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Why mobile gaming needs a mascot

What's required of the first mobile pin-up?

by Rob Hearn

There's a tiger in my kitchen. There's also a juvenile Labrador in my bathroom, and a hirsute elderly gentleman lying in my freezer, dead as doornails, waiting to be eaten.

Or, to put it another way: There's a box of Frosties, an Andrex bogroll and a box of Birdseye Fish Fingers in my house.

Tony the Tiger is a good deal more exciting than corn, of course, while the Andrex puppy makes a more tasteful impression than the ill-fated paper he scampishly unravels. Most companies therefore employ mascots to embody the products they are trying to sell.

And no product better lends itself to mascots than games. Unlike Tony the Tiger, Nintendo's Mario isn't just on the front cover, enticing you in like some Disney Store greeter. He's with you all the way. In fact, once the game is over, he shakes your hand and barrels off to appear in cartoons, films, and a raft of other games, performing an invaluable role as company spokesperson.

Mario

Every console game platform, past and present, has used mascots. Sega had Sonic and Sony has Crash Bandicoot, to name but two. Computers have traditionally been less eager to embrace mascots than consoles, but Dizzy, Guybrush Threepwood, and Gordon Freeman are all nevertheless substantial characters, entrenched in growing mythologies.

What about on mobile? Well, there have been a few stabs at creating a character worthy of mascot status, but none of them has ever really made an impact. Instead, we've made do with secondhand console mascots like Sonic, Crash, Spyro, Bombjack, and so on. Why?

We need a hero

Real Arcade's Wilhelm Taht believes financial pressure is largely to blame. "Placing safe bets with movie brands or otherwise known consumer brands is for many the only rational choice," he says.

It's not just about the money, though, as Real's Harri Granholm points out. "Character design is a whole different art from game design," he says. "Current mobile studios perhaps have not invested enough in these skills."

These problems arise from mobile's relatively lowly status as a game platform. Once it attains a wider recognition, character development should start to receive the kind of time and resources necessary to invest in decent home-grown ideas and characters.

Could it even be possible that mobile is even better suited to the creation and cultivation of unique characters? Globalfun's Bertil Krumnack thinks so. "Absolutely," he says, "Just compare the amount of console users and the amount of mobile phone users and you will see the main advantage – market reach."

Characters on most platforms suffer the double disadvantage of being inaccessible not only to people who don't own a console whatsoever, but also to people who don't own a specific console. If you don't have a Nintendo machine, for example, forget Zelda.

But everybody has a phone, and handset makers don't yet monopolise licences.

What's more, as Bertil Krumnack points out, "the mobile is a much more personal device, making the potential connection between a character and the person playing, if done right, stronger and more interactive." Imagine the stranglehold Mario could have had if he were in everybody's pockets all of the time!

So what is it that would make a mobile character memorable? Both Krumnack and Granholm are agreed on this one: the same things that make characters memorable on any platform. Granholm explains that a character should be "likeable, memorable, and have enough depth to be able to grow and change with new games."

An upstanding character

While there are some universals, a good mascot should suit its platform. Mario is a fitting embodiment of Nintendo's innocent principles, while Sonic the Hedgehog, with his aggressive spikes and furious pace, epitomised Sega's vigorous attempt to dethrone the plump plumber.

Monkey Island's Guybrush Threepwood, meanwhile, was always more at home on the home computer, and the bespectacled physics beefcake Gordon Freeman (of Half-life fame) could only have been a posterboy for the PC. Console gamers just wouldn't have taken to him the same way.

So what might a mobile mascot be like, then? Common sense tells us that characters representative of casual play will work best. Colourful, simplistic sprites that won't ask us to read anything while we've got one eye on the train's arrival board.

Mobile titles like Robin Hood, Billy the Kid 2 and the Darkest Fear series deserve honourable mention for creating more literate, three-dimensional characters. These are the games that you might take time out of your schedule to play, in the ideal projection of mobile gaming's future.

While none are outright favourites, there are a few characters already in contention to become mobile's Mario, and we've listed them below. If you're wondering, by the way, why Crazy Frog isn't here, he appears in a PlayStation 2 title and therefore, mercifully, doesn't count.

FIVE POTENTIAL MOBILE MASCOTS

Eon the Dragon The sweet but vacuous Eon makes a spirited attempt at mascot status. The episodes in which he appears take place in a colourful, internally consistent world and the games smartly bestride the platform and puzzle genres. Each game is an inoffensive by-the-numbers effort, however, and Eon's fatal flaw lies in its lack of inspiration. Everything's there but the gameplay.
Snake Having started life as a squat line on a monochrome screen, Snake has evolved into a fat-headed 3D beast. He may not say much, but snake is possibly the single most recognisable mobile game character. Could it be that one day he'll shed yet another skin and emerge as a fully-rounded mascot for the mobile platform?
Playman One rule of thumb to adopt when creating a character is never to give it too much, well, character. While attitude seems all very well, the player is the one in charge, and he or she shouldn't feel as though his own attitude is being badgered by an overly assertive mascot. Playman is an object lesson in judicious blandness. True to his moniker, he's a physically unremarkable man who happens to play a variety of sports, from soccer to beach volleyball. As long as he keeps up the standard of his performance, his potential to live a long life is high.
Baldwin the Camel Placed in the role of cannonball, Baldwin doesn't have much say over what happens to him in Circus Extreme, but as he ragdolls haplessly around the screen he achieves what most characters never can – he makes you giggle. Also, I'd happily pay for string-limbed toy to toss around the office. So, potentially: Ker-ching!
Balloon Headed Boy A cartoon platformer, in Balloon Headed Boy you play the titular character, a child whose features are fixed in a benign asymmetric scrawl. Instead of jumping, you inflate and deflate his head, eating flowers to replenish his helium reserves. It's an unashamedly modern internet Flash-inspired title, underpinned by genuine quality. Just as Mario was the cheerfully simple poster boy for a cheerfully simple console, Balloon Headed Boy, more than any other character, may just be the mascot for the surreal, Flash-savvy generation of mobile gamers in whose hands the fate of unique mobile IP rests.