Checking If These Characters Are Iconic or Not

[Randoman]

I was inspired to make this thread after finding out a week ago just how much a certain Blue Bomber I grew up with fell from iconicness. I mean, I definitely knew he lost a significant amount of popularity, but I didn't think that gamers would be clueless at the sight/name of him. I suppose I've overestimated how well known some game characters are in this day and age...

Anyways, I thought I'd compile a list of characters that I feel like a good amount of gamers should know. I ordered them in what I think is most to least recognizable. What I want you guys to do is in spoilers and without using reverse image searches or other outside methods (including cheating off other people's posts), see if you can name the characters in the picture or what game series they're from. If you absolutely don't know where they're from, I still want you to post vague guesses like "I feel like I've seen them a long time ago", "I've seen them in a clip on youtube", or even something like "that looks like it's way before I was born."

Also, I know I've made threads like this before in forum games, but seeing how I'm mostly wanting heavy gamers to see and respond in this thread and I'm doing this to check video game character iconicness (and discuss on the side if I'm overestimating/underestimating how recognizable these characters are), I thought it'd be much more suited to General Gaming than Forum games.

Anyways, here's the list of characters I want you to identify in spoilers:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

And though I'm quite sure this character isn't recognizable, I still want to see how many know this one for reasons I'll explain later:

11..

[MCProductions]

[spoiler=my answers]1. Crash Bandicoot aka my childhood 2.Bomberman 3.Banjo 4. Don't know 5.Rayman 6.Space Invaders guy 7.Don't know 8.Dig Dug Don't know the rest

[Clarinets]

I know all of these well except for 11, who I've never seen before. He looks similar to Big the Cat, which is all I can really take from him though.

1. Crash Bandicoot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo and Kazooie

4. Chocobo

5. Rayman

6. Space Invader

7. Slime

8. Dig Dug

9. Wobble Bobble

10. Contra (don't know the exact character)

Edited February 26, 2016 by Clarinets

[solrocknroll]

[spoiler=answers]

1. Crash

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo and Kazooie

4. Chocobo (Chocobo's Dungeon)

5. Rayman

6. Space Invader thing

7. Slime

8. Idk

9. Bub and Bob

10. Bill Rizer

11. no idea lol

[Hell Cat]

I've only actually gotten into playing video games in 2011 or so and I'm not that old to begin with so I'm probably going to be wrong on a lot of these but I might as well try hahha

1: Crash Bandicoot

2: Bomberman

3: Banjo and Kazooie

4: Chocabo (I think that's how you spell it? I haven't played enough FF to know)

5: Rayman

6: An invader? Do they have an actual name?

7: Slime

8: Starts with a d...Dig Dig or something similar

9: Bubble? Something like that?

10: Dunno, just that this game is by Konami

11: BLINX I LOVE BLINX THE TIME SWEEPER SO MUCH!

I actually didn't do as bad as I thought I would....

[BrightBow]

[spoiler=Answers]

1. Crash Bandicot - Don't know anything about him besides of the fact that he was very significant in the PS1 era

2. Bomberman - Never really played a proper Bomberman game though. I only played Bomberman Hero, which is a single player platformer

3. Banjo & Kaoozie - Never got to play them myself but their games should be pretty much the same as Rare's other collection platformers. Well, except for Nuts & Bolts of course

4. Chocobo - Don't know if it's a specific Chocobo, though. Like the Fat Chocobo from FF3 or whatever.

5. Rayman - Protagonist of a platformer series. Never really got to play it

6. An enemy from Space Invaders?

7. Slime from Dragon Quest. Heavily under-appreciated due to the Dragon Quest series not being anywhere near as popular internationally as Final Fantasy.

8. Some enemy from Dig Dug. Never played it, though.

9. Some dino from Bubble Bubble?

10. Is Contra guy sufficient? Or Probotector in the European versions. Not that those use the same sprites

11. No idea

Edited February 26, 2016 by BrightBow

[Hell Cat]

I can't believe how many people don't recognize 11...it's one of my favorite games this is so saddening omg

[Mega Koopa]

I used to play Bomberman all the time as a child and I really love the franchise, It's a shame that the series has died of popularity.

