The couture of video game characters ranges from the simple to the outlandish, from the chic to the cringe. Many video game costumes use a smart headpiece to bring the whole thing together. In fact, there are plenty of iconic looks that just wouldn't be complete without the hat.
Some hats are just as memorable as the characters wearing them. Heck, Team Fortress 2 built an entire real-world economy around virtual hats long before the current NFT nightmare began. We've picked out the most memorable hats in gaming - if you've seen one of these, chances are you won't forget it any time soon.
10 Joker's SR2 Cap (Mass Effect)
While it's just a simple baseball cap, the thought of Normandy pilot Joker without his trademark hat just feels wrong. Despite being unable to join Shepard in battle due to a lifelong medical condition, he's an instrumental member of the team and arguably the Commander's most loyal ally.
Players work closely with Joker across three full-length games, even stepping into his shoes at a climactic moment in Mass Effect 2. Joker's hat probably gets more screen time over the course of the trilogy than some playable teammates.
9 Shiki's Hat (The World Ends With You)
Misaki Shiki is the first of Neku's battle partners in The World Ends With You. The game is packed to the brim with trendy Shibuya style, and Shiki is no slouch in the outfit department.
Her striped cap completes her outfit, and the pins she keeps in it serve as more than just accessories; the game's battle system centers around collecting and equipping pins for various abilities. Shiki's hat is, in a sense, the source of her power.
8 Oddjob's Cheating Hat (Goldeneye 007)
Oddjob's weaponized hat isn't memorable so much for how it looks as it is for how much controller-throwing rage the sight of it induced. As anyone who played Goldeneye 007's multiplayer knows, Oddjob's character model was too short to be hit by auto-aim, making him effectively immune to one of the game's core mechanics.
Choosing to play as Oddjob was generally considered a cheap shot, and the character was banned in living rooms across the world. As it turns out, the devs knew Oddjob was overpowered but opted to keep the broken baddie in the game.
7 Party Hats (RuneScape)
RuneScape is one of the longest-running MMORPGs in existence; its most dedicated players have been adventuring since the final days of the Clinton administration. An early promotion in the game allowed players to get Party Hats, multicolored cosmetic items that look like the paper crowns worn at Christmas in the UK.
Party Hats have no in-game effect, but the fact that only the very earliest RuneScape players got their hands on them (and most trashed them after the event) means that today they sell for over two billion in-game gold pieces. That's roughly $1,100 in value; if you see a player sporting a Party Hat, they're either a longtime veteran of the game or a RuneScape high roller.
Golden Party Hats were introduced for the game's twentieth anniversary, the first time the prizes have returned since the originals. Only time will tell if they end up being worth as much.
6 Pacal's Crown (Sid Meier's Civilization 5)
Introduced to Civilization 5 in the Gods and Kings DLC, Pacal was the leader of the Mayans. His feathered crown gives him a commanding, authoritative presence and somehow becomes more splendorous each time you look at it.
Mayan headdresses typically have resplendent plumage, but the size and intricacy of Pacal's is on another level entirely. The real-world Pacal's sarcophagus is still intact, with complex carvings that must have looked just as striking in their day.
5 The Adventurer's Cap (King's Quest)
The feathered Adventurer's Cap has been worn by King Graham since his days as a penniless knight. Like its wearer, the cap has survived evil magic, dangerous monsters, wicked villains, and deadly traps. After inheriting the Kingdom of Daventry from his liege King Edward, Graham eventually decides to pass the hat on to his children, but a brush with death makes him realize his adventuring days aren't yet over.
When developer The Odd Gentlemen rebooted King's Quest in 2015, series creator Roberta Williams ceremonially gave them a replica of the Adventurer's Cap, effectively passing the torch to the next generation.
4 Lucca's Helmet (Chrono Trigger)
Crono's best friend Lucca is a mechanical genius. When she's not fighting to save humanity from an apocalyptic event, she's tinkering with a new gadget. Both activities require proper safety equipment, so she's only without her helmet when she's asleep.
Lucca is a major driver of the story in Chrono Trigger, from accidentally inventing time travel to breaking Crono out of jail to repairing Robo at least three separate times. She is eventually granted the power of fire magic by Spekkio, adding a potent weapon to her arsenal of steampunk pistols and hammers.
3 The Black Mage's Hat (Final Fantasy)
The Black Mage was one of the six playable classes in the original Final Fantasy, already wearing the pointy hat that would become the symbol of offensive magic for the series. Along with the red-bordered robes of the White Mage, the Black Mage's hat was the first series mainstay to be introduced. The two classes' iconic outfits predate chocobos, moogles, tonberries, cactuars, and even Cid. As some of the first sprites visible in the game, they're also seen by players before the airship or Bahamut.
While the Black Mage hat has been sported by many characters, including a stunning turn as part of Yuna's Dresspheres in Final Fantasy X-2, it was worn best by Vivi. Final Fantasy 9's diminutive spellcaster wears a ragged, droopy hat that perfectly fits his timid personality while still reminding anyone who sees it that he has formidable magic powers at his disposal.
2 Link's Cap (The Legend Of Zelda)
While his most recent outing has put Link in a new costume that lets the Breath of the Wild blow freely through his hair, mentioning the Hero of Time's name always conjures his classic green outfit first. Across several lifetimes, Link has worn a green tunic and matching cap on his quests.
As one of gaming's most enduring heroes, Link's hat is instantly recognizable to anyone who's ever picked up a controller. In fact, it might be the most iconic video game hat of all time, if not for...
1 Mario's Hat / Cappy (Super Mario)
No video game character is as well-known across the globe as Mario. Mario, with his mustache, overalls, and of course his hat, is for all intents and purposes the face of gaming and has been for decades. In Super Mario Odyssey, the plumber loses the original hat in the most shocking video game tragedy since 1997. In its place, he gets Cappy, a sentient hat that allows Mario to possess anything or anyone that wears it, a bizarre mechanic that somehow manages to make Odyssey one of the best Mario games of all time.
Mario's hat, along with his mustache and overalls, was originally designed to give the character more definition with limited pixels. Back when he was still called Jumpman, climbing scaffolding to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong, Mario was given the mustache and hat to make his face more than a blob of pixels, and the overalls were included to add a second color to his body which would allow players to see the animation of his arms. The result was a hero who is still going strong today.