/vr/ - Retro Games

I don't know, aero had a bad game, 1 good one and a spin off. I don't consider him a failure.

>>2561696
Aero got a sequel and a spinoff game, I wouldn't consider that a failure exactly.

Game was alright, but not worthy of a franchise.

Insert story about Plok, Miyamoto and Yoshi's Island here.

What actually makes a platformer a "mascot" platformer? Most of them were never actually mascots for anything.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG

>>2561760
Cute anthropomorphic animal with marketing potential.

>>2561772
I actually used to like bubsy as a kid. The first games was decent. People hate on him too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3egbaw-VK4

This one wasn't that bad, a decent Sonic clone. I really liked the music.

>>2561696
Aero wasn't that bat. But I liked more Zero the Kamikaze

Granted the original comic was more of a comedy focusing on space SPESHUL FORCES dealing with ridiculous space police buerocracy, but the games and cartoon seemed to try to make it a popular franchise.
Both games and the cartoon were great though.

>>2561798

The game controls so, so badly. It just isn't very good, and it had such a hype machine behind it at the time it was obnoxious. Not as obnoxious as the character itself, mind you. I owned the game, so there's a certain degree of nostalgia there, but I wasn't a fan.

Does this count? I like how he has that Rat Fink vibe going on and how there's a 90s-murrica vibe going on despite it being developed in Japan. The haunted apartment music is pretty bitchin'.

>>2561901
worst thing about bubsy is that the camera lags behind the character too much

>>2561908
this game is platformer r-type

>>2561892
Batman's also a popular franchise. That doesn't make him Sunsoft's mascot, though, retard.

this guy got replaced by sonic but was originally supposed to be the mascot to rival Nintendos Mario

>>2561916
>this game was the r-type of platformers
Gah, fixed for clarification.

>>2561915

People think Sonic moves too fast. Seriously.

>>2561917
Batman also lasted more years than Bucky did months, and is still known today.
Who the fuck knows about Bucky today other than retro game fans and people who watch Screwattack?

>>2561730
This looks terrifying

>>2561798
The problem with Bubsy is that you have to land directly on enemies' heads to kill theme, which is difficult at high speeds. In sonic, as long as you were in a ball, touching the enemies anywhere would count as a hit.

>>2561975

Nothing in Bubsy meshes well with anything else.

>giant non-linear levels that you can't explore because of the time limit
>vertical and horizontal speed are insane, but the camera is too zoomed-in to see where you're going
>you also have to move slowly and deliberately to kill enemies despite the game otherwise encouraging you to move at sanic speed
>you jump incredibly high, which makes it difficult to kill enemies by jumping
>high difficulty seems to be an excuse to start the player off with 9 lives (geddit?)

Then there's the sideways momentum that works more like sideways gravity. You get pulled left or right when you let go of the d-pad.

>>2561730
He's so fucking angry, holy shit.

ZOOM's mascot Dolucky sort of counts, though he's never been discontinued by the company.

>>2561815
Looks like the tiny toons duck

>>2562062
I can't help but think that looks like an anime-fied versions of a Huckleberry Cat.

>>2562181
Huckle Cat, not Huckleberry. Fuck me.

rip the raddest mother fucker

>>2562270
he wasn't meant as a mascot, it was simply a spin off of the bonk games

I am awesome!

>>2561815
Love this game, people bash it too much for beign a Sonic clone. It's a damn good Sanic clone and yeah dat music, dem visuals too, I think sometimes it looks more beautiful than Sonic.

>>2561864
Loved the character, I remember never caring about Aero, but when I saw Zero the motherfucking KAMIKAZE squirrel I had to buy it.
Game was okay... nothing amazing really. But the intro of the first level was cool with Zero crashing on the beach with his jet.

>>2561815
>>2562161
>>2562554

Time Castle is the best song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WAivRB6xlQ

>>2561929
that game is still the beesknees, with the actual sequel didnt suck so bad

Do the PS1 mascots count? Characters like Spyro, Lara Croft, Crash Bandicoot, and to a lesser extent Parappa the Rapper were successful during the fifth gen but branched out or died come mid sixth gen.

>>2562607
Shinobi World was great but yeah, it's hardly a sequel.

>>2562764
i was referring to the Genesis game. All other Alex Games except for the arcade one are basically what Super Mario 2 in the USA was.

