Some of the best video games are the ones that star complex and dynamic characters.
They’re the protagonists that fuel you to keep pushing through even the most difficult
of levels, that challenge the way you perceive the ideologies that a game explores, or they’re
simply endearing, making players want to dive into a title for hours on end.
But unfortunately, not all of our favourite games have the privilege of great writing
or thoughtful characterization, and often, we run into individuals who are flat out cringe
worthy or laughable.
So today, we’re taking a look at the characters that made you roll your eyes, getting super
vicious with your mocking or shout out in frustration with our list of the top 10 video
game characters who are a joke.
10 Roman – GTA IV While GTA IV is one of the best games in the
Grand Theft Auto franchise, one of its most irritating and memorable aspects was your
older cousin Roman, who resides in Liberty City, and has a whole lot of debt with various
mafias.
Fun stuff for Niko.
His wife is cheating on him, he has a gambling addiction, and he’s a man child and just
wants to live the American Dream.
He’s also annoying AF, and constantly calls you to ask you to go bowling with him.
Like, always.
9 The Butler – Tomb Raider 2 Winston the Butler is a character in the Tomb
Raider franchise that is most well-known for making creepy noises as he follows you around,
and for the running joke of how everyone would lock him in the freezer.
Since he follows you around everywhere in your house (and outside of the house), you
can lead him to follow you to his inevitable frigid death.
Some players have even admitted that they spent more time trying to lure him in the
game than playing the rest of it.
Pretty much everyone who played this game had fond memories of trying to trap Winston,
who would make grunting noises as he wobbled over to you with tea cups rattling on his
little tray.
Ah, the memories.
8 Slippy – Star Fox 64 Slippy’s defining characteristic is that
he is a talking frog who gets shot at.
That’s basically it.
He doesn’t shut up, he’s constantly getting in your line of fire, and you CONSTANTLY need
to save his incompetent ass.
He doesn’t even have any character traits that make him redeeming, making him simply
a character that just gets in your way ALL the time.
7 Dan Hibiki– Street Fighter Dan has bee labeled as a joke character, is
a bit of a rip off of Ryu, and is generally over confident, arrogant and totally feeble.
He even opened up an unsuccessful school for his fighting style, which translates into
Strongest Style.
Oh boy.
Perhaps the best way to sum him up is to take a look at how he ended up with his pink threads.
Dan used to have a white gi and put his laundry in with Ken’s red gi and it came out pink
so now he fights in a pink gi.
THIS IS ACTUALLY CANON.
Despite all this, he’s often considered a fan favourite, with fans appreciating the
fact that he’s basically an in game joke.
6 Magikarp – Pokemon Magikarp is perhaps the most pointless Pokemon
in Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, and arguably in other Pokemon titles, as well.
While the annoying Splash move is eventually worth while when Magikarp evolves into Gyarados,
you still need to wait a grueling amount of time and have a whole lot of patience until
you get it to level 20.
Unless you’ve got a fist full of rare candies, it’s not a fun activity to level this fish
up.
Magikarp has been described by critics as serving solely as comic relief, and as possibly
the most docile, unassuming and weak of all the monsters in the Pokemon world.
Some people even consider it to be the worst Pokemon ever.
But that was before they saw all of Generation 4, so…yeah.
5 Duke Nukem Duke Nukem games used to have a special part
in some players hearts.
But recent times haven’t been so kind to Duke, and his character has gone from a comedic
action hero that delved into themes of anarchy to an obnoxious douche bag, relying on one
liners, immaturity and objectifying women in a way that provided zero social commentary,
or dignity, for that matter.
Most critics considered his characterization in Duke Nukem Forever as being embarrassing
and a caricature of his former self.
The character now feels dated, like a sad old man who thinks his jokes are still funny
but really just comes off as super creepy.
4 Jason – Heavy Rain Press X to Jason.
Do I really need to say more?
3 Tingle – Legend of Zelda It feels as if Tingle was set up to fail.
His appearance just screams obnoxious.
But, what makes it worse is that he’s a thirty five year old man who is obsessed with
forest fairies, and dresses up in a green costume that vaguely resembles Link’s main
threads.
His catch phrase is annoying at best.
The character was created by Takaya Imamura, a game designer and Nintendo EAD, and has
appeared in Zelda games from Majora’s Mask onwards, occasionally being a part of tedious
fetch quests.
Generally, most people can’t stand him, and he’s even been described as Zelda’s
Jar Jar.
Funny enough, some fans of the Zelda franchise actually like him, which led to his own spin
off game.
2 Big the Cat – Sonic Big the Cat is one of the most pointless video
game characters ever.
For starters, he’s big and slow, and is a character in a video game franchise that’s
premise is GOING FAST.
Big was introduced in Sonic Adventure as a means to make use of a game mechanic developers
wanted to include in the title; a fishing rod.
Big would go around and fish for his friend froggy in what felt like a mediocre minigame.
And worst of all, his character offered nothing redeeming; he’s always been portrayed as
a bumbling, dumb fat cat, never exceeding anything more than 2 dimensions personality
wise.
Big hasn’t been making many appearances in the Sonic franchise these days; probably
a good call on Sega’s Sonic Team’s part.
Hey, at least they’ve done one thing right.
1 Ashley – Resident Evil 4 Ashely Graham tops this list because she literally
makes your gameplay significantly harder.
So Ashley is the daughter of the former US president Graham.
And in the game, you’re meant to escort her.
Problem is, Ashley is REAL good at getting herself killed.
She does nothing whatsoever to defend herself, essentially being as vulnerable as a new born
child minus the fact that she can run around.
But even then, she often just runs to her death, which is worse.
Pretty sure anyone who has played the game just wishes they could’ve left her in a
dumpster for good.
Ashley is a character that makes you question what purpose she really serves in the game,
and contemplate how much better Resident Evil 4 would’ve been if the devs had just left
her out.
There we have it friends!
What other characters do you think are total jokes?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know!
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