there are so many ways this conversation could go.... mario, ash ketchum, link, samus, master chief... the list goes on and on. one might be the most widely recognized, the most popular. one might be the oldest. one might be the toughest, the best fighter. the fastest. the strongest. the worst.
just put all of your opinions here and keep the discussion going.
Steve is not the real name it is just the Default character skin. Steve was basically a joke because someone asked Notch what the characters name is and he said (and im paraphrasing here) ummm Steve!. But really even saying that Steve is your favorite character is pretty narcissistic or egotistical. Because the "character" is generic and doesn't do much.
Let me rephrase that because i already know someone is going to start getting on here and start nagging at me. Steve is just that guy that is generic and just the player
I think that characters that have little or no dialogue aren't worthy of putting on this list. I mean yeah Gordon Freeman is awesome and all but really he says absolutely nothing, he is what you make him out to be it is just the player. Its basically like saying that yourself is your favorite character. Also a good portion of first person shooter characters wouldn't make this list for me either because the same reason "it is just you playing" But characters with witty comments, intelligents thoughts. stuff like this makes true characters. I mean my favorites are characters like The Vortigaunt from HL2 Psychos, Cl4p-TP, Scooter from BL2 Characters that are witty like that
I know I sound childish by this one but sackboy from the little big planet series. I don't really think it's "the best of all time" but hey. you could coustomise him and all that.
Link from LoZ is an easy first on my list. First videogame I owned was a remastered Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask combo for the Gamecube. Still play it to this day.
Dr. Mobius in the Fallout: New Vegas DLC "Old World Blues" was quite an ecentric character, and worth many chuckles.
Andrew Ryan, GLaDOS, Joel & Ellie (The Last of Us), Sephiroth (and I don't even like FF), Jade (Beyond Good & Evil), The Joker (Arkham Asylum)... I kinda like Arthas from Warcraft, and Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite, too. Garrett from Thief is also pretty good. Also the narrator guy from Bastion, if that counts.
But mentioning shallow player stand-in characters like Master Chief, Isaac Clarke, Mario, Gordon Freeman, Link, who don't so much as talk in a game? Come on, we've come further than this. Even Sonic is better than that, and Sonic is written like a 40-year-old's idea of what was cool in the 90's.
Frankly, I've always thought Luigi is the more interesting Mario sibling by far. He's kinda cowardly, but in games he actually gets to freaking talk, and has a personality that can't be summarized as "must save Princess".
Not that talking makes you any better all by itself, though. Take Marcus from Gears of War, Kratos from God of War, War from Darksiders. You know, men whose emotions range from anger to rage, which they express in a killing-based dialect. Or the generic soldier character as seen on every FPS whatsoever, whose vocabulary consists in the phrases "open fire" and "take cover" and not much else. Hell, even the extremely talky Solid Snake is a convoluted mess of a character in a convoluted, poorly-written mess of a universe. But I can respect that they tried to give him some depth.
Let's have some higher standards here, people. Being in your favorite game doesn't make a character good, although a good character can be part of why you like a game. Look at my favorite games. BioShock, Portal, Super Mario 64. Three silent protagonists. I won't pretend they're great or anything. But the villains in those games! Oh, the villains. Not Bowser though.
Frankly, I've always thought Luigi is the more interesting Mario sibling by far. He's kinda cowardly
Luigi has always been my favorite between the two. What you said is one of the reasons I like Luigi..he is far more realistic. He actually has a realistic personality..he gets scared, but so would we all. Despite that..he pushes through it. He may be scared or timid..but he forces himself to face his fears.