Top 10 Extremely Generic but Extremely Famous Video Game Characters
Mario, originally named Jumpman, is the main character of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, created by the creative director and video game designer at Nintendo of Japan, Shigeru Miyamoto. Mario has appeared in almost every Mario game, including games in spin-off series as a playable character, with few exceptions including New Super Luigi U, Luigi's Mansion games, Yoshi's Island games, and similar counterparts. He is the most iconic character in video game history and is Nintendo's unofficial mascot. His franchise has grown to be the most successful video game franchise of all time. Despite the fact that Mario's personality basically contains nothing other than the fact that he is a caricature of Italian people and is a Happy-Go-Lucky Hero, Mario is one of THE main mascots of both Nintendo and video games themselves and quite-literally has gotten called "Mr. Nintendo" by Nintendo
Sonic the Hedgehog, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is the title character and protagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by SEGA, as well as numerous spin-off comics, five animated shows, and an animated OVA.
Dr. Gordon Freeman is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Half-Life video game series, created by Gabe Newell and designed by Newell and Marc Laidlaw of Valve Corporation. Despite the fact that Gordon Freeman is an EXTREMELY white and male Silent Protagonist that Valve has COMPLETELY forgotten to give a personality to, Gordon Freeman is one of THE main mascots of First Person Shooters, is the main character of at least two of THE most iconic and innovative video games of all time (Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2), and basically has gotten called "Mr. Valve" by Valve
Valve never seems to give their characters a voice or a personality. It's a shame.
Pikachu (Japanese: ピカチュウ) are a species of Pokémon, fictional creatures that appear in an assortment of video games, animated television shows and movies, trading card games, and comic books licensed by The Pokémon Company, a Japanese corporation. A mascot of the Pokemon franchise, it's considered to be the most iconic character of all Pokemon species, as well as a major character in Japanese pop culture, due to its companionship with Ash Ketchum in the anime series. Pikachu has been featured in movies such as Pokemon Detective Pikachu as well as music videos - most notably Katy Perry's "Electric" in 2021.
Luigi, originally a palette swap of Mario named Green Mario, is a major character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger, taller fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's unofficial mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Super Mario franchise, often as a sidekick to his brother. Despite the fact that Luigi was created to quite-literally be Green Mario and basically still is Green Mario when the fact that he is a Lovable Coward gets ignored / is not visible, his fan base loves him SO much that one of its main religions is "Luigism" and has quite-nearly caused him to become every bit as famous as (if not MORE famous than) Mario
Ryu is a video game player character created by Capcom, the protagonist of the Street Fighter series. Despite the fact that Ryu is both an EXTREMELY boring caricature of Asian martial artists and Street Fighter's main example of its most generic fighter type (Shoto Clones), Ryu is THE most famous one of Street Fighter's characters (with Street Fighter itself probably being THE most famous one of its main genre's franchises)
Despite the fact that Meowth's main form is an extremely average Normal Type Pokemon that becomes a complete Dan Hibiki Clone / Joke Character in Pokemon's show, has an utterly terrible evolved form (Persian), and is barely even able to do any non-mildly interesting things other than having INCREDIBLY sexy feet (in Pokemon's show), having an extremely powerful brain (in Pokemon's show), and using Pay Day (in Pokemon's games), Meowth currently has SEVEN forms and is one of the main characters of a TV show that quite-literally is one of THE biggest ones of all time
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the science fiction action-adventure game series Metroid by Nintendo. A galactic bounty hunter, Samus is usually equipped with her Power Suit, giving her access to weapons she uses to battle her enemies.
Kirby is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Kirby series of video games owned by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. His first game was created in 1992, and the pink puffball has made his way into the hearts of fans of all ages.
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, more commonly known as the Master Chief, is a SPARTAN-II commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. He is the protagonist and main character in both the Halo trilogy and Reclaimer Saga. Pretending that Master Chief really is anything other than a male, less superpowers-having and more talkative version of Samus may be a thing that is painfully difficult to do, but Master Chief is one of THE main mascots of First Person Shooters and has been one of Microsoft's main mascots for a quite large amount of time
Despite the fact that Frisk's "personality" basically contains nothing other than the fact that he/she is a caricature of Asian people and is a Silent Protagonist, his/her game is one of THE most iconic ones of all time
Crash Bandicoot is a video game franchise of platform video games. The series, originally exclusive to the Sony PlayStation, was created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin during their tenure at Naughty Dog for Sony Computer Entertainment.
I am conflicted on this one. Nathan Drake could be considered generic I suppose, but even then, he does have a personality, although one that does not change all that much from one game to another.
Link refers to several different incarnations of the same protagonist of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series.
Kratos is far from generic and his character has more depth than just him being a brute looking for revenge. I suppose you could of called him the stereotypical angry brute a few years ago, and even then the games are far more in depth than you might think, but with the recent games that take place in Norse mythology, his character is far more in depth than most. Kratos is now calm and controls his anger, teaching his son how to fight. Throughout God of War 2018, you can see Kratos trying to connect with his son, but also fearing he might make the same mistakes he did. When you look at his body alone, he is a character that tells a story, from his tattoo which he got in memory of his brother, to the ashes of his dead family stuck to his skin or even the two scars on his face and stomack. I don't think he should be on this list at all.
Joel is a major character and the playable protagonist of The Last of Us, the deuteragonist of The Last of Us Part II, and a supporting character in The Last of Us: Left Behind.
Gex is the main character of the "Gex" video game series. He is a wisecracking gecko with a passion for television and pop culture references. Gex's adventures take him through various worlds inspired by different genres of TV shows. His humor and love for media make him a unique and entertaining protagonist.
Cloud Strife, more commonly known as simply "Cloud", is a fictional video game character, the main protagonist of Square's video game Final Fantasy VII, which is a role playing game released in 1997. He also is the main protagonist of the high-definition version, as well as many of its sequels and spinoffs. ...read more.
Sephiroth is a fictional character and main antagonist in the role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII developed by Square.
Princess Peach is a major character in the Mario Bros. Franchise. She is the lead female of the The Mario franchise. She is usually the character who needs saved in most Mario Games, but also has appeared as a playable character in the Main-Series Mario Games, including Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario ...read more.