45 Fictional martial artists in video games

Agent 47 is the codename of the protagonist and antihero of the Hitman video game franchise developed by Danish developer IO Interactive (IOI). He appears in all games in the series, as well as comics published by Dynamite Entertainment and two live action films. He first appeared in Hitman: Codename 47 (2000) and most recently in Hitman 2 (2018) and will appear in Hitman 3 (2021).

Akuma, known in Japan as Gouki , is a fictional character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games by Capcom. Akuma made his debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret character and hidden Boss. In the storyline of the Street Fighter video games, he is the younger brother of Gouken, Ryu's and Ken's master. In some games he also has an enhanced version named Shin Akuma or Shin Gouki in Japanese. Since his debut, Akuma has appeared in several subsequent titles and has been well received by both fans and critics.

Ash Crimson is a video game character in The King of Fighters fighting game series developed by SNK Playmore. His first appearance was in The King of Fighters 2003 as leader of its Hero Team. Ash, a teenager, participates in the series' fighting tournaments. He employs a personal fighting style that involves pyrokinesis with green flames. Despite being the series' protagonist since its third story arc, Ash's behavior is generally antagonistic and he tries to steal powers from several recurring characters, leaving them powerless. His identity and intentions are further explored in the 2011 title, The King of Fighters XIII, and he has been featured in print adaptations and a drama CD based on the games.

Bayonetta , real name Cereza, is the title character and protagonist of the Bayonetta video game series, developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega and Nintendo. She was created by Hideki Kamiya, designed by Mari Shimazaki and is voiced by Hellena Taylor in English and Atsuko Tanaka in Japanese.

Niko Bellic is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of Rockstar North's 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, the sixth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He also makes non-playable appearances in the game's episodic content The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, both released in 2009. Michael Hollick provided the character's voice and motion capture.

Big Boss is a video game character from the Metal Gear video game series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. He was first introduced in the 1987 Metal Gear game as the commanding officer and father of the main character, Solid Snake, later revealing himself as a terrorist leading a faction known as Outer Heaven. He is later featured in the prequel games, starting Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as a younger version of the character named Naked Snake , an American Special Forces Operator and decorated war hero until political manipulations cause him to be disillusioned when facing his own mentor, The Boss, and gradually develops his own private mercenary company. The original incarnation of Big Boss from the 1987 Metal Gear game is retroactively established as a separate character known as Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.

Blaze Fielding (ブレイズ・フィールディング), better known as just Blaze, is a player character in Sega's Streets of Rage series of beat 'em up games. Introduced in the original Streets of Rage in 1991, she is playable in all four games, starting out as an ex-police vigilante in the first game and becoming a private detective by the third game. Blaze is a master of judo who helps her companions, Adam Hunter and Axel Stone, defeat the crime syndicate boss Mr. X throughout all three games.

The Boss , also known as The Joy , is a fictional character from Konami's Metal Gear series.

Chie Satonaka is a fictional character from the 2008 video game Persona 4. There, she appears as a high school student who starts investigating a dimension labeled as the TV World alongside her friends. The kidnapping of her best friend Yukiko Amagi leads Chie to join the Investigation Team in working in a murder case where the victims are sent to the TV World to be killed by creatures known as Shadows.

Chris Redfield is a playable character and one of the protagonists in Capcom's Resident Evil horror video game series. Chris debuted as one of the two protagonists of the original Resident Evil video game, alongside his partner Jill Valentine, depicted as a member of the Raccoon City police department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS) team. He later becomes a founding member of the United Nations' Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).

Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise Tomb Raider. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic English archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around the world. Created by a team at British developer Core Design that included Toby Gard, the character first appeared in the video game Tomb Raider in 1996.

