Acting as a medieval Han Solo type - a rogue looking out for himself; callous and sarcastic, yet always upholding his beliefs - he matches his wit with a surprising amount of intelligence and a certain roguish charm. But it's his sardonic amorality that shines through most of all, ensuring Garrett a place as one of gaming's most appealing anti-heroes.
It's not entirely certain what the developers were thinking or taking when they came up with the premise for killer7 or its schizoid central character. Harman Smith, a sixty year-old, wheelchair-bound man is a master assassin. Well, obviously by harnessing his multiple personality disorder and physically manifesting his seven alter-egos, each of which has a distinct persona and set of unique, life-ending skills.
Let's not even get into the fact that he's actually the incarnation of a millennia-old demi-god who has been fighting a battle of good vs evil with his opponent, Kun Lan, across time. Yes, it's all madder than a badger's armpit, but you've got to hand it to the game designer: it's one hell of a concept.
Cheaters use Sagat, real men use Ryu! The face of the greatest fighting franchise ever to grace a console, Ryu is an icon who has spanned decades. While synonymous with the Street Fighter franchise, he's also gone toe-to-toe with SNK's finest, The Darkstalkers line-up and half of the Marvel stable, only to emerge unscathed and victorious nine bouts out of ten.
Ryu's look hasn't evolved hugely from his initial appearance with a slight hair variance here and there - he was ginger in the original Street Fighter, after all ; dressed in his white keikogi, red headband and matching gloves, he has remained the definitive beat-'em-up fighter and go-to-guy for the discerning player since the days of SF2. Part-way through coding the original Metroid, a member of Nintendo's development team wondered how players would react if they discovered that the bulky, heavily-armoured character they'd been controlling for the past 10 hours was actually a woman.
And after a quick vote in favour of toying with gaming conventions, the first major female protagonist in a videogame was born. The star of a classic series of atmospheric space adventures that took their lead from Ridley Scott's Alien and put more focus on exploration than alien blasting, Samus Aran has become an enduring heroine on the gaming scene.
Uniquely, many observers have heralded Samus as a feminist icon in a male-dominated industry, who's able to save the day and slaughter the bad guys without needing to slip into sexy shorts or a bulging tank top. But whether you see her as a breakthrough for feminism or just another faceless sci-fi warrior, 's unexpected reveal that showed women could be more in gaming lore than eye candy for geeky boys was a refreshing and unforgettable moment.
Of all the characters in Warcraft lore, Arthas Menthil is the most tragic. The heir to the throne of Lordaeron, Arthas set out to save his father's kingdom from The Scourge of undead, only to be tricked into joining their ranks by taking up the cursed sword Frostmourne and ultimately becoming their lord and master, The Lich King.
Talk about doing a one-eighty. In World of Warcraft, Arthas is currently the boss to beat for stalwart bands of level 80s, since Icecrown Citadel has unlocked its gates and it's now open season on the Lich King for raiders everywhere. However, you don't need to face him head-on to appreciate Arthas' nuances.
The character's personality is most keenly felt in the dozens of lore-woven quests scattered throughout Northrend. Whether it's watching him anoint Scala Sorrowgrave, riding alongside his mortal self during the Culling of Stratholme or doing his bidding in the Death Knight starting zone, Arthas enriches every aspect he touches, his backstory filling in as you level and making the Lich King's final fall and phat lewt drop all the more poignant.
The brainchild of British coders Ultimate Play The Game now rechristened Rare, the geniuses behind modern classics such as GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark 's Sabre Wulf introduced Sabreman, a Dr Livingstone for the Mario generation in pith helmet and khaki shorts, slaughtering endangered species with a sword as he battled to escape a candy-coloured jungle.
Ambitious sequel Underwurlde continued Sabreman's adventures, but it was the mind-boggling Knight Lore that most players will remember because it saw the helmeted hero reimagined in stunning 3D. While that won't mean much to players in , playing a three-dimensional game in felt like dabbling in witchcraft, or looking through a magical window into the future of home entertainment.
Last seen in Sabre Wulf on the Game Boy Advance in , rumours abound that Sabreman will once again return to the gaming fold. Princess kidnapping now that's not very nice, is it Mr Bowser?
