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GLBThe 10 Hottest Game Characters: A Definitive List
0Article by Dave Cabrera
Did you know that some of the characters in video games are hot? Many of these hot characters are women! This is what we will be discussing today.
I must forewarn that there is no way I will produce results as accurate as the leading scholarly work on this important subject, the short film Top Ten Hottest Female Sonic Characters. I'm just one man, not a prophet. That being said, I will do my best.
This list is not in any ascending order of hotness. This would be unfair to my Melty Blood main and obvious number-one Arcueid Brunestud, who did not get into the list because the article was running too long.
Lara Croft : Tomb Raider
Ubisoft's Tomb Raider
One of the few characters on this list who I believe can be referred to as a cultural revolution is the noble lady treasure hunter Lara Croft. This character rolled around right at the time that a lot of millennial gamers were going through puberty and the stories, characters, and themes of mainstream video games were growing teenage as well. And that meant games where the camera was positioned directly behind a woman in short shorts for 15 hours.
Ubisoft's Tomb Raider
The first Tomb Raider rolled around when it was just barely possible to have a realistic human 3D figure walking around on your screen. Indeed, Lara's original in-game 3D model looks today like a primitive image, an early proof of concept of a theoretical "hot". Curvy isn't possible yet, so she's pointy.
But that primitive image was enough; it was recognizable as hot. Tomb Raider was a great game, but Lara Croft the character was a phenomenon. Grown men desperately sought after legends of fictional "nude codes" in hopes of undressing that primitive triangle woman. When Angelina Jolie played Lara in the movie, they didn't call it Tomb Raider: they called it Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
It's worth noting that the heart of the original Tomb Raider is Lara's acrobatic movement: the game has very specific, non-traditional controls that allow Lara to jump and flip, bounce of walls, grab ledges, and hoist herself just so, gracefully. There's an intimate connection between the player, the controls, and the character and you know, If you're going to make that connection, why not make it with somebody really hot?
Anyway, did you know that at first, she was gonna be Lara Cruz?
Chun-Li : Street Fighter
Capcom's Street Fighter
If there is one character I cannot, must not leave out it's the first lady of fighting games, the Street Fighter series' Chun-Li. The fast-kicking kung-fu girl was destined for stardom from the moment she showed up in Street Fighter II.
One of the reasons Street Fighter II was revolutionary was its sheer level of detail: the multitude of different attacks and animations, the amount of personality the characters display. It wasn't just that Chun-Li was self-evidently hot: the game made the case in great detail as she kicked her skirt around and jumped for joy when she won. If you never paused the game to look you're lying.
(I refuse to believe that Chun's creator, legendary game artist and animator Akiman, didn't know exactly what he was doing at this time. Thanks, Akiman.)
The thing that set Chun-Li apart forever is that contrary to the waifish look the average video game heroine had at this point, she looks like as much like a fighter as the men she's up against: toned and muscular with famously huge thighs from all that kicking. In Street Fighter 6's RPG mode you can dare to call Chun-Li "thick", and she will tell you that if you keep talking she's going to beat the hell out of you.
Capcom's Street Fighter
Chun-Li is all-time hot. She'll be hot in a hundred years. She'll be hot forever.
Mai Shiranui : King of Fighters
SNK's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
Even if you've never played a game with her in it, you've probably seen Mai Shiranui somewhere. It's hard to look away, after all, she's crazy hot.
With Chun-Li out there being The Girl in the hit game of the year, Capcom's eventual genre rivals at SNK needed an equally hot token female character to compete. They decided to compete on raw sex appeal. Debuting in Fatal Fury 2 on the Neo-Geo, Mai Shiranui is a flashy ninja who shows off rather than hiding in the shadows.
SNK's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
Even in that first appearance, it's impossible not to notice the way Mai's every kicking attack kicks aside her tiny skirt, in what feels like a conscious attempt to one-up Chun-Li. And when she wins a match and throws out her fan my god, did she bounce?!
The later King of Fighters series ran away with the whole idea of excessively animated breasts in KOF Mai's chest is pretty much always bouncing around somewhere and Mai's been a video game sex symbol ever since, even among folks who've never actually played one of her games. She's transcendently hot, after all. See her once and you'll never forget.
The King of Fighters is still a highly active series today, and poor Mai is still trying to get friggin' Andy Bogard to marry her. Come on, Andy, it's been thirty years.
The Boss : Metal Gear Solid 3
Konami's Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is probably one of the best video games ever made, a perfect marriage of creative, deeply involving stealth action with action movie absurdity and a gripping and emotional story.
And at the heart of it is The Boss, the game's antagonist. Without giving away the details of one of the great video game stories, The Boss is the player's mentor, or lover, or something more profound than either of those things. She taught Snake everything he knows, but the mission she involves him in this game is the final test.
The Boss also is a total milf, and when they're on screen together, you can cut the sexual tension between her and Snake with a knife. The scars? No problem, the scars are hot too. "I give my life, not for honor, but for you." What could be hotter?
