Top Five Most Influential Video Game Characters (RunDLC)

There are literally thousands of video game characters, but most exist because of a trail blazing plumber, tomb raider or furry that appeared years before. These five characters are by far the most influential in video game history, and are responsible for numerous copycats littering store shelves.

John Artest (RunDLC)

[dorron]

No way!

I agree with Mario...and maybe, maybe Lara, but the rest are out of place.

What about Snake/Big Boss, Kratos, Master Chief, Marcus Phoenix, Nathan Drake,...

[Buff1044]

I think BJ is the genesis of the tough guy character.....I don't see Nathan Drake being that influential. He's essentially a female Lara, but nowhere near as refined. :)

[WLPowell]

Nathan drake's gameplay is Tomb Raider, but he's a far more realistic character than Laura. They really have very few things in common besides the gameplay. He's more like Blasto.

[cult_of_N]

i knew i shouldn't have read this article...

What did Pacman ever influence? Don't get me wrong, awesome game... you love it, i love it. But can you honestly name any good sequels to Pacman (excluding Ms. Pacman)?

Lara Croft is a babe, but that's it. she never influenced anything except for digital D-cups and 2 horrid movies.

*sigh* i wish i could send you a bill, here's what your list should've resembled:

1. Mario
2. Sonic
3. Snake
4. Megaman
5. Link/Pikachu/Donkey Kong (take your pick)

[WLPowell]

as they said, mario had no identity. Pac-man developed a relationship and had a family before jumpan became Mario.

Lara Croft still got her two movies (which were better than the shitty mario one), and opened the world of gaming to a deeper form of 3D navigation and platforming beyond "mario-style 3d platforming" (and helped create the 3rd person shooter) which if you pay attention instead of living in "Nintendo fantasy land, where Nintendo does everything great and Nintendo does everything first" you'll notice more games follow evolutions of Tomb Raider-type gameplay than Mario 64 nowadays. MGS takes gameplay controlls that were an evolution of Tomb Raider. the same as the 3D zelda's. So Link and Snake have to give credit to Lara because her gameplay helped decided how games that aren't like mario should control in a 3D space.

Donkey Kong should be above Mario, cause without DK there wouldn't be a jumpman, and without jumpman there wouldn't be mario.

Name something substantial that Pikachu influenced. Really...

[Buff1044]

Agreed. I don't understand why Snake was so influential. And Pikachu....not so much.

[cult_of_N]

i can understand that you're skeptical of pikachu. I am, however, happy to defend him as a top influential character. Pokemon has been the number one selling handheld title since the late 90's. In Japan, pokemon would be the equivalent to disney (theme parks etc.). Pokemon is also one of top selling rpg franchises of all time (it may very well be number one). And do i really have to name all of the spin-offs? (digimon, monster hunter etc.). There's also been like six pokemon movies. Obviously pikachu has influenced somebody.

[cult_of_N]

Mario 64 was the first game to fully utilize an analog stick. Depending on how hard the player pressed the analog stick effected Mario's movement speed. Mario 64 also was the first game to introduce a 3D camera. I do not remember any of these inovations in the original tomb raider.

Personally i do not think that identity = influence. Mario is over 20 years old, how can possibly argue that isn't iconic?