And you're a repeat offender. And you spit fireballs from your mouth. Tsk, tsk, tsk Still, you're a charming, fire-firing, turtle-shelled, evil mastermind, and you're so ruthlessly patient and devilish we've learned to respect you, fear you, and, um, even love you. What's more, you're damn useful for knocking people into lava on Mario Kart, and we'd admire you for that ability alone to be honest. Now that the likes of Yoshi and Wario have been given their own games, and after his first rate performance in Super Mario Galaxy, we think that Bowser's time has come.
Maybe he should actually defeat Mario, for once. Yes, we went there. We're off the hook. Though he's running around the globe with a gun and a pretty journalist sidekick, somehow the Uncharted series' cocky protagonist Nathan Drake still feels like your mate. You know, the one who irregularly comes back home with a face full of bruises, a body full of bullets and a sea chest full of gold. You know, that one. The one who can climb almost anything. That guy. Though his day job is lobbing grenades around ancient ruins, firing AKs from the top of Himalayan mountains and desecrating World Heritage Sites, he does it with a genuine sense of self-awareness, pointing out how ridiculous it is and dropping genuinely hilarious wisecracks - all in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt half out, half tucked.
Simply put, Nate's a charming son of a bitch and the gaming character we'd most like to go out drinking with - an accolade we don't bestow lightly.
A silent weapon for the International Contract Agency ICA , Agent 47 - a name derived from the last two digits of his assigned number - is the perfect killer clone: a deadly mix of speed, intellect and strength. Originally conceived by IO Interactive as a disgruntled and bearded old guy, he was later transformed into the barcode-tattooed, snappy dresser who has since become a gaming staple.
Leather gloves, red tie, black suit and bald, barcode-adorned head, Agent 47 is striking to the point where it's probably something of a hindrance in his chosen line of work.
Still, thanks to his mercifully unobservant marks and the abundance of one-size-fits-all enemy uniforms, no one is safe from the silent assassin. He can go on all out gun-blazing massacres or choose to aim for elite stealth killer ranks on each mission, but whether it's softly softly or scorched earth, 47 always gets the job done.
His immoral, introverted ways are occasionally belied by slight chinks in his armour, as he shows compassion for the occasional bystander and even goes out of his way to keep them alive. A killer with a heart of gold? No, probably not. He's still an utter bastard. You could say that Duke is just a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the hard-as-nails cinematic macho men seen in the likes of Commando, Rambo and Die-Hard.
Not necessarily invulnerable but bigger, badder and more muscular than you ever thought possible; a man-mountain that men want to be and women want to bed. Sure, you could say that. And you'd be right. But 15 games later and Duke has become his very own man, the characters he was designed to imitate and poke fun of writ large on the gaming landscape. Film might have Schwarzenegger, but Gaming's got Mr Nukem, and who needs Arnie when Duke's in town with a shotgun to fire and a cigar to chew on?
His catchphrases alone a number of which are shamelessly ripped off from Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness make him one of the best action characters ever devised: "Now you see me An interrobang, you say!?
Nothing that Snake doesn't deserve: this sneakiest, most serious, most ludicrous of special agents, complete with natty headband, 'tache and snaking suit, definitely warrants shouting, screaming, and an overabundance of punctuation.
Beginning as an action pastiche, he swiftly evolved into his very own character, as we've watched him grow from rookie spy to aged, but still lithe, espionage-loving old timer, complete with eye patch and greying hair and everything - superbly voiced by gravel-tongued voice-actor and X-Men screenwriter, David Hayter. Special attention should be given to Snake for one thing he does above all others: his ability to swiftly whip out a cardboard box, hide in it, and remain unnoticed despite the fact that he's wiggling slowly across a room.
When Lewis Carroll first dreamed up the character of Alice and sent her spiralling down the rabbit hole, we're not sure this is entirely what he had in mind. Dark, twisted and clutching a bloody knife, American McGee's interpretation of the children's story icon is an inspired medley of the benign and the macabre. Set some time after the Wonderland and Looking Glass adventures we're all familiar with, McGee's twisted fairy tale sees the smock-sporting heroine left as sole survivor when her house and family burn to the ground.
A botched suicide attempt sees her committed so, bonkers and catatonic, she retreats into a disturbing and much darker vision of Wonderland. You can easily argue that Carroll's vision of Alice harboured a dark subtext, but in terms of sheer, twisted sadism, McGee's take on the character wins it hands down. After all, the Red Queen looks a hell of a lot less intimidating when Alice shivs her with a kitchen knife.
