MMGN: The best non-sexualised and realistic female leads in gaming.
Sexuality and sex appeal is a tricky thing to balance. In the male-dominated video game industry, most female videogame protagonists are typically hyper-sexualised and unrealistic women created blatantly for the male gaze.
While there are still many outdated and cringe-worthy representations of women in video games, times and attitudes are rapidly changing, and there are developers out there who have and are challenging the stereotypes and creating compelling, realistic, and attractive female characters without the overt use of skin or one-dimensional roles.
Look, I like Lara Croft's booty shorts or Mileena's two... sais as much as every other guy, but why not have more than polygons to ogle at? It has been proven that well-written, attractive and realistic female protagonists do exist in video games and have become more prominent as the industry advances.
Last week I covered some of the most sexist video games that have come to light this generation. Now, here are the top 5 hottest video game heroines who have saved the day from shallow stereotypes and hegemonic sexism, but still kick-ass and get male gamers all flustered without resorting to having their breasts pop out.
Other nominees include games like SimCity & Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
There are some good nominees in this list that are deserving to be inducted also, but I feel Metroid has had the most impact on the industry out of all of these. Look how Metroid influenced the evolution of the Castlevania games, and the "Metroidvania" subgenre of games have become a prevailing force in gaming today. Especially now, Metroidvanias are bigger than ever.
I can very much see Resident Evil being added later too, bc it really did popularize and define the survival horror genre. I would say that one is next in line.
Agreed. When I got my NES back then, I of course had Super Mario Bros. But I also got Double Dribble, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Rad Racer, Zelda and Metroid. Loved playing all of them over and over. But Metroid was so deep and the music was so other worldly, that that game has stuck with me to this day decades later.
Sure other awesome games came along like Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man, etc. But Metroid really hit that sci-fi fix. And the twist of finding out who was in the suit was one of those great moments in gaming history talking with other friends in the neighborhood that had the console that rushed to the end to find out for themselves.
Definitely deserves hall of fame like many other picks. Should have been inducted a long time ago.
If any Metroid game should get the honor it should be Super Metroid , it's perfection in my eyes . 30 years later and I still feel it's the most epic shit ever .
Yea, I agree that Super Metroid REALLY raised the bar on atmosphere and exploration, still in my Top 10 or 20 games of all time. The original Metroid did set a good framework, but Super Metroid perfected it in its first sequel. Since it's the only one up for vote, I'd still vote for the original Metroid bc it did establish a very good concept of gaming in a more primitive gaming era. But, you're absolutely right.
The GBA remake deserves it or Super Metroid, the original was a very sloppy and rushed game programmed in 3 months and it shows.
If you've never played the remake, it's absolutely a must play, fixes basically every flaw in the game. Check out ExoParadigmGamer's comparison video.
From Contraband to Perfect Dark, here are some potential wildcard surprises that could appear at this month's Xbox Developer Direct.
Wow I actually commented in a Xbox thread before Jin_Sakai! Contraband gameplay would be dope.
This year promises to be a big year for gaming, and it will definitely be one of the greatest if any of these big MIA projects finally made it into gamers' hands.
Pretty sure Silk Song and Dragon Age are going smoothly. The other 2 can be assumed to be quietly cancelled knowing their publishers and Metroid will most likely be shown off this year.
Dragon Age going smoothly??? Directors leaving, people leaving in general, terrible working conditions....not sure how you define smoothly.
I remember in 2017 when Nintendo showed off the Metroid Prime 4 logo, and some Nintendo defenders claimed "Just because they only showed a logo, doesn't mean that's all they've worked on for the game."
As history has proven, they were wrong. Nintendo showed off a logo back in 2017 because that's literally all they had.
I think Beyond Good and Evil 2 can stay there unless they are going to just rename it to a new IP
Pretty sure BG&E2 is dead at this point - along with the other game Ancel was working on before he left - I think it was called WILD. Anyone remember that from a PS conference years ago?
Dreadwolf isn't in development hell anymore and is finally getting its reveal in the summer - since 2016 the game has been scrapped and restarted three times but its been going pretty well since the last reboot when EA finally allowed BioWare to just get on with making a single player game.
I'm not sure Perfect Dark is in development hell either - like it could be but we haven't really heard much to suggest either way - imo they just showed the trailer off when the game was still in pre-production. Xbox were desperate for anything and this is all they had at the time. And the reason we haven't heard anything since is just because it's in normal development and games take 5 years to make. The help from a support studio was typically overblown on N4G because nearly every game has this.
Where is Madison Page and every female in MGS4, Chloe or agent Kuo. If you are going to make a list do it properly.
ololol
I just went through this list to see ONE female protagonist
Her absence makes this list A JOKE!
! Nariko from Heavenly Sword !
Uh,they could have at least shown people what Samus looks like.It's kinda hard for people who never heard of her to tell if she's hot or not if all you show is a big orange suit.
Glados! I would let her probe me :-)
Poor list in my opponion.
Rikku
Kairi
Lollipop chainsaw girls too.
Need to be on there