6 Interesting Gaming Character Inspirations You Probably Didn’t Know About

1. Ana – Overwatch / Snipers from Mad Max: Fury Road

Let’s start off with a relatively new video game character reveal. During a panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Overwatch’s latest addition (and everyone’s favorite support sniper) was inspired by the kickass old ladies from the latest Mad Max movie, Fury Road.

In the movie they’re referred to as the Many Mothers, or the Vuvulani. They’re basically a biker gang that provides expert sniper fire. You can definitely see where Ana gets her looks, and her awesome sniping skills!

Also, if you check her voice lines, she’s even got ‘Witness Me’ in there. Junkrat and Roadhog considered, it seems like Blizzard have made it clear they love the Mad Max series.

2. Andrew Ryan – BioShock / Ayn Rand

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? BioShock is a tremendously inspired video game. This is crucial in creating the game’s leering atmosphere and engaging story. One of the game’s main figureheads also has a long list of coattails that he’s riding on.

Created by Irrational’s Ken Levine, Andrew Ryan is a stoic leader, abstaining from society and establishing his own Capitalist Utopia underwater. Most of his Objectivist philosophy is shared with that of Ayn Rand, prolific author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, two literary pillars of Objectivism. Both of them escaped Russia as children and came to America to avoid Communist tension, and in Atlas Shrugged, a character creates his own society called ‘Galts Gulch’ to house the ‘men of the mind’.

Galt’s Gulch later acquires the name ‘Atlantis’ which really pins down where Ken Levine and the team got their inspiration from. They are both societies created so that other people could never find and taint them. A real hedonistic paradise. Atlas himself is also a character in BioShock, showing just how far the inspiration is embedded into the game.

3.  Fei Long, Marshall Law, Liu Kang, Rock Lee, Lee Sin, Hitmonlee – Bruce Lee

This ones so big it has its own Wikipedia page. Bruceploitation refers to a subgenre of movies from directors that hired Lee lookalikes to posthumously cash in on his success. Whilst video games aren’t necessarily taking it that far, you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a fighting game without someone inspired by Bruce Lee in it.

The way to spot these characters is usually the shirtless look, but it goes a little deeper than that. Most of them apply Lee’s famous ‘jumping stance’, as well as the iconic battle cries and high-pitched yells that he’s known for. Liu Kang for example, with his flaming high kicks and exuberant voice acting, fits right in with the rest of the gang listed here. Hell, there’s even a Pokemon named after him!

4. Rain – Mortal Kombat / Prince

Mortal Kombat has its fair share of interchangeable rainbow ninjas, but none are as cool as Rain. Born out of Ed Boon admittedly “being a jerk” he decided to throw a purple dude called Rain into the mix way back UMK 3. And look how far he’s come.

‘I’m a huge Prince fan, so I was thinking Purple Rain. I was probably still listening to the album. There was no time to actually make a character, because the game was done. So I hacked into the attract screen a quick little sequence of this purple ninja running at Shao Kahn. We didn’t even have the word “Rain” in the power bar, so I manually built it using our font. So I included this quick glimpse just to drive people crazy.’

Nowadays Rain looks a touch more fleshed out, with his story lines in the later games talking about his ‘celestial/royal’ lineage, and his garb looking more and more like Prince as the series continues. A great homage to the late, great artist.

5. Sonic the Hedgehog – Bill Clinton/Michael Jackson

OK so bear with me on this one. You can pretty much pick apart most of what makes Sonic what he is and find an inspiration for it. For example, some of the less strange ones include Santa Claus, who was the character behind Sonic’s red and white contrast.

However, it gets a bit more out there. According to Naoto Oshima, Sonic’s little booties evolved from Michael Jackson’s trademark shoes, and you can see the resemblance! It’s a shame we haven’t seen Sonic moonwalk yet. Oh, and if you were ever wondering where Sonic gets his dynamic personality from, you can ask Bill Clinton. Yeah, apparently his “Get it Done” attitude was the inspiration for our favourite blue hero. Go figure.

6. Nathan Drake – Johnny Knoxville, Harrison Ford, Doc Savage and Cary Grant

So, as you might expect, Drake is a bit of a mess of inspiration that resulted in a truly believable video game character. First off, his appearance and attitude were drawn from Johnny Knoxville, famous for his painful hijinks on Jackass. Lead game designer Richard Lemarchand wanted Drake to reflect his “coolness and goodness.” You can certainly see it in his can do demeanor (he kind of has a knack for getting himself into precarious situations).

Further, Lemarchand and co wanted to give Drake the gall and adventure of comic heroes like Doc Savage, but keep him relatable as an Everyman, so that he’s still grounded as a vulnerable human being. Uncharted’s lead writer Amy Hennig also drew from both Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis for their bold attitude, and Cary Grant for his romantic hero shtick. It may be a bit of a melting pot, but hey, who doesn’t love Nate?