5 most iconic fathers in video game history

The idea of gaming as an outlet for father-son bonding has crept into the stories themselves – in time for Father’s Day, we thought we’d examine five very different fathers in the world of gaming, to see how they measure up…

Bowser - the Super Mario series

Work-life balance is one of the greatest obstacles in modern fatherhood, and Bowser is one of the most industrious malign lizards in the business. As well as his executive position in the kidnapping-and-pillaging industry, he has a range of aerobic hobbies, from tennis to basketball.

Even with such a packed calendar, he’s still found time to pass down his love of destruction to his prolific offspring. His first seven children are the Koopalings (including the musically-inspired Iggy, Lemmy and Ludwig – another hobby?), although their parentage has been disputed in later years.

Bowser Jr is now presented as Bowser’s only child – he’s certainly the favourite, at any rate. Junior often appears in a floating clown car equipped with a cannon (presumably bought with his father’s largesse) and uses a magic paintbrush which can use graffiti to summon portals.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the fire-breathing lizard; Junior is every bit as inclined to cause trouble as his father, and he’s probably even a bit cleverer to boot. When he appeared as the main villain in Super Mario Sunshine he disguised himself as a shadowy version of Mario, which hoodwinked the authorities in a way we’ve rarely seen from Papa Bowser..

Some dads are vicious in the workplace, but when they come home they’re as sweet as a Peach Melba. We can’t endorse Bowser’s moral compass, but he’s doing something right: you have to concede that he’s built a rich and meaningful life while mentoring the next generation of villainy.

Octodad - Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Imposter syndrome is hiding behind every milestone in life, ready to whack you round the head. And as you gaze down at your new child in the delivery suite – the miracle of life swaddled in a muslin blanket – you might well think: ‘Wait... am I in charge now?’

Octodad is not a dad, but he is pulling out all the stops to pretend to be one. That’s not just a metaphor for emotional unreadiness. He is literally an octopus in a three-piece suit, attempting to pass for a human father while concealing his true identity from his spouse, children, and tentacle-phobic society.

Fatherhood is for most of us a process of trial and terror, and rarely has that been better reflected than when piloting a flailing orange cephalopod down a wedding aisle. From getting the lawn trimmed to shimmying through supermarket freezers, Octodad’s great paternal triumph isn’t that he gets it all right – but that he gives it a damn good go. He might live a life of inky deception, but he does, at the end of the day, bring little Tommy his chocolate breakfast cereal.

Lots of dads feel they’re not doing well. A 2016 study by Leach et al. found that up to 18 per cent of new fathers experience anxiety severe enough to meet the threshold for a clinical disorder. Controlling a fraudulent mollusc might not seem an obvious path to catharsis, but Octodad: Dadliest Catch is oddly therapeutic. The game’s slapstick anarchy provokes genuine laughter, and tucked underneath the absurd visuals is one of the most sharply-written video game scripts ever.

In the end what matters about Octodad’s charade isn't his deceit, but the sheer effort he puts in. After all, his daughter Stacy reveals that she knew the truth all along, and loved him just the same. Perhaps that’s a relatable version of fatherhood – about showing up, sometimes with your tentacles tangled, but with your heart firmly in the right place.

Kratos - God of War (2018)

There’s no right or wrong way to bond with your son: some rent fishing rods, others bury an axe into a dark elf’s frontal lobe. That’s the thing about male relationships: even as we begin to open up more as a society, men are often most comfortable hanging out when they’re doing a shared activity, a common goal – perhaps climbing a mountain to scatter a loved one’s ashes, say. Once we’re busy together, we can begin to talk.

Kratos, a widower and retired god, is not a naturally communicative father. As he free-climbs crevasses, tosses Norse pillars aside and duels a dragon from inside its mouth, most of his communication with his son Atreus is limited to the syllable ‘boy’. Where Atreus is sensitive – learned in other languages and open to the world – Kratos is hard-boiled, cynical and single-minded. A real friction exists between them, as Atreus is encouraged to grow up fast, to become more ruthless with his bow, while having just lost his mother and without knowing the truth about his godly lineage.

