Mario, Sonic, Samus, Link.
These names will be forever etched into gamer's minds, from the first game they pick up, to the last controller they put down.
Setting standards, breaking them, and making companies rise from obscurity to become house hold names.
They helped build a world of worlds that we can escape our own.
The question I pose is, with these legendary icon's and the games that they lay within. Who these days could rise from the masses and call themselves a gaming icon? Of course there are others that have become very well known, but just don't know the popularity of the others.
And maybe this is the case with games that have been set before us.
But alas, I digress.
Post up pictures, videos, even just a detailed description of what they have done. Tell us your favorite franchise, or just a character within it that has made you pause in thought and think about them.
Solid Snake....taking down Metal Gear since the 1980s
Caim and Angelus. >.>
And Nowe and Legna. <3
Sorry, I have no idea who those people are Pilot :S.
However, I loved;
David Bowie as (pretty much) David Bowie in Omicron: The Nomad Soul. He was so good in it, they put him in it twice ^_^. And he did the sound track!
Zaheed in Mass Effect 2. He was the only character that seemed like he didn't even want to be in the game at all and had much better killing to do elsewhere. I thought that was pretty bad ass.
Gray Fox in Metal Gear Solid. How can you NOT think a robot ninja is fucking awesome!? He's even kinda emo to boot if you really look at it that way. ^_^
Batman in Arkham Asylum. Cuz, he's fucking Batman
Kid in Limbo. Never gives up. Just keeps running right no matter what.
The Pyro from Team Fortress 2, because propane-powered flamethrowers are cool
And the fury from Metal Gear Solid 3, Flamethrowing jetpack cosmonauts are also cool
Caim, Angelus, Nowe, and Legna are part of the Drakengard series, which freaking rocks! Although the games have their faults, they are still quite fun to play. Caim from Drakengard 2 was the base appearance for a fighter character I made for a D&D campaign.
On topic, I actually don't have a favorite character. There are so many I love. I would have a giant post of characters if I listed them all.
Miiiito. <3 Much love.
Commander Shepard; reason? He's Commander-Freakin-Shepard. That and he introduced to the world the awesomeness of "The Shepard Dance" in the Afterlife nightclub. XD But seriously...truely awesome character that has become something of a "household name" when it comes to new age RPG gamers. Say the name "Shepard" and people are like "oh, Mass Effect was cool!" and such, unless they're Irish...then they're like "baaaaah! o_o" XD J/k..Don't keel me!! DX<
Apart from that, -everyone- knows Mario, Samus Aran, Master Chief, Solid Snake, Kirby, Yoshi, Luigi, King Koopah, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, All the Mortal Kombat characters (mostly Scorpion and Sub Zero, Lu Kang, etc..) Marcus Fenix, Domonic Santiago, THE COLE TRAIN! Baird, etc... (Gears of War for those that don't know)
There really are a lot of different genre's and names, across many different consoles that hold a place on the tip of a gamers tongue, and for good reason. That, and a lot of aformentioned characters, actually helped put their development studios on the map. Master Chief for example, The Halo Universe has been one of the most successful FPS title groupings in the history of gaming. At the same time it also put Bungie back into the lime-light after a long hiatus after their early 1990's hit "Marathon: Durandal" Take the others for what you will, they all have their points of interest that helped bring their development companies into the light and give them "Triple A" game title status.
Just about any of the side characters from Fire Emblem?
No one mentions Aeris...or Cloud from FF7. Both made history and to this day. Aeris' death is still one of the saddest moments in videogame history.
Actually, that got replaced by the death of the Companion Cube from Portal 1. Although, [spoiler]since I guess it survived in part 2[/spoiler], I guess the Aeris death will be put back again.
I would put forth that modern gaming legends are actually the player created characters in mmo's. That's where most of the gaming industry is heading and they appeal to most gamer's fantasy of being the hero and becoming a legend. Especially to the people who get into the roleplay aspect of the game. I myself play many mmo's and try to include roleplay in as much as possible. Well anyways that's what I think is the modern gaming legend, players.
Angelus's death in Drakengard two broke my heart and made me cry...
Of course people who havent played it wont have the connection to the characters.. but.. my god. TwT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqey0mQNttw
Yeah. I feel like no matter what ending from part 1 they took, Caim's and Angelus's ending wouldn't be a happy one. I kind of wish they brought Leonard and Arioch into part 2 as well since they brought Seere. Leonard was my favorite character. Yes, even though he was a pedobear, I still consider him a favorite character.
The SHODAN AI construct from the system shock games because I cannot think of an entity that scared me more then it did D: even when it's your ally it's freaky! and that makes it my favorite game foe as for favorite game hero I dunno I liked Tir McDohl from the original suikoden it's kinda a weird choice as he is a silent protagonist but at the same time you can still feel the pain he feels when horrible things happen to his friends and former ally's definitely a silent protagonist done right. Though I guess the same could be said about the silent protagonist in it's sequel Riou who arguable deals with more tragedy then Tir does so i guess they are tied for first :P