LoC #39 - Top 50 Video Game Characters - HIGH SCORES

[FLOCK of RABID SHEEP?!?!]

Master Cheif DIDN'T make it? I expected top 10 at least

Why? It's been a while since I've played the Halo games, but I don't really remember him doing anything that makes him a great character in the literary sense. He seemed very cookie-cutter.

I'll suggest that Master Chief has a lot more personality than, say, Q*bert did. (And neither character was on my list.)

And an update!

With ten lists to go, the tally count for my list stands at 1 of 25. I'm revising my prediction for my final tally down to 2 of 25 appearing.

i've got 4 out of 25 so far, which is more than i expected...now i want to play more video games lol

[mrbasehart]

And there are a bunch of characters I don't much care about.  Once Sonic went 3d and started to speak, he lost all of his appeal (character and gameplay wise).

[mr.b.natural]

Yeah, Pak-Man, Link, and Mario for sure.  Mega-Man and Metroid are real possibilities.  I figured we'd see Gordan Freeman but not this high up and I am also surprised by Master Chief.  Glad but surprised.  Considering how many asked about them we may see some Colossi but this high up...I don't know.  I also would have guessed Jak and Daxter or even Crash Bandicoot somewhere on here.  

Really glad about Earthworm Jim and embarrassed I didn't even think of Donkey Kong.  I am way behind when it comes to Nintendo products even though they can be just plain fun to play.  It would appear those are the kinds of games the folks around here are more familiar with.

Once Sonic went 3d and started to speak, he lost all of his appeal (character and gameplay wise).

Agreed.  Plus, I was always terrible at Sonic Games anyway. 

Guess I'm the only one who voted for Prince Katamari.    I'm looking forward to posting my list once this is done.        

[Invader_quirk]

Samus, of course! Other M is awesome, by the way. I beat it this morning. Samus definitely deserves to be up there after this game. Mega Man is also pretty likely.

[Doctor Who?]

Yeah Kirby,StarFox,and Donkey Kong.

I am shocked Sonic wasn't in the top ten.

[Invader_quirk]

8 of mine so far, 9 if you count 9-Volt.

[Rattrap007]

9 of my list... 11 if you count Duck Hunt Dog and MC

[donnah246]

thanks for the post..

[mr.b.natural]

Looks like I have 7 out of 25 so far and I think I tried to give the Worms an honorable mention.  Looks like the criteria for making it onto the list is how many games you were in.  The more the better.

[Asbestos Bill]

Yeah, Pak-Man, Link, and Mario for sure.  Mega-Man and Metroid are real possibilities.  I figured we'd see Gordan Freeman but not this high up and I am also surprised by Master Chief.  Glad but surprised.  Considering how many asked about them we may see some Colossi but this high up...I don't know.  I also would have guessed Jak and Daxter or even Crash Bandicoot somewhere on here. 

I voted for several Half-Life characters, but Gordon Freeman is never seen or heard in the game. It's still possible; who doesn't love a super nerd?

And weren't Jak & Daxter in the first few?

[mr.b.natural]

Yeah, Pak-Man, Link, and Mario for sure.  Mega-Man and Metroid are real possibilities.  I figured we'd see Gordan Freeman but not this high up and I am also surprised by Master Chief.  Glad but surprised.  Considering how many asked about them we may see some Colossi but this high up...I don't know.  I also would have guessed Jak and Daxter or even Crash Bandicoot somewhere on here. 

And weren't Jak & Daxter in the first few?

Oh.  Ratchet and Clank were.  I went through the whole list earlier to count how many I had on the list and I don't remember seeing them. 

[Dr. Whopoopeepee]

I can't believe I forgot Donkey Kong!

[Smoky]

Sonic got beaten by Kirby? Oh, c'mon.

[Invader_quirk]

Sonic got beaten by Kirby? Oh, c'mon.

Believe it.

[Pak-Man]

#10 - Bowser

(107 Points) 8 of 24 Lists - Highest Ranking - 2 #5s - mr.b.natural, Smoky

Gra har har har! What's a finale without a Bowser appearance? A cruddy finale, that's what!

