Real Life Inspirations Behind These Game Characters

Like any art form, video games have a history of being inspired by the real world that produces them. Whether it is the gorgeous rendering of real world locations in the Assassin's Creed franchise or the Polish folklore infusion in the heart of the Witcher series, the blueprints of many of the best games and their characters begin right here on earth. Art imitates life, and video games are well suited to support that claim as graphical technology continues to push the boundaries of what separates what we see on our screens from what we experience in our lives.

Even some of the most iconic characters in all of video games have their roots in some real world counterparts, however unlikely that may seem. Animals, actors, past relationships: everything is on the table when it comes to what video game developers are willing to use to launch their next character into superstardom. Here's our collection of some of the most interesting, funny, or downright bizarre inspirations for popular video game characters.

It's hard to believe that a character as iconic as Mario himself has any inspiration rooted in the real world. The Italian plumber by trade but adventurer by nature is larger than life at this point, having starred in a number of gaming's best platformers. When it comes to Mario — full name, apparently, Mario Mario — he's the kind of fictional character that feels as though he's always existed.

That obviously isn't the case, though, and the story behind Mario's inspiration is also perfect for the character. Originally, Mario was called Jumpman, and President of Nintendo of America Minoru Arakawa and other executives were trying to figure out an Americanized name for the game's player avatar.

A man named Mario Segale owned the business park housing Nintendo's American operation during the early '80s, and the story goes that Segale came to Arakawa to demand payment on a late rent. Apparently, Segale was so forceful and intimidating that when he left, one of the Nintendo executives shouted "Super Mario!" out of respect for how passionate the argument had been. Just like that, a multimedia superstar and one of the most recognizable video game characters ever created had his name.

Sonic the Hedgehog is mostly known for two things: his distinctive blue fur and his penchant for traveling at high speeds. Given that Sonic is a pretty wild interpretation of an otherwise unassuming mammal, it's probably hard to believe anything in real life outside of the common hedgehog was an inspiration for him.

Sonic is flashy, though, and he gets his flair from one of the most dazzling pop superstars music has ever seen in Michael Jackson. Yes, the King of Pop himself was an inspiration in how Sonic's character design ultimately worked out. Sonic's sneakers were inspired by the cover of Michael Jackson's Bad album, which used white and red in heavy contrast with each other; apparently, Sonic character designer Naoto Ohshima imagined Sonic's legs spinning with the color combination of Jackson's album and that was all it took to give the character his cool kicks.

Michael Jackson's association with the Sonic the Hedgehog series goes even deeper, though. Apparently, Jackson also wrote music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that was eventually scrubbed from history when the first allegations regarding his behavior emerged. Jackson still wrote several Sonic 3 compositions but then chose to remain uncredited so that the music remained in the game, although this has never been corroborated by Sega — just a bunch of the musicians who also worked on the game, who do seem like rather credible sources.

When people hear the word Pokemon, they typically think of the series' most popular creature Pikachu. While the undeniably cute yellow rodent has a few cool facts about it, its real-life inspiration is, well, a rodent. It's not the most exciting or interesting stuff.

Then there's Snorlax, a Pokemon that was inspired by one of the designers who worked on the original games, Koji Nishino. That's right: the giant, sleep-loving Normal-type is inspired by a real person. Even better, that person is totally okay with being the inspiration for a Pokemon that has come to represent laziness in the face of most of life's struggles!

For those interested, Nishino is not a giant man who sleeps most of his days away. He is a larger person in terms of stature, though, and his nickname, Kabigon, is what Snorlax's Japanese name is. Kabigon comes from the Japanese word "kabi," which means "mold": apparently, Nishino has such a ravenous appetite that he would even eat food that had gone moldy.

Seeing the two side-by-side really does showcase how much Snorlax is influenced by Nishino. Who knew that one of the Pokemon characters we relate the most to was also inspired by a real human being!

Arthur Morgan is a pretty archetypal character when it comes to cowboy westerns. He's a man torn between doing what's right for him and what's right from a moral perspective, and he doesn't always land on an answer that's satisfying, making him a very divisive but sympathetic character.

Apparently, though, Morgan wasn't inspired by actors like Clint Eastwood, at least not on the same level as his main inspiration. Roger Clark, the voice actor behind Morgan and thus someone intimately responsible for how the character comes across, has said that the biggest influence for Arthur Morgan was actually Toshiro Mifune.

Mifune is best known for a sixteen-film collaboration with legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in works like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood. Mifune's characters were samurai or ronin who were gruff, with a gravelly, sometimes difficult-to-understand tone that was the direct opposite of the usually clean-cut samurai.

Clark definitely didn't deviate Morgan's voice too far from Mifune. While there are elements of other famous actors present in the way Arthur Morgan drawls or acts, the influence of Toshiro Mifune is huge, and it's a nice nod to one actors who helped influence the way we perceive samurai — and, by extension, Western — films in the modern day.

It really isn't difficult to figure out who Street Fighter's Balrog is meant to be based on. Athletic, intimidating boxer? Notable mean-mugging during fighting? Street Fighter 2 was released in 1991, during the height of one Mike Tyson's stardom in the boxing world. Balrog is, quite clearly, based on Tyson, who ended up becoming one of the most talented and infamous boxers in the sport's history.

The connection between Balrog and Tyson was supposed to be much more obvious, though. Originally, the Japanese version of the game labeled Balrog as Mike Bison instead, a very clear homage to the popular fighter. Later, the names of the characters M. Bison, Balrog, and Vega were all switched when they released in the US versions, which later became the correct way to refer to them. So what happened?

According to Street Fighter executive producer Yoshinori Ono, there isn't a real reason for it. Apparently, during the switch to the US version of Street Fighter 2, the easiest way to address the issue was to switch programming numbers around. Switching those numbers changed the names the characters were associated with, and thus the versions of three popular Street Fighter characters came into being in the West.

That also explains why M. Bison is in the game but not the boxing character that kind of name might be associated with. The more you know!