Memorable Game Characters

Nomad proved me right yet again.

Yes, it's TRUE that the character Mario was named after a custodian that worked at Nintendo, but before Nintendo named the Italian plumber (Mario Bros.), he was simply known as "Jump Man" (Donkey Kong).

Pleasse remember, I actually WAS AROUND back then. Since I played the game when IT WAS NEW, I know for a FACT Mario was "Jump Man".

Sorry. I can't stand immature punks who know nothing about things that they were not around to witness and experience, which, I WAS.

I'll even use the less-accurate Wiki which you love so much, which proves you can't even look up a fact properly. In fact, let's quote it (Or shall I say, FTW):

Conception and creation
The character first appeared in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong as a carpenter named "Jumpman",[4] more commonly called "Mr. Video Game" in Japan.[5] During localization of the game for American audiences, Nintendo's warehouse landlord Mario Segale confronted Nintendo's Minoru Arakawa, demanding back rent. After a heated argument and convincing Segale he would be paid, the Nintendo employees opted to name the character in the game Mario after him.[6] Mario's profession as a carpenter was intended to reflect that as a character as an ordinary hard worker as well as to make it easier for players to identify with the character.[7] After a colleague suggested that Mario more resembled a plumber, Miyamoto changed his profession accordingly and developed Mario Bros.,[8] featuring the character in the sewers of New York City.[9]

This is verrified correct. A Wiki rarity.

Here's the page itslef:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario <-----Halfway down.

As Staples says: "That was easy!"

Georgef551 said:

but before Nintendo named the Italian plumber (Mario Bros.), he was simply known as "Jump Man"

No one was disputing that.

DuckReconMajor said:

No one was disputing that.

Nomad was. He completely missed the target.

Georgef551 said:

Nomad was. He completely missed the target.

Actually, I kind of think you did.

Nomad said:

Mario was named after the owner of the warehouse Nintendo used in the US to store their shit stateside.

He was addressing your statement on where the Mario name originated, not that he was previously called "Jumpman". Admittedly, Nomad overreacted a bit, but he was still right.

Doomguy
Shodan
Most of the monsters from Doom/2 (they're very colorful)
Saavedro (Myst III, Brad Dourif is a great actor)
Esher (Myst V, played by David Ogden Stiers)

George, stop taking a deliberately contrary position just for the sake of writing incredibly long arguments.

Creaphis said:

George, stop taking a deliberately contrary position just for the sake of writing incredibly long arguments.

That's funny cause that's your title.

Hana from Fear Effect.

Georgef551 said:

Troll troll troll troll troll troll troll.

Nothing new here.

Krispavera said:

That's funny cause that's your title.

Ha, so it is! Weeeird.

My whole point was, Mario was Jump Man, and that was it.
That was the point.
.period.

(Was that short enough for you?) :)

Georgef551 said:

(Was that short enough for you?) :)

Yes it was. Thank you kind sir. :)

Georgef551 said:

Pleasse remember, I actually WAS AROUND back then. Since I played the game when IT WAS NEW, I know for a FACT Mario was "Jump Man".

I was not disputing that. I was merely correcting your statement that somehow he magically became "Mario".

Also, age is irrelevant. I don't care if you were around in the stone age, doesn't make you automatically right about anything.

Shao Khan. (Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3)

Only because it took me over an hour to finally beat the motherfucker.

All the advisors from SimCity 3000. I should play that again, it was a damn awesome game.

Shadow Dweller said:

Shao Khan. (Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3)

Only because it took me over an hour to finally beat the motherfucker.

I've only beat him with 2 characters, Sub Zero and Cyrax.

arrrgh said:

All the advisors from SimCity 3000. I should play that again, it was a damn awesome game.

3000!? WHAT THE FUCK!?

Danarchy said:

3000!? WHAT THE FUCK!?

i guess

Doomguy - Doom
Gordan Freeman - Half-Life
Shadow - FF 3/6
Manny Calavera - Grim Fandango
Caleb - Blood

I used to own Sim City 3000. It wasn't a bad game, although I preferred 2000 a bit more for some reason. As for some memorable characters to me:

DoomGuy + Doom2's monster cast:
I bet nobody saw that one coming!

Gordan Freeman + the G man
One mute gunslinger in an orange suit and an annoyingly evasive NPC.

All of the bosses from Chasm: the Rift:
The first bosses I have seen that did not have health limits, and instead required a special technique to defeat. I thought they were pretty cool unique, (and not to mention a bit scary) as a kid.

