OK nice and simple I am doing a nice little top 9. Why top 9? because I am one step behind everyone else.Oh and this is in no particular order. Enjoy. Crash-Sony Playstation Crash was my mario when I was growing up. He is an anarchic little orange fluffball who is every kids dream. An overly hyper little mess who was a character you cared for though you had no idea why. But for every great hero you need a great villain and Crash just wouldn't be crash if it wasn't for cortex. It is like sonic without eggman, sure it could be done but it just wouldn't be the same. Crash started out with some of the best platformers ever to be put out to the general public, including crash 3: warped which is probably my favourite game from the playstation. Unfortunately his games have taken the same path that another playstation mascot, spyro, took and changed there art style and game style for the worse. All the characters look stupid and the gameplay doesn't even compare to the originals but I will always remember crash from his naughty dog days. That little pest that you loved for all his zany antics and general stupidity. Crash, we salute you. Mario-Nintendo Ah mario, what can I say about this little italian, animal beating plumber which hasn't already been said. He captivated the hearts of nearly every game fan in the world and even to this day refuses to let them have it back. There is a simple formula to a mario game; princess gets kidnapped, mario goes on long journey to rescue princess, that annoying little ****wit toad tells you that you went to the wrong castel AGAIN, you eventually defeat bowser and all you get is a kiss. And despite mario not getting much at the end he still insists on saving the unappreciative cow over and over again and that is a great lesson for kids. Always persist in whatever you are doing, even if you are not rewarded at first. Over the years mario is one of the few icons to make a succesful transistion from 2d to 3d. He has done everything from football to RPG games. He has a good game in almost every genre and there is a reason for this. Mario is a simple yet ingenius character who is a hero to almost every gamer in the world. Sonic-Sega The only real competition to mario over the years and is one of the few characters who can be considered equal to him in terms of how much an icon they are. He was the "cool" equivalent to mario. He was sly, had a moheican and defeated an old fat guy called dr eggman. The premise was even more simple than mario, get from one end of the level to the other as fast as you can, and that was bloody fast. The boss fights at the end were also very well done and provided an excellent change of pace. Over the years sonic made a great game in 3d (sonic adventure) and an alright one (sonic adventure 2) but it all went to hell from there. Sorry to agree with a certain overthinker but the ever expanding cast is one of the biggest problems with the game. They should have just kept it to sonic, knuckles and eggman (yes ditched that little idiot called tails) and THAT IS IT. The prime example of an overdeveloped useless character is shadow but I won't go into too much detail on him as you already know all about him. All in all sonic is a great character who should be remembered for what he was and not what he is now. kratos-sony Ah we come to the first "modern" mascot on my list, no idea why I just put that in quotation marks but oh well. Anyway Kratos is a character from the excellent god of war series and because of the success of these games has become sonys current mascot. He is based in the realm of greek methology and is an all round BAD ASS. He sleeps with beautiful women, fights hordes of enemys and kills off massive monsters that would make any normal man drop his load and run. True he is a demi-god but that doesn't take away from the fact that he is an amazing character. Sorry I can't say much more but I have only played god of war and god of war chains of olympus so I can't really so much more about the games progression as a series. Master Chief-Microsoft God I despise the halo games with a passion but I must admit that master chief is a damn good character. While he is just a ginat cliche, that is what I like about him. He is a throwback to the badass game heroes of old and manages to bring their aspects to a whole new generation of gamers. Like I said I do not like the halo games at all, they take parts of a lot of FPS shooter games and jumble it all into one big mess that for some reason demanded 2 sequels and oh wait hold on *flame shield activate* should have had that on at the start, anyway the gameplay brings nothing new to the genre except for giving the designers a reason to be lazy by creating a game based entirely around multiplayer so they don't need to have a great story. I blame halo for COD4 therefore I despise it :P. No but seriously I do not like the halo series at all but without it microsoft may not be as popular as it is today and we may not have 360 so thank you master chief for doing us that favour. Banjo and Kazzoie-Rare This could have gone to donkey kong or banjo for this company but I went with the bear and bird because I think they are better characters. The game banjo kazooie was one of the best games on the n64 and was one of the main reasons I brought one. It was an innovative platformer that set the standards for all those that followed it, the story was very fun and kept you entranced throughout and the level design was fantastic. The sequel banjo tooie not only met the high expectations but actually performed better than expected. It took everything that made the original great and improved on it. Now why are Banjo and Kazzoie great characters? because they have character. They talk, they crack jokes and the make you develop an emotional bond with them, something which the likes of donkey kong never did for me. Jak and Daxter-Playstation 2 This game was the crash bandicoot of the PS2. It was the first game I got for the system and is still one of my favourite games ever to grace the console. You play as Jak who, in the original anyway, is your typical silent protagonist who has the zany, wise cracking sidekick but I'm sorry Daxter is freaking hilarious. In the first game I didn't much care for Jak but I loved daxter and thought he was just brilliant. The supporting cast did their job well and the gameplay was brilliant but it was the headlining pair that really got me into the game. The second one gave Jak the ability to talk and it actually worked, they made the game much darker while still retaining some of the childish qualitys that made the original such a success. Daxter was funny as ever but now he could actually banter with the main hero and it opened so many doors in the way of entertainment value. All in all this was an excellent series that outshone rachet and clank in my honest opinion. Kirby-hal laboratory inc Aw how can you not love this little fluffball of cute. He is everything that made our childhood beautiful, he is cute, innocent and just fun. Not overly challenging, no complicated story just FUN. He started out as a sidescoller and has never really changed that formula, even in the realms of 3d and I applaud hal for that because it is what keeps the games great in my opinion. Kirby as a character is pretty much as simple as they come, he is just a pink ball with a smiley face who needs no character development at all. I love this little thing to death and I cannot stress that enough and I can't wait till he turns up on my wii. Come on Kirby HURRY UP. Duke Nukem-3d realms And finally we come to the most bad ass character on the list. How bad ass is he you may ask? well he is CHUCK NORRIS BAD. I can some him up in one quote and one quote only "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum". He can pull of such beautifuly cheesy lines and make them sound intimidating. He also looks like the epitomy of the great american hero, strong, a bit dumb but so full of passion you barely notice. His games are brilliant FPS's in the same sort of style as doom and quake but he takes it that one step further, I mean VIRTUAL TITS IN A GAME, that was pretty damn hardcore in those days and still is fairly taboo in the modern gaming society. He is all around awesome and all we can hope for is that Duke Nukem forever will eventually come out and be as good as we are all hoping. So there it is, my top 9 gaming mascots hope you enjoyed the list, comment and digg blah blah blah AND remember... I'm supermunkky I rip off other peoples catchphrases so you don't have to