The Smashboards Video Game Character of the Year Award 2024

[Champion of Hyrule]

Last year, I held a thread where we voted for the video game character of the year for 2023 (it ended up being Ganondorf). Since I considered it a success I’m bringing it back this year.

To earn a spot of video game character of the year, a character needs to have a major appearance (not necessarily a debut) in a video game of 2024, or December 2023. You can submit up to three characters who you think were the most interesting or notable characters this year and deserve the title.

Characters also need to have at least human level intelligence to be considered.You can write a sentence or two justifying why you nominated each character but keep in mind that we’ll have time to discuss each nominee later. That’s about it so have fun!

 

[Northsouthmap]

Astro Bot
He's a robot which is a big plus.

Cloud Strife

Sun Wukong

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Astro Bot
He's a robot which is a big plus.

Cloud Strife

Sun Wukong

Astro Bot would technically be against my rule about characters not portrayed with human level intelligence but on second thought I think I’ll relax it anyways so Astro Bot would be fine. I had that rule at first because I wanted to do another thread for animal of the year but I’m not interested in doing that anymore.

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

Satan (Antonblast)

 

[BritishGuy54]

Shadow the Hedgehog

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

EVE (Stellar Blade)

Jane Doe (Zenless Zone Zero)

Daisuke (Mouthwashing)

 

[Janx_uwu]

Lennox

Concord was a thing.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

You can only submit up to three characters

EVE (Stellar Blade)

Aigis (Persona 3 Reload)

Jane Doe (Zenless Zone Zero)

Daisuke (Mouthwashing)

View attachment 396201

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

I’ll submit:

Radahn

Kiryu

(I remember someone submitting him last year and I thought it would be better this year with Infinite Wealth’s release… so here he is!

 

[Janx_uwu]

The Blob

Animal Well and Bigmode are kinda huge for the gaming industry, I think Blob deserves some recognition.

Kril

Another Crab's Treasure is something I have never looked into much, but if Shadow Of Erdtree is gonna sweep the awards I at least want some diversity as far as Soulslike games go.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Is Goku from the 2024 video game Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero a valid choice?

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Is Goku from the 2024 video game Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero a valid choice?

Yeah non-video game originating characters would be fine as long as they had a game appearance.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Yeah non-video game originating characters would be fine as long as they had a game appearance.

Okay, then I'll submit Patrick Star, because of The Patrick Star Game.

And also Connie from Mario & Luigi Brothership

There! Three characters (Goku was already mentioned)

 

[TheGipper]

Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom.

The Arisen from Dragon's Dogma 2.

Squirrel with a Gun.

 

[Baysha]

Jimbo (Balatro)

Balatro was a pretty big thing, and I think he's pretty sweet.

 

[ssbashworld]

Heihachi Mishima

And we thought some measily lava finished him off. (HM Reina, new popular series character but feel like Heihachis return was a bigger deal)

Rascal

Not sure it counts as only the demo is out but demo has been continuing to get updates & there is a lot of promise & a community already behind this Sonic-like platformer.

Arzette

Thought this was a fun throwback.

Also HM to Palworld but wasnt sure a Pal would count nor did i want the pressure of picking one.

 

[MartianSnake]

Astro Bot would technically be against my rule about characters not portrayed with human level intelligence but on second thought I think I’ll relax it anyways so Astro Bot would be fine. I had that rule at first because I wanted to do another thread for animal of the year but I’m not interested in doing that anymore.

Did you think Astro Bot ran off animal level instinct or something? He's clearly intelligent enough to fly spaceships and wear costumes and dance and stuff

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Did you think Astro Bot ran off animal level instinct or something? He's clearly intelligent enough to fly spaceships and wear costumes and dance and stuff

I mean being able to talk/communicate like a human mostly but in hindsight it’s kind of an arbitrary distinction to make. I just said I’m not doing that rule anymore though so it doesn’t really matter though.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Character 1: Car (Garn47)

Character 2: Princess Peach(Princess Peach Showtime)

Character 3: Aloy (LEGO Horizon)

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

I’ll be closing submissions so we can get to the discussion period probably either today or tomorrow

 

[darkvortex]

Can I still submit. Not really active here anymore so I just saw this

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Can I still submit. Not really active here anymore so I just saw this

Yeah that’s fine

 

[darkvortex]

The Salesman (Thank Goodness You're Here)

Sargon (Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown)

Hulkenberg (Metaphor: ReFantazio)

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Here are our characters:

Aloy (Lego Horizon Adventures)
The Arisen (Dragon’s Dogma II)
Arzette (Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore)
Astro Bot (Astro Bot)
Blob (Animal Well)
Car (Garn47)
Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth)
Connie (Mario & Luigi: Brothership)
Daisuke (Mouthwashing)
EVE (Stellar Blade)
Goku (Dragon Ball Sparking: Zero)
Heihachi Mishima (Tekken 8)
Hulkenberg (Metaphor Re:Fantazio)
Jane Doe (Zenless Zone Zero)
Jimbo (Balatro)
Kiryu (Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth)
Kril (Another Crab’s Treasure)
Lennox (Concord)
Patrick Star (The Patrick Star Game)
Princess Peach (Princess Peach: Showtime)
Radahn (Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree)
Rascal (Rollin’ Rascal)
The Salesman (Thank Goodness You’re Here)
Satan (Antonblast)
Sargon (Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown)
Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic x Shadow Generations)
Squirrel With a Gun (Squirrel With a Gun)
Sun Wukong (Black Myth: Wukong)
Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom)

Now is the discussion phase, basically we’ll talk about each of the picks and our opinions on if they’d be a good choice or not and (if you want) who you’re planning on voting for. If you want to make a case for any characters you chose that’s alright too. You do not have to talk about every single character since there’s a lot.

Also keep in mind that the games I listed after each character is just arguably their most recognizable role this year. You can take other things into account too if they appeared there. For example, even though I listed Aloy’s game as Lego Horizon she also appeared in the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster so you can take that into account when considering her. I’ll post my own thoughts in a bit.

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

Aeirth Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth)

James Sunderland (Silent Hill 2 Remake)

Lucy (Fallout) [If this isn't allowed I have a replacement]

Oops