Characters you love to control

[Ady]

For the benefit of all the skim-readers out there, I'm going to start this thread by explicitly stating what it's NOT about. I'll use big bold text and everything.

It's NOT about your favourite game characters.

It's NOT about game characters you grow to care about (though that largely depends on your perspective).

What it is about is those characters you just uh... love to control. Endearing gaming avatars that bring a smile to your face by virtue of their infectious charm, characters that are just that: characters.

For me it has to be Ico (from Ico), Vanessa from PN03 and the Link in Wind Waker.

What I loved about Ico was the contradictions. He was the game's hero, yet he was also a victim. Despite a semblance of strength, he was also quite vulnerable. Also, despite his horns, he looked like an ordinay kid. His sprinting and climbing animations also looked very fluid and natural, making him seem more real.

Vanessa is simply one of the most stylish avatars ever conceived. It's the little things; the ever tapping foot, the way she shakes her arse R'n'B diva style as she fires volleys of laser death from her palms, her calm, deadpan facial expression that doesn't register even the tiniest flinch in the midst of the chaos around her. And of course, it's her balletic grace, as she cartwheels, pirouettes and spins through the corridoors and caverns of her world.

Finally Wind Waker's Link. With Link, it's all about his facial expressions and exclamations. One of the few game characters I genuinely feel bad about hurting. The first time he caught fire under my charge, I winced and almost apologised! I could load that game up and just sit and watch his face and mannerisms.

So, then. What characters are characters to you? Please also try to state why, too. Over to you...

[Abhisara]

NiGHTS undoubtedly from a control point of view. The movement just feels so wonderfully fluid and unrestrained. It's like you're dancing through the air

Ulala from Space Channel 5 from a characterisation point of view. The whole game just feels so alive and like one big feel-good party. I love it when you have Ulala and her large entourage all tapping their feet away in time.

[nips]

Ash from Pokemon Blue.

That game just oozes fun and I'd love to be a part of it. I love all the environments and the fact that he travels though mountains and over oceans, reaches new lands and achieves it all by working as a team with his pokemon. I'd love that freedom and that level of skill in one field of my life. I'd love that hair, and I'd love my own little pikachu... however I wouldn't want to be black and white...

[mid]

Its simply got to be the Prince from Sands Of Time. Even if its not part of trying to get further on in the game its a pleasure to find interesting sequences of wall-running, gap leaping, pole-spinning and so on.

[Commander Marklar]

Behemoth (LoC)

[Riskbreaker]

Gah, good choices both Vanessa and Ulala.

What I love about MGS2 is not that you have to use stealth to get by, but that you feel as if you have to use stealth. In MGS2 on the Tanker its essentially Snake that makes you feel this way. Mainly in his movement, the way he moves carefully but confidently, with his back kind of hunched forward, pistol held in both hands pointed towards the ground. It feels right when you butt up against a wall and slide along to take a look around the corner. In this respect Kojima really did get Snakes character down to a T.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, when you see how cocky Dante is, not just in his speech but also his movements. It makes you want to play as the character is depicted, you want to kill your enemies with style and flare, basically showing off even though there may not be anyone to show off to. I also tend to feel invincible and powerful when playing as Dante, its only really the bosses that make you stand back a bit and consider your movements. Even then the tendancy is to want to dive right in and hand their arses to them on a plate For the most part, the other demons you encounter are just fodder filling the gap between bosses and providing an enjoyable means to show off and impress yourself. Thats partly why DMC2 failed, because Dante's depiction wasn't right, playing the game didn't feel right, you knew immediately that there was something missing.

I-no, the Red hatted sexualized rockstar witch in GGXX, is absolutely sublime, hell the description pretty much sums up why I enjoy using the character . I love the way she seems to strut her stuff as she moves back and forth, swaying with her Fender when she stands still and then looking particularly violent as she thumps opponents with her guitar or mic stand. There is almost something more violent / dramatic in using unusual items as weapons. As if the use of a sword or gun implies violence in a way that we're used to seeing that they seem less so Someone might know what I mean.

