The Negative…
Male Representations:
Sure, we’ve got women in gaming who look like bondage queens and perpetuate the brainless ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype that’s so ingrained in our media culture, but what about the representations of men in our videogames? A major source of inspiration for our most well-known male heroes derives from the hyper-masculine era of movie heroes and villains of the 1980s. Of course, with these influences lead to some of the most meat-headed, gun toting gaming buffs to grace our monitors and TV screens. Here’s a look at some of the most notorious offenders.
Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem series)
Perhaps the penultimate pastiche of all that is machismo from the golden age of Hollywood tough guys, Duke slaughters hordes of alien invaders as if it were a bodily function. He’s also too tough for sensible clothes (opting for tank tops and skin-tight jeans no matter the environment or situation), modesty or common sense. He’s the ultra-macho, cigar-chomping, dumbbell-pumping wisecracking smartass.
Captain Falcon (F-Zero series)
I love the F-Zero games, but I really don’t get the character design; Why do all the male characters in the game wear skin-tight spandex over a body taut with rippling muscle? With all the time they spend in the gym it’s amazing they actually get any driving done. Then again, how else would Captain Falcon dole out the Falcon Punches? Life’s not easy when you’re a mysterious bounty-hunter/wannabe super hero.
Marcus Fenix (Gears of War series)
He’s a typical hard-boiled tough guy who likes killing things, screaming obscenities and blowing things up. And because fear, empathy and feelings are for hippies and fruitcakes, he doesn’t show any of it. In a gut-wrenching scene, his squadmate Dominic rescues his captive wife from the enemy imprisonment, who’s left mangled, emaciated and suffering, in his throes of despair, left with a heartbreaking choice of letting her live on suffering unbearable pain or to euthanize her, and he chooses the latter. When he catches up with Fenix, does he get a hug? Nope. A heartfelt “I’m sorry”? Nope. Reassurance? Hell no. All he gets is a cold “I’m sorry about your loss blah blah blah” without even having the decency to look the poor man in the eye. Way to go tough guy, he just lost the love of his life, at least give him this moment.
Kratos (God of War series)
Kratos is basically a badass, and there’s really not much more to him than that. He’s a rage-filled dude who loves revenge. And he’s angry. All the time. He only stops his incessant murderous rampage momentarily to knock boots with some dusky maidens, and then it’s back to more head-lopping, torso-splitting and general dismemberment.
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat series)
Scorpion perhaps comes from the manliest of all places – Hell. Although the ongoing plot describing him suggests his motives may have more moral justification than many other characters in the Mortal Kombat games (his family was murdered by Sub Zero, and his clan destroyed), he’d much rather resolve his conflicts by tearing out some poor chump’s spinal column or bifurcating them with a samurai sword. Despite his intriguing plot, we never see much in the way of Scorpion’s move towards some kind of grand redemption, where he finds some kind of solace from all the death and pain of the past. So we’re eternally bound to see the same bloodthirsty psychopathic wraithe for as long as there’s Mortal Kombat.
The Positive…
Cyan (Final Fantasy 6)
Hailing from the days where the men in Final Fantasty games weren’t a bunch of blubbering androgynous catwalk rejects, Cyan Garamonde is simultaneously a gentlemen, masculine, strong and emotional. He’s guy you really feel for through the course of the story. When we first meet him, he’s a middle-aged retainer to the king of Doma castle, which is soon to be under attack by the Empire.
The game texts list his age as 50-odd, so he’s no spring chicken, but he’s still the strongest knight in the kingdom, and has a wife and child whom he loves dearly. After successfully defending the kingdom from the initial onslaught of soldiers, the Empire’s psychopathic general Kefka poisons the castles water supply, killing all those inside, including Cyan’s wife and child. He is sent into a depressive spiral from here on, plagued by feelings of guilt and self hatred for not being able to protect the ones he loved the most.
