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Whether over online servers or couch-co-op, blasting aliens, or jumping on mushrooms, there is nothing better than teaming up with your friends and family to play video games. But for every player one, there must be a player two, and regardless of whether t𒀰hey are a friend or a stranger, they must have their own character.
For every Mario, there must be a Luigi and player two characters can often fulfill different roles. They can be a source of scripted banter, flesh out details about the main character, provide information about the world, or simply be there to make the world or scenario more realistic. These are our favorites!
Updated on April 16, 2023, by Gabrielle Huston: We've added a few extra characters and spruced up this list a little bit to really showcase the best and brightest! After all, the younger siblings who were forced to play them deserve love too.
9 Didܫdy Kong𒁃 - Mario
Diddy Kong first appeared in Donkey Kong Country, which released in 1994 and featured Donkey and Diddy Kong as co-stars! Ever since, he has appeared in Mario games as Donkey Kong's sidekick. However, Diddy Kong was originally supposed to be just a redesign of Donkey Kong Jr., so it's hard to blame people who see him and get the impression he's Donkey Kong's son.
He's kinda the Luigi to Donkey Kong's Mario, or the Waluigi to Donkey Kong's Wario. To trade off Donkey Kong's strength, Diddy Kong is quick and nimble. And Diddy Kong is the one in th🌟e duo with the girlfriend: Dixie Kong!
8 Dominic Santiago - Geaℱrs of War ⛦
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Arguably one of the modern trendsetters when it comes to split-screen multiplayer, the original Gears Of War trilogy contains some deep themes, such as how warring over resources will lead to the destruction of the world and the evils of blindly following orders. But one of the most notable themes is brotherly love, something that is beautifully personified by main character Marcus Fenix, and Dominic Santiago, the player two🍷 role.
A soldier for the Coalition of Ordered Governments (or C.O.G.), it is Dom who busts Marcus out of jail at the beginning of the first Gears of War game, and the two fight together in the final war effort against the Locust, as well as the fight against the Lambent. Dom's story is incredibly tragic. He is still remembered in both t🌊he world of the Gears franchise and in real life as one ꧑of the more iconic player two characters in modern games.
7 𝔍 The Arbiter -🦄 Halo 3
First appearing as a playable character in Halo 2, the Arbiter Thel' Vadam quickly became one of the most recognizable characters in the Halo franchise. The Sangheili (or Elite) commander who led the Covenant forces on the first Halo array in Halo: Combat Evolved, he later fell from his esteemed position and assumed the position of Arbiter near the beginning of Halo 2. The Arbiter would later defect from the Covenant, taking the Sangheili with him, allying with the UNSC and humanity during Halo 3.
It is during Halo 3's campaign that the Arbiter is relegated to the player two slot, with player one taking the role of franchise protagonist Master Chief. Despite being a very different character to John 117, the Arbiter has a similar playstyle, and both characters start each campaign level with the same equipment. The only real difference is in the firearms that the two characters use, with the Arbiter starting each mission with the Covenant equivalent of the weaponry that Chief uses. Despite this, the Arbiter is still one of the most iconic secondary protagonists in first-person shooter history and has continued to appear in Halo media long after the end of the original trilogy, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with many calling for🔜 him to 𓃲receive his own game.
6 John Car💮ver - Dead Space 3
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Despite belonging to a franchise known for isolating players in cramped environments, Dead Space 3 could not escape the co-op action game trend of the early 2010s. This meant teaming necromorph slaying expert Issac Clarke with a new character. But the question remained; who would join this titan of undead-alien-monster killing? The answer was John Carver, a sergeant of the EarthGov armed forces, who is out for reve♉nge against the necromorphs after his wife and child died during an outbreak.
Despite being a main character, Carver has little relevance to the overall plot of Dead Space 3, with the game only having three co-op missions, and the character seemingly disappearing at random when the game is played as a single-player experience. However, Dead Space 3 contains some innovative ideas, one of them being the fact that each co-op player will see different things. It is an interesting idea, and one that hoꦑpefully other developers take inspiration from.
