In video games, the focus is often on the main character - the Marios, Sonics, Links, and Master Chiefs of 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 by OnBuy.com, 4,228 gamers were asked to pick their favorite video game sidekick. The favorite by far was Yoshi from Super Mario World, whereas Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog came in second place. Third place went to Navi, Link's helpful fairy companion from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The rest of the top 10 included Luigi from Super Mario Bros., Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong Country, Ellie from The Last of Us, Clank from Ratchet & Clank, Cortana from Halo, Dogmeat from Fallout, and Wheatley from Portal 2.
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The least popular video game sidekicks that were part of this survey included Ashley from Resident Evil 4 and the Palico from Monster Hunter World. Seeing Ashley rank near the bottom is not all that surprising since players essentially have to babysit her during Resident Evil 4, though it's somewhat surprising to see the Palico rank so low. After all, Palico companions are extremely helpful in the Monster Hunter games, 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 to Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, while Diddy Kong was the star of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Likewise, Clank has been in his own video game, and Ellie was the main playable character for The 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 of Super Mario games, but has oftentimes been featured as a playable character as well. He also has his own spin-off series in the Luigi's Mansion games, 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.