The best video game characters stick with us long after the credits roll, and there’s no doubt that the past decade gave us some good ones.
Sam Watanuki - Grog (Rocket League)
Does a vehicle make/model even count as a “character?” As the publisher of this article, I say yes. Rarely will an online Rocket League match end without someone making fun of my choice of rocket car, but I am unapologetic in my decision to play as the most superior car in the game. Tack on the Worms WMD topper, and you have yourself a mighty fine vehicle. Possibly the best vehicle in the history of video games.
Patrick Kobek - Goose (Untitled Goose Game)
Honking its way into our hearts and stealing everything in sight, no one would have guessed how popular Untitled Goose Game would become.
Scott Baird - Suguru Kamoshida (Persona 5)
It might seem like a strange idea to call a villain the best character in the decade, but no one elicited as much a reaction to me as Kamoshida from Persona 5. Kamoshida isn’t an ancient evil being who wants to rule the world – he’s a spiteful high school gym teacher who is secretly abusing his students. The crimes Kamoshida commits are so base compared to most video game villains that you can’t help but hate his guts, and it’s incredibly satisfying to see him get his comeuppance from the Phantom Thieves.
Bella Blondeau - Agent Francis York Morgan (Deadly Premonition)
Francis York Morgan is a guy who can tell you about the most depraved, horrid serial murders known to man, only to smile it off and follow it up with a dad joke. He’s a ray of sunshine in a dark world - a man who never stops believing in mankind’s inherent good in the face of everything that wants to beat it out of him. On top of that, he can predict the future in a cup of coffee and talks to his imaginary (?) friend about obscure movie trivia. He’s the kind of character that feels like a Mad Libs sheet gone incredibly right - isn’t that right, Zach?
Eric Switzer - Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)
Geralt is a Hero with a capital H, but he’s also complex, flawed, and sometimes quite ugly. He’s anything but humble and his womanizing is certainly problematic, but people can’t help but love a man with a strong moral code. He slays monsters, protects villagers, and risks his life to save his daughter, endearing him to us indefinitely. We don’t always have to like him, but Geralt epitomizes the hero fantasy, warts and all.
Jamie Latour - Trevor Phillips (Grand Theft Auto V)
While having sympathetic characters is nice, it’s hard to care about their emotional journey when they go off and kill 50 people in a rampage. There’s none of that ludo-narrative dissonance with Trevor Phillips. He’s prone to mood swings that could have him go from declaring his love for his friends to hijacking a fighter jet in his underwear. He’s unpredictable, violent, evil, psychotic, cruel and completely emotionally unstable. He knows exactly what kind of a game he’s in, which makes him a perfect GTA protagonist and the best character of the 2010s.
Andrew Penney - Sans (Undertale)
Sans and his staple theme - megalovania - transcended in-game popularity and became immortalized through meme-magic. His conceptualization as a character is funny, he is funny in-game, and he has brought hilarity out of the game by serving as a vehicle for jokes throughout the nebula.
Patrick Sklar - Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
He is the very model of a scientist Salarian, after all. It had to be him - someone else might have gotten it wrong.
