video game

Some video game characters get all the love. Some don’t get enough. Your uncle Geekly wants to even things out a bit with this week’s three list of three. I could also use some costume ideas so don’t be surprised if you see me dressed in a primary color jump suit—or two.

Underrated Video Game Characters

Zelda

Yes. A famous video game series shares her name, but how many people have you seen point to the guy dressed in a green elf costume and say Zelda? That’s Link. Link gets all the attention, but he’s also the more static of the two characters.

Zelda has been portrayed in so many ways. She even gets in on the action as her alter egos Sheik and Tetra every once and while. She’s been the leader of sages and even a goddess. Link rocks the same kind of outfit game after game, but gamers don’t know what they’re going to get with Zelda. She may even be a ghost.

Ness

Many gamers would consider EarthBound (1994) or Mother 2 in Japan as one of the best RPGs to come out for the SNES, but many more of them don’t remember who the main character of the game was. Ness is a 13-year-old boy with psychic powers.

Sure, there are other characters gained along the way in EarthBound, but Ness is the players first and strongest, and a lot of the game’s character comes from Ness.

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik

Most gamers know of Mario’s Bowzer, but Sonic’s Dr. Eggman goes unheralded. It’s a shame. He may come off as a mad scientist clone, and he is for the most part, but Eggman wants to conquer the world, so he can install his ultimate utopia, the Eggman Empire.

A lot of other mad scientist types have had a similar motivation of wanting to rule the world because they’re the best person for the job—Doctor Doom comes to mind—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good motivation. What’s Bowzer trying to do most of the time besides kidnapping a princess?

Overrated Video Game Characters

Master Chief

First off, Master Chief isn’t a Master Chief in the navy. That’s an enlisted rank (a very high enlisted rank), not an officer’s.

Second, you can take Master Chief out of Halo and no one would miss him. He may as well be Jeff Johnson or John Jeffson. My apologies to any Jeff Johnsons or John Jeffsons who may be reading this.

Halo’s multiplayer mode is what most gamers play this game for. They aren’t looking for story, and Master Chief isn’t much of a character.

Gordon Freeman

The whole point of Half-Life 2’s protagonist is that he’s a blank slate, but if he’s a blank slate, only defined by the suit he wears, he isn’t much of a character. He’s kind of like Master Chief in that sense. Cool suit. Great abilities. What’s your name again?

Iron Man detractors claim that Tony Stark wouldn’t be anything without his suit, but he’d still be rich, a genius, and have plenty of personality. Gordon Freeman is none of those things.

Kratos

2018’s God of War notwithstanding, Kratos was a bloody He-Man for the modern era. Gamers knew he’d lost his family—which was explained more in the most recent God of War—and that’s most of what they knew about him. Kratos was an excuse for a muscle-bound, over-sexed man to tear apart some Greek gods.

He received the post-hero treatment in 2018’s God of War and while it was a refreshing take on the character, it could’ve carried more weight if there was more to the character prior to that offering.

Video Game Sidekicks

Garrus

Yeah, this turian may take offense with being called a sidekick, but he deserves to be on this list. He’s the only squad member available to Shepard in each Mass Effect game, he survives a rocket to the face, and he and Shepard have a special bond.

Get your head out of the gutter. Hmm. They could have a “special bond” if you play the game a certain way, come to think of it. Anyway, one of the most satisfying moments in the Mass Effect series is watching the two pal around and watching their relationship grow.

Luigi

He’s always number two to Mario’s top banana, but Luigi doesn’t complain, not even when Nintendo named him Luigi Mario. I guess that would make his brother Mario Mario. Man, that’s a terrible name.

Give him a vacuum to suck up ghosts and he can be a main character. A gamer may want to play as him in Super Mario Bros. 2, and I never minded letting my younger brother take the controller during the original Super Mario Bros., not telling him where any of the shortcuts or secrets were, and then use them after he lost a man. Ah, memories.

Sparx

I had to put Sparx from Spryo the Dragon on here because so many of my family members love that game, and Sparx doesn’t get much love. I also don’t like it when games force a player to run over every little gem or coin or ring. All you’ve gotta do is get close to a gem, and Sparx picks it up for you.

Sparx also represents one of the cleverest ways to denote health in a video game. He changes color, gets dim, as you take damage and disappears when Spyro has one hit point left.

