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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?"
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
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