Consider if you will, the cube. It's one of the most perfect shapes in existence; four perfect points, six equal sides. That simple shape is the basis for so many other things, both in real life and in video games. Cubes, crates, boxes, blocks, and whatever else have been a staple of this medium for about as long as the medium has existed.
There's a reason that the "Time to Crate" concept exists in relation to video games to chart how soon a crate appears after you first start a game: because there are so many cubical shapes to keep track of. Of course, some are more noteworthy than others.
10 Question Mark Block - Super Mario Series
The original gaming cube, the Question Mark Block was always a sign that you were about to receive a pleasant little prize in most sidescrolling Mario games. Maybe there was a Super Mushroom in it, perhaps a Fire Flower, or if you could be so lucky, a Starman?
Heck, even if it wasn't a practical power-up, there are few things as immediately exhilarating as when you knock a coin out of a Question Mark Block and realize you can keep on striking it for more coins.
9 Yellow-Taped Crates - Resident Evil 7
Throughout your delightful little journey through the Baker Estate in Resident Evil 7, you regularly come across small wooden crates marked with distinctive yellow duct tape. These crates, when smashed or shot open, often contain helpful items like ammo or health. Who put them there? Nobody knows, though it's implied to be Zoe Baker leaving Ethan supplies to aid him indirectly.
Of course, some of those crates also contained explosives rigged by Lucas Baker, so it's anyone's guess as to who the first crate-leaver was.
8 Item Box - Sonic The Hedgehog Series
Modern Sonic games tend to opt more for Item Capsules than item boxes. In the original Sonic sidescrollers, though, it was all about the boxes. Specifically, metallic TV monitors displaying an image of whatever they contained. Considering the level of technology, it's probably a safe bet that Robotnik placed them here and there for storage purposes, though he really should've made them more impact resistant since Sonic can break them just by jumping on them.
Sometimes they even have traps in them, though for some reason, the traps are marked with Robotnik's face. Kind of defeats the purpose, huh?
7 Solid Snake's Cardboard Box - Metal Gear Series
When Solid Snake is in need of a portable hiding spot, he pulls out his trusty cardboard box and curls up into a fetal position. This was originally a tactic Snake employed during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, as he needed to hide aboard a cargo truck. Even after that, though, Snake was always willing to hide in the box again, and for some reason, no enemy combatants ever seemed to question the box's sudden presence.
Given that Big Boss employed the same tactics in his heyday, it's possible that Snake's affinity for the box is a weirdly specific genetic trait.
6 Weighted Companion Cube - Portal
If ever there were an inanimate object that took on a life of its own, it would be the Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube. This innocuous storage cube stamped with a heart symbol was presented by GLaDOS to Chell for a specific series of tests before she was made to incinerate it.
Even past its tragically short life in Portal proper, however, the Companion Cube lived on as one of the late 2000s most enduring gaming memes. Everyone loved the Companion Cube, and gosh darn it, how could you not?
5 Sasha Nein's Mind - Psychonauts
When Sasha draws Raz into his mind to teach him about Psi-Blasting, Raz marvels at how empty it seems, with the entirety of the mental landscape made up only by a single floating cube. In actuality, a combination of both, years of psychic training and some mildly unhealthy emotional repression, helped Sasha compress and compartmentalize his entire mind into a single, clean cube.
Of course, right below the cube's surfaces, all of those repressed feelings and memories were all too eager to burst out at a moment's notice.
4 Item Crates - Super Smash Bros. Series
When an Item Crate appears during a Smash match, most players will have a quick internal debate within themselves. "Is it worth running over and opening it? Can I throw it at somebody nearby? Will it explode in my face?" The answer to that last question, by the way, almost always seemed to be yes.
While Crates can sometimes contain handy items to turn the tide of battle, it's usually a better policy to just lob it at someone's face and hope you don't get caught in the ensuing explosion.
3 Dirt Blocks - Minecraft
Obviously, there are lots of cubes in Minecraft; the entire world is made of them, after all. But if we're talking about iconic cubes, then it doesn't get much more iconic than the humble brown dirt block, with a spattering of flat green grass atop it. The dirt block is one of the first blocks you see, one of the first blocks you interact with, and likely the primary material used in the construction of your first shelter.
It's the block that's represented in multiple iterations of the Minecraft logo, for goodness' sake.
2 The Cube Of Ultimate Destruction - South Park: The Fractured But Whole
In The Coon's Coon Lair (in other words, Cartman's Basement), there is what appears to be a simple Rubik's Cube encased in glass and perched on a stool. You may feel tempted to futz with that cube, but that would be unwise, as it is, in fact, a terrifying weapon that can completely erase the universe if broken.
No, seriously. If you interact with that cube enough times to knock it over, the whole world flashes white, and you get an instant Game Over. When Cartman tells you not to mess with it, he means it.
1 Mann Co. Supply Crate - Team Fortress 2
You may be feeling a bit confused by the inclusion of these prototypical loot boxes, as for the most part, they've never given anyone anything except headaches and disappointment. Firstly, let's remember that being "iconic" isn't always the same thing as being "good." Secondly, annoying as the Mann Co.
Crates were, you can't deny that they played a major role in launching Team Fortress 2's entire in-game economy, which was definitely quite an achievement for that era of gaming (if not perhaps a concerning sign of what would come later).