10 Video Game Side Characters EVERYONE Loves
Beloved NPCs from the unnamed to the all-but essential.
Video games have come a long way since Pong, not just in terms of graphics and gameplay but in storytelling and, of course, characters. Since Mario scoffed his first mushroom, characters have been becoming increasingly more complex, with backstories and personalities worthy of literature (and sometimes drawn from it).
By nature, protagonists range from blank slates to fairly well developed but changeable entities, as they need to be receptive and responsive to our input when we take control. Thus, often as not, it falls on the supporting, or side characters to provide most of the colour. And boy do they ever.
The last couple of decades in particular have offered up some potent side characters, some with an offshoot fanbase, some who have gone far beyond their source material, some who have become memes, and all of whom people don't have a bad word to say about. Just think of what GTA, Saints Row or even Call of Duty would be without the big and small players that bring them to life.
Yep, these are 10 video game characters everyone loves, whether for their pithy catchphrases, hilarious cameos, uber-cool presence, narrative importance, or, y'know, just cos...
10. Cheeseburger - Far Cry 5
Far Cry started out as a pretty rote first-person shooter, where a stock US special ops guy hunts for a missing journalist on an island full of mercenaries. Lucky for us, the game was successful enough to warrant a sequel, and as the anthology series has progressed over the years, it has become more adventurous in its storylines, locations and characters.
Far Cry 5 finds the series right in the middle of its heyday, sending up American religious and political fundamentalism as you join the fight against Eden's Gate, a doomsday cult of hicks and fanatics that has taken over the fictional Hope County, under the guidance of charismatic leader Joseph Seed. While Seed and his cohorts are colourful enough, they’re not exactly likeable; instead we look to the supporting cast on your side for one of the modern greats of video game companions: Cheeseburger.
Preceded by his in-game legend, Cheeseburger is a diabetic, burger-munching grizzly bear who you have to convince to join the resistance with an offering of food. Once on side, he becomes a gun for hire (well, fang for hire) that you can select to join you on missions, where he lumbers in, distracts foes away from you and rips them to pieces, exercising his Cross to Bear and his Right to Bear Arms.
But he’s a good boy, really.