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Top 10 WORST Video Game Sidekicks EVER

Top 10 WORST Video Game Sidekicks EVER

Sometimes, no matter how much we love a video game, there’s at least one character we kinda want to strangle to death. Nine times out of ten, that character is a sidekick. They’re the sort of presence that barely matters, but usually finds a way to be the loudest and most annoying force that isn’t actively trying to kill you. From failed attempts at mascots to the medium’s worst voice acting, here are the most annoying sidekicks in video games.

Axl

Axl

Towards the end of its life (although we may yet see a revival), the Mega Man X series suffered from quite the identity crisis. It’s always hard to figure out what’s wrong when your coolness rating starts dropping, but Capcom really struggled here. One of the biggest examples is Axl, a new character who was introduced alongside Z and Zero. Axl looks like a fanart reject, complete with bizarre pistol-like weapons, spiky hair, and a young and energetic personality. There’s bad pandering, and then there’s Axl.

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Charmy the Bee

Charmy the Bee

The Sonic the Hedgehog series has quite a reputation, including the precense of more and more strange companion characters. While it’s fun and cool to hate on the indestructible Tails for no reason, one animal sidekick friend stands out particuarly as the worst of the bunch. Charmy just looks completely useless, especially next to his much cooler friends.

Claptrap

Claptrap

Claptrap, from the Borderlands series, is one of the worst abominations from video game time. Claptrap is like a rejected Invader Zim character that has been glossied up, reworked, and rebooted, then stuffed into a blender full of memes. Every single time this small robot screeches a bad joke, I want to rip my hair out.

Dom

Dom

Dom, from Gears of War , is often referred to as the heart and soul of that game. He is considered the character who was allowed to be vulnerable in a sea of meatheads. But in reality, Dom is basically just a moving vehicle for tragic plot development setpieces. From a fridged wife to a totally far too on the nose self-sacrifice sequence, Dom’s true purpose was to trick players into thinking the story was better than it actually was by whining a lot.

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Donald Duck

Donald Duck

It’s hard to hate on Donald here, because he’s one of the all-time greats. He’s totally fine in plenty of other games, but his precense in Kingdom Hearts just always grates at me. From his goofy voice trying to deliver exposition to his total ineptitude during any and all combat situations, Donald just makes those games a slightly worse experience. Goofy is alright, though.

Lanky Kong

Lanky Kong

Now, let’s be reasonable here. Lanky Kong’s verse in the legendary “DK Rap” is pretty good. It almost justifies his presence. But, in a game as uneven as Donkey Kong 64 , actually playing as Lanky Kong is one of the worst parts. He’s slow, he’s weird and floaty, his weapon is lame, and he makes annoying noises constantly. Sorry Lanky, you’ve been voted off of DK Island.

Navi

Navi

Here’s the obvious entry on the list. What can be said about Navi that hasn’t been said already? Nintendo has always struggled with finding helpful tools in the relatively obtuse The Legend of Zelda series, and during Ocarina of Time the solution ended up being a NPC that yelled at you all the time. This would unfortunately become a trend. But for Breath of the Wild , you don’t get anything. So maybe we miss Navi a little sometimes.

Rabbids

Rabbids

Remember when Rayman 4 was going to be awesome? Yeah, me too. It still hurts that Michel Ancel ultimately had to pivot away from the dark, whimsical world of Rayman adventure games to a goofy Mario Party wannabe featuring extremely dated, screaming cartoon rabbits. Things sort of worked out for Rayman , but the Rabbids will never go away.

Teddie

Teddie

Everyone loves Teddie, but I’m here to correct the record and say that Teddie actually sucks. While I’ll always appreciate a good bear pun, that doesn’t excuse every other thing about Teddie’s presence being excrutiating to sit through. From his whiny voice to his constant creeping on the women in Persona 4 , I’m really not down with the silly mascot character in my 100-hour JRPG being a sex pest. Sorry, but I don’t make the rules. Teddie is canceled.

Slippy Toad

Slippy Toad

An even more obvious entry than Navi, Slippy Toad completely deserves the top spot on this list and any other one like it on the Internet. While there’s a lot to like about the Star Fox series, having to babysit this useless, yappy frog boy is consistently terrible. And for some reason, it never ends. Slippy’s role became almost like a meme or inside joke, at the expense of everyone just trying to enjoy Star Fox . Go away, Slippy.

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