Top 10 Video Game Characters

If you go to art school (any type of art school that involves the telling of stories) the first lesson to be hammered into your skull is that everything depends on character design. You can have the most wonderful technology at your disposal. You can have the best creative talent available in the market that is the hunting grounds for the Human Resources department. You can also perhaps have complete freedom to do what you wish with a project – but – and this is the nub, so to speak, if the audience cannot in some way relate to the characters you are sunk.

A character need not necessarily be human or even possess similar anatomy (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) In Need For Speed your character is basically an anonymous driver, it is the car you play, nothing else. In a Flight or Space Simulation the airplane or the spaceship is what you play, not the pilot. Being the pilot is up to you.

However, for this article we shall be focusing on human (or at least close enough) characters only. Video games have come a long way (I think that should be declared a cliché soon) and we can take a panoramic view of the one industry that has done more for IT in terms of technology and economy while at the same time causing more social upheaval than the French Revolution.

These characters have been chosen chronologically over a span of time based on the difference they made in their respective genres. There is no other criteria, so don’t ask why these 10 and not some others.

1. Mario - 1985

The cute plumber first appeared on the Nintendo system in one of the pioneering efforts in the side-scrolling gaming genre. Some believe that side-scrolling games never really hit their stride until Super Mario Bros. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the game has sold over 40 million copies, a fact acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as Super Mario Bros (the game is known differently in different countries) being the best selling game ever. Apart from quickly achieving the status of a classic it also opened the worldwide market to Nintendo and was the first game to actually become a successful franchise. Mario later on became Nintendo’s mascot and at one time had the recognition of being the only Japanese character to enjoy the same popularity as Disney’s Mickey Mouse.

2. Guybrush Threepwood – 1990

For precisely one decade (1990-2000) a funny little guy with a very funny name was LucasArts’ mainstay in the comedy-adventure genre that has given us titles like Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, The Dig, and Grim Fandango. The artists used Deluxe Paint to draw him and the file was named guy.brush which eventually became his name. The last name is used from the family of Threepwoods in the works of Sir. P. G. Wodehouse (Gally Threepwood anyone?). While this particular category of games are hardly being made anymore, for 10 years the little guy who wanted nothing more than to be a pirate, went from a teenager to a married man and finally laid his nemesis Le Chuck to rest, and in doing so entertained folks of all ages and became a legend not only in the halls of LucasArts but adventure gaming in general.

3. Duke Nukem – 1991

Duke Nukem started as a cute little muscled chap with a gun who was hired by the CIA to take care of a certain Dr. Proton. It was a side-scrolling platform like game with great graphics by the standards at that time. Duke Nukem 2 followed it in 1993. 1996 however is the year when Duke Nukem became a figure of repute. More infamous than famous, the Duke was sexist, he swore, Duke Nukem 3D became the very first FPS to have some sort of sexual content. There was enough attitude packed into the game that fans were clearly divided in two groups. Those who consider Doom to be the greatest while Duke to be a frivolous waste of time. Duke fans insisted that playing Duke was more fun. In its initial release Duke Nukem 3D sold a record 3 million copies in a very short time. It also proved that id Software were not the only ones who could make a successful FPS. The next game in the series Duke Nukem Forever has been in development for almost a decade now and is expected to reach the market sometime in 2007 (this just might be a new record, a game 10 years in development).

4. Twinsen - 1994

All game categories suffer from either a total loss in the average number of titles released or, in reverse, a shocking lack of quality in the huge amount of titles released. Adventure games are most prone to suffer in this regard as they take a lot of thinking while being made. You don’t just hand someone a gun and say, “Go shoot the hell out of the enemy.” During such a slack period in the Adventure category Adeline Software International released a game that featured a bald guy with a pony tail (like our very own Chanakya) that was full of wonderful backgrounds, smooth animations, behavior control and a villain by the impossible name of Dr. Funfrock. Taking place in Twinsun, Twinsen is the savior of the planet as prophesized by the goddess Sendell. Twinsen differed from other characters because of his entirely believable alien world and the human emotions implanted there in. The game was first to use four modes of game style depending on circumstances. Twinsen could be Normal (walk around talk to people, interact with objects), Athletic (run, jump, side step), Aggressive (for melee attacks), or Discreet (for stealth). The four modes affect how Twinsen throws his magic ball. He was an innovative and very different character in an extremely unique world that gamers will not easily forget and will certainly miss for a long time.

5. Lara Croft - 1996

While detractors say that the only reason Lara Croft became a hit was because of her bra-size (incidentally, it wasn’t that big, Lara’s designer was fiddling around in 3d and accidentally scaled a few polygons by 150%, he was about to correct this mistake when other people saw the result and the rest, as they say, is history) it is important to note that in an industry where females (in games and as gamers) were more or less neglected except by a few, she became a symbol that a feminine lead character could be a hit. The dimensions of her torso should not take away from a great game concept delivered with a well-designed end product. Lara was later followed by Rynn in Drakan: Order of the Flame (which should have had a sequel if the ending was a hint). And the less reputable female from Space Bunnies Must Die. No other character has matched her success and she remains the pioneer of her gender in video games.