>>2561696

Aero the Acrobat II and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel are good.

>>2561730
this videogame is one of the best and most impressive games I have ever played.
The only big problem it has is it should have had a save system.

Quik the Thunder Rabbit, I mean literally who? I don't know if he was intended to be a mascot character, but he was another animal character with an attitude. They made fun of Sonic in the game's intro which is funny because people Sonic's games were miles better and people actually remember him.

>>2561929
Sucks that SEGA doesn't use him for anything anymore. I liked Alex Kidd.

>>2562270
Air Zonk wasn't intended as a mascot, it was just a spin-off of the PC Genjin/Bonk series.
>>2561760
Usually with most of these the publishers or developers made the characters with the intention of pushing a brand ala Mario or Sonic. Easily recognizable, marketable, all that stuff. Unfortunately for the people making these, the games were usually garbage and the characters so lacking in originality and any personality other than 90's era 'tude that they faded into obscurity right away.

>>2562394
>>2562819
I always thought Zonk was the mascot of the Turbo Duo?

>>2562805
'tude mascots were some of the worst

i meant there was some pretty funny stuff out there but those too cool for school furries were pretty lame

Seeing as Konami made cameos of Sparkster in later games, they probably at least tried to make him into a mascot, but regardless, the Rocket Knight games were damn good.

>>2562879
i wish i could afford them, or Ristar even

>>2561929
Was this the reskin of that JP-onry Anmitsu-hime game?

>>2562270
>astro boy outfit
Clever bastard

>>2562941
that was Alex Kidd in High Tech World

Alex Kidd in Miracle World (the original which you quoted) and the one for the Genesis are the only original console Alex Kidd games

>>2562864
He became one after Johnny Turbo crashed and died a fiery death.

Jazz Jackrabbit.

>>2561730

I love tricking people into buying this piece of shit.

>>2562761
I would say they count. Not sure if Lara Croft would though. She's still around and having successful games but I wouldn't call her a mascot. Was she even a mascot in the first place?

Spyro is mostly known for just being another Skylanders figure/monster now. Though I hear Activision is trying to get Spyro out of Skylanders now.

Crash is not even as lucky as Spyro. Closest thing he got to a game recently was Sonic Boom.

I've heard the term 'mascot platformer' a lot, but what does it actually mean? What are these characters meant to be the mascots of? The companies who made them? Is something like Ristar or Shinobi considered mascot characters' even though Sega already had a mascot in Sonic?

>>2563075
it just means it stars a family friendly anthropomorphic animal
pic related is a very fun attempt at doing a Sonic game on the Amiga

>>2563047
>Crash is not even as lucky as Spyro. Closest thing he got to a game recently was Sonic Boom.
Crash is in Sonic Boom?!

>>2563075
>Shinobi

I know that character has a name, can't remember it for the life of me though. Anyway I know people that will argue with you to hell and back about how characters like that can't count as mascot because they're human.

As for what they're mascots of I would say of a brand they wanted to push to make money. Not just in games but other things, the games just being a start before branching out into cartoons, comics, etc.

>>2563097
Sonic Boom was made out of a bunch of rejected ideas for a canceled Crash game that the Naughty Dog rejects used, there's even artwork of the Crash cast doing things the Boom cast does.

>>2563153
>Sonic Boom was made out of a bunch of rejected ideas for a canceled Crash game that the Naughty Dog rejects used, there's even artwork of the Crash cast doing things the Boom cast does.
Well, that's really interesting.

>>2563153
>I know that character has a name, can't remember it for the life of me though
It's Joe Musashi. Also it has nothing to do with him being a human, and more to do the fact that Joe as a character was never really given a marketing push by Sega. His game came out, it got popular, but he was never the star attraction, the gameplay was, to the point that most people, like you, don't even know his name. Mascot characters are ones like Sonic or Mario where the publisher pushes their personality and their face all over every aspect of the game and sells it to you largely on their presence.

>>2563208
Well the people I'm talking about don't even consider a character like Master Chief a mascot since he's human, regardless of the marketing push or not.

They think Sony owns Spyro and Crash even now, even though they never did in the first place.

Idiots.

