- Oh! Hi!

So, everyone loves video games,

and for a lot of us, they were a big part of our childhood.

I mean, Mario, Legend of Zelda...

Pft! Are you kidding me, kid?

So good!

And most of us plays these characters

from series to seies, console to console,

never really considering how they came to be.

Well, surprisingly, more than a few characters

from some of our favorite video games

are based on real-life people.

So, today, I gathered some of the most popular

video game characters with real-life origins

to share with you all.

So here they are:

10 video game characters that were based on

real people.

Number one is Kratos.

The character of Kratos was first introduced

in 2005 in the game "God of War" for the Playstation 2.

Since then, the character has been featured in

six additional games, as well as a God of War comic,

and has become a flagship title for the Playstation.

However, what you probably didn't know

is that this character's based entirely off of

Ed Norton's Nazi character Derek from American History X.

How lovely!

David Jaffe, Kratos's creator, told his artist

to take the look, sense of power, and aggression

from Derek the Nazi, and turned it into a character

that fist the Greek mythology world.

So now you know that the buff angry dude

with markings on his body that you've been playing as

all along is actually based off a buff angry dude

with markings on his body that

just happens to be super-duper racist!

You can feel good about that!

Number two is Sonic the Hedgehog.

The iconic character of Sonic the Hegdehog

was first introduced in 1991 in the self-titled game

by Sega, intended as a mascot to rival

Nintendo's flagship character of Mario.

Since then, he's been the main protagonist in

multiple Sonic games, spin-offs, comics,

and five animated shows.

However, Sonic was inspired by two

unlikely real-life people: President Bill Clinton

and Michael Jackson.

According to Sonic's creator Naoko Oshima,

his get it done attitude is based off of

Bill Clinton's demeanor and reputation,

and his style and belted boots

are based off of Michael Jackson in the "Bad" video.

There's no doubt that Sonic's legacy

is going to continue to be awesome,

because the game designers are going to make sure of it,

unlike Bill, who got impeached, and Michael, who...

Yeah, you know, the kid stuff.

Number three is Dr. Robotnik.

Dr. Ego Eggman Robotnik is the main

antogonist from the Sonic the Hedgehog series

and has appeared in almost every Sonic game since 1991.

Also created by Naoko Oshima, this rotund mad scientist

is described as being a certifiable genius,

with an IQ of 300.

He was designed to represent machinery and development

to play on the then-growing debate between

developers and environmentalists.

Physically, though, he was designed to be easy

for children to draw, with an overall appearance

based on, believe it or not, President Teddy Roosevelt.

Everything from the glasses, mustache, and smile

were all based on the former president,

including certain aspects of his personality.

It's important to note that the very first design

of Dr. Robotnik had him wearing a bee costume,

which, of course, is unlike President Roosevelt,

that we know of.

Who knows? He might have been into

wearing bee costumes.

A lot of weird stuff happens in the oval office.

Number four is Boo.

The ghost known as Boo was first introduced

in 1988's Super Mario Brothers 3,

and was originally known as Boo Diddley,

a reference to singer Bo Diddley.

Since then, Boo has been a staple in the Mario franchise,

usually appearing as an enemy,

but occasionally as a playable character

in Mario spin-off games, or even sometimes

as an ally to Mario.

Boo is known for approaching Mario from behind

but immediately freezing and covering their face

when looked at, a trait entirely inspired

by Super Mario Brothers 3 co-designer

Takashi Tezuka's wife.

He stated that his wife is generally very quiet,

but one day she exploded out of anger

because of how much time he was spending

at work, which inspired how Boo still acts

in game to this day.

Wow, you know, immortalizing your spouse's

propensity to explode out of anger

at any given moment into a video game character

that's going to be seen by generations to come?

That's love.

Number five is Balrog.

Balrog, also knows as Mike Bison or M. Bison

is a character from the Street Fighter fighting game series.

First introduced in 1991 in Street Fighter 2,

he has since been in multiple Street Fighter games,

and was even in the Street Fighter animated movie,

and in case it wasn't overtly obvious,

the character of Balrog was based off of

boxing champion Mike Tyson.

Suprise!

In addition to having the name Mike Bison,

which is a not-so-subtle play off the name Mike Tyson,

he's an African American boxer with a funky haircut,

that has similar facial features

to that of the real-life champ.

You know, if they're going to make it that obvious,

they should have just gone all the way

and given you the ability to gnaw off

your opponent's digital ear.

