Have you ever looked at a preview, only to get the feeling of deja vu while looking at some of the screenshots? Perhaps you once bought a new game and found that when you started it up, the main character looked identical to ‘that’ person on the television last night? No doubt some gaming characters are based on real people, how else would developers get them to look so realistic, but to completely copy a person’s image, that’s just lazy! Which is why I am here; to expose these copy-cats.
I am of course joking, and the majority of these feelings of deja vu will be completely coincidental. Some of the look-alikes are amusing, and some are just down-right strange. Many figures in games are actually supposed to look like the real thing. You only have to glance over to the nearest sports game to tell that the character models are based on real people, as the developers want to make a picture-perfect copy of the person in real life. However, I hope to outline the gaming protagonists which the developers subtly based on famous figures, and thought no one would notice, as well as the highly entertaining coincidental similarities. Here they are:
Owen Wilson Ken Masters (Street Fighter)
Retro fighting legend and Hollywood’s Owen Wilson share some similar physical attributes. The shaggy blond locks, the strong jaw… Wilson’s off-kilter nose even suggests he could have been involved in a few brawls, fitting the street fighter persona perfectly.
Dick Dastardly                                                                                                    Waluigi
Cartoon villian Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races and Waluigi both look suitibly evil and alike. The clincher is how they both menacingly stroke their absurd moustaches.
Penelope Pitstop                                                             Princess Peach
Another gaming look-alike from the Wacky Races cartoon, this time it is the similarity between Princess Peach and Penelope Pitstop. Physically, they actually aren’t totally alike, although they do both wear a lot of pink and have long blond hair, but I felt I had to include them just for their likeness in nature. Both ladies are usually very prissy and girly, and are constantly requiring saving from their respective “good guys”.
The Chuckle Brothers                                 Mario and Luigi
The resemblence between these sets of brothers really is uncanny. The characters Paul and Barry Chuckle from children’s TV show ‘ChuckleVision’ look like real life iterations of these two gaming icons.
Moby                                                                 Captain Olimar
The techno-ambient musician is a huge fan of Pikmin, that his 2002 album ’18’ features him in full Olimar costume on the cover.
Kryten                                                                         Dr Kawashima
It is the angular heads built up of flat surfaces that make these two gaming look-alikes. I honestly think that you got out a black marker pen and coloured in the top Kryten’s head (from Cult-TV programme Red Dwarf), as well as drawing in two circles for the glasses, then he would be inseperable from the floating brain training guru.
Uma Thurman                                                         Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)
Perhaps it’s the fact that they are both wielding swords that we can draw likenesses, but I also feel that facially, they look very similar. This is aided by the fact that Final Fantasy XIII is very impressive graphically.
Dave Grohl                                                               Ethan Thomas
When I first saw the artwork for Condemned 2, I instantly thought Foo Fighter, Dave Grohl, might be branching out into the gaming industry, or at least doing some modelling for games. The long dark hair, the beard, the facial positions when screaming and yelling… This pair definitely are look-alikes.
So that’s it, these are the gaming look-alikes I’ve noticed and could think of. I’d love for you all to comment, maybe telling me which ones you liked, which ones you perhaps didn’t like so much. Or maybe you’ve noticed some gaming look-alikes yourself that haven’t been featured here. We’d be happy to hear all your suggestions and the similarities you have seen while you have been gaming, and, if we decide to do a second edition of ‘Gaming Look-alikes’ and we like your suggestion, we’ll include it!
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Now lets keep the ball rolling for a chance to win a retail game and other cool stuff we have lying around the office .. Who do else do you thinks looks like a video game character ? Leave a comment below maybe links to images pics etc and tell us where your from. We’ll pick a lucky winner at the end of the week.
Enter as many time as you like the more look alikes we can find the better 🙂 We’ll throw up a follow up article after this competition ends.
Get cracking 🙂
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Oh we had some FANTASTIC entries !! but there can only be 1 winner .. and here it is below :
Congratulations to :
Kisuke Urahara says:
Here’s a third one from me. btw,I live in California, USA
Mattias Nilsson(Mercenaries 1 & 2:
almost exactly like
Techno Viking!:
Congratulations to Kisuke for winning the Gaming look alike competition.. We’ll have another gaming look alike article and competition coming up VERY soon for now keep on checking the site daily for the latest news, reviews, interviews and competitions in the world of gaming 🙂
