A video game character is a fictional character appearing in a video game or computer game. In the early days of gaming, most characters were little more than generic figures with little in the way of personality, depth, or likeablity. The first game character to gain massive popualrity was Mario in the 1980s. With Mario began the concept of the "game mascot", the idea that a character could become representative of a game company while being marketable to a wide audience. In the years since, many game characters have become bona-fide pop-culture phenomena. Some of the most popular ones are:

• Master Chief (Halo series)
• Super Mario (Super Mario series, Nintendo's company mascot)
• Luigi (Super Mario series)
• Kirby (Kirby series)
• Yoshi (Super Mario series)
• Samus Aran (Metroid series)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic series)
• Link (Zelda series)
• Lara Croft (Tomb Raider series)
• Erdrick (Dragon Quest series)
• Christie Monteiro, Ling Xiaoyu, et al. (Tekken series)
• Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy series)
• Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy series)
• Tidus (Final Fantasy series)
• Yuna (Final Fantasy series)
• Marth (Fire Emblem series)
• Roy (Fire Emblem series)
• Lyndis (Fire Emblem series)
• Mega Man (Mega Man series)
• Solid Snake (Metal Gear series)
• Fox McCloud (Star Fox series)
• Falco Lombardi (Star Fox series)
• Crash Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot series)
• Terry Bogard (Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series)
• Pikachu (Pokémon series)
• Wario
• Bob Newbie (The Sims series)

See also

• List of Nintendo characters
• List of video game characters

TV show characters as video game characters as well

Some TV show characters , , particularly cartoon characters, appear in video games as well.

• Zim (Invader Zim character) (Invader Zim)
• Timmy Turner]] (Fairly OddParents)

Plus many others.