Sam Fisher is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series of video games developed by Ubisoft as well as a series of tie-in novels endorsed by Tom Clancy. His full name is first seen in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, the first game of the series, when he was using the computer in the V-22 Osprey to encrypt his home call. Fisher was originally voiced by veteran actor Michael Ironside in the first five installments of the series. In 2013, Eric Johnson assumed the voice and physical role in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Ironside later returned to the role in 2018, participating in a crossover downloadable content for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands and again in 2020 for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. He is also added as a playable character in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, voiced by Jeff Teravaienen.

Geese Howard is a fictional boss character appearing in SNK's Fatal Fury fighting game series. Debuting in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, Geese is the local crime boss of the fictional city of South Town. Geese created and hosts a fighting tournament named "The King of Fighters", in which he faces the brothers Terry and Andy Bogard who want to take revenge for their father's death. After several tournaments in the Fatal Fury series, Geese is killed by Terry in Real Bout Fatal Fury. However, he appears in following games without storyline as a "ghost" named Nightmare Geese . Geese has also appeared in other SNK's games such as The King of Fighters games, in which he seeks to get the power from the creature Orochi and often sends teams representing him. His young self makes an appearance in the second Art of Fighting game as the hidden boss character. He also appears as downloadable content in Bandai Namco's fighting game Tekken 7.

Glass Joe is a fictional French boxer from Nintendo's Punch-Out!! video game series. He first appeared in the arcade game Punch-Out!! in 1984 and three years later in the NES game of the same name. His most recent appearance was in the Wii installment of Punch-Out!!. He was originally designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and was revised by Makoto Wada for the NES game. He is voiced by Christian Bernard in the Wii game.

Goro Majima is a major recurring character in Sega's Yakuza video game series and one of the main playable protagonists of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Dead Souls, as well as the Majima Saga of Yakuza Kiwami 2. Introduced as a member of the Tojo clan, Majima takes an interest in the lifestyle of the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. He is seeking continually to fight him, seeing him as a rival but bonds with him across the franchise. Majima's character is explored in more detail during the prequel Yakuza 0, in which he is a 24-year-old former Yakuza and a playable protagonist along with Kiryu. In this game, Majima has a calmer demeanor that develops during a war between a number of families in a fight for a patch of land known as the Empty Lot. Majima also appears in the spin-off Dead Souls as well as the crossover Project X Zone 2. He is voiced by Hidenari Ugaki in Japanese, while Mark Hamill voices him in the English dub for the first entry and Matthew Mercer voices him in the English dub of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Frank Jaeger, better known by his codename Gray Fox, is a fictional character and protagonist from Konami's Metal Gear series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, he first appears in the series' original 1987 game Metal Gear, and is one of the few characters to appear in both the original 2D games and the later 3D games. First introduced in the original game as a high-ranking agent of FOXHOUND who goes missing during a mission to Outer Heaven, he is saved by fellow FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake but goes missing during the original game and its sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake during which he is revealed to have sided with Big Boss; he is eventually defeated and left for dead. The character is reintroduced in Metal Gear Solid as the Cyborg Ninja, a mysterious being wearing a powered armor exoskeleton and armed with a high-frequency blade. During Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND revolt at Shadow Moses, he confronts Solid Snake on several occasions, while also providing advice via CODEC as a faceless contact named Deepthroat. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set twenty-five years before the original Metal Gear, also features his teenage iteration using the codename Null.

Yumiko "Hibana" Imagawa , is a fictional player character who appears in the 2015 video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege—a tactical online first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal—and other video games published by French video game publisher Ubisoft. She was introduced in the fourth expansion Operation Red Crow, released on November 17, 2016.

Jade is a fictional character and the protagonist of the action-adventure video game Beyond Good & Evil. She is a photo-journalist, and was created by Ubisoft developer Michel Ancel, with the goal of creating a character resembling a real person, rather than a "sexy action woman". In Beyond Good & Evil, she and her uncle Pey'j, a half-pig half-human, work together to both rescue orphans they were taking care of and expose governmental corruption.

