The 8 most underrated videogame characters ever

Crash Bandicoot's sister was a computer genius. Space Invaders had families. Gordon Freeman's priest could seriously kick zombie ass. What else didn't we fully appreciate about the characters that populated some of history's greatest videogames?

To put it bluntly, a smeg-load, that's what. Did you ever consider the megaphysical angst of the ball from Pong? What about the girls who fought mechanical enemies almost topless, without a scrap of armour? Like so many from our beloved archive of games, a large number of remarkable characters were overshadowed by the main protagonists, or hamstrung by weak story-writing.

We've rewarded eight of the most underrated and under-appreciated characters we've ever seen, with the recognition they've missed -- in some cases for decades. And we begin with an evil genius.