Line #21 Main/MascotHorror


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fnaf_horror1.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[CuteIsEvil Aren't we brand-friendly?]]]]
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8	A type of indie horror game popularized in the mid-2010s. Instead of masses of enemies, an intangible terror, or an actively horrific threat, make the main terror be a recognizable, corporeal character (or group of characters) who, with some defanging, could easily be the mascots of a children's media franchise (and often ''are'' in-universe). This mascot essentially serves as a mascot for the game too, always showing up on the cover art, contrasting greatly with the dark, atmospheric cover art that most horror games have. In conjunction with this, add further allusions to the players' childhood by having references to recognizable childhood media (especially for late Millennial or Gen Z players).
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10	The recency and unusually specific nature of this genre, despite its numerous examples, derives from the [[FollowTheLeader heavy influence]] of ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' (which started the trend in 2014) on the indie game scene. Similar trends to Mascot Horror are previously known from the [[SlasherMovie slasher films]] of the 1980s, and the {{creepypasta}}-based games of the early 2010s; both of these also revolved around a recognizable character to market their horror-based properties. In contrast to Mascot Horror however, these mascots are often unsettling or disturbing from the get-go, whereas Mascot Horror mascots, while sometimes also unsettling in appearance, tend to retain at least some semblance of the idea that they were once intended for children in-universe.
11
12	These are common features of many (though by no means all) Mascot Horror games:
13	* A recognizable, ostensibly child-friendly mascot or group of mascots, serving both to market the game in real life and often also existing as a mascot in-universe to market an in-universe product/establishment. Almost always [[MascotVillain the antagonist]] aside from very few exceptions, and always the most iconic character(s) of the game, sometimes leading to the creation of a VillainBasedFranchise.
14	* A FeaturelessProtagonist, as many of these games are in first-person perspective.
15	* A cartoonish art-style, or at least for the mascot(s) specifically, that often [[ArtStyleDissonance contrasts with the horrors found within]].
16	* Elements of [[HorrorComedy comedy in addition to horror]], with some mascot horror games being parodic in nature.
17	* References to popular childhood media, such as child-oriented products or establishments. Especially those popular around the 1980s to the 2000s; though pre-1980s examples definitely exist.
18	* Themes of childhood in general, such as taking place from the point of view of someone who grew up with said children's media, helped create it, or is even a child themselves.
19	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters; while the mascot (if physically non-human) is the face of the game and serves as the main antagonist, there may be someone behind the scenes who is either controlling the mascot or caused it to become the way it is.
20	* Hidden lore: One of the most clear-cut inspirations from ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', expect lots of [[JigsawPuzzlePlot hidden lore that can only be uncovered through environmental storytelling throughout the game or hidden in the code]]. Said hidden lore frequently involves themes of supernatural horror (especially with a cold, uncaring corporation) or family trauma, contrasting even further with the art style.
21	* At least one {{Jumpscare}} as a reference to ''Five Nights at Freddy's''' most iconic element. Usually, as is the case in ''Five Nights at Freddy's'', each of the mascots has their own unique jumpscare animation that they perform when they catch the player, [[OneHitKill causing an instant Game Over]].
22	* An unusually high proportion of children in the fanbase; as these games tend to be outwardly a lot less disturbing than other horror games, expect them to have a large PeripheryDemographic of very young fans, something that the creators may embrace and market to.
23	* In a meta sense, many of these games often require similar pathways to success as ''Five Nights at Freddy's'', including LetsPlays (with many even being BetterAsALetsPlay) and theory videos focused around the hidden lore.
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25	A subtrope of SubvertedKidsShow focused specifically around indie horror games that have a marketable mascot. Has nothing to do with MascotFighter.
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27	'''Note:''' Many other video games, such as ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', ''VideoGame/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' and ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' are often lumped together with the various games of this trend with the reasons being their comparable popularities and there being [[FriendlyFandoms a massive overlap between all these games' fandoms]]. These games also features easily recognizable characters and were popularized by LetsPlays and videos speculating about their lore[[note]]In the case of ''Cuphead'', the game lacks lore altogether but this didn't stop fans from seeking it.[[/note]], as well as some levels of unexpected horror to variying degrees. However these games are otherwise a different genre from Mascot Horror and simply happen to have benefited from a trend at the time.
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29	Mascot Horror is still a genre primarily associated with video games, especially indie ones. However, the success of the genre has inspired works in other mediums to emulate the style of typical Mascot Horror games. Certain AnalogHorror series can be considered an extension of Mascot Horror, primarily those either [[WebAnimation/FiveNightsAtFreddysVHSRemake directly based on]] or [[WebAnimation/TheWaltenFiles inspired by]] [=FNAF=]. Other horror webseries not directly inspired by [=FNAF=], like ''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_pzeB4Xa6iZbPHHmvYWLg ChezzKids Archive]]'', could also be considered a form of Mascot Horror. These types of works are often more focused on the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters stories of the people involved]], however, with the mascots playing more of a supplementary role even if they're still the biggest physical threat. Often, [[HauntedTechnology the humans involved ARE the mascots]].