Purely from a gameplay perspective, Kelly from Gunvalkyrie is another character I love to control. Hard to get used to at first, perhaps the same as Vanessa, but the enjoyment comes from mastering the controls and making the most of her abilities. Which is why many don't "get it", again like Vanessa and PN03.

I think its hard to seperate characters you love to control from favourite characters though. A defining characteristic for a favourite character is surely how much you enjoy using them

[James Harvey]

Ash from Pokemon Blue.

That game just oozes fun and I'd love to be a part of it. I love all the environments and the fact that he travels though mountains and over oceans, reaches new lands and achieves it all by working as a team with his pokemon. I'd love that freedom and that level of skill in one field of my life. I'd love that hair, and I'd love my own little pikachu... however I wouldn't want to be black and white...

Going off-topic for a second, but this is exactly what I felt when I played Pokemon Blue. The GBA version didn't seem to have the same magic, because it was in colour, the graphics were better and your imagination didn't have to do as much work...

[IcePak]

Sonic The Hedgehog. It doesn't matter what game it is, except that it has to be by Sonic Team, because they have the feel of playing as the character down-pat. I just love the speed of the character and I'll never turn down a game of Sonic because of this.

[Darwock]

Pretty much any character from Soul Calibur, but specifically Kilik (not my favourite mind!). It's because he uses his staff in so many ways to aid movement, on top of the already very fluid 8-way run. I could spend quite a while using Kilik in an empty ring, just running around with no opponent.

[E. Randy Dupre]

A big YES to NiGHTS. The control just feels so fluid, so natural, a bit like Ecco the Dolphin with added freedom.

I've just gone back to Super Mario 64 again. The feeling of total control in that game has yet to be bettered, imo. The main plus it has over Sunshine is that the environments promote a lot more play and experimentation - you find yourself creating your own minigames and challenges based on them. Can I get from one end of the garden to the other, just by backflipping across the tops of the trees?

Mario's an absolute dream to move around, and the fact that they did it all with just three buttons is astounding. And the way you use those buttons to pull of the different moves - the nearest I can think of in terms of the buttons' relationship to the on-screen movement is the Street Fighter series. Just as a quarter-rotation towards *is* a fireball (what you're doing with your fingers translates directly into the animation on the character), a backflip in Mario 64 *is* a backflip. You feel yourself building up to it as you crouch, then spinning and twisting through the air as you spring into action.

Just the simple action of running around in circles is a joy, because the momentum is judged perfectly. I really don't think any other game has even matched up to SM64's feeling of complete possesion of a character.

And of course, the funny thing is that hardly anybody, myself included, could get the hang of this new-fangled analogue control when the game first came out. That it became so intuitive so quickly further proves just how spot-on it was/is.

[Inertia_]

It has to be Ken - ideally from SFA3, I suppose. He bobs up and down as the fight begins, darts back and forth waiting for the moment then goes completely ape**** for a minute (pulling off two of the greatest moves in fighting game history in the process).

[Moodmon]

Mario 64. I don't like the game, yet he moves with such grace and precision for a fat plumber. He does whatever you want him to, runs up walls, double jumps, flys. He does it all so well.

[JibberX]

I'm gonna play the wierdo card here and say I loved controlling the Space Ship from Star Fighter 3000, the grace, the flow, the weight, it felt like you were actually flying a 1 manned two rocketed ship with wings. You could weave majestically through buildings, under pipes, into the atmosphere. Destroy buildings with a pump of the bomb button, lazer other ships to their fiery doom. It wasn't so much the ability to fly, but the ability to transport yourself to another spaceship flying universe.

[TheForce]

I gonna follow JibberX here,
for me it's racing and drifting around the tracks of ScudRacer with the McLarenF1 roadcar..... ohhhhh man there really is no better feeling than that!

[Paleface]

The dreadnaught in I-War - not too realistic, but definitely with some momentum. And then you find a cargo ship, cruise along side, switch off the assist, and just drift-strafe the thing. So perfectly judged, so varied a game, and a wonderful ship to pilot. It's a 150-m long corvette, for those of you who don't know. Four in the cockpit. 47 support staff. Far nicer than Battlecrapper 3000AD.