Top 7: Repeat offenders

Robots
Remember when Dr Robotnik/Eggman used to take fluffy bunnies and turn them into his mechanised minions in Sonic 1? That was a great plot for a game and Sonic hasn't been the same since the designers forgot about the 'free your friends' concept and went with the Chaos Emeralds instead (why are we looking for those, again?). Again taking cues from nature's own designs, the robot characters were so iconic too - the Buzz Bomber, Crabmeat and Caterkiller characters were superb and the series is all the poorer for their loss.

But Sonic isn't alone in his robot-fighting plight. Ratchet and Clank have robot enemies that look great and satisfyingly fall into their component parts when shot with big guns. And old-school classics like Impossible Mission and Flashback have robots to avoid/defeat.

Giving gamers robots to shoot may lack the imagination or thrill of more fleshed out (ho hum) enemies, but robots - and especially BIG robots - certainly make it into our book of cool.

Above: Sonic 1 and 2, Ratchet and Clank, Impossible Mission, Flashback, Coded Arms

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.