The Ups and Downs of Mascot Horror

Why was manlybadasshero so pressed about johns tweet? I hope he’s chilled out since then because that was needlessly aggressive over something that cane through since everybody uses the term mascot horror now

"It isn't horror"
Was the initial intent behind the concept to scare or make you feel fight or flight you? It's horror. Case closed

My Friendly Neighborhood isn't that unique in the way that it's a shooter with childish enemies. I remember a Wolfenstein/Doom-clone from my childhood that had yellow smileys and such as enemies. Other than that, it really was a Wolfenstein/Doom-clone.

I get the idea of a mascot horror. It's a mascot, like for a sport team, it's large, absurd and eye-catching. and hopefully not racially insensitive. In my not very good definition, I think a mascot horror is something where they want the villain to get mass-produced plushes from China and kids are just randomly carrying them around town. (I'm talking about you Huggy-Wuggy) I see lots of random shops selling Huggy-wuggys in various colors and kids carrying them around in the middle of June. The Mascot is slightly comical, at least when it's removed from its original media.
Villains like Jason or Freddy are just scary. If you encountered one of them alone in the alley at night, it would be more scary than funny. But if you saw a giant Huggy-Wuggy in an alley at night, it'd be more ridiculous. It could still evoke fear once it starts walking towards you and shows its teeth. The villains have generally been the focal point of these. Pikachu's a mascot, Huggy-Wuggy's a mascot, but I wouldn't describe Jason or Freddy as mascots. We need another word, they're the villainous-figure-of-their-franchise.

Manly callout post 💀💀 lmao

Love this, thanks for your work Sean... I mean John

Poppy playtime costumes were all over a Halloween store I went to yesterday-_-

Did he actually coin mascot horror

I feel considering the growling trend of bad ones for the matter as say like Banban and Hello Neighbor, I'm a glad a thing like Amanda The Adventurer exists, never ran it's lore over, never tried to be scary a way just being itself (and when I say try, I mean TRY as in the abundance of jump scares and then it having less of a punch so it's not scary), and it quite better developed than as a game jam contestant initially which I never have trusted yet being beyond what is presented as is anyway, but I'm somehow glad they didn't jump on what makes a bad mascot horror a way. The fact that it is actually good and a surprise for me is such a miracle.

You forgot hello neighbor

Garten of Banban was so basic that I has just assumed it was some beginner dev's learning project.

Baldi is one of my favorite horror games. It's unique gameplay and characters really make the game feel iconic. The secret endings with Null make you want to figure out more and more about the story and what happened to Null, eventually leading up to the tense boss fight. Not to mention how the boss theme is indescribable. Using the most random game sounds and turning it into a beautiful masterpiece. While the climb to beating the game can be challenging and RNG based, I just think the game as a whole is just so different, but in a good way.

I still think you should at least play poppy playtime chapter 2 once

My Friendly Neighborhood is honestly a good defiance of Mascot Horror, I think.

Congrats on getting the ball rolling on “Mascot Horror”, at least.

the meatly storage world would be funny if the meatly wasn't an absolute clown of a human being, what he did at kindlybeast (or rather what he didn't do) is bad. "oh we took mike mood's name out of the credits" cool, now what about the severences for all the people you laid off with no warning

the originator of the mascot horror genre is more accepted to be the abandoned by disney creepypasta, as it kicked off a whole slew of extremely shitty mascot horror stories trying to copy it even though it too was and is an extremely shitty mascot horror story. yes it's first game appearance in force was fnaf but five nights at treasure island actually pays homage to the first mascot horror thing

regarding the comedy/horror bit, im a fan of the idea that silent hill 4 is actually a comedy game. the burping nurses all but confirm it for me.
but yeah, comedy and horror are two sides of the same coin. a lot of horror scenarios are deeply ridiculous, and a lot of comedy could be pretty horrible if presented under a different context, so it makes sense that the two work well together. it's something that i personally appreciate a lot, and is why i keep coming back to movies like evil dead, re-animator and brain dead.

Even when fnaf was at it’s best, i never liked mascot horror

I like tattletale since they actually stick to the setting. I want a horror game where the setting changes every 3 minutes. There’s no reason for an animation studio to have a warehouse large enough to have an entire civil war go down in the basement. I shouldn’t have a kindergarten so large it can fit some big dumb snail in a hallway

it is time for "Mascot Horror" genre to grow up

I agree with you on the most part. But I was the biggest batim enthusiast ever. I think I can tell you what stood out from first hand experience and say I don’t entirely agree with the criticism, but I totally see where you’re coming from.
Bendy when started out, definitely was mostly highlighted over its graphics at the time, which did slowly improve. But I think even if the characters aren’t medal deserving top-notch masterpieces , they have more of a personality than many mascot horror game characters. I also think boris/Tom having a less fleshed out personality kind of works when you look at the lore, he is a copy of many bourses that were taken apart the first time, he is simply a body with no real character and that’s the way it’s supposed to be! I honestly loved corrupt Alice’s character especially in batdr, Alison could've been better but I don’t hate her and think she serves a purpose to move the story along. Again bendy is way more fleshed out than most mascot horror characters, again with batdr, you get to see he has an actual personality which is a lot less obvious in the original. The whole combat thing can be a tad annoying but I honestly think it just adds diversity into gameplay, boss battles (eclectically the batim ones) are cool and the monsters are well designed. The puzzles aren’t BAD for a game at the prise it is as it adds gameplay time. And honestly I do think you like gun games, but the puzzles/quests aren’t a bad thing and they’re not badly designed, it depends what style of gameplay you like.
Anyways I have a bunch of other stuff I could say so if anyone has any questions js ask

The full version of five nights at treasure island is AMAZING

Great analysis!

