The 10 most famous video game characters of all time

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Some of the greatest video game mascots of the ’80s and ’90s are still shining stars in the modern age, never losing their luster even with the changing of the times. Many protagonists started their journey as a bundle of pixels traversing an open-world environment before receiving the remake treatment to modernize them and polish their poor resolution. However, as much as they might exist in higher definition nowadays, nothing will ever take away the nostalgic feeling of whipping out an old edition of a classic title and playing it through on an outdated console for old times’ sake.

Back in 1958, physicist William Higinbotham was thought to have created the first-ever video game, but technology has advanced beyond our wildest dreams in 65 years, allowing for the dawning of a new era of video games featuring some of the most famous faces ever to be conceived. Some have spawned entire franchises, whereas others are just so iconic that even the smallest reference — be it voice, facial features, or outline — can instantly relate to them.

Second only to Pokémon, the Super Mario franchise is the second highest-grossing video game franchise to date with a revenue of $30,250,000,000. That commercial success is owed in part to Mario himself, the mascot of not only the Super Mario universe but also Nintendo itself. Created in 1983, Mario first appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong, then went on star in 1985’s Super Mario Bros. co-starring Luigi, and later spin-off games like Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo has never drastically altered Mario’s design over the years, not even for Universal/Illumination’s live-action adaptation, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It must be the consistency and simplicity that’s maintained the