Alright, Mario or Lara Croft? Who will it be?

[Joe]

Joystiq's running an article where Ian Livingstone says Lara Croft is more famous than Mario [http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/16/fuzzy-logic-lara-croft-mario/]. He says that while Mario is bigger in the gamer niche, Lara's popularity is spread more liberally over pop culture at large.

Joystiq seems to think Mario's the bigger star, here, but I'm inclined to disagree. Lots of people do know Mario, but an entire generation behind mine (the kids not yet into the 18-24 demographic) grew up on Tomb Raider, not Super Mario Bros. That means their parents know who Lara Croft is, too, just like mine still know the Mario theme by heart.

Let's also throw out there that Lara is a beautiful woman, and she's portrayed in movies by one of the most beautiful women in the world, which is going to better anchor her in people's minds than Mario's fake Italian accent and pot belly.

Your thoughts?

 

[Bongo Bill]

Mario got into the Hollyood Wax Museum, and it had nothing to do with any movies (in fact we should just ignore the Super Mario Bros movie altogether). I'd say that Mario is bigger as a symbol of games - anyone who's ever played Tomb Raider knows who Mario is. Croft is more likely to come up in a mainstream discussion of video games, but that's because the mainstream is more likely to be talking about how they're controversial and juvenile rather than how fun and happy they are.

Show a person a picture of Mario and they'll immediately think "Mario - video game." Show a person a picture of Lara Croft and they'll think something along the lines of "Angelina Jolie - Lara Crof - Tomb Raider - video game."

I'm tempted to say that I think it's Mario simply because the alternative is too horrible to comprehend, but what would really be too horrible to comprehend is if, say, Master Chief is bigger than either of them. At least Lara Croft is interesting.

 

[Goofonian]

I'm gonna have to agree with the mario side here I reckon.

My household came to know mario at the N64 stage of things and since we never had a PS1 lara croft only made a brief appearance on my PC which was ignored by the rest of the household. Moving past that stage, the tomb raider games have been progressively getting worse and worse. A fact that I'm sure you could also claim about mario, except that the standard of the mario games is generally much higher and they get a lot more press. Moving into the next generation of consoles it seems to me that people are getting a little tired of the tomb raider franchise and will play the games if they are good, but don't get excited about them and in fact a LOT of people completely ignore them. Mario Galaxy on the other hand is drawing all sorts of excitement from boatloads of people.

I think my final thought here would be that because of the success of the movies, the Tomb Raider brand is probably more famous than the Super Mario Bros. brand, but Mario as the character himself is much more widely known. Ask someone outside of the gaming arena what the main characters name from the tomb raider movies is and they are likely to give you blank looks or mumble something about Angelina.

 

[Yadam Siegfried]

My vote goes to Mario as well. Mario has been around for 25 years, he is Nintendo's mascot, and has appeared in over 140 games (Source: Mario Wiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario]). Lara has appeared in 7 games and 2 movies since 1996... (Source: Lara Wiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft])

I have played several of the Tomb Raider games, and to be honest they were not that memorable. On the other hand, I still drag out the NES from time to time and play SMB, and I also still enjoy playing Mario Kart on the N64.

 

[Swenglish]

Mario. It's the name which you directly (forgive my spelling) accociate with everything that has to do with videogames.

 

[MrE]

I'd have to say Mario, even tho Lara had two movies it can't compete with the fact that Mario has so much to do with nintendo, also Tomb Raider is dying out except for the anniversery edition but Mario is still running strong so yeah I'd say Mario is the bigger star.

 

[werepossum]

Duh! Lara is a hot chick; Mario is a short, fat Italian guy. No offense intended to short, fat Italian guys, but it's no contest.

 

[es-]

I'm going to throw in my lot with the Tomb Raider side. I completely agree that Mario's considered a legend in the gaming niche, but Lara is more well known among those who don't game regularly, perhaps mainly due to the movies. Since the gaming population is a subset of the general population itself, by logic the popularity of Lara Croft trumps Mario in the general public arena.

Heck, I'm in the 18-24 demographic and I grew up on the Tomb Raider series. I've probably played Mario a grand total of two times, and I suppose I just didn't find jumping on mushrooms fun, I guess.

 

[Spinwhiz]

It's easy to test. Put out a Mario game and a Tomb Raider game out at the same time, on the same system and see which one does better. If you want an easier one, go to a mall and ask random people at random ages who they think is more popular. Something tells me Mario will win hands down. The Tomb Raider window was too brief compared to Mario.

