First Female Video Game Characters: Ms. Pac-man and Samus

I promised to write a hub featuring Samus Aran, who remains one of the best video game characters ever created, male or female. It did take me a long time to find the inspiration to do her justice. I knew her to be among the first female characters, but who was before Samus?

I did some digging, didn't take much, because she is everywhere. The ever hungry: Ms. Pac-man! I was shocked that I ever forgot about her.

So here they are, the first two and oldest video game characters that have paved the way for countless strong and beautiful game heroines to follow.  I also highlight a few of the older female characters that we may have forgotten about. 

Ms. Pac-man is not a direct sequel to Pac-man, the original version was a "bootlegged hack" of Pac-man called Crazy Otto. The programmers of the game showed it to Midway, the American distributor of Namco. Midway bought the rights to the game and developed the characters to fit better into the Pac-man universe, changing the title to Ms. Pac-man.

Ms. Pac-man was release into arcades in 1981 and quickly became just as popular as the original Pac-man, if not more so. Namco took over the rights to the game and officially adopted the title.

Ms. Pac-man features a bow, red lipstick and slanted eye. The game improves upon the original with four new maze designs in different colors. The ghost's movements are more randomized, meaning players can no longer just follow set patterns through each level. The fruit bounces along the maze instead of remaining in the center and tunnels along the sides allow Ms. Pac-man a quick escape. The game follows a simple story of her meeting and falling in love with Pac-man, before ending with the delivery of their baby, Jr. Pac-man, by a stork.

She was the first female to star in her own video game and as Marge Simpson stated "Ms. Pac-man struck a blow for women's rights."

"The life of a single person should be lost in space and time, but among the stars there is one light that burns brighter than all others: the light of Samus Aran. Her battles extend beyond her life and etch themselves into history."  Prelude to Metroid Prime.

Samus Aran first appeared in Metroid in 1986 and it was only at the end that she was revealed to be a woman in what was considered to be one of the biggest plot twists of video game history.  The developers of the game basically said to each other:  "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if the player found out Samus is female at the end?"   They all agreed and there we have it.

Samus was orphaned by a Space Pirate raid led by Ridley. The Pirates killed her parents, along with almost everyone before the planet was destroyed. Luckily, a alien race called the Chozo saved and later adopted Samus. They took her back to their home planet, Zebes, trained her as a warrior and infused her with their DNA before bestowing on her an ancient artifact that entwines itself with her mind and body to become the Power Suit.

The suit gives Samus numerous advantages allowing her to scan objects to gain information about them and enables her to collapse into a sphere, called the Morph Ball, to navigate small spaces.  She is armed with a cannon which can shoot beams, charged up blasts and missiles and a grappling hook to cross chasms. 

Samus is one of the strongest video game protagonists to date.  She is often considered mysterious with a backstory slowly revealed almost exclusively through action and gameplay.  She remains nearly silent until Metroid: Other M.

Seen as the Chozo's only hope for their race, the protector of the galaxy and the Hunter of the Space Pirates remains a huge burden that  Samus has carried nearly 25 years.

Ayame was raised as a kunoichi (female ninja) of the Azuma Clan in the Tenchu series.   She is the fastest and most naturally talented of her three companions, but too impatient to learn any one technique fully.  She is a deadly fighter welding two blades and will do anything to protect Princess Kikku, who she looks after as an older sister. 

In Tenchu: Birth of the Stealth Assassins, she manages to defeat Tatsumaru despite being in love with him and almost chooses to die with him before remembering her promise to Kikku.

Akira Kazama was one of the playable characters of the Playstation title Rival Schools: United by Fate. She disguishes herself as a boy in order to enroll in the all male school Gedo High in the hopes of finding clues to the disappearance of her missing brother, Daigo. She contacts two members of her brother's gang who are first suspicious of her but help her after she beats them in a fight. It is not until the end of the story in which she finds her brother, that she reveals her real gender. Akira is the central character in the sequel Project Justice where she must stop Daigo from attacking other schools. She remains my favorite character of fighting games.

Regina is the main protagonist of Dino Crisis 1 and 2.  She is the only female member of the special forces SORT and is the teams intelligence and weapons expert.  She and her team are sent to a research facility to locate and apprehend Dr. Edward Kirk who is the inventor of Third Energy Theory.  The first Dino Crisis is very much like Resident Evil with dinosaurs but the second is more action oriented.

Someone suggested I check out Alis and I was glad I did.

Phantasy Star came out in 1987 and follows the quest of Alis to avenge the cruel and very public execution of Nero, her brother, on the orders of King Lashiec.  She starts off with Nero's short sword and simple leather armour but upgrades as she gathers money and allies. 

What starts off as simply revenge, becomes bigger as Alis realizes she must defeat Lashiec to save the entire land and the game ends with a very important choice she must make.

This article only lists a few of the many heroines that would not have been possible before Ms. Pac-man showed the world that a female character can hold her own in a game without needing to be saved. She may be the grandmother of them all but it was Samus Aran that really made the point.

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