5 🥃 Atlas and P-Body - Portal 2 ✤
So, these two robots are kinda both the player 2 to each other? Or, you could almost argue they're both the player 2 to Chell? Although, the latter is harder to defend, since you can't play them alongside Chell. Portal had garnered a lot of fan support and warranted a sequel, Portal 2, in which the developers scaled up a lot of the things we loved about the first game, and added tons of extras! One of those was a co-op mode. The primary campaign was still single-player, but a completely separate two-player campaign was included which gave some context to the main story.
When you venture through the two-player campaign, you and your partner play as robots that GLaDOS was designing to replace Chell as her test subjects. They can be replaced as many times as required; what's better than that? We think they deserve a place on this list, even though they're not the traditional second-player character like the others featured here, because they're just so fun and memorable!
4 Moira Burton - Resident E🤪vil: Revelations 2
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Despite being another horror franchise that typically relies on creating a sense of isolation for players, Resident Evil is no stranger to co-op gameplay, increasing♛ly incorporating multiplayer elements into the mainline game𒐪s as the series progressed. It is in spin-off title Resident Evil: Revelations 2 where some of the franchise's more original multiplayer ideas were born. The concept is simple; an established Resident Evil character would team up with a new character. One of them would be able to use weapons, playing similarly to a regular RE game, while tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhe other would have to use other methods to defend themselves.
Moira Burton, the estranged daughter of Resident Evil mainstay Barry Burton, is teamed up in this game with recurring protagonist Claire Redfield. Due to her dislike of guns, as well as not being the experienced monster hunter that Claire is, Moira is primarily equipped with either bricks which she can throw or crowbars to attack the mutated hordes. This makes Moira more of a support character in contrast to Claire's gun-toting role in the game.
3 ♛ Gooey - Kirby
Gooey is a fun, circular, blob friend for Kirby who made his debut in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and got the spotlight in Kirby's Dream Land 3. It's in the latter title where he features as the second player character. Gooey is blue and distinguished especially by his long, pink tongue that he uses for everything.
Gooey is a lot like Kirby in many ways, using his tongue to swallow things and earn Copy Abilities or throw Star Bullets. However, the creators gave him a much goofier personality than Kirby; Kirby is perfectly capable of sitting by the water and fishing, while Gooey is still off in the background spinning. He's almost always disoriented and stumbling, and his giant tongue makes him fascinated in anything he can eat.
2 Tails - Sonic The Hedgehog 🅘 𒁏
Another iconic videogame character, Miles Prower, also known as Tails, is a yellow fox with two tails who can use them to fly. Like several Sonic characters, including the titular hedgehog and franchise villain Dr. Eggman, Tails was designed as part of an internal design competition by Sega to create a sidekick ꦇfor Sonic. The result was Tails, who might not have been as brave as the blue speedster, but who still had a lot of heart.
First appearing as a playable character in 1992's Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Tails has since made several appearances throughout the history of the Sonic franchise. If there is a new Sonic game released, expect the Blue Blur to be joined by his good buddy Tails at some point in the story. Tails has also stepped out of Sonic's shadow (pun not intended) since his creation, appearing as the main character in a series of spin-off games, including 1995's Tails Sky Patrol, which was released exclusively in Japan.
1 Lui♓gi - Mario ꦬ
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It's a him. The second most famous Italian plumber in the world, Luigi is a staple of Nintendo's Mario franchise. Standing apart from his brother with his lanky frame and green clothes, his silhouette is almost as iconic as Mario's. Almost. First appearing in the Game & Watch game Mario Bros, Luigi was the character that was controlled by the second player, before later becoming a primary character in Super Mario Bros 2.
In some circles, Luigi has managed to eclipse his more famous brother in popularity, with some fans citing his larger personality✃ as a selling point. He has since starred as the main character in a number of spin-off games, such as Mario Is Missing, or, more famously, the Luigi's Mansion series of games. He even appeared as a villain in Super Paper Mario!
