Most Awesome Characters

Here we go, the first post of the new and improved Press Start blog. These are all characters that I consider awesome for a variety of reasons. I'll warn you now, many (although not all) of those reasons aren't particularly deep, so if you judge characters by their storylines, you probably won't agree with most of my choices. Like all of my lists, this one is not in any particular order.

1. Blanka (Street Fighter)
Despite being big and green, Blanka is 100% naturally human. But look at him, especially in SF4, and you can tell he's all sorts of awesome. He can probably beat Zangief in brute strength by the look of him, he's got orange hair (a mohawk and specific patches on his body), and he growls a lot. Plus, how many people do you know who can learn to use electricity-based attacks...just by training with electric eels? Blanka's had a hard life, growing up in the jungle alone. He made some friends (particularly my second favorite Street Fighter character, Dan), but he was pretty lonely. And his Street Fighter 2 ending is heartwarming. In Street Fighter 4, he comes across as a boy who loves his mama and wants to make her proud. Never mind that he's at least 6 feet tall, unnaturally muscular, orange-haired, and green; he's a mama's boy at heart, and that's freakin' adorable.

2. Link (Legend of Zelda)
There have been many Links in the history of Hyrule, all young heroes who come out of pretty much nowhere to save the world from evil. All his incarnations have the same basic green tunic and elf-hat look, with the traditional pointy ears. The Twilight Princess version manages to pull off blue earrings quite well. You can't look at Link, especially newer versions, and not think he just looks cool. He's got the swords, the shields, the ocarina, bombs, arrows, boomerangs, boots, armor, hookshot...he carries around a lot of stuff. He's also one of the most popular characters ever, judging by the popularity of the Zelda games and his repeated victories in GameFAQs.com's character battles.

3. Yellow LocoRocos (LocoRoco)
They're gooey, yellow, vaguely fruit-shaped balls of happiness...and they sing. They're cheerful and adorable. What exaclty is there not to like about these creatures? Sure, some of the other types are creepy, but the default yellow ones are just plain awesome.

4. Ryu Hyabusa (Ninja Gaiden)
First off, there's the whole modern day ninja thing. Ryu Hyabusa can use any weapon you hand him, and based on the Dead or Alive series, he's pretty good at hand-to-hand combat as well. In that shiny black ninja gear, you just know he's going to kick your butt. He faces any challenge with cool calmness; always important for a ninja. He'll hack people apart if they get too close, and generally get a lot of them with one slash. He's known for the Dragon Sword, but he's also used a staff with MACES AT EACH END, among other things.

5. Jack (Madworld)
I haven't finished Madworld yet, but I've done enough to know that Jack isn't quite what he seems. Still, you gotta hand it to a guy that has a chainsaw attached to his arm and continues to make short work of every other contestant in this twisted murderous game show. He only kills people in the most badass ways, from repeatedly shoving them into spikes, to throwing them into a meat grinder. His finishing moves, particularly on the bosses, are unbelievably brutal. Here's an example. The second boss is a cowboy. Jack steals his guns and shoots him over and over until there's nothing left but a skeleton. Then jacks shoots him one more time, facing backwards, and knocks his skull off (cowboy hat intact). This is a man you don't want to mess with.

6. Motaro and Kintaro(Mortal Kombat)
Motaro is a centaur with a metal tail. Who kicks people halfway across the stage. Kintaro is a four-armed tiger creature. Moving on.

7. Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear)
Psycho Mantis is so freakin' powerful, he can read into other dimensions. Which is just a fancy way of saying he uses his psychic powers to break the fourth wall. The game actually looks at your memory card so that Psycho Mantis can say things like, "I see you enjoy playing...Crash Bandicoot!" or something like that. Heck, in order to defeat him you actually have to unplug your controller and plug it in elsewhere. That's right; not only does Snake need to be smart to beat this guy, so does the player. Any character who can mess with the player's mind deserves to be on this list. Which brings us to...

8. Pious Augustus (Eternal Darkness)
Poor Pious. He was a Roman centurion, minding his own, until he was lured into the dark depths of a Cthulhu-like mythos. He became a zombie type thing, and is the main antagonist in the game. He works behind the scenes throughout centuries, putting things in place for the Ancients. He manipulates characters and tricks them into going on quests that will drive them insane, all to help his new masters.

9. Lan and Megaman (Megaman Battle Network)
When an kid in elementary school and his computerized brother save the world no fewer than 6 times, and do so using computers, they've got to be pretty awesome. They also show that brotherly love can transcend physical borders; Megaman may be a computer program now, but he's still Lan's brother, and they act like it. Considering Lan had Megaman as a net navi long before learning he was his dead brother recreated in net navi form, it would be easy for Lan to keep treating Megaman like just another program. But he doesn't, and that shows character. For his part, Megaman is just as awesome as all his other incarnations, except that this one's a cyber-robot who fights viruses and in my opinion has the coolest armor and attacks.

10. Lark (Pilotwings)
I know what you're thinking: who the heck is that? But for early adopters of the N64, as I was, this is probably a familiar character. See, only two games came out at launch for the N64 in the US (and Japan only had one more). These games were Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Needless to say, Mario flew off the shelves and is still considered one of the best games ever made. But that made it really hard to find, so a lot of us were left with Pilotwings. Pilotwings is an awesome game, and the character I usually play as is named Lark. What makes him awesome though is his power of disguise. I'm guessing most of you who have played the game didn't know that "Lark" as he calls himself is in disguise. That's right; he fooled all of us. In reality, this "Lark" is none other than Nester, the former mascot for Nintendo Power magazine. If you look at pictures comparing them, it's easy to tell, and Nintendo has confirmed it. Nester's pretty awesome; he started off as a kid, having imagined video game adventures, and later got a bit older. Each major anniversary, Nintendo Power features a new comic starring their old mascot, trying to get used to Nintendo's latest innovations (rumble, motion-based games, etc). He also starred in "Nester's Funky Bowling" for the Virtual Boy, and the latest anniversary comic reveals that he buys a new copy of that game as a gift for his son every single year. Poor kid.

I imagine some of you are ready to chase after me with torches and pitchforks for leaving certain characters off the list. Keep in mind, this is only my opinion; it's not presented as fact. For those wondering, I didn't include Sephiroth or Kratos because honestly, I just don't find them all that cool. As for Solid Snake, I haven't played enough Metal Gear to really tell.