6. Abe - 1997

Side scrolling platform puzzle games are a bit of a rarity because the puzzle part can either be totally silly or it can be too frustrating. Finding the right balance is difficult. In the series of games released by Oddworld Inhabitants (Abe’s Oddysee in 1997, Abe’s Exoddus in 1998, followed by several more) the main character was Abe. Blue in color. Stitched lips but able to talk. No weapons. Not too smart. An escaped slave. And eventual hero. Abe was released into what is probably the most fleshed out virtual universe besides The Elder Scrolls. It would take more than a couple of articles just to cover Abe’s world and its inhabitants. Abe is different in the sense that he cannot achieve much alone. He has to rescue his enslaved comrades but he must be careful. They could be blind, angry, depressed, or hysteric with laughing gas. In Abe’s world you not only feel Abe’s emotions but also that of those he is trying to save. Plus the world is beautiful. It also has parallels to our own industrialization and eventual suffering of nature. When Abe makes a mistake and one of his buddies die he makes you care enough to reload and try to save the little guy. A terribly funny game with some outrageous characters, Abe can make you smile and make you sad everytime you reload this platform classic.

7. Garrett - 1998

Picking pockets as a kid to survive he gets caught by a Keeper (not the ones you have in cricket silly) and undergoes training that includes moving among shadows, not making noise, and generally being invisible without having to bother of using magic potions (ok, he does use them in Thief 2 but you know what I mean). Later on he leaves the Keepers and remembers only those lessons that help him in becoming a thieving artist. Garrett and Thief – The Dark Project appeared at a time when everyone was trying to cash in on the FPS craze and fans were disappointed at the lack of quality content. Garrett could not be seen, could not be heard, he definitely could not fight. He was a stealthy and treacherous sort of bloke that tickled the imaginations of a jaded gaming populace. He is also responsible for stealth based first person shooters to be jokingly called First Person Sneaker. A very different character with a very different approach to gaming.

8. Gordon Freeman - 1998

Before Half-Life there had been all sorts of heroes in computer games. The anonymous marine from Doom and Doom II. Duke Nukem. Blake Stone. Garrett from Thief. What makes Gordon Freeman different is that he is a scientist, and of all the things, a theoretical physicist. Meaning he does the same work as Albert Einstein and Stephen W. Hawking. In short, the last person whom you would expect to be holding a shotgun and blasting away at aliens. He is also different in respect that he never ever speaks a word. Must be a studious sort of chap. No time to talk. Life is hard, life is earnest, and there are all these aliens. What makes Gordon Freeman such a great character is that even without speaking (you don’t even see him for goodness sake except on the box of the game) he has been the protagonist of two great episodes of Half-Life. He represents the kind of game where the main character simply does not need to do anything to be famous.

9. Cate Archer – 2000

Probably the most successful and popular of female characters after Lara Croft, Cate Archer was dubbed as a female James Bond with the game No One Lives Forever following a James Bond movie the same way an Austin Powers movie does but a lot more pleasantly, at least for a game. Where Lara Croft was all tank-top and short-shorts, Catherine Ann Archer symbolized a very different kind of woman. A real “lady” from the 1960s with hairstyle, dress, and accent to match. Relying more on gadgets than a lot of back flipping off walls. Cate Archer instantly became a darling in the post Y2K gaming era. No One Lives Forever 2 – A Spy in HARM’s Way showed her in an updated Lithtech engine with wonderful lip-synching and eyelashes. In fact, she looked better than Lara looks in Tomb Raider Legend.

10. Max Payne – 2001

”You want pain? I’ll give you pain,” said an angry voice in a trailer that was released in 2000. While the hype, as always, was great around this game, especially the bullet-time sequences it was not till after the game’s release that players realized the true impact of the phrase, “If John Woo ever makes a video game, it will be like this.” But what makes Max Payne standout is not the things you can do in the game but Max himself. He is not a hero. He is vulnerable, troubled, sad, and hunted. Just another cop living a miserable life in a nightmarishly portrayed New York Minute. As he himself says, “I was not one of them. I was not a hero.” Very few characters have touched the gaming audience’s hearts as Max Payne. Throughout the story Max relates with the loss of his wife and child, his friend, the menace of the drug Valkyr. He is a character rich in emotion. Unlike his peers, Duke Nukem or Gordon Freeman or a space Marine, or Riddick for that matter. Max Payne stands alone.

Wow…so many characters to choose from…so have you had your pick…who’s shoes are you gonna be in today?

Jitender Saan