Yep. I’m sure I missed the boat on a lot of these characters. Please direct your complaints to our intern Jeff Johnson—or is it John Jeffson—or let me know which video game characters you’d choose by leaving a comment.

Glitches can ruin a video game. Some give your character two heads—and that can be equally hilarious and terrifying—while others cause sharks to fly in the sky. Many video game glitches make a game unplayable, but there are those few that a pure comic gold. These are video game glitches that improve a game. Your uncle Geekly may play more tabletop games than video games, but he seen enough of these funny video game glitches.

Heavy Rain: Shaun!
Heavy Rain is an excellent game—it may be more of an experience than a game, but it’s excellent–and despite all its great moments, Heavy Rain lacks levity. Thankfully, one glitch provides some. One of the main characters, Ethan, looks for his missing son in the final act of the video game and it’s this scene where the game’s glitch can be activated.

You’ll have to watch for a dialogue option for “Shaun!.” If you see that the text is blurred, there’s a strong chance the dialogue will be locked for the rest of the act. You can press the “X” button and force Ethan to scream “Shaun!” for far too long and at inappropriate moments like in the middle of dialogue with another character.

“What do you think we should–”

“Shaun!”

“We could try–”

“Shaun!”

I’m pretty sure those weren’t dialogue options, but it was about that bad. Even better, Ethan’s mouth moves every time he yells so this isn’t just an audio glitch.

Crysis: Land Sharks—Ho!

This one’s very easy to activate. It’s a famous glitch, but Crysis’s land sharks deserve a mention. Go to the beach, take and few steps into the water and wait for a shark to attack.

Once you’ve baited the shark, walk on land, and the shark will follow you, often flying in the air. Sharknado has nothing on Crysis; these sharks are everywhere.

Skyrim: Basket Head

This glitch may be fixed depending on which version of Skyrim you own, but the basket head lives on in Bethesda glitch infamy. I prefer to play with it to be honest. All one has to do is grab a basket, bucket, or cauldron and place it over the head(s) of any shopkeeper. Skyrim takes line of sight literally.

The NPCs won’t be able to see you rob them blind, but keep an eye on the basket. While they won’t take off the basket, NPCs will shift and do their usual movements and that could cause what you placed over their heads to slip off.

Fastidious gamers can use a wheel of cheese to weigh down the basket, securing it to the shopkeep’s head. Ah, the power of cheese.

Fallout 4: Trash Can Rocket
As you can tell, I can make a list of nothing but Bethesda glitches. In fact, Fallout 4—at one point—had the same basket head glitch as Skyrim. You can give that a whirl if you want.

Fallout 4 offers the hard to find Freefall Legs (never take fall damage) and easier to find jetpack-equipped power armor for climbing up the Mass Fusion building (the largest building in the game), but the funniest way to climb the building is to pick up a trash can and stand with your back against the building’s wall. It’ll take some practice, but eventually, you’ll be able to jump while looking at the trash can you’re holding. This will cause the player to climb up the wall.

Jump. Jump. Jump! toward freedom.

Civilization: Warlord Gandhi

I went old school with this one. The first Civilization video game had an aggression level for each AI leader that spanned 1-255. The idea was that each leader had a baseline aggression (toward the player) at the beginning of the game and every action the player took would affect the leader’s disposition one way or the other.

Gandhi was supposed to be the most peaceful leader, so the designers gave him an aggression of 1. That makes sense. But what the designers didn’t do was create an endpoint.

As a result, if someone chose Democracy as their government, it reduces other leaders’ aggression by 2, and since Gandhi has 1 point of aggression and subtracting 2 from 1 makes an invalid negative value, his aggression rolls over to 255.

Yep. Gandhi declared war on me. Oh! He’s talking smack now.

This can only happen late game, so Gandhi nuked me to the Stone Age. After the shock wore off, I couldn’t help but laugh and do it again.

These are some of Uncle Geekly’s favorite video game glitches, but they are by no means the only ones. Are there any video game glitches that make you smile? Let us know in comments, and I’ll make not to tell Jim. Jim not tell you to tell. Comment to us Jim know.

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Shaun!

Tag: video game

3 Lists of 3 Video Game Characters

Underrated Video Game Characters

Overrated Video Game Characters

Video Game Sidekicks

Hilarious Video Game Glitches