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25. Sweet Tooth (Introduced in Twisted Metal)

Coolest traits: Twisted Metal's flagship villain, a killer clown on the lam from a Los Angeles mental institution, terrorized the streets behind the wheel of a stolen ice cream truck. His weapon of choice? A napalm strawberry cone. Badass, right? —Brad Wete

24. Jill Valentine (Introduced in Resident Evil)

Coolest traits: Unlike her partner, the adorably meatheaded Chris Redfield, Jill is the thinking person's action hero, with the key ability to pick locks. Also, not for nothing, but you try killing a city full of the undead wearing a miniskirt. —Darren Franich

23. Master Chief, a.k.a. Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (Introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved)

Coolest traits: In first-person shooters, you play a weapon, not a character, as the instrument of death in your virtual hands is usually all you see. But Halo used this limitation to great advantage, using a few key details — an evocative name; the intense, haunted quiet of the man; the killer suit, a triumph of design — to capture the imagination and inspire players to fill in the details of a hero whose face, hidden behind the ebony visor of his helmet, is never seen. The inspiration for the strong and silent super-soldier is said to be Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" from the actor's classic Westerns. Who doesn't want to be that guy? And then there's his green and black cybernetic armor, topped with one of the best pieces of headgear in the sci-fi/fantasy genre — making him the Star Wars stormtrooper of the 21st century. —Jeff Jensen

22. Celes Chere (Introduced in Final Fantasy VI)

Coolest traits: She's 18, a top general in an evil empire, equally skilled in swordplay and lethal magic, and an opera virtuoso. It's an extracurricular list that could land the frosty Celes in a top-tier school, but her character development is what heralded a turning point in video game storytelling. —Bryan Lufkin

21. Earthworm Jim (Introduced in Earthworm Jim)

Coolest traits: Embodying the 1990s' surreal, gross-out humor, Jim was a regular earthworm until he crawled into a robotic suit from space that gave him supernatural powers. Some folks have all the luck! Other reasons to be jealous of Jim: awesome lasers and a head that doubles as a whip. —B.L.

20. Manny Calavera (Introduced in Grim Fandango)

Coolest traits: He's a smooth, Latin-accented skeleton private eye straight out of a Diá de los Muertos version of The Maltese Falcon, who spits out hilarious lines like ''Run, you pigeons! It's Robert Frost!'' Easily the suavest video game character without a pulse. —Keith Staskiewicz

19. Wario (Introduced in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins)

Coolest traits: "Super" Mario? Yeah, right! The guy can't even touch an enemy without getting hurt; he has to jump on them. In Wario's first starring role (Wario Land for the Game Boy), he just crashes right through enemies with a devastating shoulder charge. Add in the fact that Wario gets all the best lines in Mariokart ("I'm Wario! I'm-a gonna ween!") and Mario just starts looking like another med-school dropout. (Note: We do not support Wario's biker phase.) —D.F.

18. Duke Nukem (Introduced in Duke Nukem)

Coolest traits: He's the 1980s muscle-bound action hero distilled down to his most badass — and quippy. Some samples from Duke Nukem 3D: "I like a good cigar, and a bad woman." "Damn, that's the second time those alien bastards shot up my ride!" "Eat s--- and die!" —Adam B. Vary

17. Bad Mr. Frosty (Introduced in ClayFighter)

Coolest traits: Icicle-chucking, ripped, and filled with as much holiday cheer as a bouncer with a double ear infection, Bad Mr. Frosty could kick the living tinsel out of that elf dentist or any other bobblehead from those sunshiny claymation specials. God help you if you ever pretend he's Parson Brown. —B.L.

16. John Marston (Introduced in Red Dead Redemption)

Coolest traits: A reformed outlaw and devoted family man, he can rope a bucking bronco, skin a wild cougar, take out a dozen marauding gunslingers, and rescue a kidnapped courtesan before you've finished reading your morning blogs. Did we mention the killer, unexplained facial scars? —A.B.V.

15. Roster Player, a.k.a. Michael Jordan in a legally suitable disguise (Introduced in NBA Live '97)

Coolest traits: He didn't have Michael Jordan's gleaming bald head or even wear the legend's No. 23 jersey. Still, everybody knew "Roster Player," with his so-not-cool No. 99, was His Airness. Unable to legally use M.J.'s likeness, NBA Live Gatoraded it up and made a guy like Mike. Player shot, dunked, and boy, he was tough in the clutch. We all wanted the real thing. But he sure did get the job done. —B.W.

14. Joanna Dark (Introduced in Perfect Dark)

Coolest trait: The way she turns her pistols sideways when she sneaks up on someone. Also, let's not forget that her hobbies include rescuing presidents and defeating genocidal reptile aliens. When James Bond goes to sleep, he dreams of being Joanna Dark. —D.F.

