Forgotten Heroes: The 20 Best Video Game Characters You Don't See Enough

We all know (and love) the classic video game characters like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, but sometimes we have to wonder: whatever happened to guys like Grim Fandango's Manny Calavera or Banjo and Kazooie? Oh, and why haven't we played a good Metroid game in awhile?

Be it poor sales, critical failure, or over-saturation in the market, there are times when a good video game character just slowly starts to disappear. It's a sad truth of the industry. To highlight the heroes that we want to be able to play as again, though, we put together a list of the 20 Best Video Game Characters You Don't See Enough. Note: in this sense, we mean that they aren't given an opportunity to star in their own titles anymore. Appearances in fighting games, for instance, like Super Smash Bros. or Marvel vs. Capcom don't count. We want to see these characters take on a real story of their own again, sooner rather than later. That is, if their developers can manage to get their act together...

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Developer: Valve Corporation

We have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for Half-Life 2: Episode Three for ages, and still the title has no release date. Not to say that Valve Corporation has been slacking in the meantime, it's just that we really miss our favorite, bespectacled theoretical physicist/Gravity Gunman. How could we not? This guy is the Walter White of video games: he's relatable in a certain sense, but also someone you can admire because of how cool he can be despite his otherwise nerdy lifestyle. There's a reason we named him one of the most badass video game characters of all time.

Developer: Konami

Certain aspects of the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon games had difficulty appealing to American audiences, simply because of the cultural differences that got lost in translation. When it came down to it, these games were extremely Japanese, and if you weren't able to embrace that from the start, then it's likely that you wouldn't find yourself putting too much time into the titles. However, if opened up your cultural boundaries a bit, you were able to find an adventure game in the vein of Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time that was well-worth exploring. Unfortunately, because of vast resistance from American audiences, Goemon hasn't seen a North American release in ages. Will the U.S. ever be able to embrace the ways of the JRPG?

Developer: Square Enix

How many video game protagonists actually ever die? It's certainly unconventional, but Square Enix's bold decision to temporarily kill off Crono in Chrono Trigger paid off in the end, as it made his adventure that much more heart-wrenching and compelling. The game was an intense, emotional journey across time, that teamed up the silent, yet still expressive, Crono, with robots, scientists, cavewomen, and more as they fought to save the Earth from the threat of complete destruction.

Chrono Cross was a killer sequel to Trigger, but anytime that Square Enix wants to bring the series' original hero back is more than okay with us. You can make a strong case for Chrono Trigger as being the Super Nintendo's greatest RPG, if not one of gaming's best RPGs to ever be created, period.

Developer: Rare

Any game starring a furry, little squirrel seems like the last thing that you would give an "M" rating, but when you had a creature as hard-drinking and perverse as Conker, then you really had no other choice. After speculation arose that the N64's first Conker title would be too similar to Rare's other franchise, Banjo-Kazooie, the company gave the game a total facelift, adding a number of mature themes such as sex, graphic violence, and toilet humor. The result? Conker's Bad Fur Day was a huge, hilarious critical success. However, it sold poorly, which is probably the reason why Rare has only released one Conker game since. Why do the good have to die so young?

Developer: Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog isn't afraid to make a game that pushes the envelope on their past successes, and that fearlessness was certainly on display throughout the Jak and Daxter series. The development team created the franchise with the idea in mind of making their first open world title, in order to more fully take advantage of the technology available at the time on the PS2.

The games executed this mission to a T, as they offered a vast, detailed environment filled with a number of difficult puzzles and menacing villains. However, their hasn't been a follow-up to the platforming end of the series since 2009, making us wonder if Naughty Dog has perhaps closed the book on the duo. Would they be able to detach themselves from Uncharted long enough to reboot Jak and our favorite ottsel? Here's hoping so.

Developer: Crystal Dynamics

With how attached to television and pop-culture Gex was back in his 1990s titles, Gex, Enter the Gecko, and Deep Cover Gecko, it's more than a little surprising that this smart-alec lizard hasn't been given a 21st century update. What jokes would Gex crack today about Miley Cyrus or Fox News or Breaking Bad? THESE ARE THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW. C'mon, Crystal Dynamics! It's tail time again!

