Sonic Needs Help
When you think of Sega, you think of Sonic. When you think of Nintendo you think of Mario. And Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Samus Aran, Link, Zelda, Banjo, Luigi, Wario, Toad, Bowser, and countless others. Nintendo holds so much of the marketing clout in the industry because they can consistently think of new franchise characters to develop games for, and then exploit their popularity. Sega needs to learn to do that. I have a sneaking suspicion that if Sega had as good in marketing as Nintendo, the Dreamcast would still be alive and kicking today. Perhaps the Saturn would just be heaving it’s dying breath right now.
Sonic is Sega. He is their franchise. But, take away Sonic. What characters does Sega really have to exploit beyond him. I’ll cycle through the pros and cons of each character in Sega’s realm, and why their franchise line-up just doesn’t have the name recognition of Nintendo’s.
*Tails: Tails is one of the two runner-ups to Sonic in the name recognition department. He’s been with him since the Genesis days. Children under the age of seven adore him. Anyone over the age of seven wants to have him bludgeoned and have his head hanging from their bedpost. The main reason for this? His annoying, pestering voice-over in Sonic Adventure.
*Knuckles: Knuckles is the other runner-up in this department. The problem is that little kids don’t like him as much as Tails because he is not as cute. While the older people like him better, like Tails, he does not have both age group’s appeal. Plus he has that whole double agent thing going, and a lot of people do not like that.
*Samba de Amigo: What the hell is that monkey’s name is from this game? Actually, I think that the monkey in the sombrero is one of Sega’s more marketable characters. His only problem is that he has only been in one game. I don’t even consider him a franchise character.
*Ulala: Ulala, the tantalizing news anchor for Space Channel Five, is good for the older group. She is especially a good heroine for the teenage boys that really need girlfriends desperately. However, anyone under the age of eleven in this case doesn’t really understand the aura of Ulala, and that is cutting out a huge portion of the market. Also, many women may not like Ulala, because she exemplifies women.
*Anyone else from Sonic Adventure: Everyone else in Sonic Adventure had too small of bit parts to make a big impression on anybody. The only character that I really see a future for is Amy Rose, and even then, she will only be a marketable character when marketed as Sonic’s girlfriend.
*Vyse: Characters from RPGs have never really been that marketable. Vyse also does not have the under age eleven appeal, but at least he has wide appeal for most people over that age. People under age eleven really want a cute Jigglypuff-esque character, and Vyse just doesn’t fit with that.
*Virtua Cop/House of the Dead: Parents will hate a light gun shooting game mascot, even if it is a policeman. The games just don’t have any marketability. Plus, does anyone really know who the protagonist of House of the Dead is?
*Virtua Fighter: Fighting game characters have not proven to be marketable either, except in the case of the Street Fighter characters. Sadly, the characters in VVirtua Fighter are not mainstays like those from Street Fighter are, and the characters from Street Fighter seem so much more well thought out.
*Gum, Tab, Beat, and the Gang: Jet Grind Radio characters have appeal mainly between the ages of 13 and 25. While that is the core video game market, that is not the core licensing market, and that would not really work out in Sega’s favor. And no one wants their kids doing graffiti.
*Gina, BD Joe, Axel, and Gus: See above. Everything that I said before holds true, except in this case, no one wants their kid to end up a cab driver.
As you can see, Sega really does not have any strong characters besides Sonic. I know this is a Sega site, but I’m a realist and I’m going to tell it like it is. We’ll just be stuck with the Franco American Sonic with Meatballs take on Spaghetti O’s for a while.
-Matt91486
