Can You Match The Picture To These Vintage Video Game Characters?

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Back in the day, there were only a select few geeks, proud of their geekiness, who would spend their time playing video games, usually at an arcade or on a home computer. It wasn't until the likes of Nintendo started to release their home consoles that people started to realize that there was probably something to this craze that they might be missing. Little did they know that this "craze" would continue on for decades, resulting in the situation we have now where video games are an entertainment giant.

From these humble beginnings, we saw the growth of video gaming icons, which would come to define their own era within video gaming. While the video game industry continues to create icons for the modern era, we decided we'd go a little retro and see if you could name any of these vintage video game characters based entirely on their own image. Don't think we'll go easy on you and pick the obvious ones either!

Do you think you've got what it takes to call yourself a vintage video game master? Well, it's time to find out with our quiz that will put your classic video game knowledge to the test.

Question 1

Who is this?

Sometimes noises and names can end up becoming more iconic in popular culture than the actual characters that spawned them. We can guarantee you that a select few of you immediately heard the sound of a word being shouted in a specific rhythm as soon as you saw this image. If you don't know what we're talking about, it's time you delved back into your video game history to find out exactly where it was that this particular character started to implant themselves within our minds.

Question 2

Who is this?

To many people, this is one of the cutest bromances to ever find its way into a video game. While the bromance was very much created within the anime, it was the video game that allowed you to travel the world with your friend outside of his usual captive state, something that wasn't allowed for any other character. We reckon there's been more plushies of the little yellow guy sold than any other video game character in the history of the world.

Question 3

Who is this?

One of the most insane things you start to think about while putting together a quiz like this one is how far technology has come. At the moment, video game developers spend most of their time trying to make sure that their game looks as realistic as possible, with most of their money going on looks rather than gameplay. Back in the day, gameplay was all you really had, and you had to come up with eye-catching imagery that would stick in the mind.

Question 4

Who is this?

This little green guy has been appearing in video games ever since 1986, and yet he very rarely sees his name on the front of the box. As we all probably know, fandoms, in general, can get pretty crazy, and video game fandoms are no different. One of the major problems that the fandom of this guy has is that people always seem to be getting his name wrong, which is likely due to him not having his name in big lights.

Question 5

Who is this?

For a long time, graphically beautiful platformers with seemingly realistic physics were all the rage. People really loved them for a long time, but like most eras of gaming popularity, they had their time before being pushed aside for the next big thing. Unlike first person shooters and other popular forms of gaming, we reckon that the realistic platformer didn't get the amount of time it deserved. There was a lot of storytelling potential in these sorts of games which never got a look in.

Question 6

Who is this?

If you pick up a book or start watching a film, only to find that the main character is an animal, you can be fairly sure that it's not meant for an adult. However, this doesn't seem to apply to video games for some reason. There's an entire parade of video game characters that are all animals or animal based, such as the one in the image here. You don't always play as them, but it seems like a lot of cartoon games have at least one animal in them.

Question 7

Who is this?

One of the most recognizable video game villains of all time, this spiked turtle uses his fire-breathing powers and Koopa-ling minions in an attempt to stop a certain famous video game character from getting to the end of the game to save a princess. As a quick side note, it feels like video game characters were always trying to save princesses back in the day. Whatever happened to that trope? We reckon the standard video game audience got a bit bored of the damsel in distress.

Question 8

Who is this?

It's a well-known fact that the human race can only wait so long before they begin to sexualize an invention. Believe it or not, but the sexualization started a lot earlier than this particular character, but it was this character that pushed the concept of sexualized characters within video games into the mainstream. At the time, it seemed to make sense, catering to the fantasies of a bunch of teenage boys, but we now know that video game audiences are far more diverse than we once thought.

Question 9

Who is this?

One characteristic of video games that some people believe we've lost in our pursuit of perfection is the actual difficulty of the things. While it's true that not all modern games are easy, it does seem that the developers have attempted to ease off the difficulty in the hopes of bringing in a much wider audience. This wasn't the case back in the day, with many youngsters throwing their controllers at the wall in frustration after dying yet again on a particularly difficult level.

Question 10

Who is this?

We know this is a bit of an odd one because, for some, it'll probably be very easy to guess who these two are, while if you weren't around for this era of gaming or just didn't own the right console, this duo could've very easily passed you by. They're from an era of gaming that has sadly passed, where colorful characters, a good sense of humor, well-made platforming and a huge number of collectibles was all you needed for a great game.

Question 11

Who is this?

As human beings, some people believe we have an innate need to try and group things into categories, thereby making it easier for ourselves to keep track of everything we need to know. It also makes it easier for us to write about things, which is why we have various terms that refer to grand concepts or ideas created from within art and media, describing everything from books to video games. Unless the term is negative, you can be pretty sure that a game which creates one of these is highly regarded.

Question 12

Who is this?

