Easy enough

1 - Mario
2 - Sonic
3 - Link

3.Kratos
2.Link
1.Mario

raiden
otacon
solid snake

Most posts are just console characters, I add some PC ones.

1.  Gorden Freeman - the man from half-life.  lol well I can't think of anymore PC game character

For consoles....

2. Sonic

3. Mario,  sonic and mario are characters that the all world of heard off.

Leisure suit larry honorable mention?

1. Mario
2. Link
3. Tifa Lockhart - a divine inspiration to video game women everywhere.

1# Solid Snake
2# Leon(RE4)
3#Ash and May

For a character to be the greatest of all time, they have to have stood the test of time. People who make one appearance and are done cannot be considered.

Similarly, the character has to be in the universal consciousness of all gamers. Because I have not played GTA:SA, I did not know who Carl Johnson was. But I know who Snake, Master Chief, and Craytos are, even without playing MGS, Halo, or GoW.

Using that as a guide, any such list would have to be headed by Mario. He defines at least two genres/sub genres (platform and kart racing) as well as domiating two others (party games and multi-player fighting).

Second on it would have to be Sonic. He is another long-time recognizable mascot character. And if people did not care about him, they would not be lamenting the quality issues that have plagued most games staring the blue hedgehog in recent years.

The third slot is a bit more difficult to fill. There are several possibilities. Master Chief of the Halo Series has redefined first-person shooters and set the standard for on-line first person shooters. Megaman is a long-time character, has had over a dozen games in at least three incarnations, and was warmly received in a recent retro-styled offering across all current console platforms. PacMan is an old arcade character whose first appearance on home video showed how not to do things and is still showing up a quarter century later.

But when you think about it, the third slot has to go to Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series. He represents stealth gaming and stylistic game-play and story telling. And the laments about his appearance this generation on only one console shows his popularity and appeal.

Mike from Morgantown

Link
Sonic
Mario

You can't say Link or Mario... How much duller can a video game character get? If you do that, you choose it because of the game, not the character. I can't help but feel that you're not answering the question.

But honestly... By taking those away, I'm getting a hard time choosing...

Let's see. There's (and yes, I know these are mostly Nintendo characters, but that's because of a natural bias (liking chidlish crap games) rather than fanboyism... Hey! That's a pretty good excuse.

Kirby

Captain Falcon

Yoshi

Fox

Ike

Ganondorf

Zelda/Sheik

Can't think of any more, but I can't really list these very well. Top 5

1. Yoshi

1. Ike

3. Captain Falcon

4. Kirby

4. Zelda