So Chad's article about all protagonists having brown hair and stubble inspired me to do a good-natured rebuttal article about the current diversity of video game characters. I then lost inspiration to write anything and just became curious if I could come up with a list of characters to rival his; a list that shows the wide range of variety and diversity found in todays games. To make things fair I took all of the sequels off of Chad's list (and Too Human because Baldur has a shaved head, no stubble, and glowing blue lines on his face), but to make things slightly challenging, I decided to only use games that were released in 2010. This left me to come up with a list of 17 protagonists from high profile games that offer a measure of uniqueness and originality. As for the header image, when I was trying to think of a name for the article, I was misremembering Gary Oldman's quote from The Fifth Element as "Look at all these colorful things" and thought it would be mildly appropriate. It still kind of fits.

Number 17



Oh check it! It's Bayonetta!

Number 16



Yes, Travis! I AM including you!

Number 15



Bomberman!

Number 14



It's a two-fer, but I'm counting it as one. Such is my confidence.

Number 13



Don't object Miles Edgeworth! You ARE unique!

Number 12



The P.B. stands for Peanut Butter. Spoilers.

Number 11



Another snowflake.

Number 10



Diversity!

Number 9



Say goodbye to this in the sequel!

Number 8



He might fit Chad's profile if he let his hair grow out, but regardless, there's only one Kratos. Unless you're doing that annoying section in the first game.

Number 7



Pixel art! Use your imagination to create the character's appearance! An economic solution for these difficult times!

Number 6



This is where I started making difficult choices. I mean, who knows what he looks like under there? I do know that I need five more characters, so Red Steel 2 guy is in!

Number 5



Trading stubble for bondage gear.

Number 4



I know, I know. There's a guy with brown hair and stubble in there, but I think he's offset by the other five.

Number 3



A Truck! Talk about diversity!

Number 2



HE IS A SNAKE!

and Number 1



Yes, Chad, with Monster Hunter Tri you too can play as an old Indonesian woman with glass eyes (lost after being attacked by a dragon, no less)!

And we're done. There were some close calls and a couple of reaches, but I'm proud of the list I put together. Hopefully it will illustrate that even amidst oceans of brown haired, stubble wearing men and mountains of music peripheral games, there's still a great deal of creativity in the games industry.