A reader offers up his own personal list of the best male protagonists in gaming, from Super Mario to Resident Evil’s Leon S. Kennedy.

Video game characters are often discussed in terms of which is the best, most iconic, most memorable, and most favoured.

They range from characters who have appeared in only one title (Arthur Morgan) or legendary characters such as Samus Aran and Marcus Fenix, who have their own established franchises.

I’d like to take this time to list my own 10 favourite male gaming characters. I will list my favourite female characters in a future feature.

10. Mario

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Super Mario

The face of Nintendo itself. A plumber with a moustache and an unmatchable presence. Mario is without a shadow of a doubt the greatest and bravest plumber who ever lived and a bona fide legend of gaming.

9. Jin Sakai

Ghost Of Tsushima

One title to his name and what a beautiful story it was. Trained as a samurai and a journey to becoming the first shinobi. To visit his grave in Ghost Of Yōtei and claim his mask as Atsu was truly a heartwarming moment.

8. Nathan Drake

Uncharted

The character that I can relate to more than anyone on my list. I truly adore Nathan as a protagonist. Endless charisma and impeccable charm. A testament to the genius of Naughty Dog and a perfect series of performances by Nolan North. Nate is truly a special character.

7. Cloud Strife

Final Fantasy 7

It will be 30 years since his debut in 2027 and his presence still remains legendary. With a giant sword and spiky hair, Cloud remains a fantastic character and it’ll be a boon to see the third title in the remake trilogy and the continuation of Cloud’s journey

6. Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Assassin’s Creed 2

The man who remains untouched in Ubisoft’s long-running series. Charismatic, skilled and loyal to no end. Ezio will always remain the best of them all.

5. Leon S. Kennedy

Resident Evil

Where’s everyone going? Bingo? How could I not include my favourite Resident Evil character on my list? The master of one-liners and a guy who always puts others ahead of himself. Leon is the definition of a role model. Ada is a lucky woman indeed.

4. Master Chief

Halo

Prominently known as John 117. The single most badass soldier who ever lived and the face of the original generation of Xbox. Chief is the embodiment of a super warrior and it’ll be amazing to see his debut on PlayStation 5 this year.

3. Solid Snake

Metal Gear

Kept you waiting, huh? The greatest stealth protagonist of all time. The perfect weapon and a marvel at going prone. Snake is certainly an example to follow and is the reason why we have stealth focused characters such as Sam Fisher, Ezio, and Corvo Attano. He truly began it all.

2. Link

The Legend Of Zelda

A hero without fail. A perfect knight in shining armour. Link is yet another Nintendo legend and if it wasn’t for his continuing heroics, Zelda would have been long dead. He’s truly a perfect fighter and more than deserving to be on my list.

1. Kratos

God Of War

The epitome of character development and personal growth. A warrior. A father. A champion. Kratos’s journey is one of exceptional writing and a truly memorable story. From a vengeful killer without equal and a revenge tale spanning an entire journey to a hardened father, raising Atreus through a harsh and brutal Norse world.

To see where he began from and where we left him it’s, in my opinion, the best written character ever in gaming and my personal favourite male character. I could have given Arthur Morgan that honour, but I’ve yet to play through Red Dead Redemption 2 and for now I’ll say that Kratos is my all-time guy in gaming.

I cannot wait for the next evolution of his story and that will be the remake trilogy. I can’t wait to return to Greece and take vengeance once more on the pantheon.

By reader Shahzaib Sadiq



The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.

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It was one of the most influential games of the PlayStation 1 era but how does Metal Gear Solid stand up almost three decades later? A reader is surprised to find out.

Alaska – Bering Sea. A submarine cuts through the murky ocean depths. Tonally and in terms of production values the score that plays infers that you’re watching a scene from a Hollywood action movie. But this isn’t a movie, although in many respects you get the impression that it wants to be. What I’ve described is the opening cut scene of Metal Gear Solid, a game that I adored many years ago. Since I still have my original twin disc copy of the game I thought I’d replay it from start to finish on a PlayStation 2 [presumably via The Essential Collection – GC]. Would this much revered classic be as good as I remembered?