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, I remember when this was a thing.

Let's see...

1. Crash Bandicoot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo & Kazooie

4. Chocobo

5. Rayman

6. Don't know name but it's from Space Invaders

7. Slime

8. No idea and nothing comes to mind in terms of guesses

9. Seen it before but no idea of name and game of origin

10. From Contra but I don't know name

11. No idea

[Hezul]

Finally..got the spoiler code to work!

1. Crash Bandicoot - Never played his games

2. Bomberman- Played the arcade game

3. Banjo and Kazooie- Played some of them

4. I've seen this before...but don't know the name

5. Rayman - Never played his games

6.. Seen this before in a magazine but don't remember the name

7. Slime from Dragon Quest- I've played the first three and Sentinel of the Skies

8. No clue, first time seeing it

9. They're from Bubble Bobble- I've played the arcade versions

10. No clue

11. No clue

Edited February 26, 2016 by Dark Falcon

[MarioKirby]

My guesses:

1. Crash Bandicoot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo & Kazooie

4. Chocobo

5. Ray-man

6. Something from Space Invaders. Don't know the name, though

7. Slime

8. Main character from Dig-dug. Don't know the name.

9. It's Bubble Bobble related. Don't know the name.

10. Contra main character. I want to say the name is Bill Ryzer? Bill something for sure.

11. Don't know the name, but it's the main character of Time Splitters (Sweepers?). It was a platforming title on the original Xbox, right?

I recognized most of them, even if it wasn't their actual names; given my age and console preference growing up, the ones I couldn't accurately pinpoint were before my existence or on non-Nintendo consoles.

Edited February 26, 2016 by MarioKirby

[Fire Emblem Fan]

1.

Crash Bandicoot! Yes! He's most definitely iconic! He's seriously one of the most underrated iconic characters/series!

2.

Bomberman.

3.

Banjo & Kazooie!

4.

Chocobo!

5.

Rayman!

6.

Space Invader?

7.

Slime.

8.

Dig Dug!

9.

I know who this one is, but I can't remember their name.

10.

I fairly certain this is a character from Contra.

11.

I don't know this one, sorry.

[Original Alear]

I'm too lazy to actually type out all their names. If you don't believe me that's ok.

I know 1 2 3 4 5 7. I don't know 9 or 10 by name but I know the game names.

[Ercdouken]

1. Crash Bandicoot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo and Kazooie

4. Chocobo

5. Rayman

6. Space Invader alien

7. Dragon Quest slime

8. Dig Dug

9. Bub

10. Bill Rizer

11. That cat from that game on XBox

[Nightmare]

Some of these characters could be called pretty iconic (e.g. Bomberman, DQ Slime, etc.) but then you have something like Bub/Bob. While I'm sure every arcade enthusiast would recognise them, they're not really icons of gaming, I would think. At least not outside of Japan, and at least not in this day and age. There's also a bit of inconsistency here...I'm fairly certain Bill Rizer's contemporaries, such as Megaman and Simon Belmont (not to mention really obvious ones, like Link and Mario) enjoy just as much popularity (if not more) than he does, and certainly the likes of Rayman and Blinx can't even dream of competing.

The list needs amending overall, but it's not a bad start. I can recognise them all, but I'm not sure if that speaks of how iconic they are to me, or how huge of a nerd I am.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Nightmare

[kingddd]

Crash Bandicoot

Bomberman

Banjo Kazooie

Chocobo

Rayman

Space Invader

Slim

Digdug

Bubble bobble

Bill Rizer (Contra)

Blinx

pretty much know all of them.

[Izana]

1. crash bandicoot

2. bomberman

3. banjo and kazooie

4. chocobo

5. rayman

6. space invader

7. ???

8. ???

9. bubble bobble dragons

10. ???

11. blinx

The only game I'm extensively familiar with is 11 tbh.