>>2563047

Crash and Spyro were popular well into the sixth gen, just not nearly as popular as before. Lara died out of the mainstream view for years but the reboot got her back, though she won't get her status as a Playstation mascot back

>>2563275
But was Lara ever a mascot in the first place? Her games were also on PC and Saturn.

>>2563208
In all fairness to Nintendo and Mario, they do realize that you still need to have at least a half decent game under all that.

>>2563279
Not particularly unless you count pretty much every magazine ad for Tomb Raider being Lara in a suggestive pose.

Blinx master race reporting here.

>>2561798
Bubsy 2D games aren't that bad, they just have a few issues. It's very easy to go Sonic fast but there's almost no way to tell where you're going or what you're going to hit because level design is so random and the field of view is pretty bad. And the instant death from falling if you're not doing the glide is silly in a game about going fast and high.

High Seas Havoc is pretty good, if not a little bit too hard.

>>2562879
Konami's mascot, if anything, would be a Moai.
Or pic related.

>>2565776
Or a penguin.

Pentarou used to be the Konami mascot back in the msx days.

>>2562981
The developers didn't even try to hide that they were trying to make a Sonic game; but it was still pretty fun, IMO. Handled really well, and using different gun types felt neat.

He actually managed to get some sequels - one good, one bad, one cancelled.

Kemco's mascot?

>>2566568

>>2565790
It must not have lasted long, because that was around when they were introducing Konami Man.

>>2565920
Man, I loved Jazz Jackrabbit. I never had a PC but used to play it round a mate's house all the time. Great graphics, fun weapons and good tunes. Would love to play it again.

>>2566598
Awesome. Pentarou was more of a MSX only thing. I remember Konami Man showing up in the DS Castlevania games as an equippable item. Was he playable somewhere else besides wai wai world though?

>>2566621
Not playable, but he's been in somewhere just over 20 games since his first appearance in Road Fighter in 1984. Konami Wai Wai World was actually his ninth appearance. He was also playable in at least one of the Bishi Bashi Special games.

rip

>>2563279

Iirc Tomb Raider 1 and 2 were PS1 exclusives. Either way Lara was seen as a PA1 mascot despite officially being third party

>>2566728
Tr1 is on Saturn but I think II and III are only on ps1
Tr:last revelation is on ps1 and dreamcast

>>2566756

I meant to say "2 and 3". Typo.

>>2566756
>>2566764
The first one was released on ps1, saturn and pc; last two being also released on macs.

>>2566771
Yeah true. Fun fact, apparently Tomb Raider 1 was originally supposed to be a Saturn exclusive, but since Sega were asshats crystal dynamics or whoever made it put it on the ps1 as well, and it ended up being a ps1 mascot

>>2566781

I thought it was a Jaguar exclusive

>>2566784
what

>>2566568
watch the developers pretend to put their heart and soul into this shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKGySNVszN0

>>2566806
this is fucking radical thanks

bump

>>2561696
-Sega whit the Saturn lose the chance to get Lara Croft as Mascot (we know how it ended).

-The dreamcast (pal) version of DoA2 (relased by acclaim) got Michael le Roi skin.
Shadow man tried to become a DC mascot

I mean...

>>2571780
Pepsiman still has a place in my heart.
You insensitive anon!

Conker's father.

>>2565920
And a shitty GBA game too.

>>2574417
The shitty GBA game was the bad sequel in question.

>>2561815
The character wasn't a duck in the original art.

>>2561772
I still want to find the rights, buy them, and make a Bubsy reboot.

>>2562498
It wasn't really meant to be a series though, was it? More like just a one-shot environmental message thing.

>>2562808
Actually, he's cameo'd in the Sonic comic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed, so I wouldn't say he's all disappeared. His new design looks like a Chinese knock-off Link though

>>2562879
Shame the XBLA sequel was shit.

>>2565712
Sadly, not retro.

>>2565790
Isn't he still? I know he cameo'd in CTR... He wasn't _just_ MSX since he had a Famicom game.

hi

>>2574878
>His new design looks like a Chinese knock-off Link though
His new design is the exact same shit but with better art and hair.

>tfw there's big trouble on little muu

>>2575395

Talk about a game that needs an update

>>2575395

That game is so painfully Japanese. Also, is there a trope for games where one of the powerups is essentially psychedelic drugs? Developers seemed to do that a lot in the 90s.