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It takes a serious illness striking Atreus to break our hero’s chiselled facade – a moment which voice actor Christopher Judge portrays perfectly. Kratos doesn’t change emotionally on a dime, but his voice does start to wobble, and he’s compelled to tell his son the truth about his godhood. Scrap by scrap, Kratos's ties with his son become much stronger than those with his father (Zeus himself). That’s a noble goal to aim for.

Some of God of War’s rapturous praise might show that we still have a way to go when it comes to video game narratives - a good portion of the dialogue is over-explanatory, and the story of Kratos’s emotional thawing is not a revolutionary one. But it’s still affecting, accomplished storytelling, and by the end of the tale the truth is clear: neither can reach the summit without the other.

Norman - Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald

Where are all the fathers in Pokémon? Most of them, we must presume, got the training bug early and never returned. In most entries of the series your player character has been raised by a very lenient single mum, who’s been content to chuck you out into the world of animal capture as a fresh-faced 10-year-old. There is one memorable father in the Pokéverse, though – Norman.

Some dads will teach you how to tie your shoes, or do more keepy-uppies. Norman teaches you to throw a Pokéball, and then crushes your under-levelled team with a swipe from his Slaking. He’s not the first major battle you’ll face in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire – in fact, he won’t battle you until you have four gym badges – but he is one of the game’s first real tests.

Suffice to say, this is a parent who’s happier to dunk on your pets than one who’ll just roll over and let you win. His Spinda will try to confuse you, his Linoone will use the Belly Drum move to boost its attacking might, and the couch potato Slaking itself will do its best to frustrate you by recovering from any damage you inflict. If you make it through this gauntlet you’ll get the Balance Badge, which sounds right up any Centrist Dad’s street.

"I can’t believe it," he says simply, when you’ve finally knocked the stuffing out of his team. You might think that his most important gift to you is that you can now use the move Surf outside of battle. Really, though, it’s self-reliance. After besting your own dad, you’re ready to foil Team Aqua/Magma’s diabolical plan and get back in time for your 11th birthday party.

John Marston - Red Dead Redemption

An orphaned street urchin, taken in by a gang which later turns on itself, John Marston has been through a lot, and certainly has the scars to prove it. He may have a no-nonsense drawl and the quickest pistol-hand in New Austin, but a world-weary vulnerability fills our protagonist as he fights to take back his kidnapped wife and son.

In the brief calm of life on the ranch in the game’s opening, we see a father trying to teach his son how to live well, even if how to live well isn’t clear to himself.

As Marston follows and eliminates his old gang members at the bidding of the Bureau of Investigation, his titular search for redemption becomes less about atoning for his past and more about the rescuing of his legacy. John is determined that his son Jack mustn’t follow in his footsteps, but walk a new path entirely, to leave the Wild West’s thorniest frontiers even as they recede into the past anyway.

After John’s odyssey forces him to pay the ultimate price for his family, at the game’s denouement, Jack picks up the revolver and kills Edgar Ross – successfully avenging his father. And so a different kind of damage is done – the junior Marston has entered the dark world of moral compromise and outlawry from which John had tried to save him.

Even so, there’s a reason that Red Dead Redemption is remembered for its reckoning of what fatherhood means. We can respect John’s mission for his son’s life to supersede his own, and the lengths of self-sacrifice – in this case actual self-sacrifice – that he’s willing to go to protect his boy. Who knows, maybe Jack will even escape the cycle, and find, at last, real redemption.

Which of these fathers rings true for you? From interrogating Draugr with your fists, to making your Mudkip follow a gruelling training regimen, the opportunities to test the paternal bond in the world of games are plentiful. And all fathers have been sons once – so even if you’ve now progressed to the Player 1 controller, don’t forget to include a disc with your Father’s Day card.

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