Follow TV Tropes

Following

Wolverine Publicity / Video Games

Go To

Wolverine Publicity in Video Games.


  • Final Fantasy:
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Mickey Mouse is featured on the cover of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days alongside the main characters, but he only actually shows up for one scene and as a Secret Character in multiplayer mode. Presumably he was on the cover to remind folks that Kingdom Hearts is still a Disney property, as the Disney elements are downplayed in favor of focusing on Organization XIII, and series mainstays Donald and Goofy are entirely absent outside said multiplayer mode.
    • Similarly, Mickey is front and center in much of the official artwork for Kingdom Hearts χ, including all the app icons for Unchained. His actual role inside the game is minor, being featured on a few medals and making a cameo appearance during a filler subplot.
    • These examples seem to stem from the fact that Mickey is depicted on every cover in the series, starting with Kingdom Hearts II, in most cases he has a large, or at the very least significant, role, unlike the two exceptions listed.
  • Christopher Walken appears on the box cover and on the serigraphy of every single CD of Black Dahlia. He has a three minute bit part in the game.
  • Mario, his supporting cast, and to a lesser extent Link has a habit of making cameos in games on Nintendo systems. The Mario gang has made appearances in even third party games for Nintendo systems, sometimes even as playable characters. The Gamecube release of Soulcalibur II was the best selling version of that game almost entirely because Link was a character in it. This has even been lampshaded in some of the Mario RPGs.
  • Mega Man:
  • Always expect Ryu and Chun-Li to pop up in Capcom's crossover games. Excluding the Street Fighter-less Cross Edge (which only features characters from Darkstalkers representing the Capcom side), they're the only characters with a perfect attendance record, and Ken would had got it too if it wasn't for him being one of Ryu's transformations in Marvel vs. Capcom, an entirely different character with the same name in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and the developers deciding Akuma was enough in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Ryu and Chun-Li were even made playable in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (as the Crimson Hawk Ranger and the Blazing Phoenix Ranger, respectively), which also led to them getting action figures in Hasbro’s Lightning Collection toyline.
    • Predictably, the trope namer has appeared in nearly all of Capcom's Marvel-licensed fighting games. He even has two versions of himself in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
    • Spider-Man, Captain America and the Hulk are all tied for second place when it comes to Marvel characters with the most appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. The only entries not to feature them were X-Men: Children of the Atom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, which didn't include Marvel characters who weren't tied to the X-Men franchise.
    • Zangief is also present in nearly all of the crossover fighting games; his absentee counts are SVC Chaos (where he's replaced by Hugo from Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact), Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (where he's replaced by Alex from Street Fighter III), Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (both of which replace him with Haggar from Final Fight) as the Capcom side's grappler.
    • Morrigan is next to them. Since the first Marvel vs. Capcom she was always present, except in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos where she's replaced by Demitri as the Darkstalkers character. And it's still played straight, since said game wasn't developed by Capcom, but by SNK.
      • To put it in perspective, she's the sole Darkstalker in FOUR games: Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. She also was added to the Sega Dreamcast version of Gunbird 2. Given that she's essentially a Pirate Who Doesn't Do Anything (succubi are supposed to use their charms to corrupt good men's souls, not get modelling gigs), that's pretty impressive.
      • The cover to the first NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection for the Nintendo Switch prominently features Morrigan and Ryu (due to their appearance in SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium) despite them not actually being SNK characters. Vol 2's cover is even less subtle about this, not only bringing back Ryu, but also adding Chun-Li, Cammy and several Mega Man characters, all of whom are displayed very prominently at the front of the group.
    • Capcom intends to give Frank West the same treatment.
    • On the topic of Street Fighter: When Akuma first appeared in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, he was in every piece of promotional material for the game. The home conversions of the game prominently featured him on the cover art. Lastly, Akuma appears in the intro of the game opposite Ryu. In spite all of this promotion, the conditions to fight Akuma are so exceedingly difficult to attain due to the game's difficulty that it's safe to say that most people have never seen him in the arcade version. In addition, the code to play as that character requires such precise timing that the average player probably wouldn't get it right after the first 30 tries. After all of this, though, Akuma has been guaranteed an appearance in almost everything Street Fighter-related since.
    • Oddly enough, when it came to the initial release of SFA3, Cody ended up taking this spot. Despite not being a 'main' character story-wise or even the most high-profile of the new additions, he ended up a major presence, if not the focus, of most promotional art for the game, including one of him vs. Ryu, with the rest of the cast in the background.
