In video games, the focus is often on the main character - the Marios, Sonics, Links, andMaster Chiefsof the world. However, these video games characters rarely act alone, oftentimes adventuring with dedicated sidekicks who either help out in the story or can sometimes even be directly controlled by the player. A recent survey has looked into the popularity of video game sidekicks, revealing which ones are the most popular among gamers.
In a study conducted byOnBuy.com, 4,228 gamers were asked to pick their favorite video game sidekick. The favorite by far was Yoshi fromSuper Mario World, whereas Tails fromSonic the Hedgehogcame in second place. Third place went to Navi, Link’s helpful fairy companion fromThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The rest of the top 10 included Luigi fromSuper Mario Bros., Diddy Kong fromDonkey Kong Country,Ellie fromThe Last of Us, Clank fromRatchet & Clank, Cortana fromHalo, Dogmeat fromFallout, and Wheatley fromPortal 2.
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The least popular video game sidekicks that were part of this survey included Ashley fromResident Evil 4and the Palico fromMonster Hunter World. Seeing Ashley rank near the bottom is not all that surprising since players essentially have to babysit her duringResident Evil 4, though it’s somewhat surprising to see the Palico rank so low. After all,Palico companionsare extremely helpful in theMonster Huntergames, providing support by attacking enemies and healing the player during battle.
Another interesting bit of information from the study revealed that 75% of the participants felt as though sidekick characters should get the chance to star in their own video games. As it so happens, there are already video games where the sidekicks mentioned in the survey take center stage. In fact, Yoshi was the star of the immediate follow-up toSuper Mario World,Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, whileDiddy Kong was the star ofDonkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. Likewise, Clank has been in his own video game, and Ellie was the main playable character forThe Last of Us 2.
Luigi is possibly the most successful video game sidekick out of the bunch, though. Not only has Luigi consistently appeared in the vast majority ofSuper Mariogames, but has oftentimes been featured as a playable character as well. He also has his own spin-off series in theLuigi’s Mansiongames, all of which have earned critical acclaim and relatively strong sales. The most recent entry in the series,Luigi’s Mansion 3, is one of the best-selling games available for the Nintendo Switch.
