9 Hilariously Ugly Video Game Babes We All Had Crushes On

4. Samus Aran - Metroid

So here's a weird one; originally Samus was meant to be male, until the developers thought it'd be a hilarious bait n' switch to tuck away various images pertaining to her femininity behind different endgame states. You'd get a version with the helmet off if you finished in a few hours, a pants-less Samus if you clocked it in under three hours - and the above bikini-clad image if you could do it in one. Naturally it was all incredibly hard (especially considering gaming's 80s difficulty curve would slice you in half if you weren't careful), but it did equate to an entire generation going from "Yeah, this hulking space guy is awesome!" to "Oh... that's kinda hot" within seconds. Forget all the questionable implications of literally playing to unlock the removal of clothes, and just remember this all happened in an internet-less age where the rumour mill-spinner was King. Samus' true identity spread through word of mouth alone, the sultry flesh-filled pics laying the foundation for any future players who would then get eyes on such an image. It was ridiculous, and by today's standards stands as a testament to the power of the human mind to find such a mixture of pixels attractive - but damn if it wasn't effective all the same.