Ryu deserves the symbol more than anyone I can think of now. he's stood the test of time, he's aged gracefully, has gotten even stronger, smater and better, he's simple, humble, fearless, purely dedicated, and'll kick your asre rightfully so no matter who you are.
He's the best video game hand to hand fighter there is, inside and out of all of the thousands there are and ever been in video games. No one defeats him. and no one can match his heart (courage) I alwas thought so.
He is, indeed, the ultimate video game character.
Ryu.
__________________ "The darkside, Sidious, is an illness no true Sith wishes to be cured of, my young apprentice .."
There are worse characters who suffer much worse from it being, as opposed to the "Gold Standard" simply the "Paint-by-numbers". Not necessarily VG characters, but that's not what matters.
I don't think anyone's arguing with that. It's just that in my opinion, it doesn't take being relatable, or even necessarily being particularly likeable, to be a decent/good/great character. Hell, a good number of characters intentionally made to be likable tend to just be either annoying after a certain point, a weak stereotype (i.e. half of the main protagonists in Final Fantasy), or they just plain suck. IMHO, Ryu's one of the best protagonists to come out of Capcom due to a lack of being too relatable.
how are most characters relatable? there are a very few superhuman characters that are relatable. Final fantasy heroes are a bit too over the top or overdone traits.
solid snake
badassness aside, the conversations he has with other characters in mgs 1, and the way he reacted to real world subjects like war, nuclear waste storage, weapons of mass destruction, Russia's state as a nation blah blah blah - really made him seem like a believable, likable and relatable character, despite his ridiculously inhuman feats..hell, most of what i know about the cold war and nuclear weapons comes from that game, and i have snake to thank
I'd also like to add Link. It's his courage that allowed to him to win his battles even when the odds are against him (Ganon with the Triforce). Unlike Ryu, he gets more popular as time goes by.