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The 50 most gloriously stupid character names in gaming

Features
By Maxwell McGee, David Houghton published 30 January 2017

50 gaming luminaries who surely must have been bullied at school

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Rosco McQueen

Seen having a stupid name in: Rosco McQueen, Firefighter Extreme.

Name is stupid because it sounds like: the name of a southern '70s sheriff who works by his own rules but gets the job done.

Master Chief

Seen having a stupid name in: the Halo series.

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Name is stupid because it sounds like: of all the real-world naval ranks available to them, Bungie chose the one most likely to sound like "Captain Boss" to those uninitiated in military designations.

Edge Maverick

Seen having a stupid name in: Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

Name is stupid because it sounds like: the name a 10 year-old would give themselves if handed a deed poll form shortly after being handed a bottle of whiskey and a giant bag of Skittles.

Vincent Valentine

Seen having a stupid name in: Final Fantasy VII and its multitudinous spin-offs.

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Name is stupid because it sounds like: the name of a teenage goth's online alter-ego. Or alternately, that of a French porn star.

Look, I'm going to stop doing the porn star joke now, because a) it's not a joke, and b) it applies to nearly all of them. Can we just agree that it goes without saying from this point on? It'll save me a lot of time. Like, literally seconds.

Cloud Strife

Seen having a stupid name in: Final Fantasy VII and its multitudinous spin-offs.

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  • Mass Effect 2 - Garrus The 25 best video game stories of all-time

Name is stupid because it sounds like: Square-Enix realised that "Cloud" sounded too much like the product of hippie parenting. Given that Cloud was to be their most emo hero to date, they thus stuck "Strife" on the end in order to add additional angst. He might as well be called Rainbow Misery.

Cream the Rabbit

Seen having a stupid name in: Far too many Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Name is stupid because it sounds like: an instruction to do something unpleasant to a rabbit.

Mace Griffin

Seen having a stupid name in: Mace Griffin, Bounty Hunter.

Name is stupid because it sounds like: the developers decided that sticking together the respective names of a medieval weapon and a mythical beast was a dead-cert route to badassery. And it should be. But in practice, it isn't.

BJ Blazkovicz

Seen having a stupid name in: the Wolfenstein series

Name is stupid because it sounds like: iD effectively tried to shoehorn the word "blast" into the name of an action hero.

Shoot Gunner

Seen having a stupid name in: Metal Gear

Name is stupid because it sounds like: the subtitle of any modern military FPS.

Decoy Octopus

Seen having a stupid name in: Metal Gear Solid

Name is stupid because it sounds like: a gadget used by James Bond during the ultra-camp Roger Moore period.

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Former (and long-time) GamesRadar+ writer, Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.

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