Things are once again looking up forXboxthese days with recent releases, and new games on the horizon. It’s important to remember just how important the green brand has been for the gaming space in general, producing some of the most iconic characters in gaming that will live on long after theXboxconsole disappears.
Whether it’s the standard-bearer ofHaloor the loveable characters from beloved indies, Xbox has created a whole host of iconic characters worth celebrating. The characters listed below were mainly created as exclusive characters for Xbox and Microsoft platforms, but with recent acquisitions like Bethesda and Rare, other iconic protagonists could become a possibility.
Double Fine Studios is well known for embodying the inventiveness of the indie world by infusing their games with wild, creative spirit and out-there design decisions that most wouldn’t attempt to try. That’s a big reason why the originalPsychonauts, released in 2005, is widely regarded to be one of the greatest indie games ever made.
A big reason for the original and the excellent sequel’s success is Raz, the strange but precious adventurer who happily falls into the madcap adventures that come with delving into theintricate and hidden-location-filled mindsof Double Fine’s trademark weird characters. Raz is all about leaning into the weird, and he’s beloved for it.
While the world ofGears of Waris widely beloved, it’s hard to call it a world defined by its optimism. Ravaged by an alien race and always drenched in blood and guts, light-hearted humor is hard to come by, which is the exact role Cole fills in the central team.
Where Marcus Fenix is stoic and badass, Cole cuts through the tension of the game’s dour missions with goofy energy and a quick-witted word. His infectious spirit is a big reason why he is a fan-favorite character to this day who has appeared in almost as many Gears properties as Marcus Fenix himself.
As the indie game world boomed in the mid 2010s, suddenly new characters were springing into mainstream popularity and cementing themselves in the wider gaming culture. Ori, fromOri and the Blind Forest(and its sequel), is a great example of a new canon of Xbox characters being created in real-time.
Ori is a spirit who separated from its family, tries to find love in its adopted friends and family throughout the beautiful landscapes of the game. As a silent protagonist, Ori is a bit of a blast from the past in terms of iconic game characters, but they embody the tender, emotional, and adventurous spirit of indie games of this period.
Where characters like Ori embody the sensitive and hopeful side of new gaming characters, Senua is the exact opposite. First appearing inHellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua is a wandering woman with severe mental illness and psychosis who must navigate a hellish world to try and find some semblance of peace.
The complex and powerful storyonly gets weirder and darker in the latest entry in 2024. Senua has become well known as a signpost for the psychological complexity modern game protagonists can embody when done right, and the incredible facial capture sometimes makes her feel more like a movie character than a video game character.
Rare had a major problem after the success ofGoldeneyebecause theBondIP was limiting, but they wanted to build on their popularity and make something all of their own. EnterPerfect Dark, and Joanna Dark, its protagonist.
A gun-toting badass who puts Bond to shame, Joanna is one of the earliest examples of a great female protagonist in mainstream gaming that has become iconic in her own right. She’ll be reappearing soon in an Xbox-exclusive reboot of the venerable franchise, cementing her further as one of Xbox’s key iconic characters.
Though the world ofHalois well fleshed out in countless novels and comics, when players first encounteredHalo 2, the Covenant were still a strange and alien species that were mostly just fodder for Masterchief to blast away. Not so with the Arbiter that showed the incredible writing chops that Bungie would go on to develop further as the franchise evolved.
The Arbiter should theoretically be the arch enemy of Master Chief, but they develop an interesting and rich buddy-cop energy throughout their games, embodying different philosophies in the world, and even becoming friends despite the dire circumstances of Halo’s world. He’s a beloved part of the series DNA, and it’s a shame that the Thel’Vadam incarnation of the Arbiter hasn’t been seen for some time. Though, hopefully Master Chief’s new companionscan take a leaf out of the Arbiter’s book.
WhenGears of Warfirst launched, it indicated the darker military-focused direction that video games were heading in for an increasingly adult audience, focusing on darkness, sadness, and a whole lot of violence. Perhaps no gaming character sums this period up better than Marcus Fenix.
Ever stoic, a leader, anda spouter of brilliant quotations, Marcus Fenix started off as a fairly simplistic generic protagonist, but throughout the lifespan of the Gears franchise he has been increasingly developed as one of the most iconic characters in the Xbox canon, widely beloved by fans, and a key part of theGearsseries DNA.
It would be hard to think of any bigger Xbox character than Master Chief, considering he’s likely one of the most famous gaming characters of all time, alongside Mario and Sonic. Though he started off as little more than a gun-toting badass inHalo: Combat Evolved,Master Chief, also known as John-117, became an increasingly complex and tragic character as the focal point of the wholeHaloworld who was always quick withan incredible quote.
As a Spartan, a genetically mutated soldier who was kidnapped from his parents and forced into war through no choice of his own, Master Chief is both a loyal soldier and a deeply emotionally suppressed character, a range that has become increasingly clear through his complicated relationship with Cortana, the computer AI that he may be able to call his only true friend. He’s complex, badass, and has an instantly iconic visual style, making him the most iconic Xbox character of all time.