Konami's Metal Gear Solid
Peach As Elephant : Super Mario Bros
Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.
This is obvious. Initially Bowser is interested, but he's only one-flower interested. After? Bowser is full-bouquet interested.
Can't argue with results. Only somebody really hot could get that many flowers out of Bowser.
Samus Aran : Metroid
Nintendo's Metroid
It might have happened before a lot of us were born, but there was a time when it was a secret that Samus was a woman at all. The big reveal in the original Metroid only displayed on screen if you finished the game quickly enough is that the power-suited bounty hunter appears on screen without her helmet, revealing she's a woman. Get through the game in three or less hours, and you'll see Samus out of her suit altogether, self-evidently hot at about 20 square pixels. Hot enough to make you do work.
Nintendo's Metroid
It wasn't the first or the last time a video game would use peeks at a tiny, pixelated beautiful woman to motivate players, but it was one of the first times that character was the hero as opposed to a kidnapped princess, girlfriend, party healer, or other such damsel. More than capable of taking care of herself, the intergalactic warrior is historically hot.
YoRHa No.2 Type B : Nier Automata
Square Enix's Nier Automata
In Nier Automata, the spiritual damage you'll sustain from one of the saddest and most emotionally affecting video game stories you're likely to ever encounter is softened a bit by the extremely hot player character with whom you share that trauma.
One of those truly rare jackpots in the field of character design, 2B the monochrome warrior android is explicitly designed to be irresistible; she has pretty much everything going on. The elaborate gothy dress whose every detail is subtly sexy, her deeply suppressed softness under a steely demeanor. This is another character who was a phenomenon in and of herself when her game was released.
The only problem is if you actually finish Nier Automata to the very end, then every time you think of 2B, you'll start bawling again. Listen, I warned you about this game. Well, if you need cheering up, try unequipping her skirt. Oh, you already did that and you're still crying? Listen, I warned you about this game.
Particularly in the area of interest of this site, you might be interested in 3D modeler Hito Matsudaira talking about the collaborative process of modeling 2B, taking notes from legendary Square character designer Akihiko Yoshida. Millions agree: he did a great damn job.
Bridget : Guilty Gear XX
Sammy Studios Guilty Gear XX
Because she deserves it and at the risk of turning the comment section of this post into a flaming garbage fire here's Bridget.
One of the few characters in this list who could be described as a cultural movement on top of being merely hot, Bridget was introduced in Guilty Gear XX back in 2000. Born male and raised as a girl due to the weird rules of their village, Bridget the yoyo-wielding nun-frocked bounty hunter became a phenomenon from their very first appearance. And when new fans found out their backstory, they quickly realized that they didn't care what equipment Bridget had under that skirt, or that the character protested "I'm a man!" when reasonably mistaken for a girl. They were just too cute.
So the character of Bridget, no joke, is so hot as to trigger a sexual revolution in Japanese nerd-dom. Straight guys realize they'd make an exception. Countless budding cross-dressers and transgender girls awaken in the era of Bridget.
Sammy Studios Guilty Gear XX
Fast-forward 20 years and Bridget returns in the latest series entry, Guilty Gear Strive. Along with a new look, Bridget comes out as a transgender woman herself in her game story. There was (and remains) such heated debate and anger over this scene that the series creator had to clarify directly that he meant exactly what the character says herself at the end: Bridget is a "she".
Of course Bridget is hot. Everybody's hot for Bridget.
Puff-Puffers : Dragon Quest
Square Enix's Dragon Quest
A group effort and a series-long dirty joke originated by Akira Toriyama in the pages of the original and frequently raunchy Dragon Ball series. The act of "puff-puff" is neither ever pictured nor specifically defined in the Dragon Quest world, other than that it's something that women do to men.
Since a lady on the street offered a puff-puff to the original Dragon Quest hero back in 1986, various female characters, most often wearing bunny-girl costumes, have carried forth the tradition in all of the main series games. Puff-Puff is a battle skill (monsters get confused), it's a reward, and often it's a punchline, like the girl who charges money to pick up some slimes and rub them on your face. And no, you're not allowed to open your eyes.
Puff-puff is obviously hot and the women who supply this noble service, whether or not they actually tie your ankle to a bungee cord and push you off the side of a cliff, are clearly way hot.
Ayre : Armored Core 6
Bandai Namco's Armored Core 6
You never see the characters in Armored Core 6, only hear their voices amid brutal robot battles on the bleak wastelands of planet Rubicon. The powerful voice performances make players *want* to see these characters very badly, but the game denies players this. The game's refusal to show us the characters only makes them hotter. Their appearance is left to fan art; the real Cinder Carla is in your head.
So hear me out here: logically speaking, the hottest Armored Core 6 character is obviously Ayre, because beyond just not appearing on camera, the disembodied Rubiconian has no physical form. She's just a voice in your head, whispering encouragement into your ear. Ayre believes in you no matter how many times you get your robot blasted to pieces by a giant mechanical beast. That's as hot as it gets.
