Move Something: The 12 Most Acrobatic Characters In Video Games

Where isn’t parkour (or its sexy step-sister, freerunning) these days? It’s on TV, in commercials, and even in video games like Mirror’s Edge and this week's Brink. And while, yeah, we know the difference between parkour—which is just getting from point A to point B as fast as possible—and the more trick-oriented freerunning, the fact of the matter is that both of them are a pretty fancy way of getting from your house to Foot Locker before it closes. So much so, in fact, that it’s almost an art form the way these traceurs (as they like to be called) move. With that in mind, and trying to take some time away from Brink (review coming later this week!), we thought we'd to count down the 12 video game characters who really know how to move. Anybody can travel from one level to the next, but it takes a special kind of badass to make it look stylish while doing so. Happy feet time!

By Rich Knight

Sure, the blue bullet has always been pretty fast, but it wasn’t until Sonic Adventure 2 when he was riding on snowboards and grinding on rails that he actually looked like he was trying to impress that pink hedgehog with the mallet. And while it’s a shame that SA2 may have been the last truly great Sonic game, is there any more fitting way to go out than in this title, where he’s pretty much turned his speed into an art form? Yeah, we don’t think so either.

If you were a superhero, what would you rather be: a low-to-the-ground-bruiser like Wolverine, or a flexible fighter with a swimmer’s build like Spiderman? We’d go for something in between, like Cole from inFAMOUS, who can cause just as much damage as the ol' Canucklehead, but can also fly all over the place like your favorite neighborhood Petey Parker. Cole can jump off of buildings while keeping himself afloat with lightning, ride the rails, and even bust up punks with good or evil powers (depending on what side you choose). He’s like a Jedi, but without the rags or the Imperial helmets. Or the all-over face tattoos. Which would be pretty badass, if you think about it.

Sure, Bayonetta can carry two guns in her hands like Lara Croft, but forget all that. Why settle for dual-wield pistolas when you can carry two more in your fuck-me boots as well? The truth of the matter is, Bayonetta makes movement sexy—and she’s also a beast, rolling out of the way of enemy attacks and initiating “Witch Time,” where she basically slows down the situation like Max Payne. And speaking of being a beast, Bayonetta can transforming into a panther, Michael Jackson-stylee. Now that’s killing in style, baby.

Eddy Gordo can't run off buildings. He can't slow down time, and he sure as hell ain’t a speed demon. In fact, Eddy Gordo spends most of his matches just breakdancing while whoever’s controlling him pounds on all of the buttons at once. But from the moment that we first laid eyes on the Capoeira killer, we knew that he was unlike any other character in gaming. Sure, Eddy might have passed on his talents to the more attractive Christie Monteiro—ohhhhh, Christie—but can Christie rock an afro and sunglasses and call herself Tiger? Nope. Point to Eddy Fats!

Mario’s come a long way: from being a fat plumber who runs from left to right to being a fat plumber who can break dance and do back flips into the third dimension. The Nintendo 64 was pretty much built on this Mario 2.0, who made stomping Goombas into something beautiful when he made the leap to 3D. From running to long jumping to doing backflips, Mario was never more limber and versatile than he was in this game. Here we gooooo!...right into a lava pit. Serves you right for being such a show-off, paisan.

Eddy Gordo might be a dancing machine, but we’re not quite if that's the best way to describe Voldo. Or even if you can call what he does "dancing." Whatever it is, nobody else in gaming moves like Voldo. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s definitely made Voldo unique. His worm-like fighting style makes him look like a cross between an S&M enthusiast and a human centipede—minus the ATM meal plan, of course. He can even do the Smooth Criminal. Eddy, are you OK?

Fast-talking and faster-walking, Scout looks like a badass just shooting fool with his shotgun, but even better swinging his baseball bat and hitting balls at you or double-jumping all over the place. Nobody in FPS moves like the Scout—nobody. And thank God for that, because we don't think we could take any other character downing energy drinks while he blows us away. Cheeky bastard.

Similar to Bayonetta, Dante pretty much exudes cool just by walking. But to add to that pimp strut, he’s also a dual-gun-wielding, sword-swinging demon who just can’t help himself from shouting a “yahoo!” when he’s dispatching foes. There are many characters who have torn up some devils over the course of video game history, but none have done it with such suave moves like Dante. He might as well be moonwalking when he battles.

Ezio is a death dealer, but never has dealing death looked so damned good. Tireless climbing, swan dives from hundreds of feet in the air—even walking through crowds he looks like a regular John Travolta, bumping through punks to get to the dance floor. Except this dance floor involves stabbing people in the gut and in the face. In the face! Ezio, you're one smooth mother—[Ed.—shut yo' mouth!] What? We're just talkin' ’bout Ezio!

Bill and Lance from Contra got the whole hanging-from-ceilings thing down, Shinobi has the whole ninja-being-a-badass thing down, but only Strider Hiryu has got both things down. And while Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden gives him a good run for his money, only Strider is flipping around, running down cliffs only to fling himself off of them, and wrecking mechanical apes with his hyper blade like a pro. When the big bad guy said he’d never leave Eurasia alive, we all knew he would. With gusto!

He may have started off stiff as all hell when he was in 2D, but when the Prince made the move to 3D? Oh, man. Wall running, kid, WALL RUNNING. Yeah, having the ability to manipulate time made him look all the crazier—running backward up walls after falling off of one always made us feel like we'd taken the brown acid—but his fluid motions without the Sands of Time were nothing to sneeze at, either. And to think that Disney got Jake Gyllenhaal to play him in the movie. Please. That should've been Jackie Chan all day.

And it all comes down to Faith. While all of the other characters on this list might have used movement to accomplish their goals, only Faith can say that her entire raison d'etre centers around movement itself, leaping from rooftops and flinging herself down glass pane walls. Faith is parkour incarnate, making her the ideal candidate for the video game character with the best moves. Brink, you’ve got your work cut out for you.