As usual, we're going to start you off with something easy, and if you can't get this one right you probably shouldn't be here. We're obviously not in the business of putting people off our quizzes, but you're currently looking at one of the all-time famous video game characters, so if you can't even get this one right we don't really think you have much of a chance with the rest of the quiz! Seriously, it's so easy this one!

Question 13

Who is this?

There was once a time when video game developers felt the need to create a mascot, in the vain hope that this would increase sales. They can't have the blame put upon them entirely though, as it was the publishers and the video game companies who felt that a mascot would sell better. If you could convince them that your mascot was the winner, they'd sign you and your game up, meaning a lot more money for you if they could get it to sell!

Question 14

Who is this?

As you can see by this character's hair, there's no chance this particular game was developed by a Western developer, something you'll understand if you're an avid gamer who can see the stereotypical differences between the Japanese market and the Western market. In fact, even if you're not a fan of this character's franchise, you'd probably be able to take an educated guess which game series we're talking about, based entirely on the fact that the characters have notoriously ridiculous hair.

Question 15

Who is this?

We don't know if this is one of those if it isn't broke don't fix it sort of scenarios, but we always thought it was weird that video game duos followed the same vibe as television or film show duos, in the sense that they were both polar opposites of each other. We get that a lot of humor can come from this sort of scenario, but surely it's more realistic that a pair of partners would have more in common?

Question 16

Who is this?

The thing about video games is that they often get their villains wrong. Sure, sometimes they need to be cartoonishly evil because it goes with the vibe of the game, but when it doesn't, it can be hard to find that fine line between intimidatingly brooding and genuine evil. Sure, other artistic mediums struggle to do this right as well, but they've all had a lot more time to perfect it than video games. Thankfully, good writing is good writing, no matter what it's applied to.

Question 17

Who is this?

Now we're getting really obscure. What you're currently looking at is the villain from a game that many believe was the spiritual successor to the modern classic Bioshock. Just as with film, books, and television, video games find their influences from an entire wealth of history that spans all the way back to the first ever video game. Crazy to think that a game released today could end up forming the basis of an idea within someone's head that could see an absolute masterpiece released a decade from now.

Question 18

Who is this?

Like all art forms, there's a lot of things from the past that we wish could be easily forgotten, but continue to stand as exactly what the art form can become if we're not careful. Before people became interested in making something unique or interesting, they settled on blood, guts, sex, violence, and swearing. We're not saying there's anything wrong with these things, but it's certainly immature and highlights a time in video games history that didn't feel too inclusive.

Question 19

Who is this?

The Japanese video game developers seem to have this weird tendency to not localize certain game franchises, as they seem to think they won't have the same sort of sales in the West, even though this hasn't been proved to be true once in the past few decades. Seriously, there are so many great games that they only release in Japan, only deferring to the fans in the West years later. I'm looking at the Yakuza series and Persona series particularly!

Question 20

Who is this?

Can you believe what people used to have to look at back in the day if they wanted to play a video game? We're not saying you need something ultra beautiful or realistic to enjoy playing it, but this is just downright ugly. Unless you're well read when it comes to your video game history or were just born at the time, we doubt this one will just come to you. Looks like it's time for some guesswork we're afraid!

Question 21

Who is this?

As you can probably tell by the high quality drawing on display here, this game was actually helped into creation by the famous Don Bluth, a man known for his prolific animation and directing work. Bluth isn't the only person who saw the rise of video games as a chance to experiment with an untapped medium, although he is one of the only successful people to do it that's for sure. That being said, we should always support artistic experimentation.

Question 22

Who is this?

One thing it's probably good to keep in mind as you move through the rest of this quiz is that we've not always been able to get you the original image of these characters in their most pure form. We live in a world that is obsessed with remixing and remastering. There's pretty much no retro game out there that hasn't seen a remake in some form. That means you'll have to figure it out by working backward if you want to find the right answer.

Question 23

Who is this?

Some of these characters come from a much simpler time when they didn't need elaborate names or specific gimmicks to find popularity among the video gaming public. All they needed was a good design and great writing to pull us in. You're looking at one of the legitimate cult figures of the video gaming world, so don't be surprised if it doesn't come to you immediately. It'd be nice to see video game developers creating more cult characters in the modern world.

Question 24

Who is this?

Once upon a time, the concept that a video game would spend time trying to make you laugh was not a controversial one. They came with great writing and allowed you a chance to be challenged while also laughing rather than swearing at the screen. Now, people are understandably weary when they're faced with the concept of a comedy game. Sadly, the level of writing has declined over the past few years, with only a handful of contradictions such as the Portal series standing out.

Question 25

Who is this?

Now, unless you're interested in video games, this is where we start to get a little bit obscure. This character's game has seen a resurgence in popularity recently due to a remastered edition, so there's a chance younger people may have seen him around, but it's still fairly niche. However, if you've got a fairly solid knowledge of video game history, along with all the big hitters from the past few decades, we reckon that this guy shouldn't be too much trouble for you.

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