Top Five Weirdest Horror Character Appearances in Gaming
A countdown list of five questionable appearances of horror characters in non-horror video games.
Sometimes companies come up with some pretty cool character cameos and cross-overs. These kind of appearances are fairly common in horror media, with creators paying homage to characters and franchises that inspired them. Sometimes, though, you have to wonder what were they thinking? Below we take a look at five of these what-the-fuck moments when characters from horror got shoe-horned into strange, non-horror appearances within video games.
5. Devil May Cry's Dante in Shin Megami Tensei III
Demon hunter Dante is an unlockable companion character with his own story arc in the "director's cut" of the third installment of the Shin Megami Tensei series on Playstation 2. While his inclusion is well done and works within the plot of the game, it's just strange to see Dante go from his usual fast paced combo-centric combat to a turn based role-playing game. It's also interesting that three versions of Shin Megami Tensei III exist, with Dante absent from the original release and replaced in the third and final version of the game. So what was the point of including him at all?
4. Dead Space's Isaac Clarke in Dante's Inferno
Isaac Clarke's appearance in Electronic Arts' video game adaptation of Dante's Inferno is in the form of an alternate costume for Dante. The Crusader's usual Knights Templar-inspired outfit is instead replaced by Isaac's futuristic attire. The inclusion of the space engineer's RIG suit is so out of place compared to the source material that it just feels wrong. I understand the idea of a company cross-promoting their intellectual properties, but it feels like they missed the mark with this one. The Isaac skin was only available as part of the special European exclusive "Death Edition" of Dante's Inferno. Maybe it's a good thing the rest of the world didn't get to see this one.
3. Doom Marine in Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D had a lot of cool Easter Eggs, but one of the most surprising was the inclusion of the corpse of the unnamed protagonist, a.k.a. Doom Guy, from id Software's Doom series. Duke even chimes in, "Hmm that's one doomed space marine." Was this 3D Realms paying their respects to the landmark first person shooter, or taking a cheap shot at the competition? Either way, it's a memorable cameo even in a game with many of these kinds of throwbacks. A bonus Easter Egg and my personal favorite: players can find the body of Snake Plissken from John Carpenter's Escape films. "I guess he didn't escape from L.A.!"
2. Halloween's Michael Myers in Call of Duty: Ghosts
Here's an interesting fact: The Shape was actually playable in a video game before his inclusion in Dead By Daylight. Strangly, the game in question was military-themed first person shooter Call of Duty: Ghosts. When playing on the multiplayer map Fog, players can actually be given control of Myers as a reward. Despite being armed with only an axe and knife, he is still a major threat due to his speed and high melee damage. Myers also recovers some health each time he kills an enemy player. It just seems absurb imagining the masked killer running at players across the swamp with an axe while they're standing there blasting him with an assault rifle. I'm even more confused by the inclusion of the Predator on the map Ruins. I'm not sure what Ghosts' developers were thinking but it must not have worked, as no other cameos like these have appeared in any Call of Duty games since.
1. The Cast of Resident Evil 2 in Trick'N Snowboarder
So this is what Resident Evil characters do when they're not trying to stop Umbrella? Honestly, this entry threw me off guard. It sounds so absurd that I ended up buying a copy of the game to check it out myself. Sure enough, it's true. Both protagonists Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield are available boarders, as well as a zombie cop model. That's right, as if it couldn't get any weirder, you can actually snowboard as a zombified Raccoon City police officer. How is this strange guest appearance possible? Well, it turns out that Capcom published this Playstation 1 exclusive that was developed by CAVE Interactive. Due to the popularity of Resident Evil 2 at the time, I guess they figured why not? Maybe they should have taken it a step further and added HUNK and TOFU as boarders, too.
And there you have it, five examples of questionable appearances of horror characters in non-horror games. Which one did you find most absurd? Or take it a step further and give me your idea for the weirdest cameo appearance you'd like to see.
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