The 10 Most Awesome Real or Fictional Politicians in Video Games

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall

Simply by the virtue of being Arnold Schwarzenegger alone does the governor of California slip onto this list, which is something that lesser men wouldn’t be able to do considering that not a single one of his awesome movies was translated into anything less than an awful video game– Terminator, Total Recall, The Last Action Hero– all awful. But he’s Arnold and he would come at us with his hunting knife again if he weren’t on this list, though we would have been perfectly happy with a Kindergarten Cop game if there was just an 8-bit close up “IT’S NOT A TUMOR!” cut scene.

9. Bill Clinton in NBA Jam

In the 90s, long before Obama came on the scene, it was hard to imagine America loving a politician more than we loved Bill Clinton when he first won the presidency. He was on Arsenio Hall, Animaniacs and as a secret unlockable character in the arcade classic NBA Jam. There was nothing in the world like dunking from half court over fools who thought Slick Willy was worthless on the b-ball court.

8. President Shinra in Final Fantasy VII

In his first appearance in the Final Fantasy VII world, Shinra got a small billing, but later on as Square Enix sucked the FFVII teet dry, President Shinra showed that he was not at all a man to be trifled with, destroying terrorists and crushing traitors by wielding his giant fists and his permanent scowl, turning all who dare question him into putty.

7. Master D in Bionic Commando

Hitler has long been a staple bad guy of video games– from Castle Wolfenstein to Medal of Honor, but in the non-Japanese version of Bionic Commando, Hitler was changed to Master D, but we all knew it was still Hitler, even if Master D had a goofy orange mustache

(conveniently left out of the above re-do)
instead of Hitler’s dark Charlie Chaplin ’stache. But what’s more evil than a resurrected Hitler come back to take over the world? Not a whole lot, but thankfully America had a guy with a retractable bionic arm on its side.

6.Ronnie Raygun in Nuclear War / Ronald Reagan in Bad Dudes

Ronald Reagan, the wild west cowboy actor turned president sadly came to fame several decades before video games, or we’d like to think that Bedtime for Bonzo would have made an awesome side scrolling platformer. But that doesn’t mean that old man President Reagan would live forever without showing up in video games– au contraire, he was in quite a few games in the 80s, but he was definitely the best in his final scne in Bad Dudes where he invites the Bad Dudes out for a burger and in the PC classic Nuclear War, where he and other world leaders of the time mercilessly lobbed nukes at each other for world domination. Two very different Ronnies indeed, but awesome enough combined to put him in 6th on this list.

5. Abraham Lincoln in Fight Club

Other than Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln is definitely a president that really should show up more often in fighting and action games. Long, lean with one hell of a reach, Honest Abe is an unlockable character in Fight Club where he breaks faces of those who try to oppress others. Oh, and Teddy Roosevelt. Who do we have to wine and dine to get Teddy Roosevelt into a fighting game?

4. Andrew Ryan in Bioshock

Many men dream of having their own utopian city, few men have the money and the cojones to do it, but one man that did was Andrew Ryan. Born of the oppressive Soviet state, he longed for a world where art and creativity would flourish and so he built his city deep under the waves to keep out undesirables– a sort of an Ayn Rand paradise. Only keeping your citizens locked away in a paradise away from everyone else is no paradise at all and soon Ryan had a revolt on his hands. But almost no one in video game history represents the single-minded ego-maniac genius like him.

3. Lucas Simms in Fallout 3

Of anyone in Fallout 3, Mayor Lucas Simms of Megaton represents both the compassion and toughness that has to exist in a post-apocalyptic fallout world. If you wanted to be his friend, if you wanted to be a productive member of his community, he would be your best ally, but if you crossed him, he was absolutely not afraid to put a bullet in your skull… which made going pure evil and taking out the entire town of Megaton such a difficult and bittersweet accomplishment. Hey, look, a new hat!

2. Mayor Mike Haggar in Final Fight

No matter who you’ve ever voted for in any election, no matter what sort of election rhetoric they put up, you can guarantee that none of them are so willing to put their money where their mouth is like Mayor Mike Haggar. “I’m going to get tough on crime” they say. And what do they do? Hire more cops. Screw that. Mike Haggar will go out onto the streets by himself, rip off his shirt and deliver a crushing pile driver to every single gangster and drug dealer he crosses. That’s being tough on crime.

1. Michael Wilson in Metal Wolf Chaos

So far, every politican on this list has had something that’s special that’s made them stand out in some extraordinary way, but when the United States is taken over by an evil vice president and his henchmen, most people would run to their fortified bunker, but not Michael Wilson. A descendent of Woodrow Wilson, President M. Wilson does the exact opposite of run and hide– he hops in his mech suits, flies to the west coast and starts liberating American cities one by one. In a giant mech suit. Obama, it’s your move.