10 Awesome Video Game Features That Came From Contest Winners

10. Fan-Made Skins - Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

Alternate character skins are a classic extra feature in pretty much every era of video gaming. This seems especially true in multiplayer games, as the funky new looks for your protagonists add to both the fun and the replay value of the experience.

As the first game in the series to be geared mostly towards multiplayer, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One was the perfect opportunity for Insomniac Games to go all out on the character customisation front.

And, luckily for us, the developers decided not to keep all the creativity for themselves.

In 2011, a contest was held inviting players to send in their designs for new and off-the-wall skins for Ratchet and his ragtag gang. There were eight winners, and four of their ideas were implemented into the final game:

Heck Fire Ratchet, which essentially turns the lovable Lombax into a skeleton; Fishbowl Clank, which sees Clank house a host of exotic marine life inside his body; Knight Qwark, which (ironically) decks Captain Qwark out in the armour of a brave knight; and Groovy Nefarious, which replaces the robotic innards of Dr. Nefarious's bulbous head with a lava lamp.

Despite these changes being purely cosmetic, can you really say the game would be as fun without them?