List of Games:

Super Mario Bros.
Tetris
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario World
SimCity
Super Mario Kart
Yoshi's Safari
Super Mario All-Stars (The Lost Levels)
Yoshi's Cookie
Mario's Time Machine
Mario is Missing
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Tetris Attack
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Gex: Enter the Gecko
Yoshi's Story
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Mario Party
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Mario Golf 64
Mario Party 2
Mario Tennis
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Paper Mario
Mario Party 3
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Luigi's Mansion
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Mario Sunshine
Mario Party 4
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Mario Party 5
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario Pinball Land
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Mario Power Tennis
Super Mario 64 DS
Mario Party 6
Mario Party Advance
Yoshi Topsy-Turvy
Mario Superstar Baseball
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
Mario Party 7
Mario Kart DS
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Super Mario Strikers
Super Princess Peach
Tetris DS
New Super Mario Bros.
Mario Hoops 3-on-3
Yoshi's Island 2
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Mario Galaxy
Mario Galaxy 2
Mario Party 8
Super Smash Bros. Brawl


Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Bowser is a huge, burly, green-shelled Koopa with spikes, horns, and hair. His bushy eyebrows and mane are fittingly a bright, fiery orange. He sports two small horns, many spikes on his shell (similar to a Spiny), as well as along his tail. He wears several spiked collars around his neck and arms. He has three claws on each of his massive feet, which support his impressive girth. While his face and his shell are green, his underbelly and snout are flesh-colored, and his tail and limbs are an orange-tinged yellow. In the original Super Mario Bros., however, his underbelly was also green as. On each of his hands are four claws. His arms are noticeably burly, indicating his vast physical strength. His bright red eyes are always a bit menacing, and this is heightened by his bushy, often-scrunched eyebrows. Bowser had green scales and skin in Super Mario Bros., but this has been changed to yellow scales and skin.

Bowser's appearance is based upon a combination of the many subspecies of Koopa, including Koopa Troopas, Spinies, and Hammer Bros. According to Prima's Super Mario Galaxy guide, Bowser and the Koopa species are also based on the kappa of Japanese mythology, yet this has not been stated by Shigeru Miyamoto.[6]

Bowser's hair has changed in various games. In his first appearance, Bowser did not have hair at all due to graphic limitations. His red hair was first seen in-game in Super Mario Bros. 3, though hair was earlier depicted in artwork for Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, as yellow, rather than red. The hair was also absent when Bowser powers-up into his Super Mario Bros. look on gaining a Mega Star in Super Paper Mario. 

When Bowser was developed, he was a typical villain of pure evil with immense hatred and anger. Cruel and ruthless, he was typically portrayed as a power-hungry tyrant who lead violent attacks that threatened the lives of hundreds. Bowser's ultimate goal was to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, and eventually, the entire universe. His infamous plans and numerous crimes, ranging from simply kidnapping Princess Peach to acts of terrorism, have earned him a reputation feared by the entire Mushroom World. While this status of evil is still very prevalent in the series, Bowser has recently had a humorous tone added to his personality and is shown to be more complex in terms of his relationship with his rivals.

Most games tend to focus on a single characterization, which suggests the direction that game takes in story. Some games only focus on his comical aspects, while others focus on a much more sinister side. The games that mainly focus on his comical aspects are the RPGs, where his overall character has a very amusing personality. Bowser has also been known to break the fourth-wall to remind players that he's still evil despite his current actions. In fact, whenever he joins forces with Mario to face a greater common foe, Bowser's typical motivations for doing so are selfish in nature: for example, in Super Mario RPG, he agreed to help Mario fight the Smithy Gang simply because he wanted to get his castle back from them, and in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Bowser only agreed to help Mario and Luigi regain Peach's voice because he wanted to kidnap her again, but couldn't because her "explosive vocabulary" would wreck his castle.

While Bowser is primarily more comical in RPGs, Paper Mario had him considerably more evil due to his focus as the main villain. Though Bowser still had a humorous tone, he was also shown to be very cruel and sinister in certain scenes. Outside the RPG series, Bowser is usually not as comical, and in many instances is shown to be pure evil. The Mario Party series has also depicted Bowser as more serious-driven and angry. New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Galaxy remove Bowser's usual comical undertones completely and make him a much more sinister villain than he is found typically in the RPGs.

Bowser's temperament has been depicted varying from pure, driven evil to a comical child-like villain. Despite this widely-opposing personality, any emotions other than anger or hatred have rarely been shown. Bowser has never been seen acting remorseful for his numerous atrocities and destruction to both the localized Mushroom Kingdom and the outer reaches of the universe. He also seems to lack a sense of empathy, which results in a disregard for any other life. In Paper Mario, Mario's defeat at the hands of Bowser, to which Bowser simply mockingly laughed at, was essentially murder before Mario was revived by the combined energy of the Star Spirits. Perhaps Bowser's most extreme disregard for other life was in Super Mario Galaxy, where his plot consisted of wiping out entire galaxies to create a cosmos he can control.

Despite all this, a more humane side of Bowser has sometimes been seen for brief moments. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Bowser can be seen crying for the loss of his home and Koopa Troop to Smithy and his underlings in front of Booster Tower. He also appears to be just as saddened as Mario, Mallow, and Peach when Geno's body broke down.

