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Highs And Lows Of Game Character Design
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamers.com article discussing the best and worst character designs in videogames. The author singles out his favorite designs, including Samus Aran, Solid Snake, and Sonic The Hedgehog, and then picks Ratchet, Plok, and Boogerman as examples of characters that just don't make the grade. It may not be the final word on the subject, but it's a good starting position to answer the question: "Who became an absorbing avatar with which to explore a virtual world, and who was just plain painful to look at?"
I mean besides Mario, who else got a cartoon show?
... are easily the Meccaryns (read: humans with cockney accents) from Giants : Citizen Kabuto ... one of the few games where I actually bothered to watch all the cutscenes. Those guys cracked me up. They were so well designed that while you could appreciate the humour and really get to like them, at the same time they were still impressive when they opened up with their weaponry.
:
... but of course they all pale to ...
Im sure if the article didnt have such a massive console bias then it would have mentioned other cool characters such as
JC Denton from Deus Ex.
Cate Archer from NOLF.
Garret from Thief.
Gordon Freeman from Half Life.
THE DOOM GUY.
sure, that was his name, and he had no voice other than a couple of grunts and a great death scream, but its one of the coolest avatars out there.
Dude, the Doom guy was great, but then came Duke Nuke'em.
All those corny one-liners. He RAWKED man!
(Super) Mario
The entire cast of Street Fighter 2 characters
Rockman/Megaman
Link from Zelda
Pokemon (not for me, but the kiddies like it)
These ones are truly iconic/memorable. Esp the Street Fighter characters who had a whole backstory which you found out when you finished the game.
Thoughts on stocks, markets and trading
Postmortem by the team behind Ratchet and Clank available on Gamasutra, registration may be required.
Relevant problem, the main characer look "too cartoony", anyway, look for yourself!
Brocklesby Park Cricket Club
The neatest thing about the characters in PS:Torment was that they reacted in a plausible way, given their strange situations and surroundings. Everyone has a motivation, and it's not always what you think. Take the character Morte, who I mentioned above. While he seems to be nothing more than rather cliched comic relief in the beginning, his character gains a significant amount of depth.
And of course, who can forget Minsc from Baldur's Gate, and his miniature giant space hamster Boo? "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!"
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
I think that Halo has some great characters. The grunts are my favorites. They are just hilarious! They have some of the best Quotes.
One of my favorite things is to sneak up on a group of Grunts that are sitting somewhere chilling and stick a plasma grenade to one of their backs. Sometimes they will let out an anguished "NOOOOOOooOOOOOO!!!"
I think that the master chief is also well designed. When you're playing you feel like walking destruction with a sense of humor. I read that they purposefully never show the Master Chief's face because they want the player to be able to identify with him.
Here's a link to a Gamasutra article on Character Design
- http://www.braveterry.com/
but i'm inclined to believe they didn't even play the game, since the way plok actually plays is pretty unique and while not exceptionally FUN, you can do a hell of a lot worse. plok himself isn't a totally empty character, and he shows a good bit of emotion at the end of the level when the wrong flag is up the pole, plus there's the frontside pocket which makes plok seem to be groping himself- how can you not get a kick out of that?
"Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
"Who became an absorbing avatar with which to explore a virtual world, and who was just plain painful to look at?"
Lara "They can't possibly be real" Croft.
She fits the former group and is definitely not in the latter. Dare I admit it.
The insane AI from the System Shock games.
"Look at you hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you chalenge a perfect immortal machine?"
Classic.
Duke Nukem
You're damn right man!
... I'm reaaaally pissed off" :"What do you think I am? A frog? " (refering to a well known frog game;-) )
That duke dude was terrific!
I can remember some hilarious quotes and the way he is speaking is so kewl! the best caricature of the tough guy going to war ever!
"Come get someâ
âoeHail to the king, baby"
"What are you waiting for? Christmas?"
"It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum and I' m aaaaall out of gum!"
"Now
when he picks up a shotgun : "This'll be a barrel of laughs"
when he crosses a road in Manhattan Project
to the girls "Do you want to test my big gun ?"
about the cards to collect to progress in the game "These colored keycards suck"
"damn that was annoying"
"ooooh, thats gonna leave a mark"
"What a mess"
"Your face, your ass... What's the difference"
"Bring It On"
"Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for ruining my ride"
and so many others damn that was good!
