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[Alder]

Oh man, it's a whole range of things.

First off, the early Mario games are beautiful. They're nothing but running and jumping, yet everything has this wonderful tactile physicality to it. The way Mario moves in the space, the physics of the world. Tim Rogers wrote an entire article about "Sticky Friction" which has kinda become canonized within game design writing for good reason, and he held up Super Mario Bros. because of it's flawless physicality. The levels are all excellent too - they highlight and play upon this beautifully balanced feel perfectly. This is important because this means the simple way we control Mario is most of the fun of the game. We're not toying with the levels or the broader goals - the fun comes from him, and that endears us to him.

Secondly, he's wonderfully designed. Simple yet utterly distinct from just about anyone else. He's not someone whose cosplay would confuse people. At the same time, he's likeable in a very bizarre kind of way. A short, kinda portly character. And yet he's cute, insofar as a moustachioed Italian dude can be. His movements are exaggerated and pantomime-y in a way that, again, compliments the wild, looping feel of controlling him while also providing a great deal of character very efficiently. If it wasn't for the moustache, he could be a child; he's small and out of place and vulnerable, which is endearing in that fundamentally Japanese "kawaii" sense. He's also not necessarily someone you'd want to be as a power fantasy, which - aside from making him a novelty in today's gaming market - distances him from the player juuuuust enough that he doesn't just feel like shoes you're filling.

Those are the things I keep coming back to. His design is endearing and his movement within the game has an addictive physicality and feel to it that directly relates back to that character and makes controlling him a joy. So I guess my advice would be to aim for a distinct, charming design with plenty of personality, and make the brunt of the game revolve around the fun of controlling and interacting with them.

[Graham-]

As a side note I picked up from Extra Credits, the mustache was actually a necessity in the coin-op days. It was the only way to differentiate between his nose and mouth in a low-pixel environment. Cool.

[Vorile deWise]

(My first reply on this site)

I think it is more about media exposure than the game itself being good. Mario was everywhere in commercials and t-shirts and even breakfast cereals.

If you want a modern example, take a look at Angry birds. They even have candy now . I won't comment on the quality of the angry bird games, as I see it as less relevant. It is the t-shirts, the candy, the steady update of games as well as switching genres but still keeping the "characters" that appeals to many instead of few. All of this makes a memorable character in my opinion.  

[You may exchange the word "memorable" with "customer recognized product"]  

[Sir Raptor]

Trying to make the next Mario is a bit of a tall order for an indie developer. Try and settle for making the next Meat Boy.

[Alevice]

Mario was designed the way he was to reach maximum readability within then current specs. As said moustache separates mouth from nose, red heat is more readable than (back then) blue hair on a black background, contrasting overalls and shirt help distingish arms, gloves do the same for hands, and shoes can be separated from the overall jeans. Back when most characters were either stick figures or monochrome inhuman shapes, Mario stood out like a fucking highly realistic character.

[Graham-]

When I run, duck, slide, I think that is hilarious. Then I play the level ducked. That's why Mario rules.

[Muz]

A "recognizable" "silhouette"

Mainly this. Logo, characters, they should all be visible from the silhouette.

Also Mario was in the right place at the right time. Why isn't Super Meat Boy as popular?

[gimymblert]

Being distinctive in visual AND concept is key!

Konidas is wrong as sonic is the perfect counter example, the character hasn't have a good game since the original three and even less a good show ... Its brand direction is a confusing mess ... YET the character stand on its own to this days, it's a lighting in a bottle.

Sonic works because he is memorable, have hint of familiarity, is recognizable among many style and deformation applied to his visual vocabulary and perfectly work as a concept of its own.

Sonic is a nod to old classic design like mickey but dropped the goofiness, creating a world and style on its own on top of this influence. The visual became the very incarnation of its concept, speed and energy. Sonic is like a perfect logo.

Character lie spyro and crash don't stand on their own, they are weiord mix of vocabulary that came before them without adding enough. Crash is a weird mix of mario and looney tunes goofyness. Spyro is a weird mix of mario and sonic.

On contrast character like pikachu embodies the very concept of their product, animal with power from pokemon. Angry bird also have this simplicity of design and concept and also had the perfect storm of a world wide situation which make them more relatable: "pigs stole the eggs" was often used as a metaphore for banker, they channeled through their concept the anger of the moment, they were the perfect revenge escapism product.

So a memorable character is a perfect storm of concept, context, product and visual design.

Question to ask is:
Does it serves the function and concept?
Is it bland or derivative, what makes it unique?
Is the shape distinctive enough, convey the right concept, and create a new image of the concept?
Is the design playful? does it tap on universal concern? Does it ride the feeling of the moment? How does the feeling of the moment relate to more universal and timeless concern?

Mario concept is simple, it's the everyday man in a magical world with extraordinary events, it also the symbol of video games by context, it brings new way to think about video games and got is identity from that.

[Graham-]

Yes, and the duck-slide.

All of that is true. Mario isn't a success from money alone. He really hits the nail on the head. I have never played a platformer series that changed how I saw games more than Mario did. And Mario, the character, suited his games perfectly. So much of what makes platforming a good genre (for consoles at least) is represented in the way Mario moves, how he controls.

Meat Boy is great, but he is no Mario.

[Snow]

I'm guessing, that by memorable - you mean that your character stands out as a unique character. THEN like Ranku-Hero (guy with the annoyingly distracting cider drinking gif) said, the character becomes memorable if the game becomes popular.

What Gimym said is also correct.

