Smells like screen spirit: 10 top '90s gaming icons
Amy Flower
STACK Senior Editor
With hundreds of games released every year, a character has to be truly special to become a pop culture star. The 1990s saw many game releases, and we've plucked our choices for the ten most iconic game characters to have made their debut in the decade.
Yoshi
Debut: 1990 - Super Mario World - Super NES
He may have debuted as a sidekick to Nintendo’s Mario and Luigi, but there was no way that this little dinosaur was going to play second fiddle for very long. Indeed, his rapid rise to popularity saw the sequel Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island carrying his name.
In following years Yoshi played with everything from cookies to physics to arts and crafts, as well as appearing in a cameo capacity in myriad other games from Nintendo, even when Mario was nowhere to be found.
Chun-Li
Debut: 1991 - Street Fighter II - Arcade
Thankfully it’s no big deal nowadays, but when vengeful undercover Interpol agent Chun-Li debuted in Capcom’s soon-to-be smash hit brawler it marked the first time that a playable female fighter featured in a mainstream arcade release.
With her expert martial arts skills – and those incredibly powerful thighs - Chun-Li has gone on to become one of the series’ most popular and recognisable characters, featuring in most Street Fighter II sequels and even her very own movie (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li).
Duke Nukem
Debut: 1991 - Duke Nukem - PC
It’s hard to believe, but the bigmouthed, hyper-macho, Army of Darkness and They Live-quoting action hero that we know today started life as quite the silent type, aggrieved at his favourite soap opera being messed with by a mad scientist.
Since the steroid injection he’s starred in over a dozen games, the most notorious of which was Duke Nukem Forever, which finally escaped a troubled development in 2011. John Cena was to play Duke in a movie, but that’s been canned. Damn!
Sonic
Debut: 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog - Mega Drive
While SEGA’s main competitor, Nintendo, had the versatile Mario, their Alex Kidd just wasn’t cutting it in the mascot stakes. Enter Mr Needlemouse - soon renamed Sonic the Hedgehog - and a gaming legend was born.
Not only did Sonic help SEGA’s Mega Drive compete with the Super Nintendo, he quickly gained enormous traction amongst gamers as a more edgy character than that of the competition. Sonic is still very much alive in the games sphere, and even has his third big Hollywood movie on the way.
Kirby
Debut: 1992 - Kirby’s Dream Land - Game Boy
Everybody’s favourite pink glob of gaming goodness started life colourless, mainly because the original Game Boy was also resolutely monochromatic. But his creator, Masahiro Sakurai, had always intended Kirby to be pink (even though Nintendo legend Mr Miyamoto wanted him to be yellow).
Named in honour of the lawyer who won for Nintendo when Universal City Studios sued over Donkey Kong, Kirby has appeared in more than 20 games and even had his own anime series in Japan, as well as popular real-world cafés.
Scorpion
Debut: 1992 - Mortal Kombat - Arcade
When Mortal Kombat first hit arcades, players gaped in awe at the realism of the seven digitized fighters, and none of those fighters gained more popularity over the years than undead ninja spectre Scorpion.
Not only has he featured in almost every Mortal Kombat game since – and there have been a lot of them – but Scorpion has also been an ambassador for the series, appearing in other games such as NBA Jam, as well as being in the logo for MK developers NetherRealm Studios.
Crash Bandicoot
Debut: 1996 - Crash Bandicoot - PlayStation
Having a strong mascot is a Good Thing (also see Sonic), and as PlayStation didn’t have one, developers Naughty Dog were up for the challenge.
Enter Willie the Wombat who, Aussie identity maintained, was remodelled to become the genetically engineered Crash Bandicoot. Known for his Taz-like spin move and a predilection for boxes, Crash has featured in several games, with a recent resurgence in popularity via remasters.
Lara Croft
Debut: 1996 - Tomb Raider - PlayStation/Saturn/PC
Girl power hit the gaming world with plenty of pointy polygons when Lara Croft first graced the world’s gaming screens in 1996. Here was a whip smart, super-athletic, extremely capable posh British heroine who players got to get archaeological with in a series of gaming adventures.
Despite several character redesigns, Lara is still an important pop culture icon today, be it in games or on movie screens, where she’s been played by both Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander.
Pikachu
Debut: 1996 - Pocket Monsters Red/Green - Game Boy
A character that’s become so ubiquitous that many think its name is actually Pokémon, Pikachu – a cutesy, rodent named after a combination of ‘pika’, a sound an electric spark makes, and ‘chu’, a sound that a mouse makes – enjoys status as a true Japanese cultural icon.
From humble beginnings on the Game Boy, Pikachu now heads up a Poké-empire that includes numerous video games, cartoons, collector’s cards and, of course, the Ryan Reynolds-starring movie Detective Pikachu.
Spyro
Debut: 1998 - Spyro the Dragon - PlayStation
A fiery (literally) little dragon who became almost as synonymous with PlayStation as a certain bandicoot, Spyro entered the gaming world in a platformer that perfectly balanced challenge with reward.
Soon starring in sequels, his own games weren’t enough to contain Spyro, with him appearing in the Skylanders series of “toys to life” games (and cartoon series), before enjoying a renaissance with the release of the remastered Spyro Reignited Trilogy on modern game formats.
Play with the stars!
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