Sometimes, be it in video games or elsewhere, a hero needs one or two character flaws to make them more relatable. It can even give them room to grow and offer the viewer a moral lesson. Alternatively, it can be a way for developers to hop onto a bandwagon and turn an otherwise soft and fluffy character into a grim edge lord.

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However, if these edgy shifts aren’t done with enough care and attention, they can end up killing those characters off for good or at the very least damaging their popularity and reputation. Here are a few famous video game mascots who tried to be dark, and, more often than not, suffered for it.

8 Mario

Edgy Mascots- Mario Gameboy Advance SP advert

Nintendo’s premier plumber has stayed relatively bright. Aside from in parody skits and unofficial material, Mario himself has stayed as cheery as he’s ever been. That said, it does make the one instance where he officially got ‘hardcore’ rather funny. To promote the new tribal-designed Gameboy Advance SP, Nintendo put out print adverts of Mario bearing the same design that was found on the top of the handheld console tattooed on his upper arm.

It was weird seeing such a gnarly design on a cuddly character like Mario. How did he get it? Did he triple-jump past a queue of bikers to reach the tattoo parlor first? When did he get it removed in time for Super Mario Odyssey? Being just the one advert, it didn’t hurt Mario’s career at all. If anything, it made him all the more endearing.

7 Crash Bandicoot

Edgy Mascots Crash Bandicoot Mind Over Mutant

After 14 games, Universal felt Crash Bandicoot needed a new look to be more up-to-date. Thus, when Crash of the Titans came out in 2007, the whole cast got redesigned. Some characters, like main villain Dr. Neo Cortex and Crash’s enemy-turned-friend Crunch, looked familiar enough. Others, like Aku Aku and Uka Uka, got significantly switched up. Then there was Crash himself.

He was still a dopey, silent bandicoot (bar some yelps and grunts), but he now had a lankier, more human build, denim jorts with a studded belt, and tribal tattoos on BOTH hands! The European PS2 version even came with transfers, so kids could get their own mock tattoos like their favorite marsupial. Sadly, Titans’ dull gameplay and levels couldn’t make the redesigns last.

6 Sonic the Hedgehog

Edgy Mascots Sonic Adventure 2 Gerald Robotnik Maria

Sonic? Surely his rival Shadow is the edgy one. He’s the one who got a game full of guns, mild swearing (“Where’s that damn fourth Chaos Emerald?!”), and heavy, nonsensical plot points. Well, yes. But Shadow was designed from scratch to be Moody Sonic. Even when the games lightened up, he was still there, scowling in the background.

Except, while Sonic himself stayed cool, his games got grim to keep his teenage audience playing. Sonic Adventure 2 had a young girl get shot to death (off-screen), her grandfather executed by firing squad (also off-screen), and the Biolizard - his eyeless, limbless abomination - coming back for revenge (on-screen, unfortunately). 2006’s infamous Sonic the Hedgehog had Sonic die and, as a result, cause the Apocalypse. No wonder Sonic went back to spinning into cartoon robots after his dark age.

5 Jak

Edgy Mascots Jak Dark Jak

After leaving Crash Bandicoot behind with Universal, Naughty Dog made two new mascots for the PS2 generation. Jak & Daxter was a fun adventure about a guy saving the world from two evil sages in order to turn his friend back into a person instead of an Ottsel (part otter, part weasel). Doing so required Jak to mess around with a mysterious energy source called Eco, and its negative equivalent Dark Eco. Guess what happens in Jak II?

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On top of the usual platforming, Jak could shoot his foes with a variety of guns. Once they fell, they would charge Jak up with Dark Eco, giving him the ability to turn into Dark Jak; a super-strong, superfast version of regular Jak. Unlike most of the other edgy mascot titles, Jak II was a pretty good game and well-regarded by most players, though it could arguably be said that it aged worse than the lighter Ratchet & Clank games made by Naughty Dog’s old rivals, Insomniac Games.

4 The Prince

Edgy Mascots Prince of Persia Warrior Within

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time wasn’t exactly family-friendly. The titular Prince had to slice up his foes, yet there was always something that lightened the mood to some degree. Maybe it was the bright colors, the swashbuckling tone, or how each death prompted the Prince to say “Hold on, that’s not what happened” before the player opted to continue or quit. For its sequel, Warrior Within, producer Yannis Mallat said they wanted the Prince to be “a grown-up character,” with the development team opting for a mood that was “closer to survival horror.”

As a result, the Prince got a darker look, darker clothes, and a grimmer adventure with a nu-metal soundtrack. The game still had great level design and gameplay, but the Prince’s grown-up look was mocked for making him look more generic and brooding. Luckily, the third game, The Two Thrones, found a happier balance between light and dark. Maybe both sequels will get a fresh coat of paint someday, although Ubisoft needs to finish the remake of the Sands of Time first.

3 Nathan ‘Rad’ Spencer

Edgy Mascots Nathan Rad Spencer Bionic Commando

The original Bionic Commando games were rather light-hearted affairs, with some classic, retro heroes in Super Joe and Rad Spencer. Sure, the NES game had a pretty nasty death for Hitler, but this was censored for its Western release. By 2009, Capcom decided to wake the franchise up with a reboot developed by Swedish developers Grin.

Nathan ‘Rad’ Spencer was now an angry, brooding man with dreadlocks, doing missions for Joseph ‘Super Joe’ Gibson as penance for a crime he didn’t commit. His angry bickering didn’t endear players. Neither did the gameplay thanks to the restrictive level design. The story’s attempts at drama, like turning Spencer’s deceased wife into his Bionic Arm, were equally laughable. Still, Capcom liked the redesign enough to put Spencer in the Marvel Vs series, but not into a new game of his own.

2 Nikki & Fargus

Edgy Mascots Fargus Nikki Pandemonium 2 advert

Before they were given the Crash Bandicoot series, developers Toys for Bob made Pandemonium for the Playstation. It was basically a classic platform game, with coins to collect and enemies to hop on, but with those newfangled 3D graphics. The gameplay has aged pretty poorly by today’s standards with its clunky levels and useless 2nd player character. Nonetheless, it had a nice, light, fantasy air that made it charming enough to get a sequel.

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Only Toys for Bob didn’t work on it. The project was given to Crystal Dynamics. While the 2.5D style levels and gameplay were the same, the lead characters were made more psychedelic and adult. The still-useless Fargus went from a lively jester to a mock Joker with his crazy expressions, while the pixie-cut tomboy Nikki became a busty redhead who appeared in nearly as many sexualized adverts as Lara Croft. All this trend-chasing led the franchise off into a pit where it’s stayed ever since.

1 Bomberman

Edgy Mascots Bomberman Act Zero

For a series that’s all about blowing things to bits, Hudsonsoft’s Bomberman is rather cutesy. The title character is an adorable little cartoon man who chucks cartoon bombs at cartoon enemies, occasionally from the back of a cartoon kangaroo. It led the emperor of explosives to fame throughout the 80s and 90s, but, in the mid-2000s, Hudsonsoft wanted to appeal to a new, more Western audience. As a result, the franchise was rebooted with Bomberman: Act Zero for the Xbox 360.

Classic Bomberman's chibi look gave way to a series of moody-looking cyborgs that looked like something out of Rise of the Robots. The colorful stages were turned into a dull, futuristic blend of black bricks and gray walls. Even worse, the gameplay was made more tedious and repetitive. No fancy power-ups, funny cutscenes, or bouncy kangaroos. No wonder people want to avoid this blip in the Bomber’s run.

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