History Flanderization / VideoGames

*** Every fifth line of Morgana's is the same tired "I'm not a cat" joke. {{Justified}} in that the characters from 3 and 4 keep getting confused that Morgana is a talking cat and so comment on it more often than Morgana would like.

** Johnny's personality is played with in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''. Its time-travel plot involved bringing back the younger versions of the main heroes, and Present!Johnny is quickly embarrassed by his younger self's douchebaggery. However, even Past!Johnny is flanderized in the sense that he's wearing a [[IWasQuiteAFashionVictim ridiculous 90's dayglo tracksuit]] even though Johnny didn't actually dress that way in the older games.

** Wario suffers heavily from this as well. Outside of Smash, Wario is a greedy, rotten bully who mostly only cares about himself, but is still a complete badass who is still an AntiHero at worst in most appearances. In Smash, however, he's a 'living embodiment of gross' whose moveset consists of farting, biting, and doing other horrible things to opponents (With the fourth game notably removing his iconic Shoulder Bash, his ''only attack he had from Wario Land''), and Brawl's story mode portrays him as such a downright evil JerkAss who is fine with killing children and laughing his ass off about it afterwards. It would actually seem the developers are trying to ''hide'' the ''Wario Land'' Land appearances of him from players, removing a costume based on his white and blue ''Wario Land'' outfit and his Shoulder Bash, as well as lacking any Trophies of characters from the series. ''Ultimate'' reverses this somewhat, as Wario regains his Shoulder Bash while also now having his traditional Ground Pound, and his series' list of Spirits, while still primarily ''VideoGame/{{WarioWare}}'' based, includes various ''Wario Land'' Spirits as well.

** The entire ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series went through this. In the original game (known as ''Mario Story'' in Japan), the fact that the characters are made of paper doesn't really come up, with the cardboard box-esque scenery and the occasional sight gag such as characters falling over flat or drifting slowly to the ground being about the extent of it. In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Paper Mario gains the ability to fold himself into paper tubes, airplanes, and boats. By the time of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', the entire world looks like one giant shoebox diorama, and the characters constantly crack jokes about and otherwise reference being two-dimensional paper cutouts.

** Wario suffers heavily from this as well. Outside of Smash, Wario is a greedy, rotten bully who mostly only cares about himself, but is still a complete badass who is still an AntiHero at worst in most appearances. In Smash, however, he's a 'living embodiment of gross' whose moveset consists of farting, biting, and doing other horrible things to opponents (With the fourth game notably removing his iconic Shoulder Bash, his ''only attack he had from Wario Land''), and Brawl's story mode portrays him as such a downright evil JerkAss who is fine with killing children and laughing his ass off about it afterwards. It would actually seem the developers are trying to ''hide'' the Wario Land appearances of him from players, removing a costume based on his white and blue Wario Land outfit and his Shoulder Bash, as well as lacking any Trophies of characters from the series. ''Ultimate'' reverses this somewhat, as Wario regains his Shoulder Bash while also now having his traditional Ground Pound, and his series' list of Spirits, while still primarily ''VideoGame/{{WarioWare}}'' based, includes various ''Wario Land'' Spirits as well.
** The non-Mario examples include:

** Princess Peach has been largely known for her over-the-top stereotypical ditzy personality, but she wasn't always like that. The series started off with her having the power to undo Bowser's evil spell, which is why Bowser kidnaps her (at least, according to [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 the first game]]'s [[AllThereInTheManual instruction manual]]). Still, in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', she was portrayed as a dignified, intelligent-sounding monarch. Come ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', her ditziness took over full force, leading to the Peach we know today. Some games, however, like ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', subvert this completely.

** The same also applies to his quiet and stoic tendencies. In the first game, Kratos consistently screams, speaks a lot to other people, and even reminisces about his life before he became the Ghost of Sparta when there is no one around. But as the franchise progresses Kratos becomes more quiet and has less lines culminating in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarAscension Ascension]] where his spoken lines can be counted on just 2 hands.

** Bowser has gone under some notable de-Flanderization over the years. He started off as being someone who wanted to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, with no proper explanation given ad to why. Starting with the [=RPGs=], however, he was shown to be a lot softer than he appears, shown to be depressed over the loss of his minions in [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG one instance]], and being horrified by the destruction of a world in [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario another]], as well as having genuine feelings for Peach. Overall, Bowser's character can be described as being a mostly selfish king who wants to rule the world, but at the same time cares deeply for [[AFatherToHisMen his minions]] and [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his son]] and genuinely loves Peach, which is probably to make him sympathetic.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. Many of the characters in the series starting suffering from this during the 2000s:

** Snake and cardboard boxes got out of hand at some point... Scratch that, they were ''always'' out of hand, it simply became more and more obvious as the series went on, as evident in this conversation from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''.

