12 Old School Video Game Characters Who Were Style Icons

Can't bite this steeze.

May 23, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Old-school video game characters come in more flavors than we can keep track of. By our accounting, some of them were pretty sharp dressers.

Granted we're still a long way off from a video game themed runway appearing at Fashion Week, but we've still got our fingers crossed. Summer trench-coats, mesh man-wraps, and beach goth are just a few fashion inspirations that we can take away from these fashion forward old-school video game characters.

12. Scrooge McDuck

Style Icon: Scrooge McDuck

What about this doesn't scream 'owning it'? Yeah, he's a duck, that's a kilt (before Kanye did it), and he's working a pimpish cane into the mix. Also, look at that focus and determined cock of the head. Scrooge McDuck couldn't give one one thousandth of a fowl what you think. What's that, a pair of rimless glasses? Do it.

11. Carmen Sandiego

Style Icon: Carmen Sandiego

One of the most popular cos-play choices out there, because we're assuming it's easier to get your hands on a red trench coat and over-sized fedora than say, a full suit of armor. Carmen is a stylish fitstress that has inspired countless fans to break out the ankle length outerwear during the fall.

10. Gordon Freeman

Style Icon: Gordon Freeman

Accessories can sometimes be the little detail that tie a whole ensemble together. Sure that crisply manicured media consultant goatee is tight work, we're even feeling the grade school teacher's assistant eye-wear, but what really works for Gordon and the whole Half-Life series is that crowbar. It's such a fashionably subtle reminder of extreme violence.

9. Wrestlemania

Style Icon: Everyone from Wrestle Mania Challenge

Seriously, everyone from this game was light years ahead of their style contemporaries. Feathered mullets, Rock-a-Billy pompadours, wrap-around themed sunglasses, face-paint, and police inspired gear wouldn't be out of place today. In fact, it would be encouraged.

8. Tommy Vercetti

Style Icon: Tommy Vercetti

The man who's single-handedly responsible for bringing back cheap Hawaiian shirts and crippling coke addiction, Tommy Vercetti was a style icon the minute Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hit the streets in 2002. From grey pinstriped suits with a pink shirt and grey loafers to a black tracksuit with white sneakers, Vercetti owned Miami 80s sleaze.

7. Barret Wallace

Style Icon: Barret Wallace

Mesh under shirt, cornrows, and a down vest in the summer? Looks like someone's ready for the post-apocolyptc beach party.

6. Johnny Cage

Style Icon: Johnny Cage

Johnny Cage is included because he's the perfect example of how far confidence and self delusion can take you. This walking douchebag is the radioactive Chernobyl of anti-swag. Going so far as spelling out his entire name using only his chest tattoo and his belt buckle. Oh, also bonus style points for wearing sunglasses indoors. Cage is by far the spokesperson of the obnoxious, Ed Hardy crowd.

5. Princess Zelda

Style Icon: Princess Zelda

We're assuming all of those flowing robes and dress trains are actually powered by ancient wards and sigils to stave off necromancers. No? Well they look dope all the same. Princess Zelda has been inspiring the high-end Renaissance faire set for years now.

4. Donkey Kong

Style Icon: Donkey Kong

Simple and understated. For the last 30 years Donkey Kong has been sort of killing it. We don't know many people that can pull off a vest with no shirt or just a tie and nothing else for the better part of three decades. We guess confidence makes up for pants any day of the week.

3. Dhalsim

Style Icon: Dhalsim

Look at this #influencer. Dhalsim could be plucked out of Street Fighter II and dropped into a Bushwick co-op and no one would give him a second glance. A wardrobe that consists mostly of homemade clothing, a flare for artisanal taxidermy, and head tattoos put Dhalsim firmly in the top five.

2. Max Payne

Style Icon: Max Payne

The look might seem a little canned, but that's only because it works. Everyone from John McClane in Die Hard to Denzel Washington in Training Day has rocked the wife beater and leather jacket combo. When Max Payne came out in 2001, the gritty, hard boiled NYC cop look was a perfect fit.

1. Manny Calavera

Style Icon: Manny Calavera

Grim Fandango is near and dear to many a gamer's heart. The now defunct Lucas Arts channeled equal parts film noir and Humphrey Bogart when they created Manny Calavera's razor sharp style. Not since the film Casablanca has a white tux been done this much justice.