There's a character in Clair Obscur that could definitely be classified as a hero. Moreso than most, actually.
this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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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 Racism^tm^ 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.
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I'll check it out, Thanks for the recommendation! 😁
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).
...
I mean, the last Crash game came out in 2020. Ratchet was 2021, Spyro 2018, Rayman all the way back in 2013, but... you know you can still buy it. Sonic was 2023, just like Mario. Zelda starred in a game in 2024.
And of course Astrobot was last year's GOTY.
Consider the possibility that you aren't as aware of the characters that will stick with this generation because you're not playing the games they are.
Although it's entirely possible you are. Kids in my life are quite obsessed with Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Pokemon in extremely familiar ways. I semi-successfuly introduced Professor Layton to some of them, but I may have jumped the gun on that one, as they found it a bit too hard still.
I am referring to new heroes for this generation, not to the ones that have been around for more than 20 or 30 years...
Yeah but... the only reason you had new heroes then is that videogames didn't exist before.
We also got games with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny. It wasn't depressing to my parents that I was watching Road Runner cartoons from the 50s. They were new to me.
There ARE new games, too. I mentioned Astrobot, you mentioned Minecraft. Just for as long as I've been alive kids have gotten into Pokemon Ben10, Splatoon, a bunch of Lego games, Animal Crossing, Spongebob...
But why would it be invalid for them to discover Sonic and Mario and Crash and Spyro in the 2020s? It's new to them. They can be nostalgic about the same stuff you and I are, just like I am nostalgic about Daffy Duck or Star Trek even if they were technically before my time. Spider-Man is as popular with kids now as it was when I found out about it, and the whole thing was 20-30 years old when I got around to it.
OK, but are we all going to be nostalgic for the same three things for the next few decades?
Ben 10 was new to me because it really was, I still remember watching the first episode when it came out, as well as Adventure Time, Regular Show, Clarence, etc. But back to the games.... There was also a time when Sly, Rayman, Jak and so on were completely and utterly new, not in perception but in fact, just as Sonic and Mario were decades before them.
Don't young people deserve to have their own heroes for whom they alone feel nostalgia? Do we have to lend our nostalgia to them?
Yeah, but... they do.
It's just it's always going to be a mix of new and old things. Just like you got into Batman from the 1930s and Mario from the 80s they'll be into Spider-Man from the 60s, Minecraft from the 10s and Astrobot from the 20s.
That's how culture works. Some things stick around, others phase out, new ones come in.
I guess you got a point there...
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My little sibling would fight tooth and nail to play as Rayman in Rayman Legends. While the gaming audience has become a lot older in recent(ish) years, you can still find something very much kid-friendly AND memorable.
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 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
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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.
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.
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I thought doomguy was me. The silent protagonist is kind of the new hero.
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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.
Are you saying Steve isn't a videogame hero?
Steve is a blank canvas, even more devoid of autonomy than, say, Link. Even though Link never speaks or expresses ideas of his own, one can get an idea of what he's like based on certain clues given in the games, and we know at the very least that he's a classic hero who sacrifices himself for the common good.
Steve is a pure avatar, if he has his own name just because even objects have one. Steve is everything the player wants him to be, hero, explorer, slaver, exploiter... and there will never be a conflict; contrary to Link, who cannot stop being a hero.
My point is that, in my opinion, a hero must have his own character and autonomy, however minimal it may be, so that one can see in them an ideal to which to point to (Link's bravery, Sonic's love of freedom, etc.).
Link also has a personality via other media. (Which, I suppose Steve now has, too, what with the movie and other story based games that aren't the main game itself)
"Excuuuuuuuse me, Princess!"
One of my favorite things in TOTK is how several NPCs talk about Link's activities and life from between BOTW and TOTK and they very much make it seem like the one in the games has the same kind of personality as the one from the TV series.
Just to add to this, for a very long time, he wasn't even called Steve - he was called "Steve?" for the precise reason that they're not really a character at all.
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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.
Dude, That's what worries me the most. Some of those guys are weirdos and really awful people.
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.
Yuck.