Here are some of the best celebrity appearances in video games we’ve seen so far.
Snoop Dogg In Call of Duty and True Crime: Streets of LA
Snoop Dogg has had a couple of run-ins with the video game world. His first appearance was during True Crime: Streets of LA. This was an open world crime game that originally launched on PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Snoop Dogg was an unlockable character with his own mission and car.
Snoop Dogg also had a guest appearance in Call of Duty Ghosts as part of an announcer voice pack. Voice announcements during multiplayer were replaced by the kind of quotes you can imagine coming from Snoop Dogg’s mouth.
KISS Singer Gene Simmons in Tony Hawk’s Underground
The Tony Hawk’s Underground series was one of the best video games in history when it came to unlocking additional content. Each game was packed with a range of unlockable characters, some of which weren’t necessarily related to skateboarding in anyway whatsoever.
One of the most memorable characters for us was KISS singer Gene Simmons – not only did he tote his makeup and rock gear, but he could also shoot fireballs out of his skateboard when he did kickflips.
50 Cent in 50 Cent: Bulletproof and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
50 Cent didn’t just appear in a video game, he starred in one. Well, actually, he starred in two. The first game was 50 Cent: Bulletproof – it was an action video game with a focus on guns and violence. It also had guest appearances from Eminem as a corrupt police officer and Dre as an arms dealer.
50 Cent: Bullet on the Sand was less story-driven than Bulletproof and essentially players the means to cause to blow up or shoot down enemies without much reason or rhyme. The game could be played with two players, and the second player would take control of either Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, or DJ Whoo Kid
Bruce Lee in EA UFC
Bruce Lee made it as a guest character in EA’s UFC. This was one appearance that had the world a little torn. Some people were happy to see such a legendary fighter hit the ring, whilst others were a little confused as to why he was there in the first place.
There’s no denying that Bruce Lee’s fighting style is one that is used in MMA, so we can see why the connection.
Kiefer Sutherland in Metal Gear Solid V
Kiefer Sutherland did some spectacular voice acting for Snake in Metal Gear Solid V. For the first time ever, Konami went for the English voice acting first, which also meant the facial structure and animation for Snake was based on motion capture sessions with Kiefer Sutherland.
Kojima mentioned that Kiefer Sutherland replaced original Snake voice actor David Hayter for one major reason – Kojima wanted to capture the facial expressions and tone of voice more in Metal Gear Solid V, as opposed to just capturing the voice actors’ voice.
Everybody in Beyond: Two Souls
Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive story video game that saw guest performances from a number of celebrities. Whilst, in the past, motion capture has been used to animate faces, Beyond: Two Souls took it a step further by basing all of the characters on real life people.
The characters resembled the celebrities that played them, and at times it felt like you were watching a movie. Notable celebrities include Willem Dafoe, Ellen Page, and Kadeem Hardison.
Ethan and Hila from H3H3 in Payday 2
Both Ethan and Hila are not celebrities in the traditional sense, but they’re world renowned for their YouTube channel, H3H3 productions.
Recently, Payday 2 released a character pack that introduced both Ethan and Hila as playable Payday 2 criminals. Both Ethan and Hila joined the Payday 2 development team to create a number of fitting voice lines for their characters.
Ricky Gervais In Grand Theft Auto IV
Ricky Gervais makes an appearance as himself in Grand Theft Auto IV in the Split Sides comedy club. Players can visit the comedy club to hear some comedic performances written especially for Grand Theft Auto IV.
Ricky Gervais makes a number of comments about the type of crude topics you’d expect from a Rockstar game.
Mark Hamill In Batman: Arkham City
Not many people know this, but Mark Hamill did voice acting for many of the Batman animated TV shows, including Batman: The Animated Series.
He made a guest voice appearance in Batman: Arkham City as the joker, too. It’s safe to say that his experience as the Joker from the TV shows really helped him to pull it off in the video game.
Jimmy Kimmel In Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Jimmy Kimmel makes a guest appearance as himself in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 campaign. Near the end, a segment of Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show is shown to the player, during which Kimmel explains about the ending.
Because there are multiple endings in Black Ops 2, he only appears during two endings, and what he says depends on which ending the player went with.
Ozzy Osbourne In Brutal Legend
Ozzy Osbourne plays as a character called Dadbat in Brutal Legend. The character was heavily inspired by Ozzy Osbourne himself and he often makes quotes in relation to his songs.
Shaquille O’Neal in UFC and Shaq Fu
What we don’t understand is that even though some people were upset with Bruce Lee being introduced to the UFC character roster, nobody really batted an eye when Shaq made his way to the ring. Shaquille O’Neal appeared in UFC Undisputed back in 2010.
Shaq has also starred in the majority of NBA titles, alongside most other professional basketball players. Shaq also even had his own video game called Shaq Fu. This was a 2D fighting game that somewhat resembled the original Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games.
Summary
What are your thoughts on these video game celebrity appearances? Are there any major appearances that we’ve missed out on?