History TheSmurfettePrinciple / VideoGames

* Let's see, ''Franchise/MortalKombat''... For [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1992 the first game]], the creators realized they didn't have any female fighters in their roster, so they changed the character of male Kurtis Stryker into female Sonya Blade (Stryker would be re-added in the third game). This made her the only female out of 7 playable characters and 10 fighters overall. Later games have made sure to include additional female playable characters from the start.

* Blaze is the only playable female in ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' and remained as such in the sequels where the new characters were male. On the enemy side, there's only one female enemy type (not counting their PaletteSwap counterparts) while the third game adds a second female enemy type. ''Streets of Rage 4'' helped curb the issue by adding Cherry to the list of playable characters and a few more female mooks.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': Out of the nine main classes, none of them are ([[AmbiguousGender clearly]]) female. The only obvious woman in the game is "The Administrator", aka the angry voice that screams at you during rounds. Admittedly, the Pyro ''may'' be female (or genderless, for all we know), and the comics also have the character Ms. Pauling, but if you look just at the game, it follows this trope.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994": Paula is the only girl in the group. She's also the only one who doesn't have a stint where she is playable by herself, as each of the guys has an adventure before joining the party, but Paula instead joins after she's kidnapped and Ness rescues her.

* All three games in the ''Videogame/{{MOTHER}}'' series have a playable party consisting of three male characters and one female character.

** [[Videogame/SuperMarioKart The]] [[Videogame/MarioKart64 first]] [[Videogame/MarioKartSuperCircuit three]] ''Videogame/MarioKart'' games had Princess Peach as the only female character in the roster. This was averted in the fourth game, ''Videogame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' with the addition of Daisy, Toadette and Birdo. Daisy in particular would never miss any other ''Mario Kart'' game ever since being introduced to the series, and the following games introduced more female racers such as Rosalina and Peach and Daisy's baby-selfs (''Wii''), [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Honey Queen]] (''7''), Wendy O. Koopa (''8'') and Pauline and Dixie Kong (''Tour'').

* ''VideoGame/SuikoEnbu'' (AKA ''Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty''): Of the twelve characters in the game (plus two more with the additions of a sub-boss and [[VideoGame/FightersHistory Makoto Mizoguchi]] as a GuestFighter in the initial console ports), Hu San Niang is the only female character on the roster. The UpdatedRerelease, ''Suiko Enbu: Fuunsaiki", subverts this by adding [[AffirmativeActionGirl Liu Yungmie]], another guest character from ''Fighter's History''.

* ''{{VideoGame/Fallout}}''
** ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 1}}'' allows you to choose your character's gender, but of the four recruitable [=NPCs=] only one is female, allowing you to choose if the principle is in effect or averted.
** ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 2}}'' increases the number of recruitable characters; eight males, four dogs, a robot...and one female human. There is a DummiedOut second female companion who can be restored via modding, though.
** ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 3}}'' goes for diversity over numbers; three male humans, a genderless (formerly male) super mutant, a dog, a robot, and ''[[AvertedTrope two]]'' [[AvertedTrope female humans!]] Later games continue this tradition.

** And ''then'', ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'' outright [[InvertedTrope inverts]] it by having only one male character(Zane) out of the four. The other three being two women(Amara and Moze), and a nonbinary robot, ([=FL4K=]).

* ''{{VideoGame/Starcraft}}''

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''

** Of the Bullet Bill family, the only species that has a feminine name is Missile Meg, a variant from ''VideoGame/SupetMarioBrosWonder''.

** There are generally next to no identifiably female enemy characters. Pom Pom, introduced in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' (2011) is one of the few. Though the original ''Videogame/SuperMarioBros1'' manual does describe Cheep Cheep using female pronouns.

** The first female character even ''seen'' was Amy Rose, who showed up in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''.

** The classic Ghost Gang lineup has [[PinkMeansFeminine Pinky]] as the sole girl of the group. It's subverted in ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'' where she's joined by Sue, making the gang a GenderEqualEnsemble.

* Let's see, ''Franchise/MortalKombat''... For [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]], the creators realized they didn't have any female fighters in their roster, so they changed the character of male Kurtis Stryker into female Sonya Blade (Stryker would be re-added in the third game). This made her the only female out of 7 playable characters and 10 fighters overall. Later games have made sure to include additional female playable characters from the start.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' averted the trope by using an all-male cast, [[ViewerGenderConfusion although the White Mage has made people wonder]].

** The classic Ghost Gang lineup has [[PinkMeansFeminine Pinky]] as the sole girl of the group. It's subverted in ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'' where she's joined by Sue, making the game a GenderEqualEnsemble if including the title character.

** The [[AllThereInTheManual Fallout Bible]] mentions Vault 68, populated with 999 men and only one woman, and [[LOL69 Vault 69]], with [[InvertedTrope 999 women and only one man]]. It is never mentioned what happened in these vaults, but considering the [[CrapsackWorld tone of the games]] and the other vaults, they probably didn't end well.

* ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'':
** The original Japan-only version presents the InvertedTrope of many female characters and the only (confirmed) male character being Sanatos, the BigBad.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'':

*** ''The Frozen Throne is a little better. A ''little'': "Terror of the Tides" averts this trope with three female characters (Tyrande, Maiev and Lady Vashj), but "Curse of the Blood Elves" plays it straight again with only Lady