Video games can be an immersive and story-driven medium, telling complex tales over the course of tens or in some cases hundreds of hours. So, when you are really getting into a game after grinding for all the best loot or just enjoying a game’s story it can be jarring when for no rhyme or reason a random celebrity appears as an NPC to give the player a key piece of information.
Sometimes these appearances can be fun Easter eggs with the cameos being characters within the world who serve a purpose in the story. But well, sometimes they can be just downright weird and wacky.
These Bizarre Cameos can be few and far between but there are still enough of them to catch you off guard when you’re playing your favourite fighting game or looter shooter. This list will count down 5 weird celebrity cameos in video games.
5 Nicholas Cage- Dead By Daylight
The Cameo that inspired this list is no other than the king of surprising role choices himself, Nicolas Cage. Although we have to wait until July 5th to know the exact details surrounding this cameo, it appears that Dead by Daylight players will be able to take control of the now most famous Cage to appear in a video game (sorry Johnny).
Although Dead By Daylight has its fair share of playable characters from other famous horror franchises such as Scream, Evil Dead and Resident Evil, the inclusion of Nicholas Cage in the asymmetric multiplayer horror game is still strange.
As far as we know it appears that instead of using the likeness of one of Cage’s many iconic characters this will be a similar case to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent where Cage is playing himself.
It has not been officially confirmed but we will most likely see Nicholas Cage appear as a playable survivor on his July 5th reveal, however, there’s a chance he may show up at Dead by Daylight’s 7th Anniversary Stream on May 23 as well.
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4 Negan (Jeffery Dean Morgan)- Tekken 7
Okay, so when you think of fighting games, who are the first characters that spring to mind? Ryu, Ken, King, Akuma…Negan. Yup, that last one is right. Appearing in Tekken 7, The Walking Dead’s big bad with a baseball bat features as a DLC fighter in the 2019 Beat ’em Up. The voice and likeness of actor Jeffery Dean Morgan are used adding to the surreal experience.
Although never confirmed Negan’s inclusion in Tekken is possibly due to Bandai Namco having a past collaboration with The Walking Dead’s publisher Image Comics. This makes it even weirder that the depiction that appears in-game takes its likeness from the TV character rather than the comic book one.
it is odd that alongside all the classic Tekken characters you usually see on the roster, you can play as a baseball bat-wielding psychopath, with the face of Thomas Wayne. You could say he is the real Batman…
3 Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda, Platinum Games CEO Kenichi Sato- NieR Automata
NieR: Automata is a weird game, so it should be no surprise that its DLC is just as weird. In a 2017 add-on, entitled “3C3C1D119440927”,(A bit of a mouthful I know), developer Platinum Games add some new bosses to the Game. Mainly Platinum Games president Kenichi Sato and Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda.
Yup, the Fourth Wall-breaking bosses take the form of two executives at the developer and publisher of NieR: Automata. These bizarre bosses aren’t entirely canon either as even the quest giver quips: “What you’re about to see may end up destroying your sense of immersion. Are you okay with that?”
While it is not out of character for NeiR: Automata to have some weird immersion-breaking moments, featuring two middle-aged businessmen as DLC might just be a little too much.
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2 Samuel L. Jackson- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The Grand Theft Auto series is no stranger to having a surprise celebrity cameo. Whether that’s Ricky Gervais having part of his stand-up set in Grand Theft Auto IV or the late great Ray Liotta voicing the main character of Grand Theft Auto Vice City Tommy Vercetti.
One that springs to mind as being a particularly weird one, due to its lack of fanfare is in 2004s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where the King of Cool himself Samuel L. Jackson appears as the main antagonist Officer Frank Tenpenny
While his iconic voice works perfectly as a villain in the game Jackson has answered very few questions regarding the role, making it jarring that one of Hollywood’s best-known actors would take a voice role that had little promotion or hype behind it.
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1 Hideo Kojima- Metal Gear Solid V (MGS series)
Finally let’s end this list with the Master of video game Cameos, Hideo Kojima. You could write a whole list of the weird and wonderful Cameos that Kojima has had in games whether that’s appearing as a parody version of himself in Cyberpunk 2077, or his voice guiding players through a side quest in Control.
However, none of these are weirder than his consistent appearances in his own Metal Gear Solid Franchise. In the series he appears on four separate occasions, (technically three and a half but we’ll get into that).
Kojima appears in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. In the latter two, he appeared as a recruitable intel operative called Hideo, who is an important character in the side op “Intel Operative Rescue” in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.
But, the weirdest of his appearances, (and the half one mentioned earlier), is actually in the remake of the first MGS for the GameCube, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. In the game there is actually a portrait of Kojima hanging on a wall in the room where you face off against villain Psycho Mantis, adding a bizarre bit of décor to an already crazy boss battle.
And that completes our list of 5 weird celebrity cameos In video games! What do you think of our picks? Are there any other crazy cameos that we missed? Let us know in the comments section below!
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