5 Ridiculous Guest Characters in Video Games

Earlier this year, we were greeted with the strange yet not-wholly-unpleasant news that the Terminator would be a playable wrestler in WWE 2K16. The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger appears with two costumes: both of his T-800 forms seen in 1 and 2 are playable alongside the likes of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Cesaro. The Terminator would seem to stick out like a sore thumb, but if anything could make this work, it's the goofy, winding continuity that the WWE enjoys. Yet, it's not just the latest edition of 2K's long-running wrestling series that's trying it – other games have included guest characters; some good, some bad. Here are five of the most ridiculous.

Shrek – Tony Hawk's Underground 2

You never heard of Shrek the skateboarder? Oh, man, he was one of the best of all time before he decided to go back to his swamp to be a family man, meaning his career was all ogre. Yes, I know Activision and Neversoft are no stranger to this guest character business – Iron Man was in Underground, Wolverine was in Pro Skater 3, even the mascot of Iron Maiden showed up in 4. Riding the wave of Shrek's popularity and the release of the movie and game editions of Shrek 2, his inclusion was a no-brainer as a promotional move. And, shockingly, as crazy as his appearance in the game is, it makes total sense within the chaotic context of Underground 2. This is a game where Steve-O from Jackass rides a mechanical bull, where one of your main rivals is a foul-mouthed teenaged wheelchair user, and where the final mission involves blowing up a skate resort. Playing as Shrek, doing McTwists and Darkslide grinds nearly comes off a little dull in comparison. Nearly, though; seeing his basic wooden-plank board and his signature tricks is sure to raise at least a smile.

Gon – Tekken 3

Tekken was never deeply committed to reality: the series featured fighting bears and marsupials, literal angels and demons, and different colours of electricity coursing through every Mishima fighter's veins. Still, when Gon, a Japanese manga character, appeared in the home version of Tekken 3, most people thought that was pushing it. Why? Gon is a baby dinosaur. Now, I and many others love dinosaurs, but still, many felt like Gon had no business being in a Tekken game. Commonly cited reasons were his looks and lack of fighting experience. It also didn't help that he was given Jin's moveset, which is one of the most powerful in the game, and he is half as tall as every other character, meaning standard attacks are much more likely to go unnoticed. Indeed, one great reason to play as Gon is if you want your friends to hate you. Still, his appearance is still so bizarre and unexpected that it warrants a place on the list.

Little Mac – Fight Night Round 2

Now, here's one that's cool and make sense! Little Mac, for years, was perhaps one of Nintendo's unsung heroes. He had had his day in the couple of Punch-Out!! games but then went completely under the radar in the mid-nineties (sources close to us suggest that Little Mac was still chasing after his stolen bike). So to have him resurface in the GameCube version of the Fight Night sequel was a pleasant surprise, mostly for the fact that you could have him square off against Mike Tyson after so long. It might seem completely bizarre for Nintendo to have allowed EA to get their grubby mitts on their IPs, but this was actually part of a longer deal struck up between EA and Nintendo in 2005, where Nintendo characters would make guest appearances in the GameCube ports of games like SSX On Tour and NBA Street V3, to name a few. Out of them all, this was the best choice – our old friend Little Mac can win some real titles now.

Link – SoulCalibur II

This one also came about as a 'deal' struck between Nintendo and Namco, but in fairness, they had also made similar deals with Sony and, in the case of Microsoft, Todd MacFarlane. To add some flavour to each port of the game, Namco wanted to add a unique character to each version. The PS2 version got Heihachi Mishima from Tekken, the Xbox version gained Spawn, a cult comic book character (bar Master Chief; they really didn't have the characters then), but perhaps coolest of all, the GameCube version got Link, complete with the Master Sword. Getting to slash through Soul stalwarts like Taki and Cervantes was nearly worth the price of admission, despite the fact that Link feels like a massive fish out of water in his bright green tunic. If you want to hunt out a copy of SoulCalibur II, make it this one – of course, they're all as good as each other, but how can you pass up the chance to play as Link?

Fred Durst – WWF SmackDown: Just Bring It!

“Fred Durst! There's a name I haven't heard in a long time,” says Fred Durst. He and his band Limp Bizkit may have faded into obscurity, but the nu-metal frontman was immortalised in this 2001 wrestling game from THQ. Fred Durst is perhaps the most out-there choice on this list, but there was a method to THQ's madness unrelated to Limp Bizkit's ephemeral popularity. At the time, one of the WWF's most popular wrestlers, The Undertaker, was portraying a patriotic yet violent biker character known as the American Badass. To fit his image at that time, he used Limp Bizkit's Rollin' as his theme song. THQ didn't want to pay hand over fist for the rights to use the song in the game, so Mr Durst cunningly struck up a deal – all fees would be waived if he could be in the game. Of course, THQ acquiesced, but they quietly hid him behind a very specific unlock so most people would never find him – to get him, you needed to pin 15 people in a row in the game's survival mode as the Undertaker. Playing as Fred Durst might have been amazing for his fans, but it's still just plain weird seeing him, a scrawny white dude, doing big power moves in the ring alongside the likes of The Rock and Kurt Angle.