Top 10 Worst Celebrity Performances in Video Games

Top 10 Worst Celebrity Performances in Video Games

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Top 10 Celebrity Performances in Videogames

Sigh…I guess Nolan North and Troy Baker were busy? Welcome to Watchmojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 Worst Celebrity Performances in Video Games. For this list we’ve looked at the most terrible instances of voice acting, motion capture and even some horrendous live action performances in video games.

#10: 50 Cent as Himself “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand” (2009)

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Rather unexpectedly for a game based on Fiddy fighting a paramilitary group in the Middle East the gameplay was actually praised. It is the lackluster performance of a woeful script that dragged this third-person shooter down. We were never expecting Telltale levels of story telling but could have at least hoped for a title that is so ridiculous in not taking itself too seriously. His performance is less ‘G’ and more ‘gee that was bad’.

It seemed like Bethesda had found a magic recipe in casting the former “Friends” star, he is a huge fan of the Fallout series and his trademark wit would surely be a perfect fit for a wisecracking mobster. Who knows what went wrong as every line he delivers is lacking the energy and improvisational edge that made his performance as Chandler so popular. Was Benny calling people ‘baby’ Perry’s misguided way of leaving his mark on the character or a poor piece of writing? We really hope it’s the latter as he can do so much better.

It was hoped that the former “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actress would turn in a gritty yet sympathetic performance in this third-person slasher and shooter. What we got was a character who comes across as obnoxious rather than as the cool anti-hero. The developers clearly had “Kill Bill” protagonist The Bride in mind when devising Rubi but she lacks the depth and motivation to come close to Tarantino’s movie character. Dushku probably didn’t have lots to work with but even so still gets a D- for effort. Interestingly enough this isn’t the first game VO flop from Eliza, as she reprised her role as Faith in Buffy The Vampire Slayer Chaos Bleeds Video Game, to very mixed results.

John McClane would be hugely disappointed in the effort that Willis made for this third-person shooter. His role is limited mainly to one-liners and the occasional stretch of dialogue, something that should have been natural for Willis, yet he still manages to leave his charisma at home. Willis’ involvement in the game diminished throughout development and it sounds like his interest in the performance went with it.

It really appears like the American Beauty Actress’s first take on her lines was her last take as every robotically delivered line comes with bizarre changes in tone and inflection. It takes you out of the game completely as her clunky dialogue sounds as though a machine that has no knowledge of how human conversation actually works put it together. Suvari’s soft voice could have been ideal for Aerith but her woeful performance will leave you cringing. Where’s Sephiroth when you need him?

By the time this video game tie-in was released the trio of actresses must have been well and truly sick of the cheesy action and cliché dialogue that has defined the series. Their collective performance reflected the overall quality of the game: rushed, flawed and ultimately misguided. The late Bernie Mac clearly saw sense and wisely did not reprise his role of Bosley for one of the worst video games ever.

Several actors took their characters from the Alien series to the digital realm but Biehn’s Hicks may have been the most anticipated. We need not have been so excited as all of the over-the-top machismo from the film he starred in was noticeably absent. After more than 30 years away from the character he couldn’t recapture what made Hicks so popular in a wooden display of monotonously reading off a sheet.

The Robertson family have never been afraid to dive into different forms of media with a Christmas album and musical both out there for you to enjoy. Their venture into video games however was perhaps one step too far. They’re certainly not actors and that is painfully obvious as the elements which made the TV show so popular were nigh on impossible to transfer into game form. The show works because it’s real. Video games are not. To be fair to the Robertson clan, this is one of the few things they failed at.

Walken has a bit of a problem whenever he takes on a voice-acting role: even his own voice sounds like a weird impersonation of the way he speaks. A puzzling paradox for a man of considerable acting talent but his voice always takes the attention away from the character he is portraying. They managed to put quite an ensemble together for this crime thriller but sadly Walken’s distinctive tones don’t bring anything to the party.

You know you’ve done a pretty poor job when Nolan North re-records voice work you have already done and then you’re taken out of the game altogether. Dinklage is one of the most popular actors in work at the moment yet his dull voice-work became the source of much amusement in the gaming community. How a man who is in such good form in Game of Thrones managed to miss the mark so dramatically in a video game is a mystery to us all. Do you agree with our list? Which celebrity performances in video games made you shake your head in disbelief?