These days I have been playing the catalog of the PlayStation 1 and 2 games that marked me when I was young or at the time I couldn’t play: the trilogy of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Rayman, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, etc… And I realized that nowadays you practically don’t see characters like that in video games anymore.
Just as there was a time when all games were made for children, nowadays it seems that all games are made for teenagers and adults. Even those that don’t seem to be, such as Astrobot, appeal to the nostalgia of the more adult public.
What kind of heroes does my nephew have, for example? There’s Sonic, and it’s something in which we have a connection, but Sonic and other heroes that still remain current, like Mario or Link, are from an era that long predates him and perhaps for him they feel more like a thing of the past, similar to how I feel about Sailor Moon or Mazinger Z, which were heroes of my older siblings and parents respectively.
I don’t know of any heroes that are specifically intended to appeal to young people like my nephew, at least not in a “wholesome” way. Much of what he likes was not made with the child audience in mind, such as Five Nights At Freddy’s or Among Us; and what does, was made for more predatory motives, such as Poppy Playtime or Garten of Banban. The only thing I can think of is Minecraft and… I don’t know, it just doesn’t add up for me.
My nephew doesn’t have a Crash, a Spyro, a Sly to be nostalgic about when he gets to my age.
It’s a little… Bleak…
I’d argue that xennials didn’t really either. I certainly didn’t think of Mario, Sonic, Doom Guy, etc. as heroes. The closest that jumps immediately to mind as a named person is the protagonist of Wolf3d whose name I won’t attempt to spell here, but even then I didn’t give a shit about his story which, if memory serves, amounted to a blurb in a manual.
My heroes were in print in books and I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with that.
The closest that jumps immediately to mind as a named person is the protagonist of Wolf3d whose name I won’t attempt to spell her
BJ Blazkowicz. Grandfather of Billy “Blaze” Blazkowicz.
According to John Romero and Tom Hall, Billy is also the ancestor of B.J. Blazkowicz, AKA Doomguy. It’s Blazkowicz all the way down.
Oh really? That’s an awesome piece of trivia.
It’s really only canon until both Wolfenstein and Doom changed their timelines, but the original Doomguy was B.J. Blazkowicz III
I thought doomguy was me. The silent protagonist is kind of the new hero.
This sounds more like your experience, than anything over-arching. PC games had less ‘heros’ than console gaming at the time but by 1992 there were tons of characters to latch on to. Dragon quest and Final Fantasy where running on full steam by the early 90s. Mega Man had his 5th game out by then, Mario was getting into karts, multiple Street Fighter games, Sonic in his second outing, and the list goes on. I think the point OP is making is not that every kid had a video game hero, but that they didn’t have to look very far to find one.
I don’t know that FF had a specific hero as it were. DQ I suppose did in that they were at least named and had some story. Megaman is a good callout, though. We did have them in the computer gaming world in the more nebulous sense (like how I see FF). I guess I’m also thinking about how hero is used here; is it an existing character with a backstory (more like DQ or even megaman) or some character you create (FF again but also all the old SSI games on PC and many others).
I was thinking of fighting games but OP said
nowadays it seems that all games are made for teenagers and adults.and I kinda threw the early SF and MK games into that bucket.
My favorite modern video game hero is John Elden Ring.
I’m a bigger fan of Bill Gates’ son, Baldurs Gates the Third.
I think a lot of it has to do with how we game. Older generation games we tended to play an actual character. Then gaming shifted to be immersive, where you, the player, are the main character.
This.
Maybe that’s why I personally get irritated by games that aren’t hardcore RPGs (like New Vegas) where the character is an empty canvas with no personality of its own. I’m more used to being told “You’re this hero. You need to go to this place and defeat this villain. You like chillidog and freedom. Have fun!”
Sorta like Master Chief?
Sorta, yes. Although I see Master Chief more like a teen hero.
Halo 1’s release (2001) is closer to the first appearance of Mario (1981) than present day (2025). I would definitely call it a legacy IP.
Why would you do this.
Immortals Fenyx Rising?
I literally made an indie game to fill in this gap. It’s local coop and was designed for kids and parents to play together.
It’s called:
INK INSIDE (PC now, all consoles soon)
Brain David Gilbert voices the lead: Stick the stick figure. The whole cast are children’s drawings come to life living in a kids notebook that’s getting corrupted by a slow leak dripping water into their world and warping them into “sog” monsters.
It’s a game based on a lost pilot to a Nickelodeon show, and as such is both a cartoon and action RPG with a narrative that follows the first season of what you used to see on Saturday Morning.
It’s pretty much what you’re looking for imo, but since we’re indie, marketing has not been treating us well 😅
Reception from our intended younger audience has been glowing. Just harder to sell to kids as they don’t have money 😑
deleted by creator
Thank you so much! Very proud of what we’ve made, as we made it exactly for people like you! 🙂 Hope you enjoy and thanks for sharing the link!
Sweet! Now i have something to gift my nephew and play together!
Awesome! Thank you so much! We love the support! And I’m sure you’ll both get a kick out of it 😁
I thought the name of the game sounded familiar, so I ended up looking at the Steam page and I was right when Stumpt did a video on it, pretty sure. Definitely gonna have to at least check out the demo because it looks interesting enough.