You are Solid Snake. Your mission: infiltrate a terrorist stronghold, free a couple of hostages and investigate a possible nuclear threat. Do this with the clothes on your back, a CODEC receiver/transmitter, a scope, and a packet of cigarettes. For this mission weapons and equipment are OSP – on-site procurement. In terms of real-world logic our hero’s initial loadout is ludicrous. However, starting out with close to no items in your inventory does turn the game into a big treasure hunt. And in this case that treasure is military hardware: thermal goggles, chaff grenades, C4 explosive, Stinger missiles…

Replaying Metal Gear Solid it took me a while to adjust to the top-down view that it uses, which when compared to the presentation of modern big budget games seems basic and regressive, but provided that you make use of the radar in the top right corner of the screen the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid still works perfectly. Nearly three decades have passed and yet Shadow Moses Island prevails as a wonderous gaming world to immerse yourself in. Who cares about blocky graphics when the interactive picture those graphics paint is so atmospheric and nuanced?

While you sneak around the overrun military base, patrolling enemies yawn, stretch, fall asleep, and follow any footprints in the snow that Snake makes. The warmth of an enemy’s breath shows up as mist. Make a guard suspicious and a question mark appears above their head. Alert a guard and their heightened awareness is indicated by the now iconic exclamation mark.

On this playthrough I surprised some mice in an air vent. Little exclamation marks appeared above the rodents’ heads when they saw me and scurried off. Half the fun of Metal Gear Solid, and the franchise overall, is discovering these quirky and innovative details.

This time around I had problems defeating each and every boss in this game, I expect due to a substantial lack of practise. But the rogue elements of Foxhound are so atypical and entertaining that even when they kill you it’s hard to resent them. The game certainly wouldn’t be the same without their presence.

For instance, Cyborg Ninja still made an impression on me, or rather his introduction did. Walking down a corridor littered with bleeding corpses flung this way and that you feel like you’ve mistakenly strayed into a survival horror game. This part of Snake’s mission flags up another recognisable trait of the Metal Gear franchise, for better or for worse: tonal inconsistency.

Those melodramatic cries on the cool-looking Game Over screen. SNAAAAKE! Are those outbursts meant to be funny? They made me laugh every time I heard them.

Then you’ll get characters that appear to fall in love over the space of an hour or so, having never met. Otacon and Sniper Wolf. This entirely one-sided romance is so phoney, and yet the game tries to tug on our emotional heart strings when one of them dies.

Snake himself seems like a decent bloke. A moral, modest underdog and so it’s easy to side with him. And then the expert operative tells Meryl that she’s got a great butt. Wow. With chat up lines like that Snake how can any woman resist you?

Predictably, since I haven’t attempted this sneaking mission for at least a couple of decades, I had trouble beating Metal Gear Rex near the end of the game. This boss battle has two phases. In-between the first phase and the second phase there’s a cut scene that you’re forced to watch again and again if you keep losing the fight. I couldn’t skip this moment, which made it seem like a sadistic punishment for dying.

After finishing Metal Gear Solid I wanted to play through the game again. To me that’s clear evidence of its quality. The good parts of Solid Snake’s PlayStation debut certainly outweigh what’s bad. But what’s bad about the game is bad with a capital B or rather misjudged to an extent that these flaws clearly stand out.

Saying that, even after recently experiencing them I can tolerate Metal Gear Solid’s annoyances because they’re counteracted with flashes of genius. The location of Meryl’s CODEC frequency. Homing in on your target in first person view with a Nikita remote-controlled missile. Psycho Mantis breaking down the fourth wall and messing with your game console. Cooling down and heating up the PAL card. What other game allows you to sneak around and fast travel inside a cardboard box?

All of that gaming gold is probably worth having to read your way through line after line of CODEC exposition. And sweet as she is, I wish Mei Ling would learn the value of concise verbal exchanges during an active mission. Yes, Mei Ling, I want to save. That’s kind of why I called you. No, please don’t tell me another Chinese proverb, unless it’s one about the benefits of radio silence.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.

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