It just hit me how many games have had the player controlling an animal as the main character. How many can we compile? I don't think we should include fake animals, such as the lizard thing from "Scaler", or the Lombax (Ratchet, from Ratchet & Clank), or Spyro the Dragon. Also, when a human turns INTO an animal, in game, that shouldn't count, either. (Alucard turning into a wolf doesn't count.)
Also, as a second question, which "animal player" was the very first one? I'll assume it was an arcade game, but I don't know.
Current list of animal characters:
Ant (Zool)
Ape (Donkey Kong, George)
Bat (Aero the Acrobat, Rouge)
Bandicoot (Crash)
Bear (Banjo)
Bird (Bird Week)
Bobcat (Bubsy)
Cat (Rockin' Kats, Felix, Blinx, Garfield, Socks, Blaze, Pero, Itchy, Alleycat, Tom, Sylvester)
Chicken (Alfred Chicken)
Chimpanzee (Lanky Kong)
Chipmunk (Chip, Dale)
Cod (James Pond)
Cougar (Ardy Lightfoot)
Dog (Sam from Sam & Max, Chuckie (chuckwagon), King)
Dolphin (Ecco)
Duck (Scrooge, Donald, Darkwing)
Echidna (Knuckles)
Fox (Tails, Fox McCloud)
Frog (Frogger, Slippy)
Gecko (Gex)
Hamster (Hamtaro)
Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy)
Kangaroo (Kangaroo (ARC), Kao)
Lemming (Lemmings)
Monkey (Super Monkey Ball, Diddy, Toki, Congo, Spanky, Bubble Monkey)
Mosquito (Mr. Mosquito/Ka)
Mouse (Scratchy, Minnie & Mickey, Mappy, Jerry)
Opossum (Sparkster)
Penguin (Pen Pen, Pengo)
Pig (Power Pigs)
Rabbit (Bugs Bunny, Buster, Cream)
Raccoon (Sly)
Road Runner (Road Runner,
Rocky Rodent (???)
Sheep (Pochi)
Snake (Snake, Rattle, and Roll)
Squirrel (Conker, Mr. Nutz, Zero)
Tasmanian Tiger (Ty)
Toad (Zitz, Rash, Pimple)
Turtle (TMNT)
Worm (Earthworm Jim, Worms)
Yeti (Urban Yeti)
You name it. (E.V.O.: Search for Eden)
I would like to be more specific with these. For instance, James Pond is not just a "fish", but likely a certain type of fish. [edit: fixed!] Same with Banjo the "Bear." I imagine people with the manuals might be able to help.
There's gotta be a lot more!