30	----
31	!!Examples
32	[[index]]
33	* ''VideoGame/OneTwoThreeSlaughterMeStreet'': The game is about a thief hiding from the police in an abandoned apartment building that is haunted by three very bloodthirsty ''Series/SesameStreet''-esque cartoon characters. He needs to make it to the exit without letting any of them catch him and kill him.
34	* ''VideoGame/AllAloneWithMannie'': A kid spends his nights in bed being pursued by a CuteAndPsycho mouse girl with a knife named Mannie.
35	* ''VideoGame/AmandaTheAdventurer'': The player must deal with a ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer''-esque children's show hosted by the mascot, a little girl who seems all too aware of what's going on and enjoys torturing those around her.
36	* ''VideoGame/AndysAppleFarm'': A rare example where the mascot and the villain are two different characters. Posing as a cutesy children's game hosted by the mascot, Andy the Apple, and his four friends, the characters soon start glitching out and the plot takes a turn for the dark as the plot delves into the developers behind the game and the EldritchAbomination haunting it.
37	* ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'': Probably the first case of an AffectionateParody of mascot horror, but reached the same heights. Based on 90s edutainment games, the player must run around a schoolhouse, solve problems, and deal with other classmates, while avoiding the mascot: their enraged schoolteacher, Baldi.
38	* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' and ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'': Can be considered the TropeCodifier, due to the first game introducing the concept of "[[EnvironmentalNarrativeGame Walking Simulator]] with a gimmick/gadget/[[WeaponsAndWieldingTropes weapon]]" and the idea of the game being released in individual chapters. Based on 1930s cartoons, the protagonist must delve through their former animation studio and battle the former workers, now corrupted into gruesome facsimiles of the characters their studio created, as they uncover the mystery of what happened to the place, all the while fending off the mascot: the Ink Demon, Bendy.
39	* ''VideoGame/BonniesBakery'' inverts the usual dynamic with a human mascot going after a cast of sapient animals. The titular Bonnie is a human in a world of animals who appears to be the friendly owner of a bakery at first, but is actually a SerialKiller who kidnaps the townspeople at night and bakes them into her recipes.
40	* ''VideoGame/CaseAnimatronics'': This game is set in a police station where, at night, you need to navigate it to safety while avoiding some very deadly-looking HostileAnimatronics.
41	* ''VideoGame/ChooChooCharles'': A parody of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', the player character must save an island being terrorized by the mascot: Charles, a demonic steam engine. Notably, this game trades a lot of the horror for balls-to-the-walls insanity.
42	* ''VideoGame/DuckSeason'': A VR game with references to ''VideoGame/DuckHunt'', the protagonist plays a mysterious video game and must deal with the strange happenings in their life, including the mascot, a mysterious costumed dog.
43	* ''VideoGame/FindingFrankie'', the murderous rabbit mascot of the world's largest trampoline park chases you through freerunning obstacle courses to bite your head off.
44	* The ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' series: The TropeMaker, taking place in a [[Main/SuckECheeses Chuck-e-Cheese's-esque]] pizzeria with a tragic history. The player must survive five shifts while warding off the pizzeria's homicidal mascots.
45	* "VideoGame/FunsetStudios": A hippo mascot named Fumbo kidnaps children and kills intruders.
46	* ''VideoGame/FuntimeWithBuffy'': A little girl needs to clean her toys up while her mom's out. All the while being pursued by her PsychoKnifeNut VengefulAbandonedToy Buffy the Rabbit.
47	* ''VideoGame/GartenOfBanban'': The protagonist must explore Banban's Kindergarten to search for their missing children while fending off the former mascots of the kindergarten, who have come to life and are trying to kill them.
48	* ''VideoGame/TheGoodGrimaceShakeHorrorGame'': The player must escape from a maze-like [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds McDonald's]] play area while suffering from dehydration, in addition to being hunted by Grimace. Drinking the Grimace Shake quenches your thirst but also makes Grimace's presence stronger and more difficult to avoid.
49	* ''VideoGame/GregsDeadlyDraft'': A football player has to survive a dangerous drafting program operated by Greg White Shark, the football mascot of one of the worst teams.
50	* ''VideoGame/HappysHumbleBurgerFarm'': The game casts you as a Night Manager working at the titular restaurant, preparing food to serve the customers the next day, and having to keep animals out of the restaurant.
51	* ''VideoGame/HelloNeighbor'': One of the few examples of mascot horror with an explicitly living human antagonist, this game is still often grouped with the rest due to similar themes such as a cartoony artstyle, a recognizable antagonist who serves as the "mascot", themes of childhood, and hidden lore that the player must uncover.
52	* ''VideoGame/HelloPuppets'' is about a reporter exploring an old warehouse where the beloved children's puppet show ''[[ShowWithinAShow Mortimer's Handeemen]]'' used to be filmed. The reporter discovers that the cast of puppets are alive and evil, and they are planning to kill/possess humans to take over their bodies.
53	* ''VideoGame/HungryLamu'': A game starting with the objective of helping to fill the stomach of the eponymous llama named Lamu by eating fruits in a cartoony world. In the second half of the game you follow the protagonist trying to find their friends and escape the park while being followed by a starving llama. Similar to other games, the titular character is implied to be a human transformed into this "mascot".
