Greatest Hero That You Never Did See

Sunday, 25 May 2008

DW should be back sometime tonight or tomorrow, so expect him to be making some more posts soon. Before that though, the third of three articles from this contributor whilst he's alone on the blog. I've looked at some games of the present, I've also looked to a game of the future, but now its time to honour some of the games of the past. Now I could spend the whole article talking about the greatest action heroes of previous games, Mario, Sonic, E. Honda... But that would just be too easy. Instead, I'm going to talk about those characters behind the scenes, the little guys, that really made the difference to the hero's final outcome.

The first minor hero I'd like to talk about is actually a minor heroine. She was in a game franchise that lasted 3 moderately successful games, and was a nearly flawless aid for those three games. Her only mistake was to get captured by something that wanted to destroy the Universe or something (I'm not entirely sure, I never quite got the storyline). If you haven't guessed already, it was Cortana. Throughout the Halo games, she is a fantastic sidekick to the MC, and she's intelligent, knows a lot about technology, and, let's face it, you, as a self-respecting gamer, would.

I'm going to purposely ignore Luigi as we enter the realm of Nintendo, because in so many of the games Mario had to do a lot of the work himself, and he also gets captured by a giant turtle a hell of a lot. Instead I want you to turn your attention to a character that really was annoying, extortionate and in fact, you can't possiblly like him at all. He even made an annoying sound when you engaged him in conversation. So why is he even mentioned, you ask? Simply because of the continuity that he held throughout parts of the Zelda series. Every game, you subconsciously ask where and when he's going to appear, and, for such a minor character, this is quite an impression. I'm talking of course about that 35 year-old bloke who wants to be a fairy, Tingle. And yes, I think, if the universe of Zelda had shotguns, he would certainly receive many cartridges to the face. Ah well, we can only hope he appears in Devil May Cry one day.

Knuckles. I think as I've already mentioned Sonic, it wouldn't be justice without talking about Knuckles. Knuckles was, of course, against Sonic at times, he is often instrumental in the blue hedgehog's adventures. Look, I'll be blunt: he's got attitude, strength (apparently, he's the strongest in the series) and fucking dreads! What more does he need? Knuckles gets special mention here because, were he not in the Sonic games, he would easily be able to carry his own independent game franchise.

It wouldn't be fair not to talk about one of the Kong family members. But which one to choose? They all provide useful services for you when playing through the games. So I think the sensible choice would be to choose on personality, and Donkey Kong, unlike other game franchises, gives you enough depth to secondary characters to allow this. Swanky Kong was a tempting choice, as was Tiny Kong, but I think the greatest zero hero in Donkey Kong has to be Funky Kong. A pacifist, not through choice, but through laziness, he's just the kinda character you want to high five when he speaks.

But none of the above characters have what it takes to be the Greatest Hero That You Never Did See. They all have their own characteristic to donate to the embodiment of 'second best', but none of them has it all. Cortana has the intelligence, Tingle lends the memorability, Knuckles bears the attitude and Funky Kong has charisma. Well, the truth is, it's difficult to find any secondary character that has all the above characteristics, mainly because it's saved for the main character: look at Dante, or Solid Snake. So, my answer will probably come as a bit of a shock, because he's not the sort of person you'd see as a secondary character, or even as a hero, he's classically known as a villain... unless you're playing as Nod.

That's right, my vote for the Greatest Hero That You Never Did See is Kane from the Command and Conquer series. You don't play as him, so he's not the primary character, and when you play the Nod campaign, he is a hero, in many respects. As for the four characteristics, he has them all. Intelligence? He instrumented the systematic brainwashing of millions of Nod followers, and survived an Ion cannon blast to the head. Memorability? Westwood/EA have done a great job by getting Joseph D. Kucan to play Kane in all the C&C series and design a character that will never be forgotten even by casual C&C players. Attitude? Cross him, I dare you. Charisma? When you're on his good side, you have to admit... you want to destroy GDI, you want to let the race that is set to destroy Earth know where Earth is. And that is what puts him above other secondry characters, because he should be a villain, and yet, he isn't, because you side with him, and not the 'good guys'. Because remember "You can't kill the Messiah!"

Labels: Original

Subscribe to Posts?

Article Posted: Sunday, 25 May 2008 at 11:03.
Currently there is . Have a Response? Leave Yours?
You can also send this article to a friend using the buttons yourself below...