Video games are still a fairly new art form.
The medium has technically existed since 1947 with the first interactive electronic device
patent filed for a Cathode ray tube amusement device.
But the video game industry we’re familiar with today owes much to the success of early
games like Atari’s 1972 Pong, and Taito’s 1978 Space Invaders and the Nintendo Entertainment
System aka the NES that revitalized the video game industry with its release in Japan in
1983.
With this new generation of home consoles came many new faces – characters that quickly
became fan favourites, becoming the faces of franchises that still pull in the big bucks
in contemporary markets.
So today, we’re taking a closer look at some of these memorable characters with our
list of the top 10 most iconic video game heroes.
10 Kratos Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War
series, first appeared in 2005 as the Spartan warrior who seeks revenge after Aries tricks
him into accidentally killing his own family.
After he succeeds in killing Aries, he becomes the God of War, and it’s revealed that he
is actually a demigod, the son of Zeus.
Filled with vengeance, Kratos’ actions in each of the God of War games is filled with
extreme violence and morally ambiguous choices, and as time went on, his unforgiving personality,
along with his weapons and haunting white and red aesthetic made Kratos a video game
icon.
The next chapter of God of War will perhaps be the most interesting we’ve seen Kratos
yet.
Now a father, flanked by his young son, Kratos must master his rage, and be a mentor to the
boy on his next adventure, immersed in a new world of Norse mythology.
9 Donkey Kong Moving on from slaughtering your opponents
to throwing barrels at them, Donkey Kong is the first of the gaming icons conceived by
Nintendo on this list.
First appearing in 1981, DK was the antagonist of his self-titled arcade game, in which Jumpman,
who would later become a certain moustachioed plumber, had to climb up a series of platforms
to rescue the woman Donkey Kong was holding hostage.
DK was largely inspired by King Kong, and was one of Nintendo’s first original characters
– after a license to make a game based on the Popeye comic fell through, the company
thought it would be more advantageous to create their own properties, and Shigeru Miyamoto
crafted a love triangle that mirrored that of Popeye, Bluto and Olive – a gorilla carpenter
girlfriend.
Since then, he’s been one of the company’s mascots, and is one of the few long lasting
characters to be ranked on both top heroes and villains lists by video game reviewers
internationally.
8 Solid Snake Solid Snake is arguably Konami’s most memorable
character, created by Hideo Kojima for the Metal Gear franchise in 1987.
He’s a highly skilled special ops soldier and former Green Beret who conducts espionage
and stealth missions.
His aesthetic has drastically changed over the years, and Snake has gone from first appearing
in overhead action adventure stealth games, to the 3D Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the
Patriots – the game that follows Snakes last mission to assassinate his nemesis Liquid
Snake – a game that is widely considered to be one of the best games of the seventh
generation of console gaming, and rubs shoulders with the greatest games of all time.
7 Sonic Ah, the blue blur.
Sega’s iconic hedgehog that A LOT of our viewers on this channel are obsessed with.
It makes sense though – Sonic was Sega’s answer to Nintendo’s Mario.
He was created with the intention of putting Sega on top of the blossoming video game industry.
Along with his nemesis Doctor Eggman, Sonic was the result of an internal competition
at the Sega Technical Institute to find a new mascot to replace the current one, Alex
Kid.
And his speedy gameplay won over many fans who wanted to indulge in the adrenaline rush
Sonic games gave them.
From 1991 to 1995, Sega crafted several iconic Sonic games that are still put up on a pedestal
today and keep the hedgehog in vogue, even if the company continues to pump out disappointing
3D ones.
6 Samus Aran Nintendo’s Metroid franchise was one of
the first massively successful sci fi action adventure games in 1986 when it was released,
and it’s franchise has continued to rake in loads of money for the company over the
years.
That’s partially due to Samus – a character who subverted players ideas of video game
protagonists when it was revealed at the end of the game that Samus was actually a woman.
Which has been named to be one of the greatest twists in video game history.
Some critics have called her the first dominant female character that didn’t rely on a man
to save her, and opened the door for the kinds of female protagonists that have been appearing
more regularly in video games today.
5 Pac-Man The only character on our list from the Golden
Age of arcade video games , Pac-Man has gone from a yellow pixelated circle with a mouth
to, well, a yellow circle with basic but recognizable facial features.
And limbs.
But he’s proof of how simplicity can be powerful – Pac-Man is a house hold name
that even your grandparents would recognize, holding the record for the highest brand awareness
of any video game character in the USA.
He may not have the same kinds of sales or popularity he had back in the day, but his
legacy holds strong.
First appearing in the 1980 arcade game of the same name, Pac-Man was actually Puck-Man
in Japanese, but Namco thought that the English translation wouldn’t hold up, and people
would be inclined to switch the P for an F.
4 Master Chief Halo was a game that took the industry by
storm.
The 2001 military science fiction FPS launched a franchise, and with it, Master Chief, the
role that the player assumed, soon became an icon, especially for fans of the first
person shooter genre.
While some critics have called Chief’s silent and faceless nature a sign of a weak character,
others feel that this actually makes Chief more accessible, allowing players to project
themselves onto the character.
Regardless, Master Chief has been noted as being one of the handful of video game characters
who surpass the brand of their video game – Master Chief has appeared on a plethora
of products, and has even been called a “new kind of celebrity for a new and profoundly
weird millennium” by Time magazine’s Lev Grossman.
3 Lara Croft If Samus opened the door for bad ass female
protagonists in video games, Lara Croft solidified that.
With over 20 years of Tomb Raider games, Lara’s legacy goes beyond just exploring ancient
tombs and ruins and kicking butt.
She’s a pop culture icon, the most recognizable female character in video games, has her own
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is the subject of multiple blockbuster feature
films, where she was portrayed by Angelina Jolie.
More recently, we’ve been given further insight on the highly intelligent archaeologist
adventure, with a more complex characterization in the recent Square Enix Tomb Raider games,
and a promising new feature film on the horizon.
2 Link When the Legend of Zelda was released in 1986,
gamers were introduced to Link, the penultimate fantasy hero.
Over the years, we’ve gone on many diverse and fascinating adventures, met surreal and
enchanting characters and creatures, and have been introduced to new civilizations spawned
from our wildest dreams.
We’ve been given different versions of Link from different timelines, and he’s arguably
the most iconic video game character to have endured multiple aesthetic makeovers and still
be a household name, but several traits have always remained the same – he’s brave,
he’s humble and he’s determined to defeat whatever evil threatens Hyrule and his friends.
1 Mario It’s undeniable that Nintendo helped revolutionize
the video game industry, but much of their success came from the creation of their own
properties – characters that acted as mascots for their company that they had full creative
control over, not just licenced ones.
First appearing in the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game, known only as Jumpman, Mario would go
on to have his own title called Mario Bros. Named after the landlord of Nintendo of America’s
office warehouse, Mario’s early days only involved running and jumping, but he still
managed to gain enough popularity to get his own title on the NES in 1985.
Since then, his reach has been wide and varying, with the likes of TV shows, anime, films and
comics, along with a ton of merch under his belt.
He’s been involved in over 200 games of various genres, and the Mario franchise is
the best-selling video game franchise of all time.
Not too bad for a dude who started off being called Jumpman.
Alright, there we have it!
Which one of these is your favourite?
There are many other fantastic video game heroes out there that we couldn’t touch
on within the small confines of our ten spot list, but let us know if you want us to do
a part two so we can dive into some more recent characters.
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I’ve been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 gaming.
Catch you all in the next one!