Missing in Action

The world of gaming holds a copious amount of characters. Some have been fortunate enough to obtain superstar status. Others haven't been so lucky and have faded away. But even massively popular characters can take walk on the bad side of the virtual town and end up disappearing for a while. The characters listed below aren't quite dead but considerable time has passed since they had a game to call their own.

 Mega Man

While he isn't quite gone, the treatment he's seen over the past year and half is pretty unusual for such a big icon. One of the biggest franchises at Capcom, Mega Man hasn't seen an original title since 2010's Mega Man 10.  Things really turned sour when both Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3 were canceled in 2011. The cancellation of the aforementioned games has caused many to believe that Capcom wants to kill the character off, hates him, and wants nothing to do with him. His exclusion from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was highly suspect given that the character was in the first two games. Giving Zero an X skin as an alternate costume did little to quell fan's rage. Mega Man did end up being included as part of the roster for Street Fighter X Tekken, but since it bordered on being an older, cosplay-like version from the American 1987 Mega Man, it only added fuel to the fire. True, his inclusion was planned long in advance, but the character's reveal couldn't have come at a worse time. But isn't all gloom and doom for Blue Bomber fans. In May of 2011, Archie's Mega Man comic launched and has been running strong ever since. X will also be a playable character in Namco Bandai's Project X Zone for the 3DS. Having said that, no one knows when any incarnation of Mega Man will come back with his own game. This year will mark Mega Man's 25th anniversary and Capcom has some plans to celebrate but fans aren't getting their hopes up.

 Pulseman

Believe it or not, Game Freak has made games other than Pokemon. They were responsible for the excellent GBA Drill Dozer and long before that, there was Pulseman, an amazing 2D platformer on the Genesis that boasted some of the finest audio and visuals the system had ever seen. Pity that was Pulseman's only game because they character loos so cool. Game Freak didn't completely forget about Pusleman as there are numerous references to the character and the game throughout the Pokemon series, including Pokemon designs, battle themes and attacks. Still, it would be nice for Pulseman to make a comeback.

Sparkster

It seems like Konami is all about Metal Gear and Silent Hill these days but back in the '90s, someone got the brilliant notion to give a possum a rocket pack, a sword, some armor and call him a Rocket Knight. Sparkster was born out of the mascots with attitude craze that Sonic the Hedgehog spawned but unlike all the cheap knock-offs, Sparkster didn't have an attitude and his games were actually good. Sparstker stared in three games in the 1990s. Right knight Adventures on the Genesis, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 also on the Genesis and Sparstker on the SNES. While Rocket Knight Adventures 2 and Sparkster share the same box art, the differences between these games are like night and day. Sparkster saw a revival a few years back on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in Rocket Knight but few find the game as memorable or engaging as Sparkster's past exploits. This character is one of the best things to come out of Konami so I wouldn't mind seeing him in more games. And would it kill Konami to release all three 16-bit Sparkster titles on Virtual Consoles, PSN or XBLA?

Alex Kidd

1990. That's how long it has been since Alex Kidd had his own game. This little guy was Sega's unofficial mascot in the days of the Master System. He certainly wasn't a bad character by any means but he wasn't swaying gamers away from the likes of Mario. When Sonic the Hedgehog hit the scene, poor Alex Kidd was given the boot and has been regulated to making cameo appearances ever since. He was one of my favorite racers in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing so I'm hoping he returns for the sequel.


Gunstar Heroes

Soldiers Red and Blue were the playable protagonists of the Genesis classic Gunstar Heroes. Released way back in 1993 fans were finally given a sequel in 2005 with Gunstar Super Heroes on the GBA. It was a great game but most tend to agree that the original was the better of the two. This was easily Treasure's most famous game, having been re-released numerous times. Originally, Treasure didn't make many sequels but Gunstar Heroes is one of the four game's the company has developed to be given such treatment, even if Gunstar Super Heroes caught some flack for reusing many of the original's ideas. Seeing as how Treasure is one of the most innovative developers in the business, I honestly believe they could find something new to implement into the series.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I realize I didn't even come close to scratching the surface on this topic but as I said, the gaming world has seen many faces come and go. I just picked a selection of characters I'd like to see get more attention. Who are some characters you'd like to see back in action?