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?"

Comments

Some of the best characters in PC games ...

[PaganRitual]

... 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.

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. ... but of course they all pale to ...

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.

Leaves out the greats

[Traderdot]

A fairly lame article. Leaves out the greats. What about:

(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.

Ratchet & Clank postmortem

[beders]

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!

What about PS:Torment?

[PurpleFloyd]

The best game characters I've ever seen were in Planescape: Torment. With the main character a nameless, immortal amnesiac who just woke up in the morgue, and supporting characters like Morte the wisecracking skull, an insane robot, voiced by Dan Castanella (you probably know him as Homer Simpson), or the chaste succubus who acts as madam of the Brothel of Slating Intellectual Lust, (featuring pleasures for the mind, rather than the body), all the characters tend to stick with you.

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!"

Plok - is a *great* game

[szyzyg]

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