I'll Remember Your Face, Pal
A list of games featuring a famous likeness - I'm sticking with official, properly licensed ones for now since "featuring characters clearly based on so-and-so" would crowd up 99% of the list (though I'd like to try doing that at some point). For the sake of my sanity I'm not including things like official sports games having likenesses of athletes or games based on movies that feature likenesses of the actors. Gotta be a product of the world of video games!
Similarly, I'm not going to include FMV games or actors who appear in live-action cutscenes, since those aren't likenesses. Sorry Command & Conquer!
Similarly, I'm not going to include FMV games or actors who appear in live-action cutscenes, since those aren't likenesses. Sorry Command & Conquer!
63 Games
That's Bruce Willis (as Trey Kincaid)! At the time I thought this was based on a movie.
The likeness of total dreamboat Takeshi Kaneshiro is used for main character Samanosuke Akechi.
Protagonist Jubei Yagyu uses the likenss of deceased actor Yusaku Matsuda.
Takeshi Kaneshiro and Yusaku Matsuda appear as Samanosuke and Jubei again.
The likeness of Takeshi Kaneshiro is joined by the likeness of Jean Reno as second playable character Jacques Blanc.
Keanu Reeves plays Johnny. Mnemonic or Silverhand? Yes.
Yer man GACKT lends his person to main character Lau Wong.
GACKT having another go here as the face and voice of the incredibly named Genesis Rhapsodos.
GACKT's backt as Genesis Rhapsodos.
Burt Reynolds appears as himself.
Keith David and Roddy Piper appear as themselves doing a whole They Live bit.
Jessica Chobot features as journalist Diana Allers. Remember that? Remember when Jessica Chobot was in Mass Effect 3?
Norman Reedus's likeness is used for the unnamed protagonist (and would have continued into Silent Hills had it not been cancelled).
Norman Reedus appears as main character Sam Bridges, alongside (deep breath):
Mads Mikkelsen as Clifford Unger
Lindsay Wagner as Amelie
Léa Seydoux as Fragile
Guillermo del Toro as Deadman
Margaret Qualley as Mama
Geoff Keighley as the Ludens Fan
Daichi Miura as a musician
Junji Ito as the Engineer
Jordan Vogt-Roberts as a director
Edgar Wright as Thomas Southerland
Hirokazu Hamamura as the Collector
Errolson Hugh as Alex Weatherstone
Conan O'Brien as the Wandering MC
Sam Lake as the Veteran Porter
Tommy Wirkola as Phillip North
Manabu Makime as the Novelist's Son
and Nicholas Winding-Refn as Heartman. I'm sorry, but Kojima is a completely unbearable person!
Mads Mikkelsen as Clifford Unger
Lindsay Wagner as Amelie
Léa Seydoux as Fragile
Guillermo del Toro as Deadman
Margaret Qualley as Mama
Geoff Keighley as the Ludens Fan
Daichi Miura as a musician
Junji Ito as the Engineer
Jordan Vogt-Roberts as a director
Edgar Wright as Thomas Southerland
Hirokazu Hamamura as the Collector
Errolson Hugh as Alex Weatherstone
Conan O'Brien as the Wandering MC
Sam Lake as the Veteran Porter
Tommy Wirkola as Phillip North
Manabu Makime as the Novelist's Son
and Nicholas Winding-Refn as Heartman. I'm sorry, but Kojima is a completely unbearable person!
Kristen Bell appears as Lucy Stillman.
Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman again, and Danny Wallace as Shaun Hastings.
Kristen Bell takes one final turn as Lucy Stillman, Danny Wallace returns as Shaun Hastings.
Danny Wallace back once again as Shaun Hastings.
Danny Wallace, who I have to assume really enjoys being Shaun Hastings.
Danny Wallace and, consequently, Shaun Hastings are in this one too.
It's Danny Wallace. It's Shaun Hastings. It's Assassin's Creed Unity for Windows, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Google Stadia!
Danny Wallace/Shaun Hastings rides again.
The universal constant that is Danny Wallace as Shaun Hastings holds true.
Chow Yun-Fat reprises his Hard Boiled role of Inspector Tequila. Counts because it's a videogame sequel to a movie, not a videogame adaptation of a movie. Nice work Mr. Woo!
Vin Diesel is main character Milo Burik. Shame we never got the planned Stranglehold crossover!
Snoop Dogg appears as himself as an unlockable character. Very funny to me because there are a hundred and one famous people in this game doing voices, but none of them use their likeness - not even Russell Wong! - except dear old Snoop
Redman appears as himself as an unlockable character.
Jet Li appears as main character Kit Yun. As a teenage advocate of The One as the best movie ever I wanted this game more than anything on Earth and my mum wouldn't get me it, because games are actually very expensive.
50 Cent, the rest of G-Unit and DJ Whoo Kid all appear as themselves, alongside Dr. Dre as Grizz and Eminem as Detective McVicar.
50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and DJ Whoo Kid all reprise their roles as 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and DJ Whoo Kid.
Phil Collins appears as himself performing In the Air Tonight.
Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams appear as themselves doing stand-up routines at the comedy clubs.
Jason Lee appears as Coach Frank.
The band KISS appear as themselves in the secret KISS level. The secret KISS level in the 2000s skateboarding game.
Jack Black appears as unlockable character Officer Dick.
Giancarlo Esposito and Danny Trejo are there. Look, I don't know the character names, I'm sorry, I haven't played a Far Cry since the first 20 minutes of 3 and I'm not convinced that these new ones aren't just made up for marketing reasons.