Being distinctive in visual AND concept is key!

As far as I remember, originally Mario wasn't meant to have a mustache. But because of the pixel size restraints of the character at the time, in order to define his nose, adding in the mustache helped. Low and behold, Mario became an interesting character that stood out. On top of this as the Mario games defined platforming at the time (many games emulated Mario style platforming) and broke new ground, Mario became a household name. It's like Minecraft. Who DOESN'T know what Minecraft is? Although not technically the first game of it's kind (voxel sandbox) it did however add elements - such as exploration and adventure and now when "sandbox" is mentioned, it's usually the first to come to mind. The default player/protagonist of MC is Steve. Quite a generic boxy looking fellow, that if MC hadn't existed at all, would never be memorable. But because of MC's popularity, one glance and you recognize the character and game he is from.

I'm struggling with this myself. I'm working on a fair sized project right now with a personal deadline of 1.5 years for release and I find that my own pixel art looks generic. I'm starting to struggle with a visual design for my game. The game starts out with a rather funny cut scene. Do I make the game cartoony then to carry the cartoonyness from the cutscene on to the end or just keep it at the cutscene? So for myself, right now I'm spending more time sketching visual designs and concepts than doing pixel work. I think once I have the right visual style for my game, it may also help the game be unique and recognizable.

So my advice and 2 pennies would be, deliberate and focus on the content of your game. What is your game about? What's it's theme? How does it play? What feeling does the player get when playing it? Then look at other similar games and study them. What makes them pop out? What kind of visual design seems to be the most attractive and fit well with the theme. Then sketch, sketch, sketch. Make concept art. Make concept pixel art. Experiment with your character and game art.

[Faust06]

Sonic has 'tude ( or was meant to) and he's perhaps the 2nd most popular video game character in popular culture. So I dunno. It is well dialed down though.

[Sir Raptor]

Sonic has 'tude ( or was meant to) and he's perhaps the 2nd most popular video game character in popular culture. So I dunno. It is well dialed down though.

Part of it is ground-floor familiarity. Sonic and Mario are popular because they came in when video games were still new, and they never went away.

[s0]

is sonic really that well known? ive never met a non-"gamer" who knows who sonic is.

[Graham-]

He doesn't have the popularity of Mario, but he isn't a nobody, and he does well considering the stream of mediocre games featuring him.

[gimymblert]

He was more known than mario and mickey at some point for sure (in america), and around me even non gamer does know about sonic if they have some exposition to console, even though tomb raider is now the new video game icon, the same they call all console the same by whichever is the hot shit at the moment.
However there is no denying that sonic is still a hot brand that sells on name alone. It is weaker sure but to survive on character alone is a great feat.

Also notice that mario wasn't an overnight character success unlike sonic. Sonic benefit from the contrast it had from other video games at the time, thanks to great concept and great marketing positioning (blast processing is a video game meme now), it has energy and break the style that was adopted in video games at the time. Mario was born with donkey kong, but donkey was the icon (it's on like donkey kog) then there was mario bros a single screen game, then only when super mario bros on nes happen it exploded, yet again it is the contrast that make it pop. CONTEXT is the part of my essay everybody above missed

Stuff in the right context but with no iconic power are seen as a fad and forgotten. Concept that have no strength became one trick pony gimmick. You need all planets' alignments to become a cultural icon.

[gimymblert]

So a memorable character is a perfect storm of:
- concept
- context
- product (quality)
- and visual design.

Question to ask is:
Does it serves the function and concept?
Is it bland or derivative, what makes it unique?
Is the shape distinctive enough, convey the right concept, and create a new image of the concept?
Is the design playful? does it tap on universal concern? Does it ride the feeling of the moment? How does the feeling of the moment relate to more universal and timeless concern?

[s0]

He was more known than mario and mickey at some point for sure (in america),

mickey as in mickey mouse? i find that very very very very very very very very hard to believe

[Udderdude]

TILBERT's fanboy is showing ..

[Graham-]

yeah Mickey is one of the most iconic cartoons of all time. Mickey is bigger than Mario.

games are especially context sensitive. so much depends on the player's state of mind. games are less consistent than movies that way.

let's take a look at Meat Boy for a comparison, to Mario. he isn't as expressive. his expression suits his mechanics less. he isn't breaking down as many barriers. part of what made Cloud (FF7) so memorable to me was that he was the main character of the next Final Fantasy, a game I was hyped about. FF7 was the "big JRPG" at the time for me. and Cloud was my first 3d character in an RPG, my favourite genre. Mario is platformers for a lot of people, and he is a good introduction to them.

we _still_ haven't evolved the core platformer formula beyond Mario. we're 3d, we have bigger maps, tighter challenge curves, more accessible mechanics and level design, but at its core we're still in the same place. Mario ushered in an age of... some kind of gaming. if you want to beat Mario you have to find a new market space to explore, and nail it with your game, and star a character in said game that suits that game.

Minecraft: that's a new market space. though the character in that is abstract, and you don't normally look at him. find a new frontier like Minecraft _and_ bust in a great character. Sonic represented everything that was different about the (Sega) Genesis. the colors in his games popped. he moved literally faster, representing the edge of the console.

playing with speed in a platformer was a new idea. it was a different way to approach the super-successful genre. Sonic didn't define platformers the way Mario did, but he did push its boundaries, so he takes a solid, second, place.

[airman4]

When i see at mario here i notice something i didnt when i was a kid

Look at hair color and moustache /eyesbrows ...