6.) Baby Mario

Game: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Platform s: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance.

Mario would eventually grow into a mushroom-chewing, princess-saving poster child for the morbidly obese, but as depicted in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, he began as a whimpering infant with a tendency to incessantly cry and shout.

His contributions to the game are mild, as he merely rides on top of Yoshi until he falls off, in which case Yoshi must reclaim the child or risk dying.

In real life, Yoshi probably would just ate Mario, seeing as he's a dinosaur. So there's perhaps a lot more heroism to Baby Mario than meets the eye.

5.) Pac-Man

Game: Pac-Man, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. Platforms: Arcade, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, etc.

Pac-Man spends much of his time running from his enemies while trying to horde pills that have been scattered around hallways. It's only when he digests performance-enhancing pellets that he feels that he has the ability to devour his competition. Running away and hiding usually does not define heroism, and consuming drugs to deal with you problems makes it even less so.

It didn't get any better for Pac-Man in his sequel, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures where, since you don't control him directly, you have to sling rocks at Pac-Man to get him to buy milk for his thirsty child.

4.) Day Dreamin' Davy

Game: Day Dreamin' Davy. Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System.

It was in 1990 that HAL Laboratories released Day Dreamin' Davey, a tale of adolescent bullying and its sad effects on the mental stability of its victims . Most people would confront their problems head-on or inform an authority figure about the abuse, but Davey, who routinely gets his pencil stolen by the alpha males of the school, escapes into the dream world where he can be a cowboy or a knight. It's funny that he can imagine himself as anything, yet he won't imagine himself as not having pink hair. (Also, if you don't know where you're going, and you end up walking around for twenty minutes, it's funny to think that Davy is fantasizing about wandering around the same three screens).

Progress far enough and a bratty girl with glasses will harass Davey. What chance does he have against a real villain? The slaughter of Davey would be most epic if he fought, say, Bowser. Sometimes fear saves a life.

3.) Leisure Suit Larry

Game: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Platforms: MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple II, Atari, Apple IIGS, TRS-80.

There's not much that's heroic about Leisure Suit Larry. He doesn't have a cape or do anything like save people. But what he does do is maintain a never-say-die attitude in the face of all adversity, even if that adversity is just trying to get a date. He toddles along, wandering into the back streets where he's at risk of dying by a thug who lives by the garbage can, and into the cathouse to have relations where he's at risk of dying by a sexually transmitted disease. Being at constant risk of easily dying is not the most heroic aspect of a character, but it's an aspect of Leisure Suit Larry. And to be fair, being able to overcome that fear of dying by everything is quite remarkable.

The Leisure Suit Larry series told the tale of Larry and his attempts to lose his virginity. It was made in a time where most movies had jokes about rape, so sexual harassing women until they give into intercourse seemed only fitting for a video game. It's a crime to spank a woman's behind without her prior permission now, but in 1980s, it made Leisure Suit Larry a hero.

2.) Bernard

Game: Maniac Mansion Platforms:Apple II, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, NES.

In Maniac Mansion, Bernard wears glasses, which is a surefire sign that he'll run from something. Make no bones about it, he runs better than anyone else on this list, as he flees from such objects as tentacles, and leaves the player without even an opportunity to advance past a hallway. This means that you need to fetch either Michael the courageous photographer or Wendy the kick-ass poet just to proceed past it. Bernard even runs away in the opening sequence in which he is lured back by Dave who remarks, "Don't be a tuna head." Bernard, not wanting to be a tuna head, returns. Positive reinforcement such as that is what would inspire anyone to risk their lives to save someone else's girlfriend.

1.) Lester the Unlikely

Game: Lester the Unlikely. Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Prescription glasses. They're the weakness of any hero. Not the glasses themselves, but the flawed eyesight that they attempt to correct. Unlike kryptonite and silver bullets, this weakness can be exploited relatively easily, as taking them off would hinder the protagonist until he is unable to see clearly, rendering him useless when he's reduced to repeating, "OK, don't move, don't step anywhere, I lost my glasses."

Lester the Unlikely depicts a socially awkward loser, who, through his own physical disadvantages, achieves confidence. The story is that he falls asleep by a cargo ship and is accidentally swept away. After it's hijacked by pirates, he swims to a nearby island.

Early on in the game, Lester will run from animals (usually with his arms flailing and his limbs kicking), and scour and hide from anything that can be threatening. After defeating a certain enemy or animal, he will no longer be afraid of it. By the end, he's improved his posture, and even with a pair spectacles, he's combating pirates. It's a surprise that Lester could excel as much as he does a game that so obviously foretells his ineptitude since it was made in "Geek-o-Vision."

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