[animeapple]

i have played a game before with each of those characters... and i can confirm they are all iconic... except for that last one...

his game wasnt extremely popular sadly... and the xbox wasnt really well known for having mascot games... so... yeah he will be forgotten most likely compared to the others

[Magical CC]

1. Crash

2. Bomberman

3. Dont know

4. Chocobo

5. Rayman

6. Space Invader

7. The slime in Dragon Quest

8. Dont know

9. Wobble Bobble

10. Contra guy

11. Dont know

I totally have no idea who the no.11 is. I believe I have never seen him before.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Magical CC

[DragonLord]

1. Crash Bandiccot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo and Kazooie

4. Seen this somewhere before but don't know the name

5. Rayman

6. Thing from Space Invaders

7. Jelly Monster from Dragon Quest games

8. Never seen before

9. Never seen before

10. Looks like it might be from Contra

11. No idea at all

Edited February 26, 2016 by DragonLord

[Zera]

If I were you, I'd make this topic a poll where members "check" the characters they recognize. It'd be a lot more efficient than separately viewing everyone's posts.

1. Crash Bandicoot

2. Bomberman

3. Banjo-Kazooie

4. Chocobo

5. Rayman

6. Alien Invader

7. Slime

8. Dig Dug

9. He's from an NES puzzle game?

10. Contra

11. I have no idea.

[Lord Tullus]

1) Crash Bandacoot! Used to play some of these game while waiting for the orthodontist to fix my braces about 7 years ago.

2) Bomberman is the sh*t! I still have a copy of bomberman hero for the N64!

3) Banjo Kazooi. Who wouldn't recognise this Icon!? I have not played any Banjo games myself, but I've seen plenty of gameplay and articles to know a thing or two.

4) Uh.... That's a Chocabo from Final Fantasy 7, right? I have not played FF7. But there's Zerul's Playthrough on Mangs's channel that I'm still trying to finish up.... probably should get on that.

5) Rayman? Right? Looks enough like the smashified stuff and the one from origins. I have not played a single rayman game, but a few musical tracks have gotten some inspiration from classical music tempos and themes. Something like that.

6) I don't know.... Galaga? Atari-style, right?

7) I'll be real. I've seen this somewhere before. Don't know the context. I feel ashamed, being a '95 kid.

8) Ninja Gaiden? No.. Don't think that's right... There was an animated star bomb parody with this character on Youtube, but that's all I know... Sorry...

9) No clue. Sorry. Dat JP box art, tho

10) I want to say "Simon Belmont" but that's wrong. There was some sort of old shooter game from before I was born.... I dunno. I remember playing some old-school rip offs online when I was in junior high. Those were the days...

11) Character looks like a villan. Bad ass little cat. Don't know a thing. Would like to see this one make an appearance in an NX title, and that's just from the look of 'em!

[Luxian]

1.Crash Bandicoot !

2.Bomberman !

And here I just thought about how long since I've last played Bomberman, how odd....

3.Banjo&Kazoo/Kazooei ?
I don't know. Just know their name not even for sure.... But I've seen that pic.

4.Chocobo ! (I guess..)

5.Rayman

6.Space Invaders

7.A blue rain drop ?! (Blue Bomber by any chance ? XD)
Seriously I've also seen his face somewhere.

8.Absolutely no idea. Looks like a caveman and a pterodacty-look alike creature ? Pretty old pixelised stuff, so I can't even guess.

9.I KNEW this.... But I forgot... Sorry, I draw a blank, but it looks like the Cut the Rope little thingy... But I guess I was too young back then and had no interest in gaming.

10.This shooter and those graphics do ring a bell, though, I can't even put a blind guess on it. Can I have a joker ? (Maybe a game when I was very younger too.)

11. I guess since I lost it since the 6th character,it's pretty obvious to you I don't know this one...

Shall I be ashamed not to be a "true gamer" ?

[Randoman]

I just want to throw it out there that I still count it as correctly guessed if you name the series the game character is from. I mean, if you can name the series just by looking at the character, the fact that you can quickly identify the character to that game series makes the character iconic in my eyes.

I mean, I don't think that most people calling the green elf sword guy "Zelda" makes Link not iconic. The fact they know he's from Zelda is good enough to me, in terms of recognition and being an icon.