Jill Valentine is a fictional character in Resident Evil, a survival horror video game series created by Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as one of two player characters in the original Resident Evil (1996). A former member of Delta Force, Valentine initially works alongside her partner Chris Redfield to fight the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company whose bioterrorism creates zombies and other bio-organic weapons. She and Redfield later become founding members of the United Nations's Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).

Jin Kazama is a fictional character in the Tekken fighting game series created by Bandai Namco Entertainment. He was introduced as the protagonist in the 1997 game Tekken 3. Trained by his grandfather Heihachi Mishima, Jin wishes to avenge the apparent death of his mother Jun Kazama. However, Heihachi betrays Jin to awaken a genetic abnormality within his body known as the Devil Gene . He is also antagonized by his father, Kazuya Mishima, from whom he inherited the gene. While dealing with his relatives, Jin loses control of the Devil Gene, which causes his transformation into an alter ego named Devil Jin , first introduced as a non-playable character in Tekken 3 and playable ever since Tekken 5. Outside of the video games, Jin has appeared in the animated and live-action films adapted from the games and have also appeared as a playable character in several other game franchises.

Johnny Cage is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series and media franchise by Midway Games/NetherRealm Studios. He was introduced as the first of the series' original seven player characters in the first Mortal Kombat game in 1992, and has become a staple of the series. Inspired by Jean-Claude Van Damme, Cage is a cocky movie star who provides the comic relief of the franchise. He becomes a more rounded character in Mortal Kombat X, which introduces his and Sonya Blade's daughter Cassie Cage.

Carl "CJ" Johnson is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the fifth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He is voiced by Young Maylay, who also served as the likeness for the character.

Kazuya Mishima is a fictional character in Bandai Namco's Tekken fighting game series, first featured as the protagonist in the original 1994 game and later became one of the major antagonists of the series after the first. The son of worldwide conglomerate Mishima Zaibatsu CEO Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya seeks revenge against his father for throwing him down a cliff years earlier. Kazuya becomes corrupted in later games, seeking to obtain more power and later eventually comes into conflict with his son Jin Kazama. Kazuya possesses the Devil Gene, a mutation which can transform him into a demonic being known as Devil . Devil has often appeared as a separate character in various games. Kazuya is also present in related series media and other games.

Ken Masters , originally spelled in kanji as Ken with his original full name being unknown, is a recurring character in Capcom's Street Fighter series. Ken is the best friend and rival of Ryu, who has also appeared in all Street Fighter games. Ken's goal is to test his power against many different fighters and strives to become stronger. He uses improved Shoryuken ki techniques. The character has also appeared in other related media, such as the Street Fighter series and movie. Ken's physical appearance and biographical traits were, basically, inspired by American martial artist Joe Lewis.

Leon Scott Kennedy is a fictional character in the Resident Evil horror media franchise by Capcom. He debuted as one of the two playable characters of the 1998 video game Resident Evil 2. Leon later returned as the lead protagonist of Resident Evil 4 and as one of the seven playable characters of Resident Evil 6.

King Hippo is a fictional boxer from Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series. King Hippo first appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System game Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, as the second competitor in the Major Circuit. Subsequent reviews have characterized King Hippo as one of the most iconic characters from the game. The character is featured prominently on the NBC Saturday morning cartoon, Captain N: The Game Master. His obese figure and his face both resemble those of a hippopotamus.

Kazuma Kiryu is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Sega's action-adventure Japanese role-playing game series Yakuza. He was introduced in the 2005 game with the same name as fearsome yakuza nicknamed "the Dragon of Dojima" . Kiryu takes the blame for his boss' death to protect his best friend Akira Nishikiyama, resulting in his expulsion from the clan and a ten-year stay in prison. After leaving prison, Kiryu learns the crime world has changed and fights against the new threats in his life. He is voiced by Takaya Kuroda in Japanese and by Darryl Kurylo in the English version of the first game which he reprises 15 years later for Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Besides the two Yakuza live-action films, the character has also appeared in other video game including Project X Zone 2 and as downloadable content in Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise.