Developer: Shiny Entertainment/Playmates Interactive Entertainment

The absurd, surrealist humor of the original Earthworm Jim, as well as its cartoon-style animations, gave a unique edge to this unexpected, run and gun platforming success. But it's been years since we last saw Jim cross paths with Psy-Crow or random, flying cows. Unfortunately, Earthworm Jim 4 has been in development hell for years, and the series' PSP title was cancelled all the way back in 2007. Will we ever be able to see another Earthworm game again? Lead designer, Dave Perry, has confirmed that series isn't dead yet but, until we're actually playing a new title, we can't help but be somewhat pessimistic about Jim's fate.

Developer: Rare

There didn't seem to be anything too special about Banjo and his backpacked buddy, Kazooie. They were just a bear and a bird. But, somehow, Rare's animal duo caught on in a big way with N64 gamers, and it wasn't long before we started seeing them together again soon in Banjo-Kazooie's follow-up, Banjo Tooie. Since the Xbox 360's Nuts & Bolts was released in 2008, though, we haven't had a proper platformer from the duo. Why? Beats us. Banjo and the wise-cracking Kazooie will always have a place in our hearts, and hopefully it won't be too long before Rare decides to give the two their much-anticipated re-up.

Developer: Nintendo

Not everyone was a fan of the direction that the Star Fox took in the 2000s, when we were given the action-adventure game, Star Fox Adventures, and the third-person shooter, Star Fox Assault. For our parts, though, we enjoyed using Fox in Adventures as it gave us the opportunity to more fully inhabit our cock-sure, Canidae companion. There's nothing wrong with taking down enemy spaceships in an Arwing, but we'd love to see Fox get another shot in the action-RPG genre. Yes, he's easily one of the best characters you can play as in Super Smash Bros., but Fox's past success make him overdue on headlining a game of his own again. We're waiting, Nintendo.

Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants

When you look at Abe, it's difficult to see the hero that lies inside of him. The gray, sickly skin, the sewn mouth, and his confused, puppy-dog eyes make him look more like some twisted Tim Burton creation than the savior of an enslaved alien race. But that's exactly what Abe was in the Oddworld series as he possessed and platformed his way out of RuptureFarms to prevent his fellow Mudokons from becoming meat popsicles. Perhaps it's because he's such an unlikely hero that Abe ultimately became such an enduring one but, whatever the case, we need him back. The reboot of the original Abe's Oddysee (set to be released in the coming months) will be a nice throwback, but we'd like to see some new content from Oddworld Inhabitants before too much longer.

Developer: Capcom

Marvel vs. Capcom has assembled a boatload of playable characters over the course of its history, but out of them all, Strider Hiryu may be able to make the claim as the series' most beloved. He's something of an underdog for that too, given that he's only appeared in two of his own games ever. Indeed, since the release of the arcade game Strider II back in the early '90s, Hiryu has been virtually invisible save his appearances in Capcom fighting games. However, with the announcement by Capcom back in July that Strider will be getting his own title in early 2014 for seventh and eighth-gen consoles, fans of this futuristic, elite-class ninja thankfully won't have to wait too much longer to see him in action again.

Developer: Rare

Often playing second banana (pun very much intended) to his larger gorilla companion, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong has often been referred to as the Scrappy Doo of gaming. The only difference between him and Scrappy, though, is that Scrappy absolutely sucks, and Diddy was actually cool. When Scrappy came on an episode of Scooby Doo you automatically changed the channel so that you could avoid watching that annoying-ass, Napoleonically-complexed dog try and fight every bad guy in living sight.

Meanwhile, in his heyday, Diddy was capable of earning entire games based around him (and his foxy, chimp girlfriend, Dixie Kong), such as Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest and the classic Diddy Kong Racing. Diddy has made numerous appearances in various Mario sports titles, but its been awhile since he was taking part in any sort of compelling platformer. Will Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze give us the remedy we need?

Developer: Naughty Dog

Given that Crash was the character that put Naughty Dog on the map, it's a bit surprising how far he's fallen in recent years from the modern video game landscape. It's likely that has something to do with the fact that Naughty Dog stopped developing platformers for him after Crash Bandicoot: Warped came out in 1998. As we've come to see with Uncharted and Jak and Daxter, Naughty Dog is a company that just knows how to make a good action-adventure game. If they ever let Crash back into their stable, we'll be sure to start paying attention to gaming's best bandicoot again.

