Yoshi Unknowingly Used By Indie Developer?

[Evastio]

I'm personally not sure if I believe him or not. I can understand Hungary not receiving the same exposure to video games as other countries and the general public there not being familiar with popular video game icons, but an indie game developer that's making a game, not being familiar with one of the most recognizable video game characters? Either way, the link he used to download Yoshi even stated that Yoshi was from Mario, so he should have had at least some idea that he was using intellectual property (plus getting the rights to an existing game character for only $65 should have raised a red flag in his mind. Then again given Hungary's lack of exposure to video games in general, it may not be his fault that he didn't know that).

[Laddy]

This is adorable.

[Loony BoB]

There are a number of characters people would consider 'famous' that I don't recognise all that well, particularly from Nintendo because I've never owned most of their consoles (only recently owned a GBA and DS, and very, very rarely used them). I recognise Yoshi because I've played Mario Kart with my mates and because of sites that make use of them, but if someone showed me a famous character from Metal Gear Solid that isn't Solid Snake then I wouldn't recognise them, and there are a number of characters from other major Nintendo IPs that I doubt I'd recognise (I used to think Link was actually called Zelda, and I have no idea what the actual Zelda looks like to this day, etc etc).

These things can happen, basically. Nintendo isn't as massive as it once was, either, so if this guy only recently got into games and focused all his attention on the likes of Call of Duty and Skyrim then he probably wouldn't have seen much (nor paid attention to) Nintendo stuff.

[Quindiana Jones]

Point of interest: Eastern Europe's main export is not lucky heather and shabby horses anymore, and Hungary is not a backwater country. They have electricity, and plenty of access to gaming and its industry.

[Shoeberto]

Point of interest: Eastern Europe's main export is not lucky heather and shabby horses anymore, and Hungary is not a backwater country. They have electricity, and plenty of access to gaming and its industry.

I wasn't claiming that it was some third-world country. A lot of eastern Europe has been more heavily PC-centric since in the early days of the industry, the console devs didn't ship as many games there. It's a very different eco system where iD Software is more likely to be revered in the pop culture than Nintendo.

[Evastio]

There are a number of characters people would consider 'famous' that I don't recognise all that well, particularly from Nintendo because I've never owned most of their consoles (only recently owned a GBA and DS, and very, very rarely used them). I recognise Yoshi because I've played Mario Kart with my mates and because of sites that make use of them, but if someone showed me a famous character from Metal Gear Solid that isn't Solid Snake then I wouldn't recognise them, and there are a number of characters from other major Nintendo IPs that I doubt I'd recognise (I used to think Link was actually called Zelda, and I have no idea what the actual Zelda looks like to this day, etc etc).

These things can happen, basically. Nintendo isn't as massive as it once was, either, so if this guy only recently got into games and focused all his attention on the likes of Call of Duty and Skyrim then he probably wouldn't have seen much (nor paid attention to) Nintendo stuff.

I agree about games like Call of Duty being more prevalent in media, but not about Nintendo losing its prevalence to that degree. It's still going really strong with a large amount of game releases and sales (both New Super Mario Bros. DS and Wii have sold over 27 million units, the Wii has outsold both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and the DS and 3DS have outsold the PSP and Vita, respectively). Just because Nintendo isn't as prevalent or get as much publicity as in the past, that doesn't mean it's not as big a player in the gaming industry.

Either way, not knowing Mario or other major characters from the series like Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser, and Toad is quite rare (even if they don't know their names, most people at least know they're from Mario or at least that they're video game characters). It's one thing to have never played Mario, but not hearing about or seeing him is quite ridiculous, especially if you have enough interest to go into game developing. Even though you think many kids nowadays don't know who Mario is because of Call of Duty getting more publicity, that's actually quite the opposite seeing how most kids and parents I overhear in the general gaming section of stores talk about and check out Mario games (yeah, it turns out that not all kid gamers are behind the mic screaming in Halo and CoD). Yeah, the internet and forums nowadays focuses a lot more on PS3/360/PC when it comes to gaming and gaming media, but that isn't representative of the whole gaming community (otherwise, the Wii wouldn't have been outselling both 7th Gen consoles and the DS would've never beat the PS2 in being the #1 best selling game console/handheld).

Anyways, about thinking Link's name was Zelda, welcome to the club (probably 70% of gamers think that at first. I know I did). But that still goes to show that Link is recognizable and well known among the public, since they at least associate him with the Zelda video game series. As for Solid Snake, people really overrate his iconic status. You could show a picture of him to random people on the street, and less than 1/3 of people would know who he is or where he's from.

[Loony BoB]

Well, if it weren't for EoFF, I don't know when I would have learned about Zelda. I certainly don't read about Zelda in the papers very often and he just looks like an elf, doesn't he?

Also, Mario is far, far more famous than Yoshi.

All I'm really saying is that it's very possible that someone would never have known Yoshi despite being a game developer. It would be a fairly rare thing, but it's absolutely possible.

[Jinx]

I think you're a special case, BoB.

[Loony BoB]

If 'special case' means 'didn't grow up on Nintendo' then I guess so.

EDIT: Oh, wait, I did have a few of those one-game-only consoles - Donkey Kong, a racing game and I forget what else.