** The Soldier started out as a war-crazed patriot but was portrayed as being generally competent at his job and mostly grounded in reality. In the comics he's an insane, America-obsessed serial killer who talks to cardboard cutouts, has hallucinations of the American Founding Fathers, and will murder anybody for very arbitrary reasons. The animated short "Expiration Date" takes it further and makes him almost entirely incapable of social interaction (he teleports bread for three days because he misinterprets an off-hand comment as an order) and a general hindrance to the team.
--->'''Engineer''': So we're fine, as long as [[ItMakesSenseInContext nobody teleports any bread]]!
--->'''Soldier''': Question!
--->'''Engineer''': What's yer question, Soldier?
--->'''Soldier''': I have teleported bread.
--->'''Engineer''': [[FlatWhat ...WHAT.]]
--->'''Soldier''': You told me to.
--->'''Engineer''': HOW MUCH.
--->'''Soldier''': I have done nothing but teleport bread for three days.
--->'''Medic''': WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN SENDING IT?!
--->''(Ground starts to shake)''
*** Justified in that the drinking water for Teufort is full of leaked industrial chemicals which made the townsfolk just as stupid. Miss Pauling gave the rest of the mercenaries bottled water, but the Soldier was unaware.
** The Pyro went from a parody of the HeroicMime to an ObliviouslyEvil [[AmbiguousGender wo/manchild]] who sees the world as a SugarBowl inhabited by friendly Cherubs (the flamethrower, of course, shoots rainbows and grows flowers wherever it touches). The comics have actually walked this back a bit: Pyro seems to have a better handle on reality and is apparently capable of becoming CEO of an engineering firm, though he still sees the world as a SugarBowl.

** Shadow the Hedgehog: In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', he ''did'' partake in some minor brooding, but that wasn't a primary character trait. Much like Cloud Strife in his original appearance, he could make a joke, take a joke, and he didn't care about his hazy past; all he cared about was accomplishing his current goals [[AntiHero by any means necessary]]. However, [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog in his self-titled game]], Shadow turned into a ByronicHero who would ''never stop'' brooding and pondering about his past. However, once he learns about his past, [[CharacterDevelopment that apparently satisfied his ponderings]] and relaxed into a characterization close to his original just in time for [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 the next game]], being a stoic PragmaticHero who used both his skills ''and'' cunning to solve problems.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

** Likewise, Marshall Law too. His story was fairly realistic in the earlier game, trying to expand his business into dojo, having it trashed by Baek and learning to let go of revenge. Then ''Tekken 4'' happens and he fell into poverty and trying his best to win the tournament to ensure his family is well-fed. That was the point that Law takes a downward spiral into a JokeCharacter like his buddy Paul as 'being in PerpetualPoverty' becomes his secondary gimmick aside of being a BruceLeeClone, and he also proves himself to be similar to Paul in terms of wackiness, especially when you compare his ending in ''Tekken 2'' where Law made it clear that he's much less cocky and dignified than Paul (succeeding in flip kick when Paul fell flat to his face).
** Yoshimitsu is another good example: He started out as simply a man, in a suit of armour, armed with a katana. Now he is armed with twin lightsabers, a spinning hand that lets him hover like a helicopter, insect wings that he keeps stored in his back, an active camouflage system and all manner of various unnecessary and probably quite inconvenient additions to his costume (which incidentally has now morphed into fully fledged power armour) such as a beetle horn on his head on ''4'', strange hanging-rope things in ''5'' and ''6'' and an absolutely ''huge'' entirely useless metal halo welded onto his back in ''Tekken Tag 2''. Oh and if we take his endings as canon, he apparently can now also cast magical spells such as the ability to cast an after-image.
** Since Tekken 4, more and more characters are getting joke endings, especially with Tekken 6, where even the main villain Heihachi has his ending as a joke inspired by Kuma's ending.

** The Brotherhood's openness to recruiting wastelanders has also expanded. In the first game, your "recruitment mission" was an ImpossibleMission SnipeHunt on the Brotherhood's part, because they're ''not recruiting''. You're only admitted if you succeed in your mission to the Glow because [[IGaveMyWord they gave their word]]. In future games, you can join up with the Brotherhood after completing legitimate missions to prove your usefulness, and in some cases, they'll actively scout you for membership.

** Inverted in the case of Nightwolf. Originally a parody of Thunder Hawk in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'', he became TheSmartGuy in the cartoon, and in ''Deception'', we had him literally going through hell to rescue Liu Kang. Then in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' he became the leader of the Defenders of Earthrealm.

*** [[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} Lucas]] has devolved to a whiny ball of angst and cowardice in Brawl's story mode, which, while they are applicable aspects of his original personality, he's MUCH more complex a character than what's seen in Brawl.

** Isabela in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is an in-universe example, actually, she's a rather complex character with [[HiddenHeartOfGold a buried honorable side]] under the greedy pirate, but all everyone besides [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]] can focus on is [[AnythingThatMoves how many people she's had sex with]]. According to her she does this on purpose, and the number of partners is somewhat inflated in rumor.

** Yuan Shao is originally portrayed as an honorable, if not a bit too proud, nobleman with some SmallNameBigEgo tendencies. As the series progresses, his prideful characters has been exaggerated to the point that he became extremely arrogant and pretentious. Which might be more or less accurate on his 'real' persona base on Guo Jia's comment on him in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' (the source material).

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'' has several examples:

* King K. Rool in the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' games started out as a generic BigBad with an implied quirkiness to him. As the series went on, King K. became more deranged, violent, and developed different personalities that also affected what costumes he chose to wear. By the time ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' happens, King K. becomes so utterly insane and temperamental that he decides that if he can't have Donkey Kong's island, the no one else can and he attempts to blow up the whole island. The developers stated that part of King K.'s wild and erratic behavior is due to him having schizophrenia.