  • On the subject of SNK, there are a few characters you can almost always expect to show up in any crossover. Among the most notable are Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Kim Kaphwan and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury, Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from The King of Fighters, Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier, Ryo Sakazaki, Yuri Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from Art of Fighting and to a lesser extent Haohmaru and Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown. In the actual King of Fighters series, Rugal Bernstein emerged as the most popular villain, and has gone on to appear in multiple entries despite canonically having died way back in KOF '95. Mai is so popular that, in addition to showing up in all of the crossovers with Capcom and the all-female fighting games like SNK Gals Fighters and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, she's a playable Guest Fighter in Dead or Alive 5 and Dead or Alive 6.
  • While she was already a fan favorite before this, Bridget's popularity absolutely exploded after she was added to Guilty Gear -STRIVE- as a DLC character. She's now the most heavily merchandised character in the franchise, with companies producing numerous figures, statues, and even replicas of her signature yo-yo. She's become so omnipresent in marketing for the series that new fans are often shocked to learn she's a fairly minor character within the actual storyline.
  • In the MMOFPS PlanetSide there are three factions to play as, and the blue/yellow clad freedom fighters, the New Conglomerate, are the poster boys. They're on watermarks, the game's loading screens (giving it to the other two factions), all the promotional material and trailers. Even the lead developer of the game shamelessly promotes them as his favorite faction, so it comes as no surprise that they're everywhere.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • Despite the multitude of characters showing up in the games, Mario, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu are usually featured front and center. In the first game, Link tended to be in the background behind Kirby. Since then Samus, Pit, Fox, an Inkling or another Super Mario Bros. character like Bowser or Wario might push Kirby into the background, but from the second game onward, Mario, Link, and Pikachu will always have the spotlight.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl prominently featured Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog on its back cover. While they are indeed playable characters, both have to be unlocked, and Sonic doesn't appear in the game's story mode until the final boss battle.
    • Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, to the point that he gets twice as much screen time as Sonic and Pac-Man in the game's intro.
    • Out of all of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's newcomers, the Inklings received a large amount of focus in promo material for the game. The teaser that announced the game even featured a Commercial Switcheroo, by making it seem as if it were a trailer for something Splatoon-centric, only for it to end up being a Smash teaser.
    • Ultimate also boasts the most amount of third-party characters seen in any Smash title, by virtue of bringing back every fighter the series has ever had. Out of all of them, Solid Snake, Ryu, and Cloud Strife have been featured heavily in the advertising for the game. The former's appearance in the game's trailer from E3 2018 was marked by the "EVERYONE IS HERE" text, confirming that everyone who was a fighter in Smash was returning in this game, while the latter two received prominent placing on the game's boxart, and all three have prominent position in the "Everyone is Here" banner.
  • Marisa Kirisame of Touhou Project is the second playable character, having been in the games since the second on the PC-98. To date (up to Black Market of Bulletphilia ~ 100th Black Market), her head is the icon for all ZUN-made Touhou mainline games in the Windows domain — as well as a side game where she doesn't even appear in, Shoot The Bullet. Not even Reimu (the lead) is capable of boasting that she's appeared in every game in one form or another. Marisa is not, however, the icon for the official fighting games, Double Spoiler, Great Fairy Wars, Impossible Spell Card, Violet Detector, & Sunken Fossil World. She is, however, fightable in all of those games, and Reimu isn't in Fairy Wars outside an ending appearance. A notable and recent aversion to this trend, however, is 100th Black Market itself, with Marisa landing as the sole playable character for that spinoff as well as being the icon for the game, with it finally making Marisa the protagonist with the most playable appearances in the Windows era. As doujinshi are a major part of Touhou, it also happens to all the fangames Marisa takes a starring role in, more than Reimu by far.
  • Super Robot Wars:
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Dragon Ball fighting games' roster can vary, but the core rosters generally consists of the main Z Fighters (Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, and Future Trunks), the main arc villains of Z (Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu), and Android 18, who is arguably the most iconic female in the series. You'll be hard pressed to find a game with just those characters, and even harder pressed to find one missing at least one of them.
    • The Superboss of Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans, none other than "Legendary" Super Saiyan Broly, despite the game covering until the saga before Super Saiyans appear on the plot, about 15 volumes and 150 episodes before the point Broly's movie could happen. Proving why he belongs in this trope, they used him on ads for the game. Broly appeared in a total of 17 games, including a "What If?" Super Saiyan 3 form in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast.
    • Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu was heavily promoted as the first game in the US to include Broly, which is probably Taiketsu's only claim to fame.
    • Cooler gets a lot of advertising, and has appeared in numerous video games.
    • Revenge of King Piccolo only has King Piccolo himself show up for the last few stages. Most of the game is spent covering the Red Ribbon arc. The Japanese name counts too, as it refers the Tournament Arc that gets even less stages than King Piccolo's arc. At least the Red Ribbon is prominently featured on the cover.
    • Even though he is the franchise's main character, the sheer overexposure of Goku Dragon Ball Fighter Z quickly became kind of infamous among fans. As of 2019, no less than five different versions of the character are present in the game: A base version of Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Blue Goku, Dragon Ball GT Goku and Ultra Instinct Goku. That's not even counting Goku Blacknote  and Fused Zamasu note , or the fused versions of the character like Vegito and Gogeta. And you thought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 having two playable versions of Wolverine was excessive...
    • And Dragon Ball FighterZ wasn't even the first Dragon Ball fighting game to have Goku publicity; Final Bout on Playstation 1 had GT Adult Goku, GT Adult Super Saiyan Goku, GT Kid Goku, GT Kid Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Z era Goku AND Super Saiyan 4 Goku for a total of 6 playable Goku's! And if one includes Vegetto, that makes 7.
  • The AC Nine Ball from Armored Core has only shown up in four out of thirteen games, yet is the series' unofficial mascot and every AC fan worth their salt will instantly recognize him.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog is subjected to this a lot given his large popularity. Sonic & Tails generally get top billing on merchandise (with Knuckles & Amy added sometimes as well), but Shadow gets significant focus in games and adaptations that feature him, even when he isn't a major character. For example, Shadow was highly publicised for Sonic X even though he only got a handful of episodes, almost some of which were dedicated to him and that's excluding the adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Sub-Zero is the only character who is present and playable in every fighting game in the series, and is present in every spin-off except for Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. He was also the main character in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and he has made cameos in other Midway titles such as MLB Slugfest.
    • For a while, even he was upstaged by Goro, who created an amazing amount of buzz for a game he wasn't even in. No, he was not in Mortal Kombat II. Any version. At all. No, that didn't prevent a kajillion hours of speculation about whether he was alive, where he could be, what exactly happened to him after the original Mortal Kombat, whether Shao Kahn knew about him, etc. When he did finally return, in Mortal Kombat 4, he was given a superstar's welcome-back and placed front and center on the cover art, despite the fact that he had virtually no story to speak of and no connection to Shinnok's scheme whatsoever.
    • Scorpion. It doesn't hurt that he's not only Ed Boon's favorite character, but a fan-favorite for many. In fact, his omission in Mortal Kombat 3 led to some fan backlash that caused Midway to release a Champion Edition revamp of the game titled Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that added Scorpion and Kitana (plus all their palette swaps) back to the roster. He and Sub-Zero have become the series' Spotlight-Stealing Squad, usually receiving top-billing or spots on the covers despite initially having minimal ties to the overall plot. The only exception was in Mortal Kombat: Deception, where the Elder Gods made Scorpion into their Champion to deal with the threat of Onaga. It has gone beyond top-billing: Scorpion's the logo mascot for Netherrealm Studios. He even got to appear in Injustice: Gods Among Us as a Guest Fighter.
    • Unsurprisingly, Scorpion and Sub-Zero were the ones chosen to debut Mortal Kombat X to the world.
  • Silent Hill:
    • Pyramid Head, after his popularity in Silent Hill 2, was put in the movie. He appears in two scenes. He serves no real purpose other than fanservice and to be scary as hell. It makes even less sense when you remember that he was originally the physical manifestation of SH2 protagonist James' guilt, so he has no real reason to be there.
    • Appeared again in Homecoming, said movie's sequel, and had an expy in Origins with The Butcher. Again with no real reason other than fanservice.
  • Thrall and the Horde (or at the very least the Orcish race) in modern Warcraft media. A giant statue of a Orc riding his wolf into battle was even erected right at the headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment because of how popular they are.
