re: Mt. Rushmore of Video Game Characters

Mario, Link, Master Chief, Sonic

Probably 4 Nintendo characters.

Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, Pikachu

It's hard to argue otherwise when you look at the top selling games ever, and then take a look at the branding power of the characters in those games. Grand Theft Auto V is one of the best selling games of all time but doesn't have a mascot character on the level of a Mario or a Sonic. Master Chief is a great 5th choice, but there's no Halo game in the top 50. To anyone trying to discount Sonic, there was a point in time where he was more recognizable than Mickey Mouse to kids in the US, and he's probably the most complete character on the list as far as marketable design goes (lots of simple shapes with striking features) Pokemon speaks for itself, and Link doesn't make my list because the only top 50 selling Zelda game is Breath of the Wild, which is criticized as not being very much like a Zelda game.

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If you’re taking someone from a sports game it’d have to be Bo Jackson from Tecmo Bowl.

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You got me there, it was verboten to use him against other players.

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Mario, Pikachu and Master Chief have all built themselves into iconic modern and "vintage" titles (yes, OG Halo and Pokemon are vintage now), yet sonic has not, at all.

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I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Sonic has a BUNCH of highly regarded "vintage" titles if we set ~2001 as the end of that era, pretty much every single mainline game released to that point including Adventure and Adventure 2 were highly rated and fondly remembered by most.

The modern titles get a little bit more murky because they're divisive, and it's a lot of where Sonic's bad reputation comes from. Generations, Mania and Colors are three universally praised games, but you also have some more niche titles like Unleashed and All-Stars Racing Transformed that garner a good amount of positive buzz.

Frontiers is apparently shaping up to be excellent (to be determined though, after all it's Sonic Team, they've been known to rush products out the door and never fix them)

You also have to factor in that the Sonic movie is one of the best selling video game movies ever, regarded as the best executed video game movie of all-time, and it has a sequel coming up that has a lot of people buzzing about it. The internet also had a collective meltdown when Sonic got announced for Brawl, which I think says a lot to his popularity.

I can understand not liking Sonic games, but I think it's hard by any objective measure to justify putting Master Chief at least up above Sonic. I would even argue that Pikachu shouldn't be ahead of him, but that one is more debatable.

Sorry for the longposts here I love talking about this kind of stuff

Joel (Last of Us)
Final Fantasy (needs own category)*
Joker (P5)
Link (Zelda)
Geralt (Witcher)


* I’ll throw out Cloud obviously, Lightning, Tidus, green hair half esper girl from 6 name escapes me. Maybe it’s Terra. Seltzer from that game is amazing. Ff6 has such a top notch roster

* These are just my favorites who resonated with me not the technically best written or executed. Nor the most popular

Mario
Pacman
Link
Crash

Personal list, gotta go with an all Final Fantasy lineup:

Cloud (FFVII)
Sephiroth (FFVII)
Bahamut (FFXV version)
Kain (FFIV)
Auron (FFX)