Somebody Help Me: Games’ Most Memorable Sidekicks

I love you. I hate you. Let’s have sex. Leave me alone. “Somebody help me” joins the ranks of the most powerful three word phrases in the English language. It can be an annoyed exasperation or a desperate plea. But one thing is certain: we all need the occasional helpful hand.

It is in this spirit that I write about my favorite sidekicks in video games. Sidekicks in video games can be relatively useless—though lovable—such as Tails in Sonic, or they can be a crucial part of the gameplay, such as the fox in Never Alone. Sometimes gaming can be lonely, especially before online gaming was popular. I remember many hours sitting alone at my computer in darkness playing video games. A sidekick helps me connect to a game. In fact, I went back to WoW just for battle pets. I love the idea of an adorable creature joining me on my adventures throughout the universe, and so, to me, sidekicks are really the unsung heroes of many video games. So, without further introduction, here are my five favorite sidekicks of all time.

5. Peter Dinklage (Destiny)

Yes, I mean Peter Dinklage. No, I do not mean Ghost. Dinklage voiced your ghost in the game Destiny (before he was replaced by Nolan North). While he was not playable, he helped you out of numerous situations that you would otherwise be pretty screwed. Okay, okay, I admit that his powers were incredibly vague, his existence a mystery, and his attitude less than stellar. But none of that matters. You know why? Because you got to kill aliens with Peter Fucking Dinklage’s voice in your head the whole time. That, my friends, is priceless.

4. Dog (Fable 2)

My heart still melts every time I see a picture of Dog online. Of course, you may or may not know, I am a total dog person. That might be the most understated sentence I’ve ever written. Yes I’m a dog person, so I’m automatically going to LOVE a doggy sidekick. However, Dog’s role in Fable 2 was actually pretty integral to the gameplay. He alerted you to treasure, helped you complete quests, and ironically enough, Dog brought a little humanity to the bleak world of Albion. If you’re like me, you immediately killed your family, your village, and anyone who crossed your path the minute you started playing Fable 2. Okay, so maybe most people didn’t do that (I hadn’t played before; shut up). Dog is what saved my cynical, murderous protagonist from complete despair. I love you, Dog.

3. Fox (Never Alone)

I only recently started playing Never Alone, and I absolutely love the game. My favorite thing about Fox, besides its adorableness, is that you can couch co-op with the fox. There are so few games out there, particularly on the Xbox One, that have a good couch co-op. Never Alone is one of the better games overall, and it’s couch co-op is great. You can solve puzzles only by having good timing and great communication with your buddy. If more games allowed you to have a sidekick like Fox—that you could either control or a friend could play—I would spend a lot more money on games.

2 Earl (Toe Jam and Earl)

Oh, Earl. At first Earl didn’t seem like a sidekick to me because you can play Toe Jam and Earl as either Toe Jam or Earl. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that Earl really is the quintessential sidekick. He is fatter, slower, and dumber and Toe Jam. He relies on Toe Jam to help keep him on track in their mission, and he sometimes farts in the elevator. That said, I ALWAYS played Earl growing up. Even now when I’m feeling nostalgic, I like to pick up the game and play from Earl’s perspective. There is just something authentic about it.

1. Yoshi (Mario Bros Series)

I truly think that Yoshi is the most interesting sidekick of all time. While it should be obvious that Luigi would be the ultimate sidekick, I find his sidekickery to be vastly inferior to Yoshi. First of all, Yoshi is absolutely adorable. He is useful, since you can ride him and in the most recent version he flies higher than Mario or Luigi alone. But most of all, he eats your foes. He is like the ultimate pet, the ultimate killing machine, and the ultimate buddy wrapped into one. That green-skinned dino made his way into my heart the first time I met him, and he has stayed there to this day.

What are your favorite video game sidekicks? Are they playable? Do they influence the game, or are they just there for moral support?