  • If your knowledge of Team Fortress 2 is small to barely existent, chances are the only class you know from this game is the Heavy.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The adult incarnations of Link have appeared in less than half of titles of the series, but you'd never know it from all the times he's showed up. He's been in on the default roster of every single Super Smash Bros. game labeled as just "Link", with his Young incarnation (who has in comparison appeared in eight games in the series, including one where the Adult form appears as well) appearing as a secret character in Melee and Ultimate, while his Toon incarnation (who has appeared in six titles of the series) appeared in every SSB game since Brawl. Adult Link even appeared as a Guest Fighter in Soul Calibur II and was the star of Link's Crossbow Training one of the few spin-offs in the series. At this point, Adult Link is probably the most recognized incarnation of the character.
  • Pokémon:
    • Charizard's case probably most closely resembles that of the Trope Namer. In many circles, it ended up becoming one of the (if not the) most popular Pokémon and overshadowing Series Mascot Pikachu for being the series' definitive fan-favorite character, just as Wolvie himself ended up overshadowing Marvel's mascot Spider-Man in similar circles. As a result, from 2013 onwards, it started getting a ton of gratuitous anime (including Ash's being shoehorned into the second half of Best Wishes! in an attempt to soften the Audience-Alienating Era), manga and merchandise appearances (many of them in starring roles), acting as the franchise's backup Spotlight-Stealing Squad not named "Pikachu", and getting two Mega Evolutions while other Pokémon (except Mewtwo, who is also an example of this trope) only get one. They even managed to work Charizard into Pokémon Sun and Moon, despite it not being in the regional Pokédex (it appears as a "Ride Pokémon" and it allows players to fly from area to area). Then, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, it shows up not only as Leon's signature Pokémon, Charizard is one of the returning Pokémon to get a Gigantamax form with an exclusive new move, and its family is not only the sole returning Kanto Starter, but the sole returning Starter, period (discounting Pikachu and Eevee, and until the DLC expansion The Isle of Armor gave Venusaur and Blastoise Gigantamax forms). In fact, a strong case can be made for Charizard being more aggressively marketed than Pikachu during this period, largely due to Game Freak's efforts to appeal to older Pokémon fans.
      • In the case of the Super Smash Bros. series, Charizard started out as a Pokémon that can be summoned through the Poké Ball item. In Brawl, it becomes a playable character through the Pokémon Trainer, alongside Squirtle and Ivysaur. Then, in the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U installments, Charizard returns as an independent character, while Squirtle and Ivysaur appear only as collectible trophies. Luckily for the latter two Pokémon, they came back alongside the Pokémon Trainer, with Charizard going back to being one of the Trainer's Pokémon, in Ultimate.
      • Mega Charizard X in particular has been getting this treatment, being marketed much more heavily then its Y counterpart. It's made multiple anime appearances, on top of being the form utilized in the 2014 Super Smash Bros. games, whereas the latter ended up only showing up in the Kalos League of the X and Y anime... where it gets beaten by Mega Charizard X.
    • Pikachu is the best-known example, appearing in almost every single piece of merchandising available (you wouldn't even know that it's actually a fairly rare Pokémon species, and unobtainable via normal gameplay in Pokémon Black and White or their sequels). It was the franchise's poster boy for this trope for the longest time, until Game Freak decided to change its marketing strategy.
    • Lucario was the first widely-noted example of this after Pikachu. One got to star in its own movie, and also appeared prominently in every single aspect of the franchise (including a playable appearance in every Super Smash Bros. game since Brawl). It ended up getting even more attention after receiving a Mega Evolution in X/Y.
    • Greninja ended up becoming the most popular of the Kalos starters. Much like Charizard and Lucario, it was made a playable character in Super Smash Bros. and was even given a new Mega Evolution-like transformation that was invented for the anime. This form, dubbed "Ash-Greninja" in that it slightly resembles Ash's design for the X and Y anime, was later added to Pokémon Sun and Moon as part of the playable demo.
    • Legendary Pokemon usually receive most of the promotion and publicity, despite being the rarest and most difficult 'mons to obtain in-game. The most prominent example is Mewtwo, who is largely perceived as a Single Specimen Species and is regarded as much as a singular character as the human characters (as opposed to an entire species as most Pokemon are). Part of the reason why the 16th Pokemon movie was disliked was due to the fact that it took away that distinction by introducing a second Mewtwo. Mewtwo is still highly regarded enough to get two Mega Evolutions (a distinction shared only with Charizard) and made available as a DLC character for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
    • Starter Pokemon received plenty of marketing due to being the "ambassadors" of the game (they are the very first Pokemon that players start out with). When a new generation is revealed, marketing switches to the newest starters while the previous generation starters are swept under the rug. That being said, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle are still marketed like crazy (Pokemon X/Y having them as a second set of starters probably helped with this), sometimes even appearing alongside Pikachu.