Developer: Rare

On the N64, Perfect Dark was often regarded as a lesser version of the more popular, Goldeneye, but the Xbox 360's prequel, Perfect Dark Zero saw protagonist Joanna Dark establish herself more fully as a character and, in effect, legitimize the series. Since then, though, Dark has yet to be found in any video game, save the XBLA remake of the original Perfect Dark back in 2010. Pretty disappointing, right? Given all of the literary fiction that has popped up within the Perfect Dark Universe in recent years, the material is certainly in place for Rare to create another title based around Joanna. We can only hope that they actually decide to take advantage of it, though.

Developer: LucasArts

With this year's announcement that LucasArts would be shutting down as a video game development company, it appears that Manny Calavera will continue to remain woefully underused. Amazingly, for how high-quality of a game Grim Fandango was, sales were so poor that it's often cited as the reason that LucasArts stopped making adventure games. SMH. It just doesn't make sense. Grim Fandango is an essential neo-noir title, and is arguably responsible for the genre being as popular as it is today. That all started with the Grim Reaper that none of us would've been unhappy to meet, Manny Calavera.

Developer: Nintendo

The gaming world's favorite female bounty hunter, unfortunately, hasn't been seen in her own game since 2010's Metroid: Other M, which is really just an inexcusable oversight on Nintendo's part. It's hard for us to ever get tired of the alien-splattering, cannon-armed action that any of Samus' games offer, whether in a first-person mode or as a side-scroller.

Her blatant sexualization in Other M as Zero-Suit Samus was a somewhat disappointing move on development's part and, quite honestly, felt a bit unnecessary. Samus' greatest appeal has always been her ability to show that women can don power suits too. Nintendo needs to get her back in the Varia gear, so we can start doing some damage with her again.

Developer: Ape/HAL Laboratory

Earthbound was always something of a cult classic, which is likely the reason why it's follow-up, Mother 3 took so long to get off the ground, and why Earthbound 64 was ultimately cancelled. Even when Mother 3 was released, though, it failed to appeal in the way that its predecessor did, and that likely has something to do with the replacement of Earthbound central protagonist, Ness.

This bat-swinging, yo-yoing, young psychic was just an everyday kid from a small, nowhere town who gave us all a reason to believe that we too could one day save the world from an untimely demise. We'd love to see Ness' 3D iteration get his own game if Nintedo ever felt the need to add the Wii U's RPG collection. Only seeing him in Super Smash Bros. simply isn't enough.

Developer: Hudson Soft

It's been a few years since we've seen a Bomberman title and, given that Bomberman 3DS was cancelled, it appears that it'll be awhile longer before our bomb-tastic hero bursts back onto the scene. Could a Bomberman game help save the Wii U? Not on its own, but it certainly wouldn't hurt Nintendo to somehow implement the franchise's trademark, top-down style of gameplay onto the GamePad. Bomberman was a cheerful, determined character who added an explosive twist to every title he touched. It's time to bring Bomber back.

Developer: Sega

Nights into Dreams...was one of the few Sega Saturn titles that actually made the console feel like a worthwhile investment, and it had much to do with the strange, mysterious appeal of the game's protagonist, Nights. A silent, adrogynous jester-like Nightmarean, Nights appealed to gamers imaginations by flying and fighting through the dimensions of dreams in Nightopia.

The title's sequel, Nights: Journey of Dreams was a serviceable successor, but gamers are still hoping and waiting for game that will re-capture the magic of the original. We'd love to see Nights make an appearance on the Xbox One or PS4 but the only question is whether Sega will let it happen.

Developer: Square

Super Mario RPG is an all-time classic SNES title for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its colorful character roster. Yes, you had the old favorites like Mario, Bowser, and Peach, but the mysterious warrior from Star Road, Geno (or his actual, harder to pronounce name, ♡♪!?) added someone new and exciting to the Mushroom Kingdom who we, unfortunately, haven't seen since.

Geno's battle moves were visually appealing, his dialogue was equal parts witty and wise, and he was able to shake up things for the Mario universe in a way that no other past or future side characters have ever been able to match. He was last seen as an in-game, minigame host for the GBA's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but anyone who ever played as Geno knows that our beloved star hero deserves better.