There are so many new posts! :'D
I remember Kakurine and Evil Zone; she used to run me over with an energy Hula-Hoop all the time. >_< I never did get the control scheme in that game down.
I remember Reimi, too. She became my main character once I figured out how useless Edge was. Sonic Thorn! Sonic Thorn! Sonic Thorn!
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I still haven't played The Last of Us. I should probably get it, since my PS3 just sits around unused all day now. Everyone tells me it's good, and a lot of people like Ellie a lot. 
Annnd now . . . fun with strategy (and one tactics) games!
The Darloks (Master of Orion)
While I love playing the Silicoids as well, and I think them being so repulsive no one will deal with them diplomatically amusing to no end, ultimately the Darloks are the race I come back to when I went to enjoy the game.
As a race, they are easily among the weakest in the game, and NONE of the AIs - humans excluded - remotely appreciate their existence on the map. One wrong breath and everyone collapses on them. Additionally, the Darloks don't have an always present/useful bonus like most other races -- no bonus production, no ability to ignore pollution, no breeding bonuses, no science perks. Instead, their bonus only opens up with diplomacy. So, what's that bonus? Spying. And what's fun about using that bonus? Being a complete sneaky asshat and watching the Galaxy fall to pieces all around you. Played properly, and with some luck, you can bait other races into costly wars with each other, while you silently pick their technology from them, sabotage their planetary defenses from the inside, and mass your forces for the right moment to strike. Small wonder everyone in the galaxy hates them. Except for me, of course. 
The Inca (Civilization V)
I remember when the Inca DLC came out for Civ V. I remember playing them in a few test games and pushing them aside as completely mediocre. I also remember being new to the game and thinking Japan had the straight out best ability.
Then 655 hours of Civ happened.
The Incans have one of the most amazing sets of passives in the game, potentially THE most amazing if not for Poland: they almost always start on or near hills and mountains, guaranteeing a strong production base; they have the ability to build farms on ANY hills, giving both food and production in cases where either may be scarce; they have the ability to traverse ANY hill as though it were plains, giving nigh unimpeded movement across almost every map; they have free roads on hills and half price roads elsewhere, often granting lossless city connections; and they have a UU that comes super early and often withdraws from melee attacks, allowing them to fight barbarians with less down time.
It gets better, though: with every clear perk of theirs, there also comes a sometimes less clear secondary one. The hills and mountains make them more difficult to attack, and those same mountains are required for observatories, Machu Picchu, and the Neuschwanstein, three of the best buildings in the game. Their ability to traverse hills stacks with Altitude Training, which cuts hill movement costs in half, effectively doubling your already doubled hill movement. And those roads? One of the most valuable assets you can have against a competent human player in times of war is a good roadway, and where those roads tear up everyone else's wallet, the Inca shrug off the insignificant costs and just keep building. About the only down to their special traits is that their slingers make terrible bodyguards for settlers. That's it.
But as nice as all of that is, it's not even what I truly appreciate about the Civ, at least not directly -- it's just icing on the delicious Incan cake. No, what I appreciate almost beyond expression about Pachacuti is his ability to salvage almost any start, no matter how hopeless it seems. In a game that loves to stick me in barren tundra with Egypt more often than not, being able to force a decent game from even the stupidest crap the world generation can throw at me is priceless.
Adder (Advance Wars)
Advance Wars is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I think it is a solid strategy endeavor, with a good balance between units and a nice flavor being added by CO passive abilities. That said, the other hand drops and most CO powers flat out ruin the game. There comes a point when my strategy is no longer concern, because no matter what you do the enemy has the ability to dump units all over the map and only pay half price for the damn things, AND they get an offense bonus to boot. Good thing most people quickly realized that and just started playing nothing but Hachi, Sensei, and Colin. Out of a cast of 25 or so characters.
God I hate Hachi.
Unfortunately, nothing Adder has is a counter to Hachi, nor is he a counter to anyone else really, but I always found him the most interesting of the 'non-specialized' characters, and certainly the most fun to use in the game. Most characters have some form of passive bonus to them, either bonuses for fighting in a certain terrain type or for certain unit classes, but Adder actually doesn't have ANY passive bonuses. Instead, he has the shortest CO meter in the game, allowing him access to his bonus power almost annoyingly often. When activated, all of his units receive a small attack boost and gain +1 movement. His second tier skill grants the same bonus and +2 movement.
Though sounding unimpressive, this short charge time and bonus movement is what defines the character, as it means you always have an ace when you need it and both vulnerable enemy units and escape are almost never out of reach. Additionally, he is the only (that I recall) CO who can use his CO power twice in a row, assuming his bar was full when you used the first CO power, allowing you two turns of boosted movement and combat power. Because of this little edge, his playstyle is all about nifty counterattacks and first strike strategies, and that's what I love about him. I find it's a lot of fun working around the enemy's advantages and locating best place to apply yours, pressing here, irritating there. About the only thing I don't like about him is that they made Adder 2.0 with Koal, who is an all around better character.
Still, that doesn't change anything for me. Adder is a solid pick, and much like Wiseduck, the Darloks, and Dr. Karbunkle, he's all about finding that way to make your abilities work for you and surprising people when you come out ahead.
(Also, shocker, I like his design quite a bit too, though I do admit he doesn't quite match up to Snifit Sturm.)
Chryssalids (X-Com: UFO Defense)
I love X-Com, and Enemy Unknown was so much more than I ever expected it would be. I like how it looks, I like the new two-TU system it uses, I like the skill trees, I like the specialization, I like the satellite mechanic, and the new Snakemen/Tallmen and Sectopods were just amazing. But, that said, I still enjoy the original more. Maybe it's how much darker the game feels, maybe it's the extra freedom I felt I had in almost everything I did, mayb -- nah, it's the old Chryssalids.
If you aren't familiar with these happy, smiling lobstermen (not to be confused with the ACTUAL lobstermen from the second title -- those are neither happy nor smiling), they are basically hyper fast one-hit kills that multiply when they kill something, and they like to busy themselves killing people offscreen and multiplying before you have the misfortune of bumping into them. That's exactly how the new ones work too, minus the 100% instagib thing -- they'll probably still kill you in one hit, but that's just because they do craptons of damage now instead.
So, what is it that makes them my favorite characters in the series? It's that rush when you first see them and you know trout has hit the fan. The game can be a little rough up to the point you first see these, Cyberdiscs in particular being a VERY nasty surprise when first encountered, but it is beyond possible for your game to just END when these things pop up. There have been times where I've carelessly pushed one of my units ahead too far to scout, ended in a safe looking spot, then had a Chryssalid burst out of a door, run across the street, kill me, run to ANOTHER of my units, kill IT too, then stare at the rest of my troops in all its lobstery glory.
Whut!
In all honesty, I should be completely happy with the new Chryssalids, since they embody all of the old qualities of the mob with substantially more balance to them, but it's just not the same. The way enemy reveals work in the new game means I'll never have one burst from nowhere and kill me off without warning. The two TU system means they'll never kill off more than one person a turn. The new Zombification rules mean they aren't the terror to my units they used to be. And the new design means I'll never find myself giggling at something I supposed to be terrified of. Everything about the new game is, as I said before, well done, especially when it comes to general game balance, but it's the complete lack of game balance that these guys represent that makes me love them so. Firaxis, you done good. MicroProse, you done amazing. And happy lobstermonster? You done the best of all. 
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. She's not the best character in the game, but you do get her early on, allowing you to build and customize her a good bit and get her to fit well in to your party. Her long range is also helpful
