8 Failed Video Game Mascot Characters
4. Kao the Kangaroo
Nobody could blame you for assuming that 2022's Kao the Kangaroo was a wholly new stab at the mascot platformer, but Kao actually dates all the way back to 2000, when the original game launched on PC, Dreamcast, and Game Boy Advance.
While the first game received mixed reviews, Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 was given a wider rollout to PS2, Xbox, and GameCube in 2005, and despite again missing the mark, a third entry - Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano - hit the very same year.
The utter lack of interest in the third game, which most critics didn't even bother reviewing, seemingly put the kibosh on Kao for good - a fairly uninteresting mascot who nevertheless squeezed out a trilogy of games simply because they were produced at such a low price point.
Tate Multimedia then dusted him off for 2022's reboot, which while not bad simply failed to sell the character to many beyond those already nostalgic for the earlier titles.
He's hardly an atrocity of a character, but far from the icon his publisher would clearly love him to be.