A night elf demon hunter who became a demon himself, Illidan made his appearance as an unlikely ally in Warcraft III, consuming the Skull of Gul'dan obviously and taking on a terrible, winged form as a result. But for all his impressive machinations in the RTS classic, it wasn't until the release of World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade that Illidan truly came into his own. As the lord of Outland, wielder of the Twin Blades of Azzinoth and the looming threat behind everything players faced in the long grind to level 70, Illidan was a force to be reckoned with.
By the time you and 24 eager guildies had trekked to the heart of Shadowmoon Valley and stood attuned at the gates of the Black Temple, ready to face him, it was all the average warrior could do not to soil his chainmail pants.
You'll be hard pressed to find another character within Liberty City as overzealous and straight-up bonkers as Brucie Kibbutz. A fitness fanatic who's constantly juiced-up, he's a side-plot to the GTA IV story but a loyal ally to the game's protagonist, Niko Bellic and, arguably, the best thing in the entire game.
We say It was hard to decide between showcasing the image of Sweet Tooth himself or his iconic ice cream truck. We went with the killer clown, who might be responsible for a whole generation of people with coulrophobia or a fear of clowns. While he doesn't have much of a narrative, we learn from later cut scenes that Sweet Tooth is a former circus performer who's escaped from a mental institution.
In-game, Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck is decked with some wicked machine guns and the screams of his victims. For years, fans have been asking to learn more about Sweet Tooth's backstory, and finally, a cut-scene was made where we learn about a lover that Sweet Tooth doesn't much care for anymore, to put it mildly.
The Dictator to some, M. Bison is the ultimate personification of evil and the main antagonist of the Street Fighter series, even while not appearing until Street Fighter II. Like many villains, M. Bison's ultimate goal is to take over the world. He tries to accomplish this through his underground crime syndicate known as Shadaloo.
His in-game powers include a famous energy attack where he spins in the air at his opponent. He's known for the barely comprehensible "Ooga" he shouts throughout the match while he punches.
Originally the character was going to be named Mike Bison. Capcom feared, however, that they would be legally liable due to the close resemblance of that name to the boxer Mike Tyson, so they shortened the "Mike" to just an "M.
Wily is Mega Man's nemesis; though, you probably haven't heard of him unless you played Mega Man or watched the animated show, where his character really took shape. Wily is essentially a jealous hack that is angry about the achievements of Dr.
Light, who created Mega Man. In his anger, he reprogrammed many of the robots to become fighters with the final hope of Albert Einstein inspires Dr. Wiley's character and design with the crazy hair and mustache. Oh, and his first name is Albert, as another nod to the great physicist. It's hard to make a list without at least one Blizzard video game character, and Sarah Kerrigan is certainly the standout.
Before StarCraft fell out of favor, she really was the face of competitive gaming. Also known as the Queen of the Blades , Kerrigan is an assassin in-game, using her psychic powers to gain knowledge and take down her enemies. In Blizzard lore, she contains many narratives and is featured in many of the novels written about StarCraft.
Sarah Kerrigan was named after Nancy Kerrigan, Olympic gold medalist figure skater famous for her feud with Tanya Harding. When God of War first announced its Norse-era version of the game, fans were treated with a young boy emerging out of the digital forest.
Atreus is the son of Kratos and Faye. He has a special ability to hear the thoughts of the creatures of the forest, which players can use to their advantage in the game. Atreus' journey in the game, both physically and emotionally, is quite complex. Along with the player, he needs to learn who he is and his place in the world around him.
Atreus' story loosely follows the story of Atreus from Greek mythology, who murdered his father in a quest for the throne of Olympia. Fox McCloud is every gamer's favorite anthropomorphic fox. He is the leader of a group called Star Fox and most of the time players control him aboard the spaceship, Arwing.
Essentially, Fox is a gun-for-hire, hired to perform various missions and Many liken him to video gaming's answer to Luke Skywalker, as he exhibits great bravery and heroism throughout the series of games. Designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, was undecided on what kind of animal to use for the game until he visited the Fushimi Inari shrine which is a giant statue of a mythological fox.
How does Trevor Philips get away with wearing sweatpants every day? When you're as dangerous as he is, you can pretty much wear whatever you want. Philips is a playable character in Grand Theft Auto V and certainly the most remembered. This is due, in part, to the stellar acting of Steve Ogg, who used motion-sensing controls to act out Philips' cut scenes and voiced the character. While he's certainly a bad dude in the game, however, Philips actually has a heart and cares about some people in his life.