Kung Lao is a fictional character in the media franchise Mortal Kombat. A major hero in the Mortal Kombat series, introduced as a player character in the fighting game Mortal Kombat II in 1993. He is a former member of the White Lotus Society who stands in the shadow of his ancestor, the Great Kung Lao. Kung Lao is the brother-like friend of the series' male protagonist named Liu Kang and together they were the main characters and heroes of the spin-off game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. He gained considerable popularity and favorable critical reception, in large part because of his famous hat, which doubles as a weapon.

Liu Kang is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series from Midway Games, introduced as one of the original seven player characters in the 1992 first game as a Shaolin monk who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament to save Earthrealm (Earth). Following his victory in the tournament, Liu Kang becomes the Mortal Kombat series' primary protagonist as the champion and chief defender of Earthrealm guided by his mentor, the thunder god Raiden and has appeared in most titles.

Lucario is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Lucario first appeared as a Cameo in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team, then, a central character in the film Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, and later appeared in the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and subsequent sequels, also appearing in various merchandise, spin-off titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Lucario is voiced by Daisuke Namikawa, Daisuke Sakaguchi, Rikako Aikawa and Kiyotaka Furushima in Japanese, and Bill Rogers and Sean Schemmel in English.

The Assassin's Creed media franchise, which primarily consists of a series of open-world action-adventure stealth video games published by Ubisoft, features an extensive cast of characters in its historical fiction and science fiction based narratives. The series also encompasses a wide variety of media outside of video games, including novels, comic books, board games, animated films, a live action film, and an upcoming television series for Netflix. The series features original characters intertwined with real-world historical events and figures, and is centered on a fictional millennia-old struggle for peace between the Brotherhood of Assassins, inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins who fight for free will and embody the concept of chaos, and the Templar Order, inspired by the real-life Knights Templar who desire peace through control and embody the concept of order.

Ogre , known in Japan as Toshin , is a fictional character from the Tekken fighting game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment. He is introduced in Tekken 3 as an Aztec fighting god who is the game's main villain and final boss, along with his grotesque alter ego, True Ogre. Since his debut, Ogre has featured intermittently in the Tekken series with non-player roles in Tekken 4 as cameo and Tekken 5 in Devil Within Mode, with several appearances in crossover games outside the Tekken franchise. He has received mostly positive critical reception for his design and characterization.

Raiden is a video game character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway Games. Making his official debut as one of the original seven playable characters in 1992's Mortal Kombat, Raiden is one of the central characters of the franchise. Based on the Japanese thunder god, Raijin, and portrayed in the series canon as the thunder god and appointed protector of Earthrealm, Raiden defends the planet from myriad otherworldly threats alongside his handpicked warriors. He commands many supernatural abilities such as teleportation, flight, and control of lightning.

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. The series features a mixture of familiar Disney, Final Fantasy, The World Ends with You and Pixar characters, as well as several new characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which includes many of the Disney characters' official voice actors.

Ryu is a fictional Japanese fighting character and the main protagonist of Capcom's Street Fighter series. Having premiered in the first Street Fighter in 1987, Ryu appears as the game's lead character alongside his best friend Ken Masters. Other games in the series show Ryu to be highly focused on his training, aiming to become the strongest he can. In some games, Ryu has an alternative form known as Evil Ryu , which is the form Ryu takes while he is under the domination of the surge of murderous intent. Ryu purges the surge of murderous intent manifesting in Street Fighter V, an independent being called Kage or in Japan by the full name Kage-naru mono .

Ryuji Goda , is a fictional character from Sega's action-adventure game Yakuza series, first appearing in 2006's Yakuza 2, and also appearing in its 2017 remake, Yakuza Kiwami 2. Goda also appears as one of the main characters in the sixth installment of the series, Yakuza: Dead Souls, which does not follow the series' canon and is set in an alternate timeline where Goda survives his wounds at the end of Yakuza 2. Goda is most recently featured as the protagonist of a prequel story arc in Ryu ga Gotoku ONLINE, a freemium collectible card game spin-off exclusive to Japan.