13. Pinky (Introduced in Pac-Man)

Coolest traits: Pac-Man's a yellow circle with a mouth that eats, and eats, and eats. The ghosts are the truly compelling figures of the Pac-Man series, and Pinky's the coolest one of all. She's just so freaking fast. —D.F.

12. Fox McCloud (Introduced in Star Fox)

Coolest traits: Combine the heroism of Luke Skywalker, the bravado of Top Gun's Maverick, and the foxiness of, well, a red fox, and you wind up with this cocky but noble mercenary pilot. Did we mention he could do a barrel roll? —John Young

11. Sonic the Hedgehog (Introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog)

Coolest traits: The spin dash. You could argue that Sonic looks old-fashioned now — the neon-red shoes, the spiky haircut, the self-satisfied smirk that positively screams "I Am the King of 1991!" But for a pure propulsive burst of video game testosterone, nothing has beaten Sonic's power to charge up a mega-fast, wall-crushing, enemy-destroying roll move. —D.F.

10. Chun-Li (Introduced in Street Fighter II)

Coolest traits: The only female character in the original SFII lineup, Chun-Li broke up the boys' club with her signature move, the Lightning Kick. Decades later, that Lightning Kick is still brutalizing opponents. —D.F.

9. Nathan Drake (Introduced in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune)

Coolest traits: Unlike so many ultra-buff, ultra-grim video game heroes, Nathan Drake comes off like a good-natured, wisecracking guy...as he scrambles up a crumbling wall like a spider monkey, and then races across rooftops while a helicopter rains down gunfire on him. Also: He's damn handsome. —A.B.V.

8. Conker (Introduced in Conker's Bad Fur Day)

Coolest traits: He drinks. He smokes. He womanizes. He enjoys smashing people in the face with a frying pan. He's essentially W.C. Fields resurrected as a squirrel. And that's why we love him. —D.F.

7. Jack (Introduced in Mass Effect 2)

Coolest traits: Bald, covered in tattoos, foul-mouthed, and proudly sexual, Jack is most of all uniquely herself. Hang with Jack, and all those princesses and Lara Croft wannabes start looking silly. —D.F.

6. Tommy Vercetti (Introduced in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City)

Coolest traits: First, there's the voice: Ray Liotta set a new benchmark in video game voice acting. But, more importantly, there's the style. Sure, there'd been wisecracking homicidal video game heroes before him, but how many of them turned a golf club into a lethal weapon? —D.F.

5. GLaDOS (Introduced in Portal)

Coolest traits: As a deranged but hilariously sarcastic computer system, GLaDOS oversees Aperture Laboratories while constructing "test chambers" for you to solve and offering illusory rewards — the cake is most definitely a lie. But, despite her villainous nature, we savor her every snarky word, and especially so when she's singing. —J.Y.

4. Scorpion (Introduced in Mortal Kombat)

Coolest traits: This guy's only driven by one thing: vengeance. And if there's one thing every story-driven fighter game needs, it's the half-dead man who's angry as hell. Scorpion is him, and you can hear it in his voice every time a spear launches from his palm to draw an unlucky opponent near — "Get over here!" —B.W.

3. Kratos (Introduced in God of War)

Coolest traits: You don't get more badass than Kratos, the vengeful Spartan warrior who can rip off an enemy's head faster than I can open a jar of pickles. So what if the guy lacks subtlety? He's got a pair of blades permanently chained to his forearms! And a famous dad to boot. —J.Y.

2. Samus Aran (Introduced in Metroid)

Coolest traits: Gender equality! (And also blowing up alien pterodactyls with an arm cannon.) While Princess Peach sat around Bowser's castle getting mani-pedis from Toad and waiting to be rescued, Samus rolled and shot her way through armies of alien beasties and into the video game history books as one of the first female protagonists. Her silence speaks volumes of awesomeness. —K.S.

1. Solid Snake (Introduced in Metal Gear)

Coolest traits: The gravel-voiced superspy might seem like Clint Eastwood crossed with James Bond by way of '80s-era Kurt Russell, with his world-weary sense of humor, his uncanny ability to break necks with a simple hand twist, and his unique tendency to smoke cigarettes mid-espionage. But Snake's so much more than a quippy action automaton. A stealth assassin with a mysterious origin, regularly betrayed by his closest friends and charged with saving the world from enemies who know more about him than he knows about himself, Snake is one of those fanciful rarities in thriller history: an existential action hero. Also, has anyone else ever looked so cool hiding inside a cardboard box? —D.F.

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