Peach and Zelda will be talked about eventually. I want to try and focus on the female characters that appear in games that are not about the adventure, and are not considered the prize.
Girls like this tends to fall into a goofy side kick, or the unattractive tom boy. What makes characters like this special, is that you can tell they were just thrown into the game to be a contras the main character sometime, or just because they want to appeal to another demographic. AKA...A character a female gamer would be able to relate to in a dominantly male game. So do characters like this suck? If they do suck, why could they have been so much better. What qualities do they have that make a good characters, but are just ignored or brushed off.
This isn't going to be a list of something, I would rather give some examples and explain why they work or not.
Let me start with a big one, that I personally hate.
Amy Rose.
She is one of the prime examples of a Mary sue. Yet, she tries to be proactive but it gets her into more trouble. I'm going to admit, I like sonic, but it's not my favorite game series. I have only played the Sega games and Sonic adventure II for the gamecube. Sonic on the game cube has given me more memorable experiences even though I mostly played with the Chao's, but I found most of the gameplay fun and enjoyable. I was soooo happy to not play as Amy in the main story line. She, unlike Sonic, cannot run as fast, and her main attack is a larger hammer. I think what bothers me the most is the fact that she is just obsessed with Sonic. It's like she is the worst of a fan girl that stalks him, gets herself into trouble and has to be saved by him. Even though he clearly doesn't have any interest in her. So why was Amy added?
According to Wikipedia, Amy was first created for the Sonic Manga, and her first official game release was Sonic Cd, but not given a staring role till Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. Before that, only other female characters in Sonic were humans. Amy is described as a "self proclaimed girlfriend of Sonic" and her entire personality is centered around wanting to impress him or disliking those who would try to harm him. What is there for a girl to relate to? Her obsessive fangirlizm? That seems to be what her personality boils down to. In my own experience, the guys I know find Amy to be annoying because her only trait seems to be screaming "Sonic".
Yet Wikipedia also says she is the fifth most popular character is Sonic and the most beloved female character. She doesn't have much to compete with in the female character category. Cream is a little girl, Rogue is...Sexualized, and the human characters are....I can't really describe them because I find it weird that the humanoid hedgehogs are having relationships with humans. Her following could contribute to her role in the television series, but her personality doesn't seem to change much. I am beating on Amy a lot, and she does have other qualities. She is defiantly courageous, when it comes to defending her beliefs she doesn't back down to any challenge. She will even blindly go up agents Eggman's robots to help her friends. It's just that annoying "Sonic" voice that gets to me.
Someone that works well as a token chick has to be
Let me get back to you on that....I know it's totally lame and a cop-out, but I honestly cannot think of a token chick that I enjoy. Someone like Laura Croft and Samus are the main characters in their own series of games. This idea of a Token girl in games is almost uncommon. This idea is mostly found in television.
So if I have any readers out there, please enlighten me!
May the Stars Guide You
*Hoshi
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