Vile + Sigma:
For being a practical rip off of Boba Fett, I sure remembered Vile over Boba Fett. As for Sigma, well he seems to be the coolest bald video game villain I have seen so far. They make a good pair in MMX1.

Duke Nukem:
Doesn't really need an explanation. Time to kick some ass and chew bubble gum.

Caleb:
See above.

Cast of Strife:
For a doom-engine based game, I was amazed at how this game's storyline actually drew me in.

All of the obvious choices:
Mario, Street Fighter cast, Link, Megaman, Samus, Solid Snake, etc.

There are most likely some I left out but oh well.

Danarchy said:

3000!? WHAT THE FUCK!?

SC2000 was good too. The thing I remember the most from that was the madlib newspapers. They were awesome.

lupinx-Kassman said:

All of the bosses from Chasm: the Rift:
The first bosses I have seen that did not have health limits, and instead required a special technique to defeat. I thought they were pretty cool unique, (and not to mention a bit scary) as a kid.

I can only recall the first boss with the fan blades, but Chasm was kind of interesting. Released two years after Quake, but it's engine could only handle one level with slight height variations, maybe 6 feet or so. So better than Quake graphics in general, but only a slightly better engine than Wolf 3D and ROTT, not even at Doom level. The fact that you could take people's limbs off was awesome at the time though. I still have fond memories of blowing soldiers arms off with a shotgun, then having them run up and try to kick me. Reminds me of the black knight. "What are you going to do, bleed on me?"

I would also add the Fiend and the Shambler to my list. I've never been quite as scared of an enemy in a game as I was of the Fiend and the Shambler, mainly because they were generally used in closed in areas. The Cyberdemon is usually outdoors and easy to dodge, when you've got a Fiend two feet away from you there's not many options.

We're on page 3 and there's still no mention of:

- Unreal's Skaarj warrior, the FPS game's predator ripoff alien, more memorable than any generic human character in the game
- DarkStalkers' Morrigan (pretty much the official representative of the succubus archetype nowadays, mostly notable for being one of the first mainstream game busties prior to Lara, and before Mai even got extreme bounce implants.)
- Descent's claw thing whatsitsname.

Jazz Jackrabbit.

leileilol said:

Unreal's Skaarj warrior, the FPS game's predator ripoff alien, more memorable than any generic human character in the game

Heh, that reminds me of the secret Predator room in Blood 2 with the Skaarj poster (20 seconds into the vid below).

Shadow Dweller said:

Shao Khan. (Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3)

Only because it took me over an hour to finally beat the motherfucker.

I thought I was one of the only people who couldn't beat him in a short amount of time, guess not.

As for memorable characters:

Practically everyone from Street Fighter 2
Duke Nukem
Mario
Link
Donkey Kong
Doomguy and all of the Doom monsters
Everyone from Mortal Kombat
Fox McCloud
Bowser

And a lot more that don't come to mind at the moment.

Georgef551 said:

Nomad proved me right yet again.

Yes, it's TRUE that the character Mario was named after a custodian that worked at Nintendo, but before Nintendo named the Italian plumber (Mario Bros.)

1. According to Wikipedia, it was his landlord. But since you where there to witness it I suppose you know better.

2. His name is never indicated to being Mario Bros. He's just Mario. Bros is a slang expression which means "Brothers". And I'll leave it to you to mull over why they included that bit in the title of the game.

kristus said:

2. His name is never indicated to being Mario Bros. He's just Mario. Bros is a slang expression which means "Brothers". And I'll leave it to you to mull over why they included that bit in the title of the game.

Well, I think he was just referring to the first instance of the name.

Anyway, Andross sticks out in my mind as well. Star Fox 64 was the first game I ever had that ever mentioned characters dying. When he told me I would die just like my father, I was shocked that anyone would put that in a video game (despite the fact that I grew up playing games like Hexen and Diablo).

DuckReconMajor said:

Well, I think he was just referring to the first instance of the name.

Anyway, Andross sticks out in my mind as well. Star Fox 64 was the first game I ever had that ever mentioned characters dying. When he told me I would die just like my father, I was shocked that anyone would put that in a video game (despite the fact that I grew up playing games like Hexen and Diablo).

Play the first one and you'll understand more.
Andross is a memorable character... but Wolf and Fox stuck out too much.

Pacman
QBert
Dig Doug
Valkyrie, Warrior, Wizard and Elf
Sinistar
Paperboy
Rastan
Shinobi
Battle Toads
Jet Set Willy
Frogger
the white rectangles from Pong
the ship from Galaxian
...and a Space Invader.

Lantern Jaw said:

Valkyrie, Warrior, Wizard and Elf

SOMEONE SHOT THE FOOD