20 Video Game Mascots From The 90s That Tried (And Failed) To Dethrone Mario

Super Mario Bros. exploded throughout the 90s, leading many companies to attempt to dethrone the Nintendo mascot.

[naruga]

original Sonic 1-2 and Crash Bandicoot 1-2-3 Destroyed Mario, not only dethroned him ....

[Casepb]

Are you being serious? Because Crash was complete trash compared to Mario 64. And Sonic was always second rate.

[Forn]

No...just no. Crash was and will always be better in my opinion.

[SuperSonic91]

See your comment proves the rampant Nintendo Brain Cancer on many American children's head nowadays.
I don't know how this disease came to be but this is particularly rampant in the USA and it starts when a young kid plays Nintendo games then carried to adulthood.

[TK-55]

When you dethrone someone you usually stick around and maintain your dominance rather than disappear into obscurity. It's why the Crash remakes were so positively received and whenever we get a good Sonic game its reception tends to also be accompanied with a sigh of relief.

[Eidolon]

Mario didn't get dethroned by those.. He's still the more popular mascot.

[King_Noctis]

So where are those mascots now? If they destroyed Mario, surely they are bigger than Mario and have more games?

[Segata]

I'm at least glad Wonder Boy got a new game in the series after 20+ years with Monster Boy. Now I'd love a new Astal or Mischief Makers. At least ports.

[Segata]

lol and Mario Odyssey is the best selling 3D Mario game of all time now. Beating Galaxy at over 13 million. Sonic Mania was good but for the most part, Sonic has been struggling since late Genesis in quality. 3D Blast was awful. So was Sonic R. 3D games mostly been bad while Colors/Generations were good. 2 games in 20 years aren't great. No, I have not forgotten SA games but those have aged so poorly. Crash was popular on PS1 but by PS2 era his popularity was winding down and not until the remakes did he have some real attention again but only briefly. Same with Spyro. I love Spyro at least the PS1 games. I like Sonic on Genesis and the others I mentioned. For all these characters who tried to dethrone Mario..SEGA no longer makes consoles and Crash is owned by Activision now. Everyone else is second fiddle. Plenty of games I personally enjoy more than Mario but his popularity is as strong as ever on hardware that is selling like crazy and Sonic 1-2 are being re-released on Nintendo's consoles. So much for him dethroning anyone.

[pain777pas]

Reply Crash and Sonic were right there. Crash and Sonic are the only true rivals that COULD have come close. In all honesty, IF Sony kept the Crash license and released quality games who knows what would have happened. I truly believe that Nintendo's saving grace was that Crash was sold to Activision. I cannot stress enough how important that was for Nintendo. Crash at its core mechanically even is right there in every way with some Sonic elements mixed in as well. It is a very speed runner friendly series on the PS1 mechanically. Great games for the time and core mechanics, systems and sound effects to boot. Crash was close.

[SuperSonic91]

20 Video Game Mascots From The 90s That Tried (And Failed) To Dethrone Sonic the Hedgehog -
The mmascot that launched a thousand mascots.

There fixed that title.
You see most of them mascots are furries like Sonic and not human like mario. You see Sega is smart enuff to not compete with Mario instead it made its own market. Same thing with Sony 's 19 and up initiative. They did not compete with Nintendo's red ocean kiddie child market and instead made their own blue ocean and became successful on their own.

[Segata]

Do you really believe the garbage you type? You sound like a child and your post is riddled with irony along with your name and avatar.

[SuperSonic91]

See this is the problem that needs to be solved in the industry. To all journos out there I have a question: " Why Does It Have To Be A Damned Competition All The Time?"

Why does it have to be a war between companies?

Do game developers really go out there and make a game for the sake of competition?

Is Nintendo really standard?
Why does everything have to be compared or competing with them?

[SuperSonic91]

I understand that to destroy Nintendo's monopoly of the toy stores and developers back then was an enormous undertaking for everyone publishers, third party developers and toy store owners. It was a different kind of evil.

But that is different kind of evil from the Nintendo worship entrenched in the media that keeps the industry from growing and progressing.

Nintendo is not the standard that many mentally retarded dumbasses claim them to be.

Like if a game is a platformer and its not made by Nintendo you guys quickly dismiss it as a clone, copycat or just shit on it. You don't give other new upstarting devs a chace in the spotlight.

This cancer is still prevailing in the industry today and needs to be stopped.
While Nintendo gets away with ripping off game mechanics from the pioneers' the latter games don't get the chance they deserve and Nintendo's game sell by the millions.
Their will be a judgement day for you lot!!!!

Pathetic garbage spread by gullible man-children dumbasses.