54	* ''VideoGame/IndigoPark'': The player explores an abandoned theme park while avoiding its homicidal former mascots, with the park's A.I. tour guide assisting you along the way.
55	* ''WebAnimation/{{Kandyland}}'' follows animatronics working at the titular amusement park as they slowly turn hostile due to a virus.
56	* ''VideoGame/KinitoPET'' is set on a {{Retraux}} desktop with the titular cartoon axolotl (the newest product of the Kinito entertainment company) serving as a virtual assistant akin to Bonzi BUDDY. As a play on Bonzi BUDDY being malware, Kinito hunts down the player with the intent to trap them in a digital GildedCage.
57	* ''VideoGame/MeatlysStorageWorld'' is a short game that serves as a TakeThat towards modern Mascot Horror games, [[SelfParody from the creators]] of ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' themselves. This includes running around an abandoned warehouse to search for clues and reading through notes that sarcastically talk vaguely about how the warehouse was once a happy place and is now full of horrors, all while running from a giant, monstrous version of the Meatly mascot.
58	* ''VideoGame/MrHoppsPlayhouse'': The titular Mr. Hopp, a demonic toy bunny, is given to two children at different points in time, both of whom must escape as it comes to life and terrorizes them.
59	* ''VideoGame/MrTomatoS'' is a parody of the infamous "Hungry Pumpkin" flash game, with its mascot being an anthropomorphic tomato that the player must feed in a certain way in order to avoid summoning its demonic wrath.
60	* ''VideoGame/MyFriendlyNeighborhood'' is a survival horror game set inside a studio where a ''Series/SesameStreet''-like show was filmed long ago, and the player has to deal with sentient puppets whose sanity has been gone for a long time. In contrast to most other Mascot Horror games, it's a FirstPersonShooter where you can fight back against the puppets and plays with many of the tropes associated with the genre.
61	* ''VideoGame/{{Piggy}}'': A parody of ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'', the protagonist is trapped in a house inhabited by the mascot, a pig-like monster, and must escape before time runs out.
62	* ''VideoGame/PoppyPlaytime'': An ex-employee of Playtime Co. returns to their former toy factory, only to have to escape from the mascots, which are now-living, homicidal toys roaming the area. Each episode sees the employee face a new mascot, each more terrifying than the last.
63	* ''VideoGame/RainbowFriends'': The protagonist must escape from multicolored theme park mascots who kidnapped them during a school trip.
64	* ''VideoGame/Shipwrecked64'': In-universe, it was a LicensedGame based on [[ShowWithinAShow the classic "Bucky Beaver" IP]] from Broadside Animation, recalled after only three days. The protagonist is the plucky Bucky himself, out to rescue his friends who have been marooned on an island. Due to a [[invoked]]TroubledProduction, however, its developers dug up and hid in the game damning information about Broadside, its history, and the mascots at its theme parks, which Bucky is [[OutsideContextProblem just as unprepared to face as anyone else]].
65	* ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpScareMansion'': One of the earliest examples, predating [=FNAF=] production-wise although releasing a few months later. The mascot is a CuteGhostGirl named Spooky who challenges the player to explore her mansion, which ends up being far more terrifying than one might expect. Notably, this game wears the horror influence on its sleeve with its scary setting and ghostly mascot, although it still goes from cutesy to disturbing.
66	* ''VideoGame/{{Tattletail}}'': One of the earliest non-[=FNAF=] examples to be published as a complete game. The player must take care of a FauxFurby to prevent it from summoning a greater threat.
67	* ''ARG/{{Welcome Home\|ClownIllustrations}}'': An AlternateRealityGame revolving around a ''Series/SesameStreet''-like children's television series from the 70s that mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves, with a dedicated team of fans hoping to find and preserve the show... only to find the dark secrets behind why the show disappeared.
68	* ''Film/WillysWonderland'' is about a drifter trying to survive the night in a once-successful family entertainment center with HostileAnimatronics.
69	!!Proto/Pre-Five Nights at Freddy's Examples
70	* ''VideoGame/{{Silent Hill 3}}'': Features Robbie the Rabbit, mascot of in-universe amusement park Lakeside Amusement Park. He's usually featured as a doll or full-bodied costume with a blood-splattered face, though it's never made clear if people are inside the costumes. Robbie also features sporadically throughout the series, including an appearance as an enemy in ''VideoGame/SilentHillTheArcade''.
71	* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'': Features Slappy, a man dressed as the mascot for a kid's clothing store with a giant permanent grin, who attempts to kill Chuck under the belief that he started the zombie outbreak and in turn lead to the death of his girlfriend.
72	* ''VideoGame/LunaGame'': A series of fan games based on the show ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' created by an [[AnonymousAuthor unknown game designer]]. The games are very simple 2D platformers which are relatively faithful to the show they're based on in tone. That is until the [[DisguisedHorrorStory horror elements start to rear their heads]]. The first game the series in particular was notable for [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou creating creepy image files on the hard drives of computers that downloaded it]], leading to some players mistaking the game for a virus.
73	[[/index]]
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Context Main / MascotHorror