This world needs a new Leisure Suit Larry.

I literally made an indie game to fill in this gap. It's local coop and was designed for kids and parents to play together.

It's called:

INK INSIDE (PC now, all consoles soon)

Brain David Gilbert voices the lead: Stick the stick figure. The whole cast are children's drawings come to life living in a kids notebook that's getting corrupted by a slow leak dripping water into their world and warping them into "sog" monsters.

It's a game based on a lost pilot to a Nickelodeon show, and as such is both a cartoon and action RPG with a narrative that follows the first season of what you used to see on Saturday Morning.

It's pretty much what you're looking for imo, but since we're indie, marketing has not been treating us well 😅

Reception from our intended younger audience has been glowing. Just harder to sell to kids as they don't have money 😑

I think a lot of it has to do with how we game. Older generation games we tended to play an actual character. Then gaming shifted to be immersive, where you, the player, are the main character.

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.

My favorite modern video game hero is John Elden Ring.

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.

Gaming is an grownup hobby for adults. Under 18yo are less than a quarter of gammers.

This idea that games companies don't understand their customers is a myth. They know who plays their games and more importantly who buys their games.

When games companies act in ways that disappoint, cheat, or exploit their customers, it's not because they goofed (usually). It's because they're business assholes and customer satisfaction is subordinate to plenty of sinister things that are opaque to the gaming public.

Du Bois from Disco Elysium?

I think Astrobot is an example of what you're talking about.

Also really good observation about FNAF. I've noticed the same. What's interesting is that the longer the franchise go the more they push Purple Guy/Afton as the main antagonist and even make Freddy into a hero at times. It's like this big unexpected success and they need to make it more acceptable but sort of painted themselves into a corner over time lol.

There's a character in Clair Obscur that could definitely be classified as a hero. Moreso than most, actually.

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.

Sony is trying to make Alloy from Horizon a mainstream titular Sony franchise character....poorly (LEGO horizon was the last straw)

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.

...

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.

Super Earth is the only hero I need!