Top 10 favorite 'tudey platform mascots from the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis era
Thank You Mario But Our 'Tude Is In Another Mascot-
While the 'tude era to me can be defined by many things, perhaps one of the most tangible ways of looking at it is by observing the glut of rebellious mascot characters from the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis generation. Whether it be a kick ass pair of shades or some Air Jordan-looking sneakers, platform mascots of this generation were constantly trying to out 'tude each other all vying for your hard-earned time (and dollars) to be spent exclusively on them. Whoever asked for all these titles anyways? Obviously game companies were trying to ride Sega's coattails after the success of Sonic the Hedgehog but attempting to recreate that (especially for a non first-party title) seemed like an exercise in futility in my opinion.
The basic recipe works like this - Take a name and combine it with an animal and... *WALAA* you've got yourself a video game mascot . Add a mohawk, biker gloves or other various signs of outwardly expression to increase their attitude differential. Also, be sure to design the gameplay around jumping and moving your character through stages while collecting 100 pieces of... something in order to obtain an extra life. Am I missing anything? OH YEAH - the main protagonist has to get really annoyed when you leave him idle for too long and... well you get the picture. Even though this is a generalization, it's certainly how I (and I'm sure many others) viewed these kinds of games which probably prompted me to avoid them more times than not when making crucial rental and purchase decisions.
Well now that the dread of being "stuck" with a poor gaming choice is mostly a thing of the past, I went back and played through a bunch of these old jumpers and runners and was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed many of these titles while simultaneously researching whose main protagonist brought it the most in the angst department! Though I wasn't totally wrong about the cheesy cut and paste characters when I was a kid, there are definitely some that stand out to me more from the 'tude era and the quality of the release your featured in certainly doesn't hurt. Who knew video game mascots besides the obvious could actually star in a decent-to-fun game? Damn my pessimistic younger self... quick Doc, let's jump in the DeLorean and convince adolescent 'Tude Dude to try some of these games before he rents Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball and loses all hope... *guns it to 88* !!!
The following is a list of The 'Tude Dude's 10 most 'tudey platform mascots from the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis era.
Honorable Mentions
-Sparkster (Rocket Knight Adventures), Chuck Rock, Radical Rex, Mohawk & Headphone Jack, Air Zonk, Vectorman, Cool Spot, Plok!, Aero the Acro-Bat, Alfred Chicken, Diddy Kong (Donkey Kong Country series), Jazz Jackrabbit, b.o.b., Zool, Chuck D. Head (Decap Attack), Jim Power (Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D), Yoshi, Normy (Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama), Bonk, James Pond, Mick & Mack (M.C. Kids series), Boogerman, Havoc (High Seas Havoc), Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Headdy (Dynamite Headdy) and... *sigh*... Spanky the Monkey... really??? (Spanky's Quest).
Thanks for reading! Question or comment? Feel free to leave below.