That certainly contributes to his stature amongst those who play GTA—that, and his being the main playable character in the online version of the game. Steve Ogg, who acted Philips, claims that he used Charles Bronson as inspiration for the character's demeanor. Make a physicist and researcher a weapon-wielding hero, and you're going to end up with some cool weapons. Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of the series Half-Life , wields everything from an energy-field manipulator to a gluon gun.
Freeman must fight an alien race known as headcrabs after being one of the few survivors of a massive attack. As a researcher, the game highlights that he did very little that was of actual effect; now, Freeman's saving the planet one headcrab at a time.
Many players know her as the voice in their ears as they learn the storyline behind the Halo series of games. Cortana is an artificially intelligent character that provides information throughout the game and figures into the story. She has a complex relationship with Master Chief, who also appears on this list. While she's artificially intelligent, she also contains real emotional depth, which critiques the idea that robots are incapable of the same levels of humanness as humans.
Cortana inspired Microsoft's artificially intelligent personal assistant with the same name. The protagonist of both the Splinter Cell games and a series of novels by Tom Clancy, Sam Fisher, is your classic black-ops video game hero. He's proficient with computers, tracking bad guys, and generally saving the world. He's employed by a fictional branch of the NSA called the "Third Echelon" and involved in various undercover missions.
Later he becomes the leader of the "Fourth Echelon," another branch with a direct line to the President of the United States. In the novels, Sam Fisher has the ability to fall asleep at will, which is an ability that proves useful when he needs to sleep in less-than-comfortable circumstances.
Diddy Kong is a mini-Kong of sorts and has more chimpanzee elements than Donkey Kong. In-game, Diddy Kong can jump higher and climb easier than his clunkier counterpart, Donkey Kong.
Diddy Kong marks the first time that Nintendo has branded its logo in-game. Notice Diddy Kong's red hat? Guess what logo can be seen adorning the front. She is escorted by Joe Miller, who also appears on our list, through the US, as she is one of the few immune survivors of a plague.
She becomes humanity's last hope of overcoming the terrible infection. Her subversion of the classic stereotypes of a scared little girl makes her unique among video games and helps win the respect of many gamers. She is also one of the first video game characters to be openly queer, winning her approval from the LGBT community.
Players of the game received a welcome surprise when Ellie became playable for a portion of The Last of Us. Developers kept this a secret before the game's release, and most players were really excited to control the secondary character.
Here's the character you'd want with you anytime you had to go into a spooky house! Jill Valentine has seen it all and somehow keeps coming back for more. She's the main character in the Resident Evil series of games, which are downright scary to play. She fights against the Umbrella Corporation, which has used genetic mutations and drugs to unleash zombies and other foul creatures upon the world. A handful of Resident Evil films helped to solidify her position on the list of iconic video game characters.
Resident Evil was one of the first games to offer alternate costumes for its playable character, which became a staple for the series and the gaming industry as a whole. Father of "Solid Snake," who appears later on our list, the aptly named Big Boss is the leader of a group of terrorists—Outer Heaven. Many critics note that what makes Big Boss such a great character is his believable evolution into a villain. In prequels to the main storyline, Big Boss is revealed to be a special forces officer who becomes disillusioned with the US government when he is betrayed and lied to.
His earlier name is revealed to be "Naked Snake," though he's often just referred to as "Snake" in the game. The cutest dragon in all video games—Spyro! Cute as Spyro is, he can still breathe fire with the best of them. His other attack is to charge at enemies and knock them up.
His ability to glide in-game allows him to land on some hard-to-reach platforms and areas. This made him fairly unique in the platform gaming world and made the gameplay more unique.
When Assassin's Creed was first released, the game received high praise for its ingenuity in gameplay and story-telling. A big part of the success was due to its main character, who appears in the game as the descendant of Desmond Miles.
Desmond returns to his ancestor's memories by force so that a secret organization can learn the truth of the past. Ezio is a skilled assassin who climbs walls and completes quests that lead toward uncovering dark secrets. Princess Peach, Super Mario Bros. Ellie, The Last of Us In the original The Last of Us, this teenager created a stir for being a survivor, albeit a second-banana to the older male lead.
Ivy Valentine, SoulCalibur When your calling cards are your swords and your sword skills, it's no wonder you're hailed as one of the most powerful female characters from the SoulCalibur fighting series. Evie Frye, Assassin's Creed In Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the Victorian-era Evie is a likable, stealthy killer who shares the stage with her twin brother, Jacob, but, as Paste Magazine puts it, "never once feels like a secondary protagonist.