Game was pretty ahead of it's time and has aged real well though actually. Only thing that lets it down is how you'll keep instinctively pressing the shoulder buttons to circle strafe enemies, but there is no strafing.

>>2561696
i really loved aero the arcrobat. still haven't played the second game or the spinoff, i really enjoy the first one though

any hate the game gets i realize is just because it has an anthropomorphic main character

>>2561929
And before him, Opa-Opa was Sega's mascot.
I don't know what they had before Opa-Opa.

>>2579248
he does get hated on too much. The sequel is really good too.

Moonlight is From's mascot, right?

>>2566578
that is a good game but i have never played it on snes

>>2561696

Remember this piece of shit?

>>2580368
explain yourself?

>>2580368
I don't see anything wrong with it besides being easy.

>>2579524
>That ad

Look at that ad

>If you've read this far, you qualify as a real fan of aero the acrobat. And if you're one of the first 100 people to send a 3x5 postcard with your name address, age, and telephone number we'll send you a free copy of the Aero the AcroBat video game

>mfw when I saw this as a kid but it was probably already too late because the magazine was 4 months old

>>2580368
Your mom is a piece of shit.

>>2561730

ive been diddled again

>>2562805
But what if game is family friendly,
but then grampa get's killed?

Dis cheesy shatty wastard nearly killed the PS1 and it's genre mixing is a mere insult to sly cooper
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=amvPVI4yVNw

>>2561798
>The first games was decent. People hate on him too much.

It's completely understandable though considering how hard he was pushed onto everyone.

>>2580181

Waiting for From Software's mascot platformer featuring the Moonlight Sword as protagonist

>>2583036
>family friendly

I dunno man from what I've see in the threads on /v/ Klonoa has a pretty active sex life.

>>2577059
wonder if Dave Halverson's bitch ass is still trying over this one

>>2561730
Plok's still alive somehow.
www.zee-3.com/plok/index.php

Where is ps1 gex?

>>2588746
right here bro

>>2588808
Thanks bro xD
Btw Jim.

>>2562864
Bonk was the mascot for NEC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonk_(video_game_series)

>>2588746
Would he be considered a failure? He was actually pretty big when he did get games as opposed to something like Awesome Opossum.

Aero the Acrobat II is a legit 8/10 game.
The worst thing is the character design of the enemies, they look like clows wearing dominican robes.

>>2588808
>>2588926
>Would he be considered a failure?
Well let's see, they released the first game as-is (pic related), then released the second under a new publisher who literally put the character in a costume and tried to pass him off under a new name. nah he was huge

>>2588746

>ps1 Gex

You mean 3DO Gex

>>2589460
I thought we were just talking about Gex in general not just Japan. Had no clue about his situation there, I just know at least in America he was pretty popular when he came out.

>>2561730

someone swiped my flag... music is awful casio blues turds... wtf

>>2589460
I dunno I'm a euro fag, and gex never made as much impact as spyro, or Crash . All my friends had playstations and nobody had the game, only the demo. I do remember it was had its few minutes but marketing wise it just didn't have much success in balkan area

>>2589467
that was an even bigger failure

>>2561696

>>2590002
I'd fuck that bat. The face kind of ruins it though.

>>2590782
Not from behind. Also sexi body but fucked up face is Milena tier

>>2590782

She was created before the Sonic bat femme-fatale (Rouge?), perhaps she was the inspiration.
IIRC her name is Batasha and she gets deported to Siberia in the end of Aero the Acrobat 2.

>>2565712
Why did the second game have to be so awful by comparison?

Why did they remove blinx as a main character?

>>2561696
THIS GAME IS FUCKING HARD I'VE NEVER BEAT IT TO THIS DAY.

>>2561696
Tried many times but always gave up after 20 minutes.

>>2561721
>TO BE CONTINUED
It wrapped its plot nicely so I don' get why they'd hint at a sequel like that.

Also japanese version for bare bones.

>>2561730
If only they removed that awful flashback sequence.

>>2561815
A Sonic clone we didn't need. Not like it's awful either.

>>2562879
Genesis ones are great.

>>2575395
>then they made Robbit Mon Dieu

>>2565776
Konami's mascot would be a pachinko or slot machine.

>>2594195
play the second aero, there's no fetch quest item bullshit