Surprised you skipped Hello Neighbor as I feel as it was the biggest gateway to why these points fall in Mascot Horror Games then and sort now, especially that latter half of this insistence to gain big as quickly as possible as Fnaf

Every controversy end with people talking about “death threats”. That’s so nonspecific. Did someone actually do something or did a 4 year old leave a comment saying “I wanna kill u >:(((“

John I'm sorry but you were way too harsh on Bendy. For starters I can describe Tom to you without appearance, Tom can be described as a silent protector who is loyal to his friends. As for the combat, like I understand how you feel about BATIM's combat but BATDR did improve the combat you can use the Flow ability to put you in a position during combat, it doesn't feel janky, and you can back up and avoid the attacks. As for the part where you mentioned the fetch quests, BATIM Chapter 3 is the only part of the game where it felt like a fetch quest and it wasn't that tedious obviously, as for BATDR the part where have to collect the pictures were the only real part of the game that was fetch quest honestly. When you compared Bendy and BioShock, you put stuff such as the reveal of Rapture in BioShock 1 and the city built on broken dreams in BATDR because apparently BioShock actually invented cities so therefore Bendy is a BioShock rip-off for also having one and if you though that was stupid, you called Audrey in BATDR standing up inspiration from BioShock 2 because you also stand up in that game. How do you not feel embarrassed because of how stupid these points are? I really feel like the “tries to be BioShock” thing is a ridiculous. The only thing that is similar to BioShock are some of the mechanics and the design of parts of the game and the environment. Artists take inspiration from different artists and different media ALL THE TIME, and Meatly is no different. He’s a big fan of Bioshock and it just so happens that BATDR draws some inspiration there because HE made it. That’s also just what happens when a creator creates something- bits and pieces of the things they love trickle in and become something new. I feel like Bendy is way too original to be receiving hate for having just these few similarities. Also why do you think BATDR is a kids game!? I can understand you if you were talking about Ink Machine but why BATDR, what kids game do you play where the main character's legs get ripped off, showing npcs that were hung, and the main villain gets grinded alive by a large machine with his body parts spewing across the floor!? As for the merchandise the only current BATDR merchandise available is just clothes, acrylic standees, mugs, and pens. There's no plushies or anything that kids would want. Also one more thing, if you asked me sell Bendy to you in one sentence I'd say you try to survive and fight ink monsters/corrupt cartoon characters in an 1930's world made out of paper and ink.

I really love bendy so it’s super interesting to see a different perspective on it. Honestly it lacks in many aspects but I think atmosphere alone is enough to make me really enjoy it. I’m just simple minded, but I have to agree that the combat is really poor. But I think what makes bendy really stand out to me personally is the musical element along with its incredible visual story telling especially in chapter 2 with sammy following you throughout the entire chapter.

Throwing SALT

Okay, I agree that Garten of banban is quite a lousy game, with bad graphics and all, which is where I think you are correct. However, in Garten of Banban, there is lore, and the story of the game and the flow are clearly mapped out in all the chapters. This is the only reason I like Garten of Banban because I think the game devs did a good job in the lore and story-making. I also think the Euphoric Brothers (Game devs) should work on making the game files, you know, more...simpler? My computer right now isn't strong and can't handle all the colours on the map, therefore resulting in lag. And last but not least, I think the game devs should work on making their emails much more worth reading.

i think ur quite right and wrong at same time

It is so ironic how Meatly tried to skewer Bon Bon but ended up just outing himself cause Bendy is just as bad lol.

People don't understand that when it comes to horror and any genre of media, there will always be people who try to make a quick buck. Ban Ban is bad, and honestly, it will not hold up in years to come. I feel people will turn to that with My Friendly Neighborhood coming out this month. I've played the demo, and even that surprised me. I had more fun playing that than Ban Ban. I honestly think the issue is how people look at mascot horror and decide to do the bare minimum.

I hate streamers that popularised this shite

Why is this chad was under my radar 😩

Now this intrigues me, not only to the decline of "Mascot Horror" but the idea that horror can be divided into sub genres in the general aspect of horror. In turn this makes me question about new horror sub genre that doesn't involve Mascot but maybe a coin term for Environment Horror? I'll have to think about it.

the mascot horror subgenre makes me remember one of the games from the third dread x collection: "sato wonderland" by nate berens. you're an engineer who is prompting a theme park's walk-around robot mascot to figure out why it kidnapped a child

I honestly agree with all these points John.

Also Banban is really not good but people are really crossing the line. That's honestly scary

I'm so excited for My Friendly Neighborhood

Another thing with Baldi's Basics is that it was made in that style with intention

the good thing about poppy, is that its high quality, and the animations, and the graphics itself! PJPT does the graphics really good!

Might just be nostalgia talking, but i miss the days of creepypasta horror.

I'm scared of the green thing from garten banban

Never heard of mascot horror 😅

Omg i forgot about tattletale lmfao

Lame ManlyBadassHero take