Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games
There are a lot of great voice actors, and a lot of great voice acting in games. From Mark Hamill as Christopher Blair to Troy Baker is, well, everything. Great story with great voice acting can really draw you into the whole experience. These are not those games. Join http://www.watchmojo.com as we count down our picks for the top 10 worst voice acting in video games.
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Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games
Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games - Best of WatchMojo
Voice acting’s not as easy (voice crack – clear throat) voice acting’s not as easy as it looks. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down the Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games. For this list, we’ve selected the most hilariously awful voice acting performances throughout the history of video games.
#10: “Grand Theft Auto: London 1969” (1999)
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Triple-A production, intricate storylines, amazing acting, atmosphere and cut scenes are all things that gamers can expect Rockstar to deliver in modern “GTA” games, but it wasn’t always that way. Take for example to oft-forgotten spinoff of the first game, “London: 1969.” The older “GTA” games were pretty fun overhead crime simulation games that set the foundation for later entries in the series, but let’s be honest, it really messes with your immersion when the crime bosses all sound like your drunk uncle doing his best Hugh Grant impression.
#9: “The Town with No Name” (1992)
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This unbelievably bad point-and-click Western adventure game, which follows a nameless cowboy as he wanders around a poorly rendered town, features terrifying character graphics and almost non-existent gameplay. The real star of the show, however, is the sound. The main character sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger if he was a robot trapped in an abandoned building. Not to mention, the sound mixing is often so bad that you actually can’t even hear the dialogue over the music….unless that was on purpose to mask the bad performances, in which case, smart move.
#8: “Last Alert” (1989)
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The first of many Japanese titles on this list suffering from ….unfortunate translation issues, “Last Alert” is a military-based action title. The North American version had such a small budget that all of the voices were done by only a few people, and the result sounds a lot like when your dad would try to do all the different voices for every character in a storybook. What you end up with is a bunch of horribly mismatched voices and characters, including a CIA agent that sounds like a 15 year boy and a Chinese accent that’s nothing short of racist.
#7: “Mega Man 8” (1996)
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People have been complaining for years that Capcom has given up on the “Mega Man” series, cancelling several games in the storied franchise. They also seem to forget that some of the more recent entries in the main series, especially “Mega Man 8” were clearly not high Capcom’s priority list. “Mega Man 8” is especially frustrating because of how rushed everything feels, with several obvious acting mistakes and slip-ups. Seriously, they didn’t have enough time to re-do a couple of takes? Also, I didn’t realize Elmer Fudd gave up on hunting and started making robots.
#6: “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” (1997)
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Often considered one of the best games ever made, “Symphony of the Night” also has some of the most laughably bad dialogue and voice acting ever seen in a game. Luckily, beyond a few interludes where protagonist Alucard meets with characters in Dracula’s Castle, the dialog is kept to a minimum. This is one of the few instances where the gameplay is so amazingly good that the game’s standing on “best games of all time” lists isn’t affected by Konami’s half-assed North American port.
#5: “Deep Fear” (1998)
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This survival horror game was never released in North America, but got a English voice track for those who got to play it in Europe before the Sega Saturn really went belly up. In “Deep Fear,” players control John Mayor as he explores various underwater bases that have been overtaken by a strange parasite. Other than the dialogue, the sound in “Deep Fear” is often great, with Sega having employed Kenji Kawai, a famous Japanese composer. He clearly never touched the voice acting though, because it’srobotic, emotionless and sometimes offensive – especially the architect character, who speaks in a high falsetto the whole time.
#4: “Link: The Faces of Evil” & “Zelda: The Wand of Gameleon” (1993)
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Link has always been the strong and silent type, except for when he’s yelling and screaming on the battlefield. If Link’s voice truly sounds like it does in the Phillips CD-I Zelda games, then everyone should be grateful that he speaks so seldomly. If they were going to make him speak, did they have to give him literally the most annoying voice of all time – to say nothing about the creepy animation. It’s lucky for Nintendo that these Phillips “Zelda” games are so rare, because with any more exposure, “The Legend of Zelda’s” legacy might have been tarnished forever.
#3: “Resident Evil” (1996)
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The original “Resident Evil” is one of the scariest games of all time, making players feel trapped and claustrophobic – so it really ruined the immersion when tense zombie survival situations are interspersed with non-sensical lines, crappy acting, and cringe-worthy live action FMV sequences. Although everyone is guilty here, the worst offender is Barry “Jill Sandwich” Burton. Funnily enough, the game actually had an Japanese voice track too, but director Shinji Mikami had it removed because he felt like it didn’t fit the North American setting and – wait for it – because it was really bad as well.
#2: “Dynasty Warriors 3” (2001)
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Though “Dynasty Warriors 3” is the pinnacle of the series’ funny voice-acting efforts, the most surprising thing is that Koei STILL hasn’t rectified the problem more than 10 years later. More recent entries in this hack-and-slash series still provide endless chuckles with the hammy, over-acted performances by the various feudal lords. Also, the English voice actors manage to mispronounce almost every single character’s name. Koei should spend some of the money they make releasing nearly identical “Dynasty Warriors” games every other year and maybe some better actors! Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “Clock Tower” (1997) “House of the Dead 2” (1998) “Time Crisis” (1995) “Vampire Night” (2000)
#1: “Chaos Wars” (2006)
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What happens when you mix a bunch of characters from obscure games like “Gungrave” and “Shadow Hearts” into an extremely niche strategy-RPG crossover? Well, you get “Chaos War.” Although the gameplay isn’t horrible, the voice acting in this game means you might not actually ever get to it. Imagine the most annoying Anime voice you’ve ever heard. Then, give that voice to every single character and sit through cutscene after cutscene of poorly scripted and acted dialogue. The story goes that the CEO of the company behind the localization actually got different members of his family to record a bunch of the voiceover – as evidenced by the fact that they all share the same last name. Agree with our list? Did we forget any awful video game voice acting? For more top 10s that are “the master of unlocking” published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.