 

[richasr]

Of course Mario is much more well known to gamers, he is well over 20 years old now too which you could say can account for several generations. I personally preferred Sonic when he was around (I'm 20 years old), but there was no doubt that Mario was and is the more dominant character.

On the other hand though, it makes sense to say Lara Croft is the more popular character due to the fact it has broken into Hollywood, two films where Lara was played by Angelina Jolie, a very high profile actress, this has most probably brought a bigger audience into gaming and made more people around the world, who do not play games, recognise the character.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

I dunno-- I'm probably horribly biased in my decision, but I can't imagine a world without Mario. The very idea that you could mention him and have someone say "...who?" just doesn't make sense to me.

So, although Lara has her little movies and whatnot, Mario is an icon.

 

[RabbitDynamite]

Why is it all other media have this huge inferiority complex relative to the movie monster? Any time hollywood grunts something out, every other method of entertainment rushes about frantically trying to catch some offal from the jaws of the mighty lion*. Video games, with the massive proliferation of rubbish lazy movie tie-ins are probably worst off, but look at your local bookshelf? See the Northern Lights there by any goddamn chance? Because they made a freaking movie. Phillip Pullman can produce awesome, engaging fantasy books for all ages, and do pretty well. But a decade later it suddenly becomes big news and everyone wants to stock the damn things because they did a half-assed rip off which happens to be on celluoid. When "Watchmen" gets bent over and thoroughly violated by movie men**, they will actually sell one of the the most engaging things I've ever read with the tag "now a major motion picture"? And since they do it all the time, it must because it makes people buy it! People buy books based on what some studio exec has decided to pillage for profit?!

See, this is mindboggling to me. Mario is the grand old statesman of video games. For 22 years, if you didn't play Mario games, your kid did, or your friends did. He's in some of the best games of all time. I've heard it said that Mario is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse,and while I find that dubious, I know for sure who me, my brother and my wee nephew love more. But apparently he's second best to the protaganist of what in my opinion is a highly mediocre series and in pretty much everyone's opinion has more extreme downs than ups. Why? Because she featured in a crappy, forgotten by the end of the week action movie played by some over endowed airhead*** who's best known for providing paparazzi fodder alongside Brad Pitt. And what's worse is they might be right. Sorry for the rant, ladies and gents, but you have just witnessed a man's faith in humanity take a major blow.

* For the sake of truth, I stole this line from a review of a biography of James Braddock released at the same time as "Cinderella Man".
**I don't believe every book to movie conversion is a vapid waste of time, even if my best counter-example, Shawshank Redemption, is a 100ish page story turned 2 hour movie. It's just most do, and since I found "V for Vendetta" surprisingly good, law of averages states that Mr. Alan Moore's works are due for another "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" style buggering.
***This comment on Angelina Joline's intelligence is unfair and based on the presumption that she chose to act in "Alexander" after reading the script.

 

[Lance Icarus]

That's a stupid idea. Mario is definitely much more recognizable. Lara Croft is just a hot chick that people probably remember more for Angelina Jolie than for being a game character. Mario is definitely more popular, it just isn't always the plumber himself. I mean, how many 1UP and Game Over t-shirts have you seen compared to ANYTHING Lara Croft related?

 

[jaisimar_chelsea]

I'm tempted to say that I think it's Mario simply because the alternative is too horrible to comprehend, but what would really be too horrible to comprehend is if, say, Master Chief is bigger than either of them. At least Lara Croft is interesting.

ya right master chief, woop di doo

 

[Pwnage_Incarnate]

I'm in that demographic which "grew up on tomb raider" and I've played 2 tomb raider games. And got to the second level on both of them. And then went back to playing Mario.

 

[Lance Icarus]

Are there really people who grew up on Tomb Raider? Man, you guys really need to go out and play some better games before it's too late.

 

[PurpleRain]

Lara's got boobs. Mario's an ugly italian plumber... your pick.

 

[QuantumPope]

Lara's got boobs. Mario's an ugly italian plumber... your pick.

Yeah but how many games or times have you played "an ugly Italian plumber" compared to "got boobs?"

Also, which have you had more fun with is a better question.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

I don't know. Honestly even someone who doesn't play games that often knows the name Mario or any Mario game out there, as there are a ton more than Tomb Raider. I would contend with the fact that Lara is more known due to pop culture, although it depends on the generation I suppose.