Terry Crews appears as Commander Isaiah Jaxon.
Michael Rooker appears as Mike Harper.
Christopher Meloni appears as John Taylor and Robert Picardo appears as Sebastian Krueger. Ron Perlman appears as Floyd Campbell in the Zombies mode.
Kevin Spacey appears as Jonathan Irons, alongside Rose McGowan as Lilith Swann, Bill Paxton as Kahn, John Malkovich as Oz and Bruce Campbell as Lennox.
Kit Harington appears as Salen Kotch. Apparently. I can't confirm if this name is a joke someone is playing on me or not.
David Bowie appears as Boz. Are you the boz boz? Are you *a* boz boz?
Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe appear as main characters Jodie Holmes and Nathan Dawkins, alongside Kadeem Hardison as Cole Freeman. Watch the movie Drive (1997)!
Takuya Kimura appears as main character Takayuki Yagami.
Takuya Kimura reprises his role as Takayuki Yagami. It's really funny that the karaoke minigame became an RGG mainstay but it's not in these games, presumably because Sega does not have nearly enough money to pay a SMAP guy to sing in their games.
Shota Matsuda (Ryuhei's brother) appears as Sasaki Kojiro, alongside Masaya Kato as Yoshioka Seijuro, yakuza flick legend Hiroki Matsukata as Yagyu Munetoshi, Susumu Terajima as Ito Ittosai and pink film filthlord Naoto Takenaka as Marume Nagayoshi. Look, you can see Susumu Terajima on the cover there on the right. The funny little dude that's in a bunch of Kitano movies! Isn't that wild!
Hiroki Narimiya appears as playable character Masayoshi Tanimura, but was dummied out in subsequent rereleases. Kenichi Endo appears as cop Junji Sugiuchi.
Sho Aikawa appears as Koichi Takasugi.
Hitoshi Ozawa and Riki Takeuchi, titans of the V-Cinema world, appear as Daisaku Kuze and Daiki Amano. Shingo Tsurumi appears as Tsukasa Sagawa.
Takeshi Kitano appears as Toru Hirose. Also features Shun Oguri as Takumi Someya and Takumi Fujiwara as Yuta Asami. Fujiwara voiced Rikiya in 3, shameful double dipping!
NJPW wrestlers Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Toru Yano all appear as themselves in the Clan Creator mode.
NJPW wrestlers Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Toru Yano all appear as themselves in the Clan Creator mode.
Pro wrestlers Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, Tatsumi Fujinami, Genichiro Tenryu and Riki Choshu all appear as themselves in the Clan Creator mode.
Dwayne Johnson and Brie Larson appear as The Foundation and The Paradigm, according to trusted sources.
Sam Witwer appears as main character Starkiller (yup). Always thought it was bullshit that this guy was in Star Wars AND Battlestar Galactica. Pick one!
Sam Witwer reprises his role as Starkiller, except not really, because it's a clone. Oh yeah, AND this guy voices Darth Maul in cartoons? This is shameful!
Sam Witwer plays Deacon St. John instead of Starkiller, although I haven't played it, so this could easily be another clone.
Fred Durst appears as himself as an unlockable character. Brad Pitt does not.
Fred Durst appears as himself as an unlockable character. Do game devs think Fred Durst is a tough guy? That he's really good at fighting?
Drew Carey appears as himself to congratulate you on hosting a really good party.
Ozzy Osbourne appears as the Guardian of Metal.
John Carpenter appears as Shaun Faraday. Bless him!
A polygonal Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo in Julia Lomas' first scene.
Main character Wayne Holden uses the very lovely likeness of Lee Byung-hun.
Actress Norika Fujiwara's likeness and voice is used for main character Alicia.
13 Comments
Fortnite has two original characters based off The Rock and Brie Larson, so it should get in on a technicality
You've just made that up.
Takeshi Kitano in Yakuza 6 and Takuya Kimura in Judgment btw
4, 5 and Zero as well, off the top of my head. Can't remember if anyone's in 3!
There's a sort of urban legend that Andy Lau (one of the lead actors from Infernal Affairs) shows up as one of the pedestrian NPCs in Prototype
I'm assuming you considered Death Stranding and exempted it before listing P.T.?
That Andy Lau thing is insane.
I haven't actually played Death Stranding and was going to add it thinking it was just Reedus and Mikkelsen, but when I went to look up their character names I saw that there's tons of people in it and I just haven't gone through them all yet. It does start to bring it into that grey area of ensemble casts, though if I'm adding Yakuza games...
I haven't actually played Death Stranding and was going to add it thinking it was just Reedus and Mikkelsen, but when I went to look up their character names I saw that there's tons of people in it and I just haven't gone through them all yet. It does start to bring it into that grey area of ensemble casts, though if I'm adding Yakuza games...
I recognized that and I clapped! I know what that is!
Do all the Japanese wrestlers in Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 count
Honestly there's like a million more in every Yakuza game from 4 on, hostesses, side story characters ...
All the wrestlers do count!
Need to gauge whether or not I want to be a person who is scrolling through cast lists on Japanese sites trying to figure out which manzai act or AV star showed up in one sidequest.
Need to gauge whether or not I want to be a person who is scrolling through cast lists on Japanese sites trying to figure out which manzai act or AV star showed up in one sidequest.
There's a character modeled after John Carpenter in The Thing video game:
https://thething.fandom.com/wiki/Shaun_Faraday
https://thething.fandom.com/wiki/Shaun_Faraday
Dreamboat
1 year ago