Man, you don't even need mascots anymore. Sony has climbed to the top of the videogame mountain without them, and X-Box is doing the same. What you need is fresh, new games that make people say "Wow! That looks new, cool and fun! I gotta have that!" The only game that really does that to me from Nintendo lately is F-Zero GX.
Mascots are nice to have, but no longer necessary. The gaming industry is so big now, and customers are so savvy, that companies don't need to have recognizable characters to build brand awareness. In the mid-80's this was necessary because the industry was coming off the Atari 2600 holocaust, but the 2000s are a whole different ballgame. Everybody knows what videogames are these days.
The gaming industry is a lot like the movie industry now - take Warner Bros. for instance. It could use Bugs Bunny as a mascot, but it doesn't have to. Its movies are their own "mascots". Video games are getting this way too. People don't necessarily follow consoles any more, they follow game franchises like they do movie franchises. The platform is really irrelevant. If Nintendo creates some big franchises that adult gamers will follow religiously, they'll be right back on top.
silks