    • Eevee began getting this treatment during Generation 5. It's a rare Pokémon in most regions and there are usually only one given out per game. It was popular for years but eventually Game Freak really began noticing how cute and popular it is. It also helps that Eevee is a gender-neutral Pokémon liked equally by boys and girls. As a result, Eevee has essentially become the second mascot of the franchise. It has a lot of merchandise and regularly appears in the anime (with May, Serena, Lana, and Chloe even having one each). Eevee even received a game alongside Pikachu where it's a starter Pokémon.
    • Among the fully-evolved Alola starters, Incineroar gets this treatment, appearing in the 20th movie and in several episodes of the Sun & Moon animated series, under the ownership of Professor Kukui/The Masked Royal. It also appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
    • Even if it technically isn't the weakest Pokémon, Magikarp is iconic enough for its Joke Character status that it got a mobile game entirely focused on it as Pokémon: Magikarp Jump, and Gyarados' inclusion in Pokémon Unite was promoted as Magikarp's instead.
  • Metroid:
  • Heihachi Mishima is the Tekken series' designated cameo character, appearing in Xevious 3D/G, Smash Court Tennis, SoulCalibur II, Pac-Man Fever, Namco × Capcom, Tales of the Abyss, Project × Zone, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
  • In the Mascot Fighter Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien was the only represented series that was still running at the time of the game's release. All other Cartoon Network shows represented had been finished for a while now.
  • God of War's Kratos has become Sony Computer Entertainment's Wolverine, seeing as how he appeared in Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny as per fan-request as well as the PS3 version of Mortal Kombat 9. He's also stated to be the "beginner's character" in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, similar to Mario in Super Smash Bros.
    • Ratchet also seems to be going the same way. He's essentially to Sony as to what Mario is to Nintendo.
    • Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet can also qualify as a mascot to Sony with his status as a Mascot to boot.
  • Five of the first eleven characters revealed for Injustice: Gods Among Us were Batman characters. Commented in this webcomic. This was then bumped up to ten characters from the Batman franchisenote  in Injustice 2. For comparison, Superman and Wonder Woman only got two characters each from their respective franchises (three in Superman's case if you count Darkseid).
  • Six of the first twelve characters revealed for Infinite Crisis were Batman characters, including three versions of Batman.
  • Judging by Skyrim fanworks, you'd think Unrelenting Force (aka "Fus Ro Dah!") was the only Shout in the game, and that the Dragonborn is required to use it all the time. While it can stagger foes (or knock them off their feet with its full power), it's not that powerful or useful unless you employ a very specific strategy.
    • Not to mention the Iron Helmet used in almost all promotional materials and even as a crossover item in Team Fortress 2. It's bottom tier gear in-game; by the time the Dragonborn has obtained the final level of the aforementioned Shout, they'll likely have moved on to Steel gear at the least.
  • Marvel Puzzle Quest does not hold back on using the most popular Marvel characters over and over. Wolverine himself is present in four versions, and a game-made iteration of his son Daken had him taking the Wolverine name. The only one who might get more proeminence is Spider-Man, who along with Black Widow and Hawkeye is the only one present in all character tiers, from 1 star to 5 stars; along with Captain America and the Hulk, is the only one with two 5* star versions; and just about every Spiderverse character warranted an inclusion - Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man 2099, Silk - while his Rogues Gallery is also very present (Venom alone has four versions, plus Anti-Venom). The Marvel Cinematic Universe also gets some undue weight, as even if adding characters or variants as tie-ins is reasonable, no matter if at times overdone (Captain America had three, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame), players were questioning why the villains of Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy got in the game over 5 years after their movies.
  • Another Marvel example: LEGO Marvel Super Heroes heavily leans on three characters:
    • Phil Coulson, who serves as the guide icon for story missions and serves as the voice of hints as to what powers you need to use to solve a particular puzzle.
    • Deadpool, who serves as the guide icon for side missions and voices the intro and outro to EVERY side mission.
    • Stan Lee, who you need to save 50 times over the course of the game, including once in every single mission. (Deadpool even says "He's in this game more then I am!")
