Back in the '80s and '90s mascots were powerful system sellers. Kids would flock to console with the most recognisable and coolest lead character, and companies like Nintendo and Sega invested countless amounts of cash in creating and refining new heroes to appeal to the masses.
These days though, they're sadly a dying breed — Mario is pretty much the only platform-specific mascot still standing, while his former rival Sonic has jumped to non-Sega systems after his maker became a third-party publisher. Mario aside, it would appear that games like Call of Duty and Halo shift hardware units in today's market, rather than cute and cuddly protagonists.
It's important to not forget these once-cherished characters, however. Our friends over at The Sega Channel have posted a video which celebrates the forgotten Sega "child heroes" of yesteryear: Teddy Boy, Kung Fu Kid and Kid Chameleon — the latter being of particular interest as it was designed and co-developed by none other than Mark Cerny, the lead architect behind both the Sony PlayStation 4 and PS Vita consoles.
Who are your favourite forgotten mascots and child-like heroes? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 35
I had an Amiga back in the day, and there were endless attempts by companies to create a mascot - Zool, Superfrog, James Pond - but none of them ever quite took off...
And before that a Spectrum, I guess that would be a fight between Miner Willy and Monty Mole?
And incidentally, Teddy Boy was awesome...
Boogerman was the best.
SEGA you can remind us better by posting some of these games in the wii u vc eshop!!!
What's the deal? Get moving & take my money!!!!! I would LOVE to play teddy boy and countless others on my gamepad!!
@antonvaltaz Rick Dangerous was another I liked but never took off!
My favourite was Clyde Radcliffe from Creatures! on the C64
Kid Chameleon was a good game
He wasn't on Sega, but I was a huge Commander Keen fan back in the day!
I'm sad on what gaming has become.
I recently quit PC gaming for this reason.

I've stopped buying EA games a long time ago. And I stopped supporting Ubisoft just last month because they're becoming greedy. This is also the reason I came back to my gaming roots and support Nintendo because they are still doing their games right, or DLCs for that matter. I was about to buy a PS4 last year but went Nintendo instead. And I am happy with my choice.
@joey302 Thats a real good point. Why do I get the feeling everyone including Nintendo don't really give a crap about the VC anymore. They haven't even announced that N64 or GC will be coming to it, and thats a no brainer to me.
Kid Niki is the first that comes to my mind. I played both the arcade and nes versions as a kid. The theme song alone is haunting me still.
Man, I loved Psycho Fox on my old Master System! I got stoked when I saw him on the beginning of the video, bummer he wasnt really featured.
@JakeShapiro : Commander Keen is still one of my favourite game series of all time. iD are mind numbingly stupid for sitting on this IP for over 2 decades without doing something substantial with it. I had sent them an e-mail a long while ago requesting the likes of Doom 64 and Commander Keen for the Wii and 3DS eShops but I had never heard back from them.
@FragRed They could at least upgrade the existing ones, that are on the Wii Virtual Console, for the Wii-U like Nintendo/Konami/Capcom have done. Plus Japan is getting Turbografx games now.
Dizzy, Miner Willy, Hen-House Harry, Monty Mole.
Feeling very old right about now.
@unrandomsam Hahaha. I love Boogerman.
Vectorman, Alex Kidd, and Toe Jam and Earl.
Ristar, Dynamite Headdy, Tinhead. Actually playing through Dynamite Headdy at the moment.
I had to instantly click this thread, I LOVED Kid Chameleon as a kid. I remember liking quite a few mascots when I was very young. The most notable ones I recall: Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Link, Donkey Kong, Vector Man, Bubsy, Bomberman, Pacman, and I think that wraps up the most notable ones that I played anyways.
I was a huge kid chameleon fan when I was a kid, I probably preferred it to sonic! But then I never really thought Sega quite did mascots like Nintendo did and found them to be better at games like this which occur once a lifetime for most developers, but Sega is still busy kicking it out in the arcades with their genius.
@Fandabidozi Ah, a man of taste!
There will never be a decade of gaming as great, unique and special as the 1990`s.
While they don't quite reach the levels of Sonic or Mario (or literally any other major Nintendo character) I think the likes of Master Chief and Kratos most definitely qualify as mascots. Not to mention Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Sackboy, and probably some more from Sony in particular.
That said, the styles are so strikingly different that you'd be hard-pressed to imagine an image of Mario, Chief, and Kratos invoking the same feelings that an image of Mario and Sonic did back in the day.
Although he wasn't technically a SEGA mascot he appeared on other systems & that was Sparkster from Rocket Knight, Konami tried recently to resurrect the franchise on PS3 & X360 as a digital title but I'd love to see the original Mega Drive & SNES titles on the VC at some point.
Sega also tried to lift up Alex Kid before Sonic was invented.
@outburst I've always been with Nintendo because it seems that they're the only video game company that makes video games and not interactive movies or put all of their emphasis with online co-op play, not to mention that Nintendo's games are hours of fun (unlike the dime a dozen cell phone games).
I had kid chameleon as a kid. I still have it. It's an awesome game and even though the lead character was sterotypical he was cool as hell and so was his game. Long live the 3kids of sega!!! Try them all out! SEGA!!
Back in Asia we disliked most of the American games back then. My first game on Mega Drive was Doraemon, a very Japanese game. I had the Mega Drive version and the Game Gear version of the same game. Both were good.
Love this! I always hoped Billy Hatcher could be a mascot. Miss the original Pac Man.
@FragRed Yep! I'm baffled with the fact that SEGA is supporting wii u with exclusive retail games like sonic but they have yet to support the eshop! I don't get it at all!! It's no secret that SEGA is sitting on a ton of classics that wii u owners would be downloading!!! SEGA? You reading this?? I will continue to hope it will happen
Always good to see Commander Keen love. I always enjoyed the old Apogee games like Duke Nukem (2D) and Crystal Caverns too. DOS had some gems, it would be really cool to see a remake collection of some of those titles.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the first video game I ever owned. Kid Chameleon was probably my favourite Mega Drive game.
Like so many others have said, it's tragic to see how things have changed in regards to mascots.
Of those, I've only really played Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Good game, that. Never had a Master System; I played it on PlayStation Plus.
And yeah, not that he was a "kid" star, but I adored Vectorman. Didn't play those games until Sonic Gems Collection, but it's good fun, nonetheless.
see more child stars athttp://duckhits.com/9254/8-former-child-stars-stuck-with-their-kid-faces
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