There’s a point later in the story where the player can take Cyan back to the decaying ruins of his home castle, and have him sleep in one of the beds; doing so will take Cyan into his innermost subconscious where he conquers the demons of his past that haunt him, and meets with his wife and child in spirit form, who assure him that they’re always with him, and to let go of all his pain and anguish. Finally able to come to terms with the tragedy, he discovers a new inner strength and rejoins the party.
Cyan’s a real rarity in gaming; you don’t see many mighty characters of his strength and capacity as a fighter as a loving family man who cares so deeply for the wellbeing of his family.
Ark (Terranigma)
Terranigma was a lesser known game, as it came out towards the end of the Super Nintendo’s lifecycle, and thus wasn’t given the appreciation it deserved for some time until it enjoyed a new half-life in the emulation scene. It also had one of the most introspective, philosophical protagonists of all time - Ark; While Ark, the hero from the Underworld, is on his quest to resurrect life on the Surface World Earth, he ponders, what is the point of it all?
He watches civilizations rise, humanity flourish, but he’s never known real happiness. Everything he’s done is to ensure that the world progresses as it should. Eventually, he takes on the Devil himself, and in a mighty showdown, slays the icon of pure evil. In a final revelation, he learns that he’s become what human civilizations would call a ‘God’, as he was the one who brought life to the planet.
However, in a tragic twist of events, he learns that by destroying the Devil, he has destabilized the balance of the Underworld and soon, he and his home will cease to exist. Despite attaining ‘God’ status, we see a more fragile and vulnerable hero than ever before; he sits alone in his village, void of company, wondering what life would have been like if he had never ‘strayed from the flock’ sitting alone as a sad, lonely, broken man.
“Even if I have a grand home, with noone to share it with, it’s meaningless”
“I had no idea that having no place to go home to is so empty and lonely”
- Heartbreaking last words…
Daniel (Amnesia)
Daniel’s story begins with, you guessed it, Amnesia. He wakes up in the abandoned Castle Brennenberg with one serious hangover and doesn’t remember a thing. What’s worse is that he’s got some God-awful deities haunting his move as he tries to piece together what’s lead him to wake up in a decrepit old castle. But he’s not armed with AK-47s, flamethrowers, or Rocket Launchers; All he’s got is a lantern, notepad and his wits. Monsters? Better run fast or find a dark corner or cupboard to hide in. He’s a clever one, and he eventually figures out what the real deal is with the castle. He not only uses his brains, he’s dependent on them.
Isaac Clarke (Dead Space series)
Isaac gets a slot here because he’s one of the rare survival horror heroes who’s NOT a marine/rookie cop/special forces op; instead he’s an engineer sent to investigate the communications blackout onboard the gigantic interstellar mining craft, the USG Ishimura, unbeknownst to he and the rest of the rescue crew, is it overrun with a viral alien-infestation known as the necromorphs; he’s probably never fired a gun before in his life either, so it’s handy that he’s found some creative uses for engineering tools.
In addition to his engineering duties, he’s also trawling through the grisly carnage onboard the ship to see if there’s any news on his girlfriend Nicole, and whether she’s alive, dead or somewhere in between. Well, things get interesting when Dead Space 2 rolls around, and we see Isaac dealing with the trauma associated with his experiences during the plot of Dead Space 1, and struggling with his haunting memories, show humanity in him seldom seen in action heroes.
Phillip (Penumbra series)
The protagonist of the Penumbra series finds himself stuck in an old, abandoned, crumbling mineshaft somewhere in Greenland; that wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t filled with ravenous necrotic wolves, mutated spiders and giant earthworms. He doesn’t have any weapons for the most part either; just a couple of old, well worn hand tools he finds down there.
To get through this ordeal alive, Phillip must set traps to isolate the hostile creatures, and work out how to repair old machinery and hardware to allow him progression into the mineshaft, as well as safely negotiating treacherous terrain. Phillip is also keenly observational; objects in the environment of interest, he will note on scraps of paper. With no big guns to help him, the only way he’s going to get out alive is by using his brains.
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