Forgotten Heroes: The 20 Best Video Game Characters You Don't See Enough

Where have you gone, Gordon Freeman?

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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We all know (and love) the classic video game characters like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, but sometimes we have to wonder: whatever happened to guys like Grim Fandango's Manny Calavera or Banjo and Kazooie? Oh, and why haven't we played a good Metroid game in awhile? 

Be it poor sales, critical failure, or over-saturation in the market, there are times when a good video game character just slowly starts to disappear. It's a sad truth of the industry. To highlight the heroes that we want to be able to play as again, though, we put together a list of the 20 Best Video Game Characters You Don't See Enough. Note: in this sense, we mean that they aren't given an opportunity to star in their own titles anymore. Appearances in fighting games, for instance, like Super Smash Bros. or Marvel vs. Capcom don't count. We want to see these characters take on a real story of their own again, sooner rather than later. That is, if their developers can manage to get their act together...

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Gordon Freeman

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Goemon

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Crono

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Conker

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Jak & Daxter

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Gex

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Earthworm Jim

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Banjo & Kazooie

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Fox McCloud

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Abe

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Strider Hiryu

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Diddy Kong

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Crash Bandicoot

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Joanna Dark

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Manny Calavera

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Samus

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Ness

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Bomberman

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Nights

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Geno

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