Master Kazuya posted... I've worked at extracurricular programs for 3 years from grades K-8 (mostly 2-5) and 2 summers of camp. And not the same cohort, across 2 separate work places and the summer kids are about 50% a different set than the school year kids and the grades are separated to include maximum capacity (i.e. 50 K-1 kids and 50 2-5 kids, not just 20 kids from K-5). Sometimes I do video game projects with the kids, like dioramas, coloring sheets, create-your-own character kinda stuff, cut-out 3d stuff, 'active gaming' clubs (which is just an excuse for us to play Wii games lol), and so on. They know I like games.
By far the most popular things from my experience are Pokemon, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox in that order. We had to ban Pokemon cards since kids were crying about regretting trades. They love slither.io on the library computers lol. Other kids that aren't into gaming generally like at least one free mobile game, a lot of which I've never heard of. Some kids know about older games through their parents; like one kid has a SNES mini and PS1 mini so he talks with me about Megaman X, Street Fighter, Tekken, and FF7 and we shoot hadokens at each other. Another kid has a bunch of Switch games and he really likes the Wii U so he talks to me about New Super Mario Bros U a lot and always asks me if I've played the games he has and describes specific levels in NSMBU in detail. Some kids know about Smash Bros and the characters in it. Some of the older kids play Fortnite and Overwatch with their friends. Being able to do the Fortnite dances is some version of street cred or something. Practically all of them can floss (some of them not well), a lot of them do the hype fist thing whatever it's called, some of them can do orange justice, a lot of the boys playing sports do the L on the forehead thing while kicking their legs out (whatever that annoying gesture is called).
In my experience, Sonic is like, barely mentioned, maybe as much as Donkey Kong or the like. The Switch has brought all the Nintendo IPs up to the forefront so those are talked about since the system is so hot. So Mario, Zelda, DK, Splatoon are some of the things that come up.
Maybe without anecdotes, I'd give Sonic a little more leeway, however I'd still stick to him not being that far up from other mascots. But with anecdotes it just removes any doubt I had. Sonic is not nearly the powerhouse for the generations ahead of us as he was for us. I'd agree he's bigger than other mascots people are hyping like Cloud, but I think that spot deserves someone else than Sonic. If your cousins like Sonic, good on them and please show them the good Sonic games lol.
Tyranthraxus posted... Mount Rushmore isn't just the 4 most popular presidents. While Sonic the hedgehog is very much a common household name it's not really the only thing that should factor in.
The 4 presidents were selected at the time because they were connected to the most important events in American History.
If you make it perfectly analogous to video games the 4 people are essentially pong paddle (george washington), pac-man (thomas jefferson), Mario (abraham lincoln), and Cloud Strife (teddy roosevelt)
Oh, trust me, I'm fine if your argument is that Sonic's legacy doesn't compare to others. But saying nobody knows who Sonic is is just flat-out wrong.
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