When it comes to funny voice acting in games, they’re often not intended. There’ssome great comedy games, for sure, but since voice acting had a big learning period during the late 90s to late 2000s, there’s a truckload of voice acting in games that’s a product of their time.
These voice performances can make a game a heck of a lot more enjoyable, and the title just wouldn’t be the same without it. That’s weird to say because these are bad performances, but they’re so bad it’s good, or in some instances, give off such a cheesy, corny vibe that you can’t help but love.
One of the most iconic voice acting in games during the PS1 era had to be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Its opening moments are legendary with Richter’s famous line, “Die monster, you don’t belong in this world!” which has such terrible audio mixing, and then Dracula’s ridiculous famous line hits: “What is a man?”
The performances in this opening scene alone are Hall of Fame worthy. The rest of the game doesn’t let up either in its funny VO, and, sadly, later versions of Symphony of the Night removed it with a whole new voice cast. Why? The original VO had so much charm that it added tothe experience for this PS1 classic.
Besides the PS2 version of Dead or Alive 2, the first DOA game to include English voice acting wasDead or Alive Xtreme 2. The English VO was actually going to get cut because Tomonobu Itagaki didn’t like it, but Andrew Szymanski pushed for it to stay in the game, and thank goodness it did. The voice acting here is trademark mid-2000s anime VO, where it’s so cheesy, corny, and expressive that it’s always entertaining.
Each voice actor nails their respective female characters, with Tina being the Texas American akin to Sandy Cheeks, Kokoro the girl with self-esteem issues that deserves a “big gold star,” Christie who’s the psychopath, and so on. The English voice acting is consistently entertaining and will haveyou laughing throughout your entire time playing.
In line with other sports games,NBA 2K15has actual NBA athletes as voices. WWE games have been doing this for a long time, but the difference here is that most, if not all, WWE wrestlers talk pretty smoothly due to a thing called a promo, a huge part of professional wrestling. That isn’t a thing in the NBA, so some athletes are notoriously bad here.
The worst and funniest one has to be Markieff Morris, who straight-up mumbles his dialogue. It’s so bad the dialogue doesn’t even match up with the subtitles at points. It’s like the person doing the subtitles can’t even understand what he’s saying — or Morris maybe just read the line wrong.
In Yu Suzuki’s seminal Dreamcast gameShenmue, there’s a huge difference between the Japanese and English voice acting. The English VO, right off the bat, has poorer audio quality, but the performances themselves are straight from Dingo Pictures.
The actors are either performing with too low or way too high energy, but on the plus side, it makes the game a lot more entertaining and funny. However, Shenmue has a serious tone, so for a pursuit, you may want to play with Japanese voices, at least on your first playthrough. The sequels continued the bad voice-acting tradition, and Shenmue’s not the only Sega series to do this.
2003
Black Ops Entertainment
Encore Software
Not only does Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror have laughable voice acting, but the entire game is so bad it’s good, from the map oversights to the music, and especially to the lead character, Jake Seaver. Jake isa true American heroin the most bootleg way.
His one-liners are pretty bad and delivered so corny that you just can’t help but love it. He even has lines during normal gameplay. If you keep missing shots, he’ll yell, “Oh my god,” in the most defeated way, which is hilarious.
Most of the time, it’s much better to play games than watch them, but if there’s one set ofgames far better to watch, it’s theZeldaCDI titles. Specifically, the first two, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Link: The Faces of Evil. They’re just not fun to play, but watching the cutscenes is a total joy. The performances, the animation, the lines, and everything about them are legendary in gaming history.
There’s no way you’re not going to be entertained by its corniness and dollar-store-level charm. Frankly, it’s better than the Zelda animated series back in the day in terms of likeability. The cutscenes alone played a heavy part in the creation of the YouTube Poop genre of videos that still exist today, making these titles culturally significant.
There are certain voice performances where it’s so bad that a person intentionally trying to act bad could not recapture the same performance.The House of the Dead 2gives off that vibe. The game itself is incredible, and one of the best light gun shooters ever made, but the voice acting remains astoundingly poor.
You have the lead characters, James and Gary, who give off low-energy performances throughout the entire game, but nothing compares to the villain, Goldman. He sounds the closest to being a straight-up robot, but still clearly being a human. The actor’s delivery is that flat. To be frank, all of this adds to the game, making it much more enjoyable. The bad acting here is even better than the bad acting in the Uwe Boll movie.
The best so bad it’s good performances have so many laughable moments besides the ones typically talked about. This is why the originalResident Evilfrom 1996 still has the best so bad it’s good voice acting in any game. You have the iconic lines like “master of unlocking” and “Jill sandwich,” but there’s so much more than that.
The entire game, both scenarios, have so many laugh-out-loud moments, like the part near the end of Jill’s campaign where Jill and Barry both shout, “You’re here too” to each other. Wesker has a lot of funny lines, and Enrico is great. You really have to play the whole game for yourself to witness the greatness on offer here.
