14 DAY TRIAL // Tops are always a controversial topic, mostly because they're meant to reflect a very subjective opinion. People vote for who their favorite character, item, product, etc., is, with the biggest thing to keep in mind being "their." But even so, ranking at number one, regardless of the nature of the top, is an impressive feat that goes to demonstrate the superior popularity of whoever or whatever made it up there.
Game characters are as varied and as many as there are titles, and every player has that special one that they feel they're related to the most, thus becoming an all-time favorite. Recently, Famitsu, one of Japan's biggest gaming magazines, has put together a top for the best game characters, and the winner is going to bring a smile to a lot of faces. However, the rest of the top might also upset a lot of the world's button mashers, since pretty much all of the title characters that made it to the Top 50 were from Japanese games.
Metal Gear Solid's Snake is the one that reigns supreme over all others, as he even managed to beat Mario, the chubby plumber, and Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife. There are also a lot of members in the top that are quite recent creations, with a few FF XIII characters present, and even Nene Anegasaki from Konami's Love Plus dating sim. And, as far as the king goes, Hideo Kojima, the producer and birth-giver of Metal Gear Solid, said that, "Snake was completely silent until Metal Gear Solid, simply because the [8-bit platforms] didn't let you do speech."
"In MGS, Snake became this sharp-tongued, Lupin III-like guy who flirted with women and told lots of jokes; again, that was a side effect of the new speech technology we had," he continued. "Once motion capture entered the picture, we were able to give Snake a lot more active ability, because the technology allowed it. Hardware has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past twenty years, and Snake's changed his look, personality, and even age to match what the platform could do. He's literally been raised within the battlefield inside your game console."
The entire top is listed below, so feel free to jump with joy at the sight of your favorite character making it to the top, or go completely berserk from the complete absence of characters like Gordon Freeman, Master Chief or Commander Shepard.
The Top 50 is:
1. Snake 2. Mario 3. Cloud Strife 4. The slimes from Dragon Quest 5. Sora from Kingdom Hearts 6. Link 7. Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia 8. Amaterasu from Okami 9. Pikachu 10. Sonic 11. Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza 12. Kirby 13. The Felynes from Monster Hunter 14. Toro, Sony's PlayStation pseudo-mascot in Japan 15. Professor Layton 16. Yuna from Final Fantasy X 17. Sakura from Sakura Wars 18. Luigi 19. Tifa Lockheart from FFVII 20. Tidus from FFX 21. Sephiroth from FFVII 22. Mega Man 23. Dante from Devil May Cry 24. Aerith from FFVII 25. Shiren from Mystery Dungeon 26. The chocobos from FF 27. Zidane from Final Fantasy IX 28. Roxas from Kingdom Hearts 29. Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII 30. Ryu from Street Fighter 31. Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 32. Vivi from FFIX 33. Auron from FFX 34. Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII 35. Bayonetta 36. Kuro, Toro's sidekick 37. Zack from FFVII 38. Adol from Ys 39. Chihaya Kisaragi from The Idolmaster 40. Chris Redfield from RE 41. Shantotto from Final Fantasy XI 42. Raiden from MGS 43. Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden 44. Locke from Final Fantasy VI 45. Miku Hatsune, virtual idol and Internet sensation 46. Nene Anegasaki from Loveplus 47. Alena from Dragon Quest IV 48. Yuffie Kisaragi from FFVII 49. Luke from Tales of the Abyss 50. Rikku from FFX