There have been many popular video game characters towards kids, but sometimes just appealing to the kids doesn't seem enough or the same kids the characters tried to appeal to have just gotten older. Either way, a trend that's starting to get noticeable is taking the same characters that were supposed to be for kids and suddenly change them for an older demographic. A perfect example would be Conker, who went from being just another cute platforming character to something straight out of South Park. But does appealing to an older demographic actually help the game at all in either gameplay or sales? This week I'll be taking a look at the characters who've grown up to see if going beyond the E rating paid off for them.
Mega Man X
After six Mega Man games, Capcom decided to take a new step in the series by making it have darker overtones in story and violence. It was still basically the same game, but with a couple new features and a more anime-esque feel.
RESULTS (based on average ratio from Gamerankings.com):
Mega Man Anniversary Collection: 82.7% for PS2
Mega Man X Collection (containing 1 through 6): 76.7% for GC
Mega Man X7 and X8: 58% and 69.1% respectively
Sales: There was eight versions of the game and an RPG. What do you think?
Conclusion: Mega Man X simply went the same way Mega Man eventually did, where the later sequels would just get worse. X6 was just a rush job that turned off many Mega Man X fans, and X7 didn't help bring them back. As of now, Capcom is going from sequel-a-thon to remake-a-thon with Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter. Expect more remakes of later Mega Man X games (and well anything with Mega Man in the title) in the following years.
Conker
Just an innocent squirrel racing along with Diddy Kong suddenly developed an alcohol problem and acted as if he was a character on South Park. The game was so outrageous that the commercials were only shown on late night cable television and the gameplay footage wasn't allowed to be shown. You thought GTA was over the top? Conker's game had singing poop.
RESULTS:
Conker's GBC Game Rating: 55.0%
Conker's "Bad Fur Day" Rating: 89.0%
Conker's "Live and Reloaded" Rating: 78.0%
Sales: Due to lack of good advertising and Nintendo wanting nothing to do with this game, Bad Fur Day did not sold well. The Xbox version sold even worse. The GBC game was just another lame action game.
Conclusion: Despite it being a good game, the lack of support from Nintendo and coming out when the N64 would be dead just a few months later would pretty much kill it. It came back for the Xbox, but it was censored even worse despite promises of it being uncut and sold worse then the original, further making Microsoft buying out Rare look like a huge waste of money. Maybe Conker was better off as a cutesy platformer.
Jak
The first game had Jak looking like an innocent platformer, but then in the sequels starting turning into a gun wielding badass that actually got to talk this time. Whether this was done just to cash in on the GTA3 craze and get away from being just another platformer (almost like what Conker did) or was planned out from the beginning is a mystery, but for some reason, Daxter still remained annoying.
RESULTS:
Jak 1 Rating: 90.1%
Jak 2 Rating: 87.8%
Jak 3 Rating: 85%
Sales: All games eventually reached "Greatest Hits" status for the Playstation 2, so it's safe to say it's always been selling well.
Conclusion: Gameplay wise, Jak seems to be less impressive the more mature he tries to be. But since the sales of the games were barely affected, Jak's change seems to be not that big a deal. Should more Jak games come along, expect a similar or even more mature look for him.
Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow already had a dark overtone to him, but this time Sega decided to give him a gun and have him shoot up everything. And saying "damn" a whole lot as well. A lot of the gameplay was changed that left plenty of Sonic fans pissed. But did it do well anyways?
RESULTS:
Shadow's Rating: 50.8% for Xbox, the less "damned" version.
Sales: Despite it being awful according the critics, loyal Sonic fans still bought this game (or maybe just the stupid ones).
Conclusion: Sega sucks, but Sonic fanboys are strong in numbers.
Bomberman
How did Bomberman go from having a TV-like head to looking like a Master Chief ripoff? Sure he looked like on the original NES cover, but that doesn't mean you have to go back to looking like that (just ask Mega Man)! While the look is terrible, that doesn't mean the game is too...right?
RESULTS:
Old Bomberman's Best Game: Super Bomberman (SNES) with 90%
Old Bomberman's Worst Game: Bomberman for N-Gage with 55.7%
Bomberman Act Zero: 40% from Xbox Magazine
Conclusion: Hudson Soft, you bastards. You damn bastards. You've killed Bomberman. Ever since I saw Solid Snake in Smash Bros. Brawl, I was for sure that Bomberman would be another third-party character to join. But now that you've turned him into a Master Chief ripoff with a horrible game to boot, I don't want to think about him going anywhere near Smash Bros.
PREDICTIONS
Here are some characters/series I think should be given or probably will get the mature makeover.
Spyro – Spyro has been doing nothing except rehashing the same terrible game over and over. Spyro is already a dragon, so all you have to do is make him look more grown up and have him become more bloodthirsty and torturous to his victims.
Pokemon – Yu-Gi-Oh took away a lot of Pokemon's popularity, and part of the reason I believe is because Yu-Gi-Oh appeals to adults thanks to the dark overtone of the monsters and the violent anime (Japanese version, not English dub). I bet if Pokemon started coughing up more blood and stopped looking cute 2/3 of the time you'd see it's popularity come back. Or maybe allow us to actually get all 386+ monsters in one or two games and not travel to freaking Pokemon conventions you greedy bastards.
Star Fox – The characters are getting so much older, so why not make them more towards adults? It's already got the military theme to work on. Add in some Metal Gear style stealth missions to make the walking crap tolerable, offer a more variety of vehicles, go back to the "Choose-your-own" path style of Star Fox 64 and you might have something here.
Are there any kiddie characters you'd like to see grow up? Was there any characters following the trend that I've missed? Drop me a line and I'll be next week with another trend in the gaming industry.
