#1 – Rush (Mega Man series)
Was there really any doubt? Mega Man’s faithful pooch has been around almost as long as the the Blue Bomber himself, only missing out on the first two adventures. While Mega Man’s earlier games had him using basic tools to help with his platforming, Mega Man 3 saw the introduction of the Blue Bomber’s canine companion. Since his debut, Rush’s capacity to assist Mega Man only grew as the series went on. From the humble beginnings of the Coil and Jet, Rush has gone on to augment Mega Man’s fighting abilities with adaptor suits, helped his master traverse different environments as a submarine and motorcycle and even sniffed hidden items out of the ground. Even in non-Mega Man games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Rush is there to back up Mega Man in any way he can. As you can see, Rush is much more versatile than the average robotic dog. Other robotic pets have tried to rival Rush, both in usefulness and popularity — the bird, Beat; the wolf-like Treble; and even the woefully-underutilized cat, Tango — but these pets have only garnered a fraction of the staying power that Mega Man’s first and best companion has. It might seem like an incredibly obvious choice for the top of the list, but, hey, Rush isn’t the best for nothing.
So, there you have it for our list of great canine buddies. It hardly seems fair to narrow down all the great dogs in games to just ten, so I’m sure we’ve missed at least a few you would have liked to see. Let us know in the comments just how badly we erred. Maybe someday, Call of Duty Dog will have his moment in the sun.
