Iconic/important characters from 1970 - 2016

1970~

During the 1970's, many video games lacked any real "characters" such as the ones found in todays games. Some games however have recognizable assets, enemies or icons that could be referred to as the characters of their time. Many examples include the aliens from Space Invaders and even the paddles from Pong, despite their simplicity.

1980~

In this decade, game characters became much more prevalent in games and narrative became more of a driving point for the industry. In my opinion, quite a few characters are iconic during this decade for varying reasons. Donkey Kong introduced us to characters (Donkey Kong, Pauline and Jump-man) in a similar fashion to the 1970's, without any "true" narrative to the game itself other than simple backstory. The Legend of Zelda was also quite a revelation for its time, especially within the RPG genre. Whereas Ms. Pacman and Metroid introduced the first real female protagonists within a video game. 

For me it would have to be Ms. Pacman and Samus for this decade as I believe the usage of female protagonists had broadened game developers views of narrative and the structure of games. No longer did games have to follow the cliché of a male protagonist saving a female damsel from a villain. 

1990~

During the 1990's, I believe that the most important character of this decade was Mario, specifically because of the game Super Mario 64. I feel like this game started and signified the transition between 2D pixel based games and the usage of 3d polygons. Many games followed suit after this release during the popularity and peak of Super Mario 64.

2000~

For the 2000's I feel like Master Chief from Halo is regarded as one of the most important characters from that era. Without Halo the Xbox would have failed in sales and popularity and today's games may be much different, with Sony and Nintendo dominating the market. Halo's FPS multiplayer was also quite an innovation from its time; sparking the competitive scene for the genre that we see today.

2010~

It was hard to decide on a character for this current decade, as more and more games are being produced and more characters created. With the recent boom to the indie scene, game characters such as Shovel Knight and Steve (Minecraft) should be more deserving of this section as of now.