Bizarre Evolutions of Game Characters

Every so often, we see established game characters get an overhaul for the sake of keeping things fresh and new.  Most times these characters receive only minor changes, such as the Master Chief's armor in each Halo game, which seems to get more detailed over time yet retains the same overall look.  Other times the changes to characters can be extreme and will cause fan outcries of rage, such as when Nintendo unveiled the cel-shaded styling of Link in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.  After all, as gamers we tend to collectively call for change, and collectively complain about it when change does occur.

In this article, let's take a look at how some game characters have evolved over the years, with changes that are not always for the best.

Raphael - Soulcalibur Series

Raphael made his first appearance in Soulcalibur II, where he was a mortal French noble with no personality and fighting moves ranging from decent to poor.  That's all there really is to say about this character in Soulcalibur II; I'm not one to slog through the implied story-lines in fighting games, especially the mess of the Soulcalibur series story, which basically boils down to "Character X wants the Soul Edge."

In Soulcalibur III and IV, the game developers for some reason decided to transform Raphael from a boring French guy into a somewhat less-boring French vampire.  Where the logic is found here, I'll never know.  Upon making the jump from Soulcalibur II to Soulcalibur IV, I was fairly surprised when discovering that the least-interesting character in the series had been given a Castlevania makeover.

Now we just need a Belmont to star in Soulcalibur VI.

I never even knew that vampires existed in the Soulcalibur universe, but I guess we shouldn't be too surprised, considering there are much weirder things in these games.

Dante - Devil May Cry Series

 

I probably don't even have to explain this one, if you are a fan of the DMC series then you know where this is going and you are likely outraged.  But for the uninitiated, Dante is the main protagonist in this series, a demon hunter who just so happens to be part-demon himself.  In the early Devil May Cry games Dante was a likeable badass, facing off against monstrous demons while still managing to crack a few jokes at their expense.  All was well with this character until Capcom's game designers all simultaneously received brain hemorrhages and decided to reboot the DMC series, including a reboot of Dante himself:

Really Capcom?  Really?  You take an awesome character like Dante and turn him into a whiny, emo, Anakin Skywalker-ish teenage brat?  Understandably there has been a huge outrage at this character's redesign, and nothing short of a triumphant return of the original Dante will appease this.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Yes, Sonic himself has seen his share of evolution over the years.  While not as truly shocking as the previous two characters we covered, Sonic has changed in a way that somewhat annoys me.  Look at the squat little hedgehog from Sonic the Hedgehog, we all know he's a 'hog with a 'tude, and this representation shows that fairly well:

In later entries in the Sonic series, I feel that Sega might have tried a little bit too hard to push the 'tude element of Sonic's personality:

Because flashing gang signs is cool, right?

What the hell happened to Sonic?  He looks like Sega's kid-friendly representation of a gang member.  Sonic was enough of a badass in the Sega Genesis days, we don't need him striking weird poses with his strangely lengthened and rubberized limbs while he flashes a creepy grin.

And that wraps up this quick look at some bizarre game character evolutions.  Have you guys found any game characters to evolve in such a way that it annoys you death?

The Dark Side of Voice Acting in Games

Voice acting in videogames always seems to be hit or miss. The voice actors either do a fantastic job, which immerses us into the story, or they fail spectacularly, leading to years of Youtube memes and bad jokes on gaming forums.  In the past I have written about some of the most famous instances of laughable voice acting, so today I'd like to try something different.

If you're a geek like me, you enjoy looking up game voice actors on IMDB in order to see all the various game characters they've voiced throughout their careers.  There's no doubt that while they may be proud to have voiced certain characters, they most certainly harbor deep feelings of shame at the thought of some of the other pixelated bozos they were suckered into voicing.

Take for instance John DiMaggio, the voice actor for Marcus Fenix of the Gears of War series (as well as roughly one billion other game characters).

As hard as it is to believe, the voice actor of the chainsaw-wielding bad-ass is also the same guy who voiced the goofy hairstyle-challenged Wakka from Final Fantasy X.

Let's go kill some Locust, ya?

Ouch right?  That's not even the worst case.  Remember our good buddy Grunt from Mass Effect 2?

This unstoppable tank of a Krogan was voiced by Steve Blum, who just happens to be the same guy who voiced the super-creepy Yellow Monkey in Ape Escape 3.

Tingle's got some competition in the creepiness category.

Hearing Grunt talk about killing things just won't be the same after learning about this unfortunate connection to the Ape Escape franchise.  Anyway, now we move on to what I consider the most tragic story of all: Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem.

We've all heard the awesome one-liners, and we've all witnessed the 80's action-hero badassness that is Duke Nukem (ok not so much in his latest outing, but we can look past that because he's the Duke!).  But did you know that Jon St. John is also a voice actor in the somewhat recent (Dreamcast era to present) Sonic the Hedgehog games?  If the knowledge that Duke's voice actor is present in the Sonic series didn't make you run from your computer to go cry over your copy of Duke Nukem 3D, then maybe this will:  Jon St. John voices Big the Cat.

No you didn't read that wrong, the idiotic, annoying, clumsy blob Big the Cat shares the same voice actor with Duke Freaking Nukem.  It's painful isn't it?  I had to emulate a copy of Sonic Adventure just to verify it and witness the horror for myself.  Curse you Sega!!

And that wraps up this quick look at the dark side of voice acting.  Have you ever had any funny/shocking moments upon discovering the various characters a voice actor has...um...voiced?  Let me know, I'd like to hear your stories!

Gaming Questions That Have Yet To Be Answered

We all know that games are fantasy worlds where anything goes. The laws of physics can be laughed at, respawning is second nature to us, any conceivable creature or object can speak and act like a human, and so on and so forth. Sometimes you can't avoid questioning some of these design choices (I for one can be nit-picky at times). For example, I'm sure everyone who has played a Zelda game has wondered how Link can carry a ton of items at the same time without being burdened the slightest bit. Today we look at some similar questions from gaming over the years.


1. Why is Pacman being chased by ghosts?

 
Seriously, think about it for a second.  What's the story behind Pacman?  Is he exorcising a haunted house?  Strolling through a graveyard on Halloween?  Apparently Pacman is the first survival-horror game ever created.  Not only that, but the main character makes protagonists from later games seem like a bunch of sissies.  After all, this spherical badass can eat ghosts.


2. Why are Dr. Robotnik's technological creations so powerful, yet so vulnerable to being jumped on?

It seems that over the years Dr. Robotnik has created every sort of metal monstrosity known to mankind/hedgehogkind.  How is it that machines which are capable of burrowing through solid rock, or being fully submerged in lava, are brought to their knees when a tiny hedgehog jumps on it?

Maybe the lava weakened the armor plating?

The rock is no match for the hedgehog.

You'd think that after getting his ass kicked multiple times in Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Robotnik would have invested more into his R&D department.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Sonic dies when he touches metal spikes, just cover your machines with these to ensure world domination!


3. Why does Rayman have no limbs?

Ok maybe I'm starting to nitpick a bit much here, but seriously, what's going on here?  Is he the result of top secret government experiments?  Maybe he's a relative of Andross from the Star Fox games, or even Homestarrunner.  If his hands and feet are truly not connected to the rest of his body, then Rayman has a command of the Force that even Yoda would be jealous of.


4. Did anyone play-test Superman 64 before it was released?

Actually this one's pretty self-explanatory.

That wraps up our quick look at some of gaming's (mostly) unanswered questions.  If you have gaming questions you would like to see featured in a future blog entry, drop me an email at: strangegaming86@yahoo.com.