Looked it up and they definitely did a video on it. Sk definitely gonna at least check out the demo. Hope sales pick up.
Thank you so much! 😁
We lucked out and got some love from some great streamers like Stumpt, Atlas Anarchy, Blazekin, and some others. All organically through promoting the game at places like PAX and LA Comicon.
But since a good amount of that attention was before we launched, it mostly translated to wishlists. (Which certainly still helps).
Regardless, BOTH wishlists and reviews do amazing for us - so if you enjoy the “First Page” demo, let us know! 🙂
And thanks again!
I think there are still plenty of protagonists aimed at kids. But since the industry has grown so much since we were kids, and because media is so fractured and niche these days, you and I just don’t play those games as adults.
I mean didn’t they just make a Minecraft movie, seems like Steve might count
No no no. You’re thinking of Seaseme Street. The count. He counts.
How many times can I make bad jokes? 1…2…3!!! Ah ah ah!
Minecraft isn’t exactly new though, and he’s barely even a character let alone a hero.
Du Bois from Disco Elysium?
Damn, you’re right. I forgot about him.
A role model for any child
for the modern child with liver cirrhosis
There’s a character in Clair Obscur that could definitely be classified as a hero. Moreso than most, actually.
It’s also partially because the gaming market has just gotten a lot more adults with us growing up. But I agree it’d be great to have more games directed to children that’s not from Nintendo.
I agree it’s bleak, but it’s just different. They have youtubers to rally behind. They’ll be fine.
Fine?! Have you seen those YouTubers?!
Bunch of greedy sociopaths trying to con people into buying drinks with manufactured scarcity. There’s something to look up to there.
Dude, That’s what worries me the most. Some of those guys are weirdos and really awful people.
Yuck.
A little off topic, but if you’re interested in recs for other games from that era, I highly recommend the early PS2 title Dark Cloud. It’s not exactly a mascot game like the ones you named, but it’s kinda close; the biggest comparison it had at the time of release was the Zelda series.
But it does have such amazing characters as thirst trap (age appropriate), thirst trap (age inappropriate), fat kid, your friendly neighborhood drug dealer, Actual Racismtm and you play as the jock theater kid.
Absolutely amazing game and I’ve been playing and replaying it since it came out, would recommend.
HAHAHA! 🤣 Those character descriptions are brilliant!
Holy fuckin shit actual racism is the best description i’ve ever heard. Where can i sub
Dark Cloud was my PS2 launch game I bought. I have fond memories, but hated the weapon durability mechanic. I gotta replay it to find these characters you’re talking about.
I remember loving Dark Cloud 2 and taking pictures of absolutely anything and everything trying to find recipes for powerful items.
Weapon durability is frustrating, but it ties into what I think is so awesome about Dark Cloud. That being that its RPG mechanics are based not around your character but around your weapons. With upgrading the weapons’ different stats, doing a status break, and building them up into completely new weapons. It’s really unique and I think it’s a shame that I’ve never seen it done elsewhere.
Damn, now I need to play some spheda
Wrong lol
I’ll check it out, Thanks for the recommendation! 😁
Super Earth is the only hero I need!
Um, the point of Helldivers is that we are the baddies.
I feel like we have more than enough death-cult machismo fascism in real life.
Why are heroes so important? Role models are one thing, but hero worship is an incredibly problematic concept especially at a young age. The idea of an unquestionably good person is a myth that lends itself to authoritarianism, and that should die a slow agonizing death. It’s a little much to get deep into stuff like that for a kids game, but I’m certainly not sad to see “blindly good” characters go - it’s why Bluey is nice for how imperfect the parents are, even if they’re still an unrealistic ideal with how much time and energy the parents have.
Ok, but my idea of “hero” is more based on the “role model” that you say. I totally agree with what you say that hero worship is one of the points that leads to the proliferation of fascism, it’s just that I get the impression that children now have no role models, at least not as we had back then, models for them, of their time. Not in video games at least, in series maybe there are, like in Bluey as you say.
(I was thinking of mentioning Paw Patrol, but that’s Copaganda and it’s a nono for me).
Gaming is an grownup hobby for adults. Under 18yo are less than a quarter of gammers.
This idea that games companies don’t understand their customers is a myth. They know who plays their games and more importantly who buys their games.
When games companies act in ways that disappoint, cheat, or exploit their customers, it’s not because they goofed (usually). It’s because they’re business assholes and customer satisfaction is subordinate to plenty of sinister things that are opaque to the gaming public.
They know who plays their games and more importantly who buys their games.
Is this not a bit of a “chicken and egg” argument though? Adults have pretty much always been the ones buying games, but they haven’t always been making them for adults. Even if kids are less than a quarter of all gamers, they’re still a sizeable chunk of the audience. Doesn’t really make sense to just ignore them.
yeah kids that do game play free to play games for the most part
Sony is trying to make Alloy from Horizon a mainstream titular Sony franchise character…poorly (LEGO horizon was the last straw)
They aren’t really heroes, just mascots
Like… Yeah. Heroic mascots.