    • Wolverine, the Trope Namer, only appears in a few missions where his presence is more or less justified, thereby kinda averting the trope for him.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne's American and Japanese versions subvert this. The European cover, however, is very happy to zoom out of the main character just so they can stick in a poorly photoshopped version of Dante in and adding a "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series" right there in the front.
  • Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth does not contain the titular Great Old One. There are many mentions of Cthulhu, a few statues... you even fight one of his Chosen, but Cthulhu himself does not appear. This actually caused a bit of a rift among people who played the game, between those who appreciated the game giving greater focus to lesser known Old Ones Dagon and Hydra, and those who felt that it's not a real Call of Cthulhu game without Cthulhu.
  • Shortly after LJN Toys (and therefore Acclaim, which bought them out around the same time) acquired the rights to churn out Spider-Man Licensed Games, they made sure to shoehorn a "SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY SPIDER-MAN®" (as Mission Control) into their Game Boy version of The Punisher. Oddly enough, LJN/Acclaim also held the rights to Wolverine but didn't give him this sort of treatment.
  • Likewise, Spider-Man was added as a Guest Fighter in X-Men: Mutant Academy 2, making him the only playable combatant in the game who isn't actually part of the X-Men franchise.
  • The NCR Ranger Combat Armor of Fallout: New Vegas features prominently on the cover, advertising, opening cinematic, and main menu of the game. Despite this, it's rather rare in-game and can only be used by members of one faction, the New California Republic (good luck waltzing into the Legion's main encampment wearing the clothing of the enemy faction's most powerful soldiers - you will be shot on sight). A nearly identical version of the armor, called Riot Gear, was included in the game's final DLC Lonesome Road, and, unlike the Ranger Armor, can be used by members of any faction. However, the difficulty of the DLC ensures the armor's rarity.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Lucina, who first appeared in Fire Emblem: Awakening and has since appeared in every single spinoff and sequel since (barring Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the latter of which doesn't have any returning characters except Anna) in some form or another. She constantly tops popularity polls, appears to represent the series in crossovers like Super Smash Bros. and Project × Zone, and even has multiple versions of herself appear as playable characters in Fire Emblem Heroes. While she's mostly an extremely popular character, her heavy marketing and constant presence in the spotlight has attracted the ire of fans, particularly of the older games, who feel that other equally popular characters get disproportionate amounts of love from Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.
    • While Lucina may be the worst offender, she's not the only one. Marth, Robin, Chrom, Corrin, Ike, Roy, and Lyn are the characters most likely to get publicity. With the exception of Lyn, they're all playable characters in Super Smash Bros., and Lyn's an Assist Trophy. All this, despite the fact it's actually Anna who is the closest thing to a Series Mascot.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • The Japanese boxart for Super Mario RPG places Yoshi right alongside the main cast, despite the fact that he is neither a playable character nor does he have any major involvement in the story. The remake's boxart is based on the Japanese version of the original, but Yoshi is omitted from the cast.
    • Super Mario Odyssey does this with New Donk City and by extension, Pauline. You don't reach New Donk City until the middle of the game, and in the grand scheme of things neither it nor Pauline are important to the plot, however it is the level that is most marketed for the game. Pauline isn't actually that major of a character but advertisements treats her like she is in the main female. The reason why New Donk City gets this treatment is due to it being one big Call-Back to the original Donkey Kong, with Pauline also having her first major appearance in years.
    • Paper Mario: The Origami King: Despite Origami Peach and Folded Bowser being seen as quite prominent in the trailers and the box art, both of them end up only appearing during the very beginning and the endgame. Bowser plays a much bigger part in the final chapter than Peach, though.
  • Nintendo Badge Arcade features Isabelle from Animal Crossing, Ashley from WarioWare, and Nikki from Swapnote in a large number of badge sets in a variety of different costumes.
  • One piece of promotional art for the game Tank Troopers has WarioWare's Breakout Character Ashley posing with the game's cast. While Ashley did feature in some cross-promotional badges for the game in the aforementioned Nintendo Badge Arcade, she doesn't actually appear in the game or its online comic.
  • Shovel Knight has somehow become the darling of the Indie Game circuit, and his Crossover appearances are heavily advertised even if he's just an NPC. He's been made a playable character in more than a dozen games that aren't his own, cameoed in a few more, and even became an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Posters for Part 1 and Part 2 of Fate/Grand Order feature Saber Altria Pendragon front and center. Alternate versions of her have been chapter enemies or chapter allies in the main story, but Saber herself is rarely featured even in non-story events.

Top