In Mario Party 4, Bowser was shown to be extremely upset when he was defeated and grudgingly gives the player a gift for their birthday. He then leaves in shame, at which one of the Koopa Kids suggests that maybe Bowser has more affection than others are led to believe, a statement which he quickly retracts. Bowser is shown walking in the darkness, alone and miserable, but indeed wishes the player a happy birthday. The most recent occasion where Bowser shows emotion is in Super Mario Sunshine when he tells his son, Bowser Jr., in sadness that Princess Peach is not his mother and appears guilty for lying to him.

In sharp contrast to his usual disregard for other life, and that throughout the game his intent was to save the world only so he could rule it himself, Bowser did seemingly sacrifice himself to save Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, and even Count Bleck's henchman O'Chunks during Super Paper Mario in Castle Bleck when the ceiling was falling, during which he was arguing with O'Chunks and telling him to get to safety before both were seemingly crushed (it is later revealed that they survived).

Since Bowser is the King of Koopas, he possess the powers of many of the Koopa subspecies, such as Fire Bros' fire breath, Spiny's shell spikes, and Hammer Bros' hammers. Bowser's signature ability is breathing fire. He can choose to either breathe a long breath of flame or shoot many fireballs. Bowser is quite advanced in his fire-breathing, he can shoot blue flames that follow Mario in Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros. and can even breathe fire underwater in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario. Another one of Bowser's most-often used abilities is his power and durability, something that Bowser prides himself in. Bowser is often the most powerful character in sports games and can create shockwaves by doing a simple ground pound in several games. Bowser's durable nature is evident seeing that he has fallen into lava, been blown up, etc., but has managed to survive all this many times. Bowser is also shown to have an extremely loud and powerful roar that often sends weak enemies running away before a battle even begins. In Super Mario Bros., Bowser also threw hammers like a Hammer Bro. but has rarely used the technique since, only to be used once again in Super Princess Peach and by his alter-ego Rookie in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. He briefly used it in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars when after battling him at the beginning, he throws a hammer at Mario's Kinklink.

Bowser's speed and agility are very inconsistent and they greatly vary from game to game. In some games Bowser is actually faster and more agile than Mario is, such as in Super Mario 64 where Bowser can jump hundreds of feet in the air if Mario tosses him off the platform. In that game for short distances, he can also run faster then Mario can. Despite his size, Bowser has demonstrated the ability to pull off a move similar to Mario's Spinning during a boss fight in Super Mario Galaxy. However, Bowser is usually slower than Mario in playable appearances and sports games. In Super Paper Mario, Bowser is the slowest usable character and also has poor climbing abilities. If Bowser tries to climb a ladder, he would only move his arms a little bit and then say "Can't climb this"; however he can climb ladders in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Bowser is shown to have good swimming abilities, just like Mario, though he reportedly hates swimming (though this may derive from the fact that his Koopa Clown Car crash-landed in the sea and he was forced to swim back to Rogueport). Another example is in the Mario & Sonic at the Oylmpics series. In the summer games he is the slowest runner with a 2/10 stat, while in the winter games he has an 8/10 stat; most power characters have a good speed stat in that game, though their speed is still inferior to Sonic's, and they lacked accelerating abilities.

According to the Super Mario Bros. instruction booklet, Bowser is a skilled user in dark magic. However, he rarely uses magical abilities, and Kamek and Kammy Koopa seem to have taken over most of this trait. One of the few times Bowser does use magic is in Hotel Mario, where he uses it to summon lightning bolts. Bowser's lightning ability is shown again in the beginning of Super Mario Galaxy when he uses it to summon a spaceship to lift Peach's Castle into space. Another magical ability Bowser uses is teleportation in Super Mario 64. If the player came too close to him, Bowser would disappear and reappear somewhere else, making it hard to get close to his tail. Bowser also teleported to escape after Mario defeats him in their first two battles in Super Mario Galaxy. Another magical ability Bowser uses is to transform himself into a giant boulder during his final fights with Mario in Super Mario Galaxy. Also in Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser (in his second battle), can spin and sprout dark magic fom his fingers whilst spinning that hurts on impact. Bowser is also able to turn into many square stones in Mario Party DS, and shrink players in Mario Party 4.

Trivia:

Bowser's voice is provided by Issac Marshall.

Pak's Thoughts - We're starting our top 10 out strong here. Bowser is one of my favorite video game villains. He's a great opponent in the Mario series, and he's wonderful in all the various RPGs he's been in. I mentioned Donkey Kong as one of my go-to guys in the Mario spinoffs, but I also like to use Bowser a lot. His character design rules.