]Some of these characters could be called pretty iconic (e.g. Bomberman, DQ Slime, etc.) but then you have something like Bub/Bob. While I'm sure every arcade enthusiast would recognise them, they're not really icons of gaming, I would think. At least not outside of Japan, and at least not in this day and age. There's also a bit of inconsistency here...I'm fairly certain Bill Rizer's contemporaries, such as Megaman and Simon Belmont (not to mention really obvious ones, like Link and Mario) enjoy just as much popularity (if not more) than he does, and certainly the likes of Rayman and Blinx can't even dream of competing.

The list needs amending overall, but it's not a bad start. I can recognise them all, but I'm not sure if that speaks of how iconic they are to me, or how huge of a nerd I am.

Thanks for the in-depth explanations.

Yeah, I figured I was probably overestimating Bub and Bob's iconicness, but since Taito did use them for both the Bubble Bobble and Bust-A-Move series (which I'm probably overestimating the prevalence/popularity of), I do kind of feel like that makes them Taito's "Mario," in terms of using a character in different gameplay styles.

As for Bill Rizer and Contra, since the Konami code is quite famous, Contra is the game that people most associate it with since it's next to impossible to defeat without it, and I'm quite sure that the original NES Contra is at least in the top 20 most well known NES games (especially since it's one of the games that defined the term "Nintendo Hard"), I thought it'd be iconic.

As for Rayman, I'm quite sure he's one of the more iconic characters out there, since most gamers (even the casual ones that don't frequent gaming sites/forums) recognize his appearance.

Blinx, yeah, I definitely know he's not popular or iconic. The main reason I actually included him in the list is because Microsoft was actually considering making him the mascot of the XBox brand, since Blinx as a cartoony cat was thought to have had a much wider appeal to different groups (females, younger kids, etc.) than Master Chief (who'd mainly appeal to older guys). Well, we know that plan didn't carry out, but I was still curious as to how much people recognize him, being a character that had the potential to become the cartoony mascot for an entire game console brand.

If I were you, I'd make this topic a poll where members "check" the characters they recognize. It'd be a lot more efficient than separately viewing everyone's posts.

I'll definitely keep that in mind for next time (since I don't think all the participants who already posted would vote in the poll if I were to add one).

Either way, I still enjoy reading everyone's posts in a thread like this, especially the posts where people admit they don't know but say from what source they vaguely recognize it. I mean, it's interesting to see what sources (gaming articles, youtube videos, etc.) most help in giving these characters spotlight and exposure.

[Nightmare]

Thanks for the in-depth explanations.

Yeah, I figured I was probably overestimating Bub and Bob's iconicness, but since Taito did use them for both the Bubble Bobble and Bust-A-Move series (which I'm probably overestimating the prevalence/popularity of), I do kind of feel like that makes them Taito's "Mario," in terms of using a character in different gameplay styles.

As for Bill Rizer and Contra, since the Konami code is quite famous, Contra is the game that people most associate it with since it's next to impossible to defeat without it, and I'm quite sure that the original NES Contra is at least in the top 20 most well known NES games (especially since it's one of the games that defined the term "Nintendo Hard"), I thought it'd be iconic.

As for Rayman, I'm quite sure he's one of the more iconic characters out there, since most gamers (even the casual ones that don't frequent gaming sites/forums) recognize his appearance.

Blinx, yeah, I definitely know he's not popular or iconic. The main reason I actually included him in the list is because Microsoft was actually considering making him the mascot of the XBox brand, since Blinx as a cartoony cat was thought to have had a much wider appeal to different groups (females, younger kids, etc.) than Master Chief (who'd mainly appeal to older guys). Well, we know that plan didn't carry out, but I was still curious as to how much people recognize him, being a character that had the potential to become the cartoony mascot for an entire game console brand.

Bub/Bob: I think their popularity is unfortunately limited, but they're definitely Taito's mascots.

Bill: That's true, and I'm definitely not contesting that Contra is pretty iconic as far as game series go, just mentioning that there are others that rival it in popularity. As for the Konami Code, I think Contra might be the most popular example of it, but Gradius is pretty popular for having it too.

Rayman: I'd call him popular for certain, especially because of recent exposure, but I'm not sure if he quite reaches iconic status is all.

Blinx: That makes sense.