I’m sorry – what?
According to the results of a recent public poll conducted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the “most iconic video game character of all time” is not Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, or even Pac-Man, but rather the dual-pistol-wielding protagonist of the Tomb Raider franchise, Lara Croft.
Buckle up, players, because the results of this poll are so utterly baffling that they may leave you questioning the very fabric of reality itself.
Held by in promotion of their upcoming 20th annual BAFTA Game Awards ceremony, the poll in question collected its information via an open ‘write-in’ submission form which allowed for any given respondent to answer with any character they could have possibly imagined.
Ultimately collecting responses from roughly 4,000 players from across the globe, the British charity organization’s found that, in order, the apparent ‘Top 20 Most Iconic Video Game Characters of All Time” were found to be:
20. Nathan Drake – Uncharted series
19. Ellie Williams – The Last of Us series
18. Kazuma Kiryu – Yakuza / Like A Dragon series
17. Astarion – Baldur’s Gate 3
16. Cloud Strife – Final Fantasy VII series
15. Crash Bandicoot – Crash Bandicoot series
14. Solid Snake – Metal Gear Solid series
13. Steve – Minecraft
12. Pikachu – Pokémon series
11. Arthur Morgan – Red Dead Redemption 2
10. Shadowheart – Baldur’s Gate 3
09. Kratos – God of War series
08. Master Chief – Halo series
07. Link – The Legend of Zelda series
06. Pac-Man – Pac-Man series
05. Sackboy – LittleBigPlanet series
04. Sonic the Hedgehog – Sonic the Hedgehog series
03. Agent 47 – Hitman series
02. Mario – Super Mario series
01. Lara Croft – Tomb Raider series
In recognition of her ‘player’s choice’ win, Lara Croft’s original voice actress in the original series, Shelley Blond, will make an appearance at the BAFTA Awards to accept the award on the heroine’s behalf.
“She’s gone from being very pointy and childlike in drawing to very filmic,” Blond told the BBC following Lara Croft’s polling win. “What is so iconic about Lara Croft is the fact that she is [a] female lead in a video game.”
“She’s all about girl power and female empowerment,” she added. “She’s at the forefront, she is what the adventure is.”
Given that the number of players who actually responded to BAFTA’s poll is but a small, infinitesimal fraction of the total video game playing population of the planet, it should be understood that these results are in no way representative of any actual cultural zeitgeist.
However, that said, the poll’s small sample size does nothing to change the fact that its results, as anyone with more than a passing knowledge of video games will know, are downright absurd.
Lara Croft is undoubtedly an iconic character, but the most iconic? Agent 47 in the top three? Two characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 make the list, but such legends as Mega Man, Donkey Kong, and the Slime from Dragon Quest don’t? Absolutely NO mention of any King of Fighters or Street Fighter character?
All in all, the only real information that can be gleamed from this poll is that those individuals who replied to BAFTA’s poll hold a very Western-centric and surface-level taste in video games.
At current, the 20th annual BAFTA Game Awards are currently set to take place on April 11th.