Top 10 best video game characters of all time
What are the best video game characters of all time? Read on to find out…
Video game characters have the ability to pull you in, offering an emotional connection which makes you actually care what happens in the game. But only some manage to do this in any real sense. Others, meanwhile, are memorable for other reasons, including the games they find themselves in.
We recently conducted a poll to find out what the top 10 best video game characters of all time are, and our readers responded. The question we asked was, “Best game character of all time?,” and below are the results we have compiled over the course of the last month.
Top 10 Video Game Characters Of All Time
Mario – 14% of all votes
Solid Snake – 13% of all votes
Link – 8% of all votes
Kratos – 8% of all votes
Master Chief – 7% of all votes
Nathan Drake – 6% of all votes
Sonic – 5% of all votes
Cloud Strife – 4% of all votes
Jak – 4% of all votes
Lara Croft – 3% of all votes
It really is no surprise to see Mario at the top. He has been around for decades, appears in hundreds of different games across platforms and genres, and is recognizable around the world. However, his nemesis (in terms of icons) Sonic only comes in at seven. Cloud Strife’s presence is noteworthy as he’s only a major character in a solitary title. But what a game Final Fantasy VII was, and it’s still highly-playable to this day.
It’s interesting to note that the majority of these characters have been around for a long time, with just one (Nathan Drake) being specific to this generation thanks to the Uncharted games. Could it be that the time of iconic video game characters is over? After all, the biggest games these days are shooters (subject of this month’s poll) and it isn’t easy to make a character shine in an FPS.
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44 Responses to “Top 10 best video game characters of all time”
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August 30th, 2011
I voted for Nathan Drake. Awesome character. While I like GOW games more Kratos is just a prick. lol
August 30th, 2011
Wow. Mario is an asshole. I cant believe HE was #1. He has 1 god damn phrase.
“Video game characters have the ability to pull you in, offering an emotional connection which makes you actually care what happens in the game.”
In that case:
1. Nathan Drake-Best voice acting, very funny and enjoyable.
2. Solid Snake-Simply a great character and he can get you emotional.
3. Kratos-Everyone loves a total powerful character who cannot be stopped.
The rest are all just ICONIC and dont deserve to actually be a “good character”
Its because they barely are characters. They are under developed. I love Link, Laura Croft, Sonic, Jak, etc, but We hardly know anything about them. All we know is that they fit their games.
August 31st, 2011
@ Mak: It’s Lara, dude!
August 31st, 2011
Nathan is cool, and a very plausible character.
the character I would say I connected with more than in any other game was Kaim, from lost Odyssey’s.
This game just about rips you heart out in places, especially if you have kids of your own.
the game is very sad a lot of the time and deals with love, loss and death in a very powerful way like no other game I have ever seen.
like watching the movie “Seven pounds”, this game should not be played in front of anyone you don’t want to see you get all emotional.
August 31st, 2011
@Mike/Dave
In “Battle of the Shooters 2011″ Halo 4 needs to be changed to ‘Halo CE anniversary’. Halo 4 doesn’t come out until next year.
August 31st, 2011
My Bad. I just realized it was submitted by a Dumb ass….
August 31st, 2011
Who in the hell is cloud strife?
Kratos all the way. You guys are confusing the character and the games. Kratos is a bad guy that they make you feel sorry for and care about.
August 31st, 2011
No one cares what happens to Mario.
August 31st, 2011
I agree with Mak except Kratos is the bad guy that makes you feel sorry for him. So he takes #1. Nathan has good action and acting but you don’t root for him like you do Kratos. At the end of three I was pissed they didn’t have the god chick(can’t recall her name) bring back his wife and kid for him.
August 31st, 2011
Mario could have been a pos with feet for all I care. The games was fun and had nothing to do with him. “lets’a go!” gees.
August 31st, 2011
“Who in the hell is cloud strife?”
It’s the main character in FF7.
I voted for Kratos. He’s more bad ass than anyone in the list and he also has an emotional story that covers 3 games but it’s all one epic tale. The beginning of GOW1 shows how emotional this game is.
Solid Snake would be my second pick and in some cases my #1 pick.
Nathan is cool but he’s too ordinary.
Link shouldn’t even be there because there are so many Link.
Mario, Sonic, Jak & Master Chief are just mascots
August 31st, 2011
His story coves 5 games. And every one was Epic! I can’t believe you haven’t played both the PSP games. I can’t wait to play them remastered in hd on the 115 inch screen. And maybe 3d if they go there. That would be the ultimate surprise.
August 31st, 2011
For year I thought links name was Zelda. Never really played them until the DS.
August 31st, 2011
Favorite game characters:
Nathan Drake
Chloe
Lara Croft
Kratos
Bayonetta
Dante
August 31st, 2011
“I can’t believe you haven’t played both the PSP games”
I played Chains of Olympus and loved it. Going to play Ghost of Spart in a few weeks on PS3
August 31st, 2011
I picked up a new copy of Brink for $10 yesterday with the $20 off BB coupon. I’ve been wanting to try this game. I know people who really like this game and people who really hate this game. For this price, I figured I would give it a try. I didn’t like the No More Heroes game so I traded this game in. I like the Shadows Of The Damned game. It’s a pretty cool game. This game had a price reduction of $20 so I got it for $39.99.
August 31st, 2011
@Twilight
you seem like you only “try out” games…you barely play any game for longer than a week and you don’t even finish most of them or play online. why you keep buying games instead of playing demos instead.
August 31st, 2011
She should just rent.
August 31st, 2011
Roca,
I actually do finish some games. Keep in mind that I lost a lot of my saved game progress because of system failures before I was online. I’ve completed games like God Of War 3, Gears Of War 2, Uncharted 2, and Bayonetta. I never play just one game at a time. I am always playing multiple games at a time.
August 31st, 2011
Ncaissie,
That’s what my friend says but I like supporting the games industry so I would rather just buy the games. Money is not that big of issue for me so I just buy whatever games I want.
August 31st, 2011
You are not supporting the devs when you trade them in. You are preventing someone else from buying it new anyway.
August 31st, 2011
My favourite character of all time is Solid Snake, hands down. He’s such a tragic character. All the shit he goes through and how it affects the character is very well told. Kohima has done a brilliant job of making Snake seem very human, everything that happens to him takes it’s toll. In MGS4 especially with him only having 6 months to live and the end movie in MGS4 is the most powerful movies in any video game. I just couldn’t help feeling extremely sorry for the poor old bastard lol. When he’s knelt over the grave with the dead person*I won’t say who* and the credits start with that song I just sat there lost in thought feeling pretty sad. No other character comes close to Solid Snake in my opinion. He’s the most tragic character going.
September 2nd, 2011
With Oldy on this one.
Snake is the best of the bunch, and would kick everyone on the list’s arse.
(Oh and Oldy, Snake was cured of FOXDIE
)
September 2nd, 2011
Gotta love the fact that Gordon Freeman was left off this poll, yet Jak and Cloud made the cut…
Bollocks.
September 2nd, 2011
“Gotta love the fact that Gordon Freeman was left off this poll, yet Jak and Cloud made the cut…”
Silent protagonists need not apply
September 2nd, 2011
He was cured of FOXDIE true but he still only had 6 months to live due to rapid ageing.
September 2nd, 2011
If you remember he had a few weeks left after Naomis diagnosis so he was gonna finish himself off but in a very, very human moment he was too scared to do it(I love how Kojima done that! Snake is afraid to die, that was shocking and I loved it, made him seem very human). After that character who came who shall not be named(we’ll call him Voldemort lol) he told Snake that the new strain cancelled the old one out which in turn stopped the threat of Snake becoming a Bio weapon. So Snake could live as long as his rapid ageing will let him(that can not be cured, it is a side affect of cloning), so he had a few months to a year left and he told Otacon he would like to live long enough to see this era off peacefully.
He still only had less than a year. I was very happy Kojima gave him that at least, the guy earned a few peaceful months after all he went through.
September 2nd, 2011
Side effect*
September 2nd, 2011
“Silent protagonists need not apply”
Oh OK, so the criterion was that they needed a personality.. my bad.
Hell, I just thought that with all of Gordon’s achievements he would have had some consideration, considering he isn’t
a person with a ridiculous amount of jumping ability (Mario)
a genetically superior soldier (Solid Snake)
a hobbit (Link)
a personality-less, angry demi god (Kratos)
another gentically enhanced super soldier/cyborg (Master Chief)
a speedster hedgehog LOL (Sonic)
androgynous (Cloud Strife)
stupid (Jak)
rich and full of titties (Lara Croft)
a male Lara Croft (Nathan Drake)
He was just a brilliant scientist that saved the world AND beat the shit out of aliens, Zombies, and Black Mesa WITH A BLOODY CROWBAR.
Beat that, Master Chief.
September 2nd, 2011
I think Dr Freeman should of made the list. Sure he’s not actually a character, he’s more the player than a character. He doesn’t talk and is involved in no cutscenes. You have never seen his face except for box art, my feeling is that Valve wants Freeman to be the player.
He still should of made the list though, even if he’s just G-Mans bitch lmao. HL2 is the greatest fps ever, nothing comes close. He should get a mention.
Link is not a single character, it’s about 8 different people.
September 2nd, 2011
“even if he’s just G-Mans bitch ”
Valve needs to tell us who the bloody hell the G Man is!!
Wait, no, they need to hurry and release HL2 Ep 3 and stop doing bugger all…
“Link is not a single character, it’s about 8 different people.”
I LOL’d. So true…
September 2nd, 2011
Nah fuck episode 3. We’ve waited too long, we need a full blown Half-Life 3 now. An episodic add-on will not cut it after this agonising wait!
“Damn you, Vaaaaalveee”
*shakes fist dramatically in the air*
September 2nd, 2011
hahaha….
I agree, episode three needs to be HUGE.
I need to know what happens after Alyx’s father dies dammit!!
*shakes crowbar dramatically in the air*
September 2nd, 2011
“I need to know what happens after Alyx’s father dies dammit!!”
Well I’m hoping Freeman gives her some comfort sex, but that’s just me.
I honestly think Valve should skip the episode plan and just make a full Half-Life sequel where you find out that the G-Man is actually Gordon from the future(you know it’s coming, the similarities are striking and G-Man, G for Gordon, maybe?). That’s just my theory, then again maybe Valve don’t even know and they’re just making it up as they go along. They’ll prob just look at fan theories and use one of them and say that was there plan all along lol.
September 2nd, 2011
Hahaha yeah because they aren’t above stealing modder’s ideas and making them their own haha!
And yeah I thought the G man was Gordon too:
G(ordon)(Free)Man.
Right? Right?!
Only snag is the explanation for the loss of the goatee and his no need for glasses….
Contacts?
Right?! RIGHT?!!
September 2nd, 2011
I didn’t see the (Free)Man bit! Wow, it’s actually like a revelation! If G-Man is not Gordo then it will be a cop out!
If it is Gordon from the future then they may have cursed eyesight problems. Or it seems that G-Man can travel through dimensions and time, better eye sight can be overlooked lol.
As for losing the goatee, that one I can not explain! Maybe Valve will come up with a fantastic plot twist to explain how he lost it lol.
September 2nd, 2011
Cured, not cursed. Grrr!
September 2nd, 2011
” Maybe Valve will come up with a fantastic plot twist to explain how he lost it”
Epic slo-mo fleschette razor dodge fail! That’d be classic! LMFAO
September 2nd, 2011
I was thinking Susan Boyle sat on his face would melt it off lol.
September 3rd, 2011
“Oh OK, so the criterion was that they needed a personality.. my bad.”
Who knows? That’s what I assume.
If it’s about achievements, it would have to go to Kratos. He brought down the whole Greek Pantheon while destroying the world as we know it.
September 4th, 2011
Yeah but Kratos is still a god… I mean, I’m not lessening his achievements, but being a god with super strength and magical weapons is kind of a big advantage. I love Kratos as a character, but Gordon Freeman is much more badass in my opinion.
Come on, he can beat almost everything with a crowbar!!!
On the list though, my vote definitely goes to Solid Snake. He’s just too beastmode…
September 5th, 2011
…Demi-God lol.
September 5th, 2011
Yeah I realised I missed that part haha
Wish we could edit posts
September 5th, 2011
I know what you mean, pal. Wish I could edit it as well.