Usually, I reserve this opening paragraph to introduce the Tell GR topic of the week, but this week Jason was so incensed by his entry that I feel I must simply direct you to his entry. The rest of the GameRevolution editorial team may have had our opinions on the worst video game character ever, but Jason really just doesn’t like his guy one bit. Read on below to find out who grinds his gears.
As always, leave your own responses to today’s Tell GR in the comments section. We’ll feature our favorite in tomorrow’s entry!
Paul Tamburro, executive editor: “Jason Brody in Far Cry 3. Putting the Bro in Brody, Jason skydives onto Rook Islands alongside his equally insufferable friends, before turning into a mass murderer at the drop of a hat. Jason doesn’t have a character arc but rather a character cliff, and it’s one that he promptly falls off as part of his transformation from fratboy to a one-man army. Everything about him is loathsome and while Far Cry still hasn’t had a good protagonist, they’ve never been quite as bad as Brody.”
Jason Faulkner, senior “The worst video game character of all time is Dr. Huey Emmerich from the Metal Gear Solid series. This guy constantly betrayed everyone he got near and was a total piece of crap. He was a coward that killed his wife because she was mad that he used their son for military experiments. When he wasn’t busy lying about screwing everyone over, he was trying to scheme new ways to build some new weapon that would be used to kill thousands, then claiming he thought they’d be used for a “deterrent.”
Emmerich almost single-handedly orchestrated the destruction of Mother Base in MGSV: Ground Zeroes, just by being a naive idiot, and no matter how many times he messed up, Snake and company would take him back (after some minor torture). Eventually, he got himself exiled because he was caught once again trying to play double agent, but he got off easy since Venom Snake only set him adrift in a life raft instead of just pulverizing his face.
Because he’s just a massive turd, he died the same way he lived. After so many of the heroes and villains of the Metal Gear series met their end on the battlefield, he somehow managed to live a normal life, remarry, and reunited with his son Hal. When he found out his wife was cheating on him with his son he drowned himself in the family pool.
The worst part about Huey Emmerich is that it never really seems like there’s any motivation behind his actions other than self-preservation. He doesn’t seem to have any real qualms with his creations being used to kill others than weak protestations, and even when his conscience gets the better of him, it’s not long before he’s back at the drawing board making more weapons. He’s terrible to his family and kills Strangelove, his first wife, by locking her inside an air-tight AI pod and letting her suffocate. He’s a waste of space, and the fact that he lived so long and never really received any consequences for all the pain and death he caused is one of the great injustices of the Metal Gear series.
Mack Ashworth, lead editor: “As much as I love Final Fantasy X, I can’t stand Tidus. He whines throughout the entire 50+ hours of campaign, never truly becoming the hero that you expect him to evolve into. On his own, perhaps it wouldn’t be so obvious, but standing next to the glorious Auron and wholesome Wakka, Tidus seems even more annoying. Oh, and then X-2 has Yuna trying to hunt him down? Nah, let him go!”
Bradley Russell, features editor: “Shit, the worst video game character? It’s hard to pin down one exact person because I don’t like their personality or whatever so I’m going to instead opt for someone who called me untold grief when I was a kid. It’s that fucking first Moblin in The Wind Waker‘s first trip to Forsaken Fortress. I could never understand why he caught me, and he always scared the life out of me whenever he got near. Then, he’d throw you in jail and make you start the whole sequence again. It was a huge roadblock and stopped me from playing Wind Waker for weeks because I was so frustrated. Fuck that guy.”
Michael Leri, features editor: “While there are probably better answers Hurk from the Far Cry series has almost always sucked. This chunky oaf just stumbles around, talks about his dick, and tries so hard to be quirky but it just doesn’t work. Wow, he made a quip about an ‘80s show and said a sex joke! I’m in stitches! He’s the recurring joke that Ubisoft insists is funny but he’s just a cringe machine that has become as predictable and bland as Far Cry.
Yesterday’s best comment
Question: What’s your most shameful gaming memory?
Benjamin Toth: “In 4th grade, I sold Pokemon Yellow without its box or instruction manual to a friend whose mom wouldn’t buy it for him at RETAIL price (40$). He could only afford to give me 15$ at first, so I would ask for his lunch money daily and showed up at his house until he paid me back. I felt so bad that when we roomed together in COLLEGE I took him to an expensive restaurant near campus. Absolutely a true story here.”