Yoshitaka Amano did the character designs for the Nintendo-generation Final Fantasy games, and also for FFIX, the last of the FFs on the original Playstation. His concept art has a delicate, flowing, romantic quality that is quite unlike most videogame concept art, and very different from the more down-to-earth designs that Tetsuya Nomura did for FFVII, VIII and X.
If you've never seen any Amano art, Google for something like "yoshitaka amano final fantasy" and have a look.
-Stephen
It could have encompassed more characters, but left out such characters as Mario and Link because they are great character designs that most people know of and require little commentary. Its good they acknowledged Bubsy as that is one of my biggest regrets of the 16 bit era
They seem to miss the point that plok is a perfect example of how you can make a generic character truly memorable. When the title screen pops up an uptempo bluesy harmonica driven soundtrack kicks in and plok drops in playing the lead, toes a tappin. The music in the game is fantastic - Tim Follin is a great composer of video game music.
Then we have the whole presentation of plok, he runs around, jumps, spins and throws punches and kicks at the enemies. Literally, his arms and legs fly away, and sometimes you find his dismembers body bouncing along trying to recover a lost leg so he can jump again.
And to add to the Plok family there's Grandpa Plok, which we see in a set of levels that are all sepia toned. And there's many powered up variations, helicopter, cycler, unicycler, tank, rockets, sherlok plok, super plok.
AT LAST, A REAL HERO!
Plok is an irresistible, irrepressible, unstoppable, highly improbable and downright dangerous bundle of pure energy.
Plok does not like fleas.
Plok has the amazing ability to fire all his body parts at will.
Plok can really 'throw' a punch.
Plok has a very short fuse; at the slightest irritation those limbs begin to fly.
Plok hates fleas.
Plok is a true hero, with a heart of gold and joints of the highest-quality velcro.
Plok is a man with a mission. He is dedicated to ridding the world of the dreaded Fleas.
Plok is a dreamer, a wanderer, a free spirit. He's suave and elegant. He's grade-A, first-class prime cut.
Plok really does not like Fleas.
Plok is the king of the beautiful island called Akrillic, part of the archipelago Poly-Esta
although, I'd have to say that it helps that the game is based on an anime and manga.
Try a google search for images.
As for characters designed specifically for videogames, I'd say Mario is by far the coolest character ever.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Although like many I thought he was a disgusting and pointless character, I know for a fact that the boogerman SNES game sold well and did incredibly well in the rental market. So I don't think it is a good idea to classify this moronic and ultimatly dead (thankfully) character a failure. Oh and Mario > *. Don't mess with the plumber assholes.
./revolution
What about the "dragon" from Adventure!?
Don't leave out Kefka in Final Fantasy VII, the greatest bad guy in video game ever. Uweeheehee!
And Bowser in Super Mario RPG... he actually joined Mario's team in the middle of the game as a playable character!
Chrono Trigger.
It wasn't just the spiky hair. Sonic is rendered with simple shapes and solid colors, and he has a streamlined look about him that conveys speed and grace. Combine that with the fast-twitch gameplay and smooth physics of his platformers, and you have a memorable game with a memorable hero.
The only 16-bit knockoff character who even came close to Sonic was Konami's Sparkster the Rocket Knight. (Find an old cartridge or ROM of Rocket Knight Adventures; it's surprisingly fun.)
Of course, Sega has always had a plethora of good character designs; consider Ulala, the heroine of Space Channel 5. It isn't often that you come across a female game character who's deliberately sexy without being shamelessly exploitative. Ulala has a style all her own... well, not really since Lady Miss Kier is suing Sega over her look, but still, she is a refreshing character.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
They left out Caleb from Blood. I liked that game even more than Duke Nukem 3D.
"Whooah! Oh...it's just me..."
-Caleb, after looking in the mirror
All unfair meta-mods are now being meta-meta-modded as retarded.
Had the most wonderful names for its characters. How are you gonna beat the Crimson Tape? (his special power is Organizational Charts)
To further quote the ibiblio review, "However, the pictures are so colorful, so unique and lively that identifying with the characters is easy. Captain Excitement, Oxide Man, Princess Glovebox, they are much more memorable and interesting then any amount of warriors or mages. Every character seems to spring to life."
How can you not love characters who turn things to rust?
i think your forgeting about mega man. he had tons of games, his own tv show, and a brand new tv show.
p.s. he'd beat sonic and day of the week in a fight.