Billie Lurk, Dishonored First seen in Dishonored 2 , and moved into a starring role in the expansion pack, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, the Dreadful Wale's captain is arguably, per GameSpot, "the most cunning and deceptive assassin in the Dishonored series. Battlefield's pioneers Battlefield V won't be out until October, but the gaming world is already abuzz with news that women and persons of color will be featured in the World War II-set game as multiplayer-mode playable characters -- a first.
Bayonetta In a four-star review of Bayonetta 2 , GameSpot called the titular, hair-clothed character "one of the most charismatic and powerful heroines in the medium. Mona Sax, Max Payne This unforgettable contract killer gets bonus points for making the jump from the console to the movie theater via 's Max Payne. Sonya Blade, Mortal Kombat This soldier has been celebrated as one of the original Mortal Kombat characters, but she's also been left out of several editions. Rayne, BloodRayne This half-vampire, half-human is a multimedia force -- the star of her own games and movies.
Cortana, Halo First seen in Halo: Combat Evolved , this smart, female-form-assuming AI is the inspiration for Windows 10's personal assistant called you-know-what. Jill Valentine, Resident Evil A survivor of the survival series, this bombs expert made her debut in the original Resident Evil en route to being named one of the top 50 video game characters of all time by Guinness World Records.
Pac-Man She looks about as tough as Betty Boop, but the iconic, s arcade star fronted a game that USgamer says was "considerably more challenging than its predecessor. Shodan, System Shock Shodan is a female-presenting AI that, according to Empire, is the "most terrifying, psychologically disturbing and downright memorable evil mastermind in video games.
April Ryan, The Longest Journey Mic has praised this adventure-game protagonist as "complicated, multi-layered [and] brave. Joanna Dark, Perfect Dark The namesake of this shooter game is a spy who can really shoot. Faith Connors, Mirror's Edge This determined courier from the first-person action-adventure game is, according to Complex, one of the "most badass video game characters of all-time. Samus Aran, Metroid In , the original players of Metroid didn't know until the end of their journey that the armored bounty hunter at the center of the sci-fi action was, in fact, one of gaming's pioneering female power characters.
Chell, Portal Chell may not speak in her shooter game, but she's still heard loud and clear. Now this is what we call a soup strainer. A playful flirt from the off, the former Enchanter is a dreamy, expertly groomed romance option for those who choose to play as a male Inquisitor. The hunky spellcaster has lived quite the life, too. Born to the fancy-pants House of Qarinus, Dorian studied magic at the Circle of Carastes, but despite being a prize student, his love of dueling landed him in all sorts of bother.
From roughing it in the elven slums of Tevinter Imperium to joining the Inquisition to help stop societal ills, Pavus is as complicated as his mustache is magnificent. First appearance in a game: Notable appearance: Fable 2. Whether you raise it as a dalmation, bloodhound, or the original "mutt" breed, Dog plays a crucial role in the Xbox RPG.
Found near Bowerstone at the beginning of the adventure, your Hero and Dog form a bond that defines the game. As the journey unfolds, your behavior and choices affect the look and mannerisms of Dog. If the Hero remains a do-gooder though, the pup will be a very happy boy who children rush to pet. Regardless of your moral choices, Dog proves itself iconic through a legendary act of sacrifice, taking a bullet for the Hero as the dastardly Lucien tries to shoot your character.
And yes, we do have all the things in our eye. First appearance in a game: Notable appearance: The Sims 2. The most stylish Sim ever used to have such a lovely, boring life.
Growing up in the Bachelor family, she was a good student whose Gothic side shone through in the collection of skulls she adorned her bedroom with.
Though Bella shares a happy relationship with her bug-hugging hubby at Sim Lane, Goth vanishes from Pleasantview after being abducted by aliens. Prior to being beamed up by E. Beam this oh so stylish Sim back, you alien jerks! This surprisingly loose-lipped lizard is a deadly dragon king, and easily the most iconic monster your Dragonborn encounters.
And talk about an entrance. By acting like a dragon… that, and by summoning storms of meteors with his iconic roar. We never saw Drogon pull that off in Game of Thrones. Such is his appetite for destruction, Alduin is often called "World Eater" — presumably by the soon-to-be charred corpses of his latest victims.
Mercifully, the Dragonborn and a trio of Nordic heroes send Alduin packing through time thanks to the power of an Elder Scroll.
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