10 Video Game Side Characters EVERYONE Loves

Since 2006, the Saints Row games have made their name not on next-level graphics or mechanics, but sheer insanity, taking the GTA model and dialling up the weird. And we've been with them every step of the way, playing as members of the 3rd Streets Saints as they have risen and fallen and risen and fallen and risen again. 

While the series boasts innumerable colourful characters, and rarely a dud among them, the undeniable GOAT is the boss's second in command Johnny Gat. As fundamental to Saints Row as pixelated nudity, weaponised dildoes and ragdoll physics, Gat is always on hand to whip out a weapon and crack wise. Like an Asian Wesker, he always comes equipped with his rock-hard 'do and shades, and is far and away the most memorable character of the series. 

We thought it was all over when he got run through with a katana in the second game; and were ready to salute his coffin when he sacrificed himself in the most noble way possible - by going down with the depressurised aeroplane - in the third. And yet he's never actually dead, just, y'know, fighting his way through hell or abducted by aliens...

The biggest pity of all is that Volition decided to put the character on ice for the 2022 reboot - and given the studio has since been shut down and the game didn't perform well, we might never see Gat again!