Bubbapauls | 252]

1 hour ago, PineappleLawnchair said:

Blinx was originally suppose to be the xbox mascot, but the poor cat was mocked so hard they dropped that idea.

 

I remember him but had totally forgot until you said something.

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

As for the first one, the original Space Invaders artwork might have featured the first.

 

I've heard a lot of people on other sites thinking it was Pac-Man or at least he was one of the earliest ones.

 

As for PlayStation it seems like they can never make up their mind. Polygon Man was their first, I remember Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Parappa the Rapper back in the Ps1 days. I think it's maybe Kratos now? Possibly Nathan Drake?

[Bubbapauls | 252]

I also remember Johnny Turbo for the Turbografx who looked like a fat Sgt. Slaughter.

[hyrulevyse | 151]

1 hour ago, Bubbapauls said:

I also remember Johnny Turbo for the Turbografx who looked like a fat Sgt. Slaughter.

Hell yeah, here to warn kids about the evil corporation of FEKA!  Quit spreading those lies about Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective being on your platform first.

[Link | 2,878]

3 hours ago, Bubbapauls said:

I've heard a lot of people on other sites thinking it was Pac-Man or at least he was one of the earliest ones.

In this case it depends on what you consider a mascot. Space Invaders preceded Pac Man by a number of years. So is Space Invaders a mascot? Iconic artwork, for sure. 

But Pac Man is a more memorable individual character than a space invader, and starred in a Saturday morning cartoon, to say nothing of a hit pop song and much merchandise, but I considered him his own phenomenon. Mario = Nintendo. Sonic = Sega. Pac Man = ... Pac Man. Not Namco. A standalone character, not a company. 

I don’t consider either Pac Man or Space Invader as a company mascot, but both were phenomenons in their own right, and had really cool and influential depictions in various media as well as attention throughout the culture of the times.

So question being who is the first videogamecompany specific mascot? I’m gonna go with Donkey Kong or Jump Man. Nintendo really was the first to hit a home run via specific characters that represented the brand. Although Atari did pretty well, earlier, in the slogan space with “Have you played Atari today?”

[T-Pac | 7,850]

I've always been partial to Asmik's silly pink dinosaur.

-CasualCart

[Inzoreno | 102]

It seems in the early NES days Capcom used Captain Commando as a mascot, as he appeared on their boxes and manuals. 

[mbd39 | 2,092]

Is the "Where did you learn to fly?" face the Atari Jaguar mascot?

 

[hyrulevyse | 151]

I've always considered Pac-Man to be Namco's mascot, but I'm not really sure when that became a thing.  Air Zonk was TTI's mascot when turbo transitioned into the 'tude era', and I always considered the running man guy (coincidentally also called jumpman sometimes) to be Intellivision's.

[Tulpa | 3,684]

15 hours ago, Link said:

In this case it depends on what you consider a mascot. Space Invaders preceded Pac Man by a number of years. So is Space Invaders a mascot? Iconic artwork, for sure. 

But Pac Man is a more memorable individual character than a space invader, and starred in a Saturday morning cartoon, to say nothing of a hit pop song and much merchandise, but I considered him his own phenomenon. Mario = Nintendo. Sonic = Sega. Pac Man = ... Pac Man. Not Namco. A standalone character, not a company. 

I don’t consider either Pac Man or Space Invader as a company mascot, but both were phenomenons in their own right, and had really cool and influential depictions in various media as well as attention throughout the culture of the times.

So question being who is the first videogamecompany specific mascot? I’m gonna go with Donkey Kong or Jump Man. Nintendo really was the first to hit a home run via specific characters that represented the brand. Although Atari did pretty well, earlier, in the slogan space with “Have you played Atari today?”

That's fair, although I would argue that Mario didn't really become Nintendo's mascot until Super Mario Bros hit the scene. Before that, he was just one of Nintendo's stable of characters.

[drxandy | 3,278]

Mr. Pants ! (Rare's mascot) I mean he did get his own game.

 

[Tanooki | 5,103]

Maybe too obvious, but a great one, and one that still has a presence today and will again in another month even more with the TG/PCE Minis coming in march.  BONK!

 

 

He stood the test of time, after his own hardware ate it there have been releases beyond simple TG/PCE mascot to a Hudson namesake through the decades.