I'd like to start out this post by giving you guys my definition of a video game mascot character. To me, a mascot is a character whose developers hope will become a household name and a marketing machine. I also feel that a video game mascot's series must have his or her name in the title. I consider Spyro, Ratchet & Clank, and even Kirby to be mascots. That being said, I got a surprisingly good response to Volume 1, and there was even a request for a future entry. Well, Orcist, I listened. Tonight's Mascot That Failed is none other than...


Blinx

Blinx: The Time Sweeper was a "4-D" platformer released for the original Xbox in 2002, and spawned a sequel 2 years later. Blinx was developed by Artoon (makers of such other mascot games as Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi Topsy Turvy, and Pinobee). I'll admit, I have never even played a Blinx demo. Because of this fact, I don't consider myself qualified to talk about the quality of his games. Thankfully, though, this isn't Mascots That Sucked, it's Mascots That Failed.

What made Blinx unique is that he had the ability to stop time with his magic vacuum cleaner. What makes Blinx not so unique is that time manipulation has been used in countless games and Luigi used a magic vacuum cleaner a year before to kill ghosts, which everybody knows is a cooler task than regulating time flow.

So why did Blinx fail? Maybe it's because reviews of the first game showed it to be average at best. Maybe it's because Blinx was barely even present in the sequel. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because there hasn't been a halfway cool anthropomorphic cat since Felix. If Blinx were to make a comeback, which ain't gonna happen, I wouldn't touch it with a 6 inch pole (that's right, ladies, I'm average). I would take Steve Miller's advice to take the money and run, and I wouldn't even look this game in the face.

Your thoughts?