[SuperSonic91]

Same thing with the term Metroid-vania. That term needs to die. Its like iif a game is a 2D side scroller it has to live up to what Metroid is. Why can't any game be its own and not get compared.?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Hatervania

[TK-55]

"Why can't any game be its own and not get compared.?"

I think you don't understand why the term exists. It describes the level design and the direction of a game and is a good way of instantly explaining aspects of a game to someone. Same goes for the term Rogue-Like/Lite. The principles of a Metroidvania game can be seen in 3D games too like Metroid: Prime, Batman: AA, Dead Space and even the new RE2 remake to a degree. I know one thing a lot of people like to distinguish in a Metroidvania though is that you're not getting "keys" but "abilities" so many wouldn't see RE2 as a Metroidvania.

"That term needs to die. Its like iif a game is a 2D side scroller it has to live up to what Metroid is"

Don't know where you got this from. I've not seen Mario or most 2D side scrollers compared to Metroid recently. I think you're getting salty over something which would explain why you've posted 4 comments already lol.

[SuperSonic91]

My friend you don't seem to understand the extent how huge this "Nintendo Cookie-Cutting Standard" disease in gaming media has severly affected the fortunes of many a game developers who wanted to make games 2D and 3D platformers like Mario, Zelda and Metroid since forever. They get crucified by Nintendo fanboys in the media and their followers even before their games played.
As stated by this former Nintendo fanboy who have escaped the Nintendo mind trap https://youtu.be/WRhyHpMUzH...

[TK-55]

@SuperSonic91

"They get crucified by Nintendo fanboys in the media and their followers even before their games played."

I think you should stay indoors or the Globalists will get ya.

"As stated by this former Nintendo fanboy who have escaped the Nintendo mind trap"

1k subscribers and the video was made 3 years ago but still manages to look like it was filmed on a potato. You clearly harbour some irrational hate towards anything Nintendo to the point where the slightest mention of them triggers you for some reason.

[King_Noctis]

The term Metroid-vania is borderline a genre on its own right now.

BTW, You deserves all the downvote you can get.

[SuperSonic91]

Fortunately for the human race not everyone conforms to the Nintendo Fanboy Mentality. In fact the continous shinking of Nintendo's maket proves that many gamers have seen through the lies you guys make and spread in the gaming communities.

Your mentality needs to stop.

[King_Noctis]

continous shinking of Nintendo's maket? Wtf are you talking about? If anything, Nintendo’s market share grew exponentially since the release of the Switch compared to the Wii U.

The only one whose mentality need to stop is you. Every Nintendo article you come to troll and troll. What you need to know is no matter how much you troll, Nintendo still succed.

If you hate them much, then just stop commenting altogether on their article. Nothing you say will ever amount to anything.

[Segata]

Always bothered me Castlevania gets partial credit when Wonderboy in Monster Land released the same year and month. I guess that's the benefit of one releasing on NES and the other on Master System.

[Uglyday]

Games made in the 90’s that were forced to play like games from the 90’s.

[Skankinruby]

Mascots aren't particularly a good thing. It implies the entire console brand is tethered to said mascots, Mario being the prime example. But for the sake of debate Sonic would have most definitely been equivalent to Mario if Sega consoles kept going.

[Segata]

Problem is even in the Genesis era Sonic's quality was dipping. SEGA never knew how to manage the character well. Like WCW with NWO. SEGA released too much Sonic stuff and less regard to quality as with Sonic Spinball & 3D Blast (even tho the Genesis version has an amazing OST) , Sonic Adventure on DC lacked a lot of polish even Mario 64 had. I love SA but I won't pretend they are good either. With fewer misteps than Sonic,Mario's quality has mainly remained very strong. Sonic...well he was already slipping and I still think Shadow,Heroes and 2006 would have happened on SEGA hardware. Shame as I like the character more than Mario.

[Majinzo]

Let’s support all games!

[Knightofelemia]

There are titles in there that are just bad like Zool. Ristar and Alex Kidd would have been more if Sega did more with them. As for Cool Spot he was brought out in an era where every company wanted a piece of the cash from Chester Cheetah, California Raisins even Fido Dido before Cool Spot mascots were big back in the 90's the Ronald McDonald games were not marketed to dethrone Mario. Some of these titles I am going to say were never ever brought up to dethrone Mario just brought in to capitalize on the popularity. Only one I would wanted to be the next Mario is Crash Bandicoot. I remember the old commercials where the dude in the suit was standing out front of Nintendos office as Crash Bandicoot.

[Segata]

Alex Kidd is kinda odd. I don't think those games ever had universal appeal. As far back as I can remember people at least in the US from my experience always been had mixed feelings about it. Not to mention really challenging games where Mario was more approachable. I like Alex Kidd but he was never going to take SEGA to the heights Sonic did.