10 Best Video Game Characters Of The New Generation

For the majority you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that if you uttered the words "Spyro", "Mario" or "Link", they didn't crumple into a fuzzy heap of warm nostalgic tingles accompanied by the sudden urge to go and play the latest instalment of their favourite franchise.

It may just be down to the fact that many now-maturing gamers were just at the right impressionable, affectionate age to embrace the smattering of characters we got at the time, because let's face it; heroes like the above and so many more remain damn-near loveable just as much as the cast from any number of Pixar films.

There's definitely a huge reduction in cutesy platformers dominating the overall landscape these days though, as in a move that somewhat reflects gaming's overall maturation, for years some of the more recent noteworthy names are those of Nathan Drake, Marcus Fenix or Solid Snake.

Sony seemed to cotton onto this departure with the pre-release hype for the PS4, slapping up pictures of Knack everywhere with the hope that we'd all champion him as our new platform-mascot, but sadly although his debut game was a surprisingly difficult romp through a variety of colourful locales, Knack himself had about as much life as a square of toilet paper in a bonfire.

Enough about those who missed the mark though, which were those that totally nailed their bullseyes with perfect precision? Who have you enjoyed playing as and hanging out with from the new consoles' games?