I remember the first time I heard that Mario was more recognizable to children than Jesus. It was a massive revelation. A figure who spent all day eating mushrooms and jumping on turtles was more familiar to kids than someone considered by some of their parents to be the savior of mankind. It made sense, Mario was fun and simple. Jesus on the other hand made a lot of adults yell at each other.
A great mascot is not born overnight. He’s forged through years of amazing games, high sales, and brand recognition. While Nintendo and Sega were very clear in the early 90’s who their warriors were, these days it’s not so simple. Take Sony for example, who could arguably have fifteen mascots to choose from. From Kratos to Nathan Drake, it’s hard to pick which character Playstation would save in a fire. Microsoft on the other hand could easily go with Master Chief, but then again it doesn’t seem to want to brand itself exclusively with one single mascot either.
Not exactly what George A.Romero had in mind.
That brings us to Android, a gaming platform home to many amazing franchises. Angry Birds combined cute cuddly characters with amazing physics. Plants VS Zombies brought tower defence to the mainstream. Asphalt 8 demonstrated that console grade racing was possible on a mobile platform. Unfortunately all these amazing titles are available on iOS as well.
Another key element to a good mascot is exclusivity. Say what you will about Nintendo’s relentless recycling, but it has built a foundation of nostalgia that keeps the company afloat. Sega’s whoring of Sonic the Hedgehog has not fared well for the blue bomber. The first time I ever played Sonic 2 on a Gamecube I felt dirty, and needed immediately to break out my old Genesis to purge the sin of selling out.
While there is the signature green Android mascot, he has yet to have an official game outing worthy of his brand (‘Replica Island’ doesn’t count because it’s not officially licensed). The little green alien would make for a great protagonist, yet Google seems relegated to keeping him as a logo and nothing more.
One of the biggest obstacles in exclusivity is that Google does not create proprietary games for the Android platform. Sony owns multiple gaming studios that create huge arsenals of exclusives for PS4. The majority of mobile games are created by independent developers who have no reason not to release their games on multiple platforms in order to maximize profits.
Sure it’s a ‘Killer App’…. of other people’s ‘Killer App’s’.
While there is a handful of Android exclusive games, none are what the industry calls “killer apps”. It’s extremely difficult to find games on the platform that can’t also be found on Apple devices. The biggest exclusive the platform has is the OnLive gaming service, allowing any Android user with a good connection to play high end PC games through their device. Or if you’re into old school gaming, the emulation scene on Android is ripe compared to iOS.
Like many great things in the Android scene, the community needs to come together to forge a killer game. One relegated exclusively to Android devices. We need a fat plumber of our own, and hell we’ll even take a Luigi too.
Who do you think is Android’s best exclusive gaming mascot? Sound off in the comments below!