I eat his children!

Number six is Johnny Cage.

Johny Cage is a well-known character

from the Mortal Kombat video game series,

that was first introduced in 1992

in the original Mortal Kombat game.

The character is an arrogant and overconfident

martial arts actor who provides comic relief

for the franchise, and if you couldn't tell,

he was created as a parody for none other than

martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme.

And they do have a lot in common.

Johnny and Jean-Claude are both overconfident

martial arts actors from Hollywood.

Even Johnny Cage's outfit and his legendary

splits punch were inspired by Van Damme's performance

in the movie Blood Sport.

Difference is, Johnny Cage will remain young forever,

whereas Jean-Claude Van Damme is getting

hella old now.

However, Van Damme could still easily

turn me into a bald puddle of mush,

so, you know, I mean no disrespect.

I love you!

Number seven is Samus Aran.

First introduced in 1986 in the game Metroid

for the NES, Samus is an intergalactic bounty hunter,

with a powered suit and various energy weapons.

She's one of the earliest female protagonists

in video game history, and is one of the most

popular characters from Nintendo,

maintaining her popularity for over a quarter century

since her first appearance.

Without her suit, Samus is a tall blonde

with long hair that the video game designers

decided to model after actress Kim Basinger,

but that's not all.

In an interesting twist, her last name Aran is based off

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the birth name

of Brazilian soccer star Pele.

Well, the game designers for metroid

were not only horny nerds, but they were also

soccer fans too!

Who knew?

Number eight is Lara Croft.

Everyone's favorite British archeologist

and adventurer, Lara Croft was first introduced

in the 1996 game Tomb Raider.

In addition to being presented as

beautiful, intelligent, and athletic,

the character actually holds six Guinness World Records,

among them include being the most famous and most

successful female video game character in the world.

The company core design based her off of two people:

pop singer Nina Cherry for her style,

and the comic book character Tank Girl

for her take no prisoners attitude.

Of course part of her popularity is due

to Angelina Jolie playing her,

and being ever so sexy while doing it,

but, I mean, let's be completely honest.

Angelina Jolie could put on a Grimace costume

from McDonalds and still be sexy, so, yeah.

Number nine is Liu Kang.

First introduced in 1992 in the original

Mortal Kombat game, Liu Kang is a shaolin monk

who enters the tournament to save earth.

As a staple character in the Mortal Kombat universe,

he's been featured as the main protagonist

in the Mortal Kombat film and comic book adaptations.

Originally, he was supposed to be

a bald monk in robes called Minamoto Yishitsune,

but ultimately it was decided to make him

resemble Bruce Lee and change his name,

and thank god!

However, Liu Kang is not the only character

influenced by Bruce Lee.

Fei Long from Street Fighter, Marshall Law from Tekken,

and the pokemon Hitmonlee, all based off of Bruce Lee.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense, though,

you can't really have a fighting game

without at least one character based off

one of the greatest martial arts fighters of all time.

It would be sacrelege.

And number ten is Mario.

Mario is one of, if not the most,

iconic video game character of all time.

He was first introduced in the video game

Donkey Kong in 1981 for the NES.

Since then, he's been in movies,

his own animated TV series, and has appeared

in over 200 video games, making Mario

the best-selling video game franchise of all time.

When he was originally created by Shigeru Mayamoto,

he lacked a solid name.

That was, until one day, Nintendo of America's

warehouse landlord, Mario Segale, confronted

the president of the company demanding back rent.

After a heated argument in which Nintendo employees

convinced Segale he would be paid,

they opted to name the character in the game after him.

Looking back, this may have been the ultimate revenge

on the demanding landlord.

This is because in an interview,

he was once asked what he thought of Mario

being named after him, to which he responded,

"You might say, I'm still waiting

for my royalty checks."

You got nothing! Should have been nicer!

And that's all for this time, guys.

If you enjoyed this video, you should definitely

check out my friends at the Game Theorists.

They make videos on everything game related

and give not only mind-blowing theories

about some of your favorite video games,

but also in-depth analysis and explanations

about them too, that you probably never thought of before.

Matt, who runs the channel,

Is a good friend of mine, and I really

think you're going to enjoy his content,

so if you want to check them out,

there will be an annotation on the screen

and a link in the description.

As always, if you enjoyed this,

please give that like button a click,

and I will you see you all back here on Tuesday

with a brand new video.

Peace!

(Mario Brothers game over music)