Scorpion is a playable character and the mascot in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games/NetherRealm Studios. Making his debut as one of the original seven playable characters in Mortal Kombat in 1992, he is an undead ninja specter seeking revenge for his death at the hands of Quan Chi.

Solid Snake is a video game character and one of the primary protagonists of the Metal Gear series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. He is depicted as a former Green Beret and a highly skilled special operations soldier engaged in solo stealth and espionage missions, who is often tasked with destroying models of the bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha known as Metal Gear. Controlled by the player, he must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While his first appearances in the original Metal Gear games were references to Hollywood films, the Metal Gear Solid series has given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawa alongside an established personality while also exploring his relationship with his father and mentor Big Boss.

Sub-Zero is the name of a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios.

Tifa Lockhart is a fictional character in Square's role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII. Created and designed by Tetsuya Nomura, she has since appeared in the fighting game Ehrgeiz and made cameo appearances in several other titles, as well as the CGI film sequel to Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children and related games and media in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series.

Vergil is a fictional character from the Devil May Cry series that was created and published by Capcom. He was introduced in the first Devil May Cry game as a boss called Nelo Angelo . Vergil is one of two hybrid sons of a demon knight called Sparda and as a result possesses supernatural powers. He has appeared in three video games as one of the main antagonists opposing his twin brother, Dante, and in a novel and a manga based on the series. He is the one of the two main antagonists of Devil May Cry 3 and the final antagonist turned anti-hero of Devil May Cry 5. While his demon-half Urizen serves as the central antagonist, his human-half V appears in the latter game as a playable protagonist. A re-booted version of Vergil also appears in the 2013 video game DmC: Devil May Cry as the leader of a group of rouge vigilantes bent on stopping the demon king, Mundus.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is an action-adventure game developed in a collaboration between Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The tenth instalment in the Grand Theft Auto series, the game was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2006. A port for the PlayStation 2 was later released in March 2007. Set within the fictional Vice City in 1984, the game is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and follows the exploits of ex-soldier Victor Vance, a minor character originally featured in said game. The story centers around Victor's attempts to start and expand a criminal empire alongside his brother Lance, facing opposition from rival gangs, drug lords and other enemies.

Ada Wong is a fictional character in the Resident Evil horror franchise by Capcom. She is a mysterious and ambiguous antihero figure, working for the series' villains but also helping the protagonist Leon S. Kennedy. Introduced as a supporting character in the 1998 video game Resident Evil 2, Ada later appeared as a player character or in supporting roles in the video games Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6, as well as in the animated film Resident Evil: Damnation. The live-action film series' version of Ada appeared in Resident Evil: Retribution, portrayed by Li Bingbing. Ada has been well received and became one of the most popular characters in the series.

Final Fantasy IV, a role-playing video game released by Square in 1991, revolves around Cecil Harvey, a knight of Baron who embarks on a quest to defeat Golbez, a man that is controlling the king of Baron. During Cecil's quest, he is joined by his childhood friends Kain Highwind and Rosa Farrell, as well as other warriors from around the world who also seek to stop Golbez. The visuals of the characters were designed by Yoshitaka Amano. After its initial release, Final Fantasy IV was later ported to multiple consoles. In 2007, Square Enix released an enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS that added voice acting to both the Japanese and English versions.

Yoshimitsu (吉光) is a name used by several player characters in the Tekken and Soulcalibur series of fighting games by Namco. Although details of the character's biographies have varied in different games and other media, each Yoshimitsu is consistently portrayed as the leader of the honorable Manji clan, a practitioner of ninjutsu, and a master swordsman with a mechanical prosthetic arm. The characters have been well-received by critics.