Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Manliest Game Characters

You can't get much manlier than a character with "man" in his name. Pac-Man was every teenage girl of the 80's dream guy. Known for his pizza-like physique and ghost-devouring habits, Pac-Man knew how to live it up. He even managed to get himself married, a rare feat for a 1980s video game character with no apparent reproductive organs or, indeed, other members of his species. Rock on, Mr. Pac.

Angry, gruff, and black, Barret is the video game equivalent of Mr. T. He is notable for having what appear to be toasters for hands when playing in the overworld, and for having a large gun mounted on his arm (or a large gun that IS his arm) for some reason. Perhaps he just looked at his hands and noticed that his fingers were unable to shoot bullets. (Don't act like you've never done the same.)

Nothing says "manly" like a bodybuilder/ass-kicker/small-town-mayor like Mike Haggar from Final Fight. Shirtless for the entire game, and sporting a moustache that would instantly impregnate a woman who saw it, Mayor Haggar knew how to bust heads. Most mayors, when elected, may promise to lower crime rates, but Mike did something about it - by ripping his shirt off and pounding the crap out of miscreants. Hell yes.

You may not think an overweight Italian-American plumber is manly, but in fact, Mario is manlier than most. How many times has he defeated a giant, fire-breathing turtle in hand-to-hand combat? Let's also not forget that his trademark moustache, in actuality, secretes pure testosterone. Presumably, that's the reason why Princess Toadstool never kisses him on the lips. If she did, she'd probably instantly turn into a middle-aged man. Finally, he's been known to crush the skulls of his enemies with a massive sledgehammer. That's pretty damn masculine.

That goatee. Those glasses. That Ph.D. in theoretical physics. Nobody could get the ladies like Gordan Freeman, two-time saviour of Earth and average everyday nuclear physicist. If messing around with various subatomic particles wasn't enough to get him some serious tail, opening portals to border worlds, saving the Earth from alien overlords, and erotically handling his crowbar sealed the deal for helpless females such as Alyx Vance, who quite obviously desires to get into his tight, orange HEV suit-protected pants. Oh my.

Kratos is practically the definition of a manly video game character. Facial hair? Check. Free-floating hostility that he chooses to exact upon each living organism he encounters? Check. Threesomes with topless babes? Check, check, and check. At the heart of it, though, Kratos is just a simple guy. He likes his ambrosia cold, his family alive, and his deities murdered. However, he gets major bonus points for actually following through with his plan and killing a god. Not many men these days could pull that off.

Okay, I guess he's technically not a video game character, but he should be on the list all the same. Segata Sanshiro is probably the greatest hero in the history of the universe. His entire moral code revolves around playing video games (usually the Sega Saturn), and forcing other misanthropes to do the same, often violently. He even has his own theme song, and has been known to throw unfortunate people so hard they explode. Also, he managed to die in the most masculine way possible - by deflecting a rocket launched at Sega's headquarters by their rivals, Sony, and getting destroyed in the explosion. What a way to go.

Many of you may ask why Solid Snake is nowhere to be found on this list. Surely, you say, he meets the manliness criteria tenfold? Well, yes, but why go with Solid Snake when you can have his clone father? First of all, Big Boss has an eyepatch. Solid Snake never did, and don't get me started on that Solid Eye in MGS4. Second, his beard is far more developed and volumetric than Snake's. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, in the original MSX version of Metal Gear, Big Boss's avatar was that of none other than Sean Connery himself. Plus the eyepatch, of course. Game, set, and match for Big Boss.

With a physique seemingly forged of pure masculinity at the anvil of Hephaestus, a mind with 3 sections (Kill, Spew One-Liners, Rescue Babes), Duke Nukem is not just a man's man. He is a man's man's man. Not only has he slept with, like, a million women, he's killed more disgusting aliens than a US border guard. Never seen without shades, several belts of ammunition adorning his Spartan-esque shoulders, and a smile that says, "Hail to the king, baby!", Duke Nukem is almost too manly for existence.

Duke Nukem may have slaughtered countless aliens and saved countless babes, but Ben Throttle may be quite possibly the manliest character in video gaming. He's got a sweet motorcycle, a perfectly trigonometric chin, and a voice deeper than the Mariana Trench. Not to mention facial stubble that is exactly the colour of the black eye he'd give you for staring at it. For his virile countenance and choice of transportation, Ben earns the number one spot.