8 Failed Video Game Mascot Characters

8. Blinx

Remember Blinx? On paper he actually sounded pretty neat - an anthropomorphic cat who could use a special vacuum cleaner to manipulate time, because why the hell not?

Believe it or not, Blinx was positioned by Microsoft as the intended mascot of the Xbox, amid the belief that he could be the brand's answer to Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, and so on.

But Blinx: The Time Sweeper released to middling reviews, with Blinx himself simply failing to strike a chord with players. 

This prompted Microsoft to ultimately concede that the public had spoken, and Xbox's de facto mascot would actually be Halo's instantly iconic Master Chief.

Surprisingly, Microsoft did greenlight a much-forgotten Blinx sequel, which seemed to confirm its title character's doomed status by making him not even playable in his own game.

Blinx 2 was received with even greater indifference than its predecessor and basically marked the end of the franchise, as was confirmed when Microsoft let the Blinx trademark lapse at the end of 2014.