Why I cannot really see Pac-Man, Bomberman nor many other old school gaming mascots outside of their original context?

[Ikagura Ikagura]

For some reasons when I see 3D platformers or any other genres featuring those characters I always feel like they don't fit, as if they were a different game where we put them in place of the actual protagonist.

Compared to Mario who is a very versatile character I always prefer the others in their original series with their intended gameplay. I hardly see a Pac Man RPG being a thing because he's a simplistic character. I think games like the SNES point n click also made me convinced even further that he should stick to ghost chasing in mazes.

 

[Graw]

Bomberman's been in a ton of different kinds of games puzzle games, rpgs, fighting games, party games, 3d action-adventure games

 

[Advil Lavs]

That's probably the case because people associate those characters only with their original games, making deviation from the origins a bit difficult. You can't really make a great 3D pacman game without changing a lot of the core design. Maybe you can make a good 3D bomberman game but it would be pure chaos with all the pits you'll be creating.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Bomberman's been in a ton of different kinds of games puzzle games, RPGs, fighting games, party games, 3d action-adventure games.

How was the overall quality for them?

That's probably the case because people associate those characters only with their original games, making deviation from the origins a bit difficult. You can't really make a great 3D Pac-Man game without changing a lot of the core design. Maybe you can make a good 3D bomberman game but it would be pure chaos with all the pits you'll be creating.

Either the company cannot make nice concepts with them or because some of the characters are naturally better at being versatile.

 

[Graw]

How was the overall quality for them?

As far as I know probably hit or miss.

List of Bomberman video games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you look at the spinoffs you can see how many different kinds of games bomberman's been in.

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

If you couldn't see Bomberman in B-daman that means Hasbro weere successful with their localised re-launch. They obfuscated the connection in the hopes of not having B-daman be seen as a spinoff.
Heck, the B-daman armour appears in the opening cutscene of Bomberman Online (Dreamcast)

But thats less of a criticism of Bomberman pop culture presence and more on the Dreamcasts lack of success.

As for Megaman?
Between The X series, Megaman Legends, NT Warrior & The Protomen I see his story & origins as one of the most versatile in gaming media.
Although that might just be because he's an Astroboy without the short shorts.

I rarely is ever think of the Original Rockman games outside of the context of his later, more developed media.

The rest?

Pac-man recently got a shot in the arm of pure edginess thanks to Shadow Labyrinth

Where before I would have agreed that Pac-man could never exist beyond the idea he's a simple pixel character. That has changed. Lovecraftian horror Pac-man works where is past adaptations simply do not, due to how simple his visual design in.

Since Shadow Labyrinth, I think a lot of previously "retro" characters could transition easily to other mediums, it just requires a creative spark and a desire to actually make something truly different with the IP.