Top Ten Top Ten Favorite Video Game Characters

Hey y'all.  Well, it's been long enough, but I've finally got the top ten top ten favorite video game characters.  I didn't think it would be as hard as it was, but holy crap, I saw more top ten videos than I did for all of my other top ten top tens.  Woo, this was something.  Well, in any case, I bring you the results today!  How did your favorite do?

Okay, so the rules again.  Each entry in a top ten list counts as one vote, no matter how high or low that character is on the list.  If a video lists more than top ten, anything above ten is ignored.  Shorter lists are acceptable.  It doesn't matter if two favorites are from the same series as far as my list goes.  If two characters are tied, the one that comes from the better game series will occupy the higher rank.

Like my least favorite character list, I'll go first with some of those that didn't make the top ten.  First of all, a big round of applause for our runner ups!



---- Four Votes ----
Albert Wesker
Ganondorf
GlaDos
Jak
Niko Bellic
Pac-Man
Ridley
Wheatly from Portal 2


---- Five Votes ----
Bowser
Bowser Junior
Cloud from Final Fantasy
Ratchet
Ryu Hyabasa
Tails

---- Six Votes ---- 
Meta Knight
Marcus Fenix
Ryu from Street Fighter
Lara Croft
Duke Nukem
Altair Auditore

---- Seven Votes ----
Scorpion from Mortal Kombat
Nathan Drake
Pikachu
Leon Kennedy

We had a lot of votes for this thing, and since so many of your most beloved characters got so many votes, I'm doing a quick picture rundown of #20 through #11.  Here we go!

#20: Sora from Kingdom Hearts

I've always wondered why that little chain at the back of his sword doesn't throw off his fighting balance.

#19: Gordon Freeman from Half Life

The strong, silent type.  With a crowbar.  Aw, yeah.

#18: Zero

I love the guy, but holy crap, the games he stars in are friggin' depressing.

#17: Donkey Kong

I don't like Donkey Kong Country Returns.  The controls were horrible.  Donkey's still cool, though.

#16: Kratos

What, you didn't know Kratos likes pretty rainbows?

#15: John Marston from Red Dead Redemption

John Marston is a man's man.  I wish they'd have more characters like this in film.

#14: Mega Man

Yay!  Good job, little blue buddy!  I knew you could do it!

#13: Crash Bandicoot

I only played a game from this guy's series once.  It had really creepy cats in labcoats.

#12: Shadow the Hedgehog

I don't think Shadow is stupid, but I just couldn't help posting this picture.  So cute!  Good job, Puccachi.

#11: Ezio Auditore

I think it says something about society when one of the most beloved characters in games is a murderer by occupation.  Just think of this picture as a contribution to the solution.  Or I'm just a troll. :D


---- The Top Ten ----

Alright, there's the rundown, so let's get to business!  Here are the top ten top ten favorite characters, according to youtube, at least.

#10:  Luigi

It's everybody's favorite sidekick, super Luigi!  A lot of people like this guy, despite having lead in both terrible and mediocre games, and always being the less considered little brother.  He also had a few votes in my most annoying characters list, as people didn't seem to like his apparent cowardice in Luigi's Haunted Mansion.  Clearly, though his fans outweigh his detractors.  Sort of shocking how popular the guy is when you consider he's a slightly taller Mario recolor.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I love Luigi too.


#9: Yoshi

Also from Nintendo, and on my favorite track, no less, is Yoshi, everybody's favorite dinosaur.  Despite everyone hating his companion, Baby Mario, Yoshi himself is well loved, despite having little backstory and noises for speech.  Well, at least he's adorable.


#8: Dante, From Devil May Cry

I had no clue this dude existed, but hey, people love the guy, so I have to put him on.  I honestly love his backstory though.  He's a half demon, half human who fights the forces of evil in a very flippant, fearless, and sarcastic manner.  Dante is powerful but rarely serious, though he does have strict morals about fighting fair and not killing pure-blooded humans.  I think it's weird that demons in his universe can apparently choose to be good (a demon being defined by its evil intent), but it's nice to know that Dante will have mercy on people who choose not to give into their dark side.  Cool stuff.


#7: Samus Aran

Samus is the highest ranking female on the top tens list.  This is likely because while there are tons of "hot" (sluttily dressed) video game females, but few are both hot and awesome.  Samus seems to fit the bill, and is both tough and has really cool armor.  To be honest, the only games of hers I've seen are the original, which is insanely boring, and Other M, the infamous bad entry in her series.  I really should watch another lets play so I can see her in a game that's actually good.  I've always liked Ridley, though.

#6: Kirby

It's everyone's favorite blob of pink stuff.  It's Kirby, the guy that eats people and takes their powers.  Did you know he was named after a lawyer?  Weird.  This happy-go-lucky, impulsive little dude is a guy that always steps up to save Dreamland.  It's weird that so many favorite characters are either mute or just make squeaky noises.


#5: Solid Snake

Yeah, there was pretty much no way this guy wasn't going to make it on the list.  He's a cool super soldier that smokes, hides in boxes, and has a ridiculous IQ.  I was going to quote a little more of his wiki, but this dude has a complicated background.  I'll just say that this dude has had a lot of ups and downs, and is one of the more well-developed and interesting characters on the top ten list.  Heck, he's probably the most developed of them all.


#4: Master Chief:

I love this picture.  Master Chief is another silent guy, and we have never seen his face.  Apparently this is so that the players can identify themselves with MC.  In fact, the games themselves never reveal his backstory.  There's a novel out there that explains that he was a kidnapped kid forced to become a soldier, but that sounds too much like ghosts from Starcraft, and I don't consider game novels canon to game plots.  Master Chief is an awesome space hero, and he doesn't need backstory.


Now, I usually wait until after mentioning number 2 before showing the honorable mentions, but the top three are actually pretty obvious.  Surely you know them.  In fact, you can probably guess them all now.  It's more fun to try and guess which one did the best, rather than waiting for the inevitable.  So who stood out from the crowd?

Most Ironic Mention Winner:  Bowser Junior
     It amuses me that BJ won five votes, as he actually appeared as an earlier mention in my annoying characters list.  In fact, had there been more top ten worst video game characters on youtube, his dislikes might have equaled his likes.  I didn't realize the guy was so controversial.

Special Mention Winners:
     Congratulations to Fox from Star Fox and Knuckles the echidna for being the only characters on my personal list who got votes from Youtube.  Congrats to Zeratul for being the only Starcraft character to get a vote.

Arc Rose Honorable Mention: Judicator Aldaris
     Why does he win?  BECAUSE I SAY SO.  Actually, I usually reserve this spot for something that was surprisingly appealing, but I felt no random attachments to a voted character this time.  I would have chosen Dante from Devil May Cry, but he already has a spot.  Plus Aldaris is funny.  And he never made it to Starcraft 2 to be ruined.  Sheesh, I just watched a let's play on Heart of the Swarm, and it was the worst story I've ever seen. Poor, poor Zeratul.  You were awesome back in Starcraft 1.  Aldaris, on the other hand, was always awesome, if way too stubborn for his own good.

Back to the list!

#3: Sonic the Hedgehog

It's the fastest thing in the world!  The great and super cool blue blur!  Yay!  Actually, I've barely touched his games.  Sonic's still cool, though.  I always got the feeling that he saves the world not because he's a hero, so much, but because he just thinks it's fun.  Dr. Robotnik doesn't escape the games at the end of each, Sonic probably lets him go just so Robotnik can try again and enjoy saving the world again.  Or so I imagine.


#2: Link

And so we have our sword wielding little elf dude, who keeps running into the creepiest baddies and most bizarre NPCs.  Not only is he another quiet hero, but he also has a number of magical powers and weapons to help him save Zelda.  And he once stopped an angry moon from hitting the planet.  He still hasn't saved us from that annoying blue blurb that keeps telling us to listen, which is probably why he didn't come in number one.  It was a really close tally, though.


#1: Mario

Were you really expecting someone else?  To be honest, I was.  I don't know why it shocks me that the most iconic video game character of all time is still number one.  But again, a mostly silent protagonist who gains various powers is still the number one character.  It may be nostalgia, or perhaps people attaching the awesomeness of his games to the character itself.  Whatever.  I'm not the judge of why people like this guy, I just tell who won.  With 46 votes, Mario pulled it off.

What I love best about Mario is that he's never going to go away.  He's going to be a video game protagonist for many years to come, and he may even outlive me.  Mario has gone from being a tiny blip jumping barrels to a 3D model navigating planets in weird gravity.  Long live the gaming king, long live the king!

And that's my list!  I hope you enjoyed it.  Did any of your favorites make it on there?