Fuzzy logic: Lara Croft > Mario?

Posted Aug 16th 2006 2:25PM by Ross Miller
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Retro, Nintendo Wii
According to Eidos' SCI's Ian Livingstone, Tomb Raider vixen Lara Croft is "the most famous character in gaming." Interviewer Paul Loughrey of GamesIndustry.biz then questions whether or not he means most famous ... other than Mario. Livingstone adamantly asserts that Mrs. Croft is indeed more popular than Nintendo's gaming icon.

"Well, Mario is still very much within the games niche, whereas Lara has gone beyond that thanks to two blockbuster films, for example. She's graced the covers of thousands of not just games journals, but lifestyle journals as well."

We'll admit, much to our chagrin, that Super Mario Bros. film was not the glorious re-imagining of Nintendo's flagship series, nor was it a box office smash (the total domestic gross was $20.9 million, which would be approximately $32.3 million today when adjusted for ticket price inflation). But Mario, we'd argue, is still more of a household name.

While there is no quantitative backing to either assertions, we'd like to point out that Livingstone's support is rather inefficient. In 1966, John Lennon exclaimed that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." And while we suspect those zany Brits did grace more magazine covers than the founder of Christianity, it's still a stretch to elevate a band over a world religion.

And though the Mario film sunk, his power was seen elsewhere in pop culture. Not to mention his games tend to do better, both financially and critically.

A quick look at Mario's Wikipedia file reminds us that he has starred in 3 TV Shows and was found in a 1993 national survey to be more recognizable to children than Mickey Mouse. While that was 15 years ago, you may note, Super Mario titles still become instant best-sellers in Japan and North America -- one look at the new platformer for the mainstream-grabbing DS can attest to that.

While we understand Livingstone's desire to pimp extol his company's biggest moneymaker, we still find the statement a bit perplexing. It may, in fact, be true, but Livingstone's evidence is a non sequitur. Sure, the Tomb Raider movies made lots and lots of money, but is Lara Croft, the character, really the reason people flocked to the theatres? As Nintendo was once (as still somewhat is) a synecdoche for gaming, so is Mario connected to game culture. And his simplicity, we feel, gives him a mainstream advantage over other gaming characters.

Lara Croft. It's a coadjuvant character in one of the thousands of Castlevania Games.

Shiz.... Mario has always pimped the big "N"...

And can make Lara his biznatch.

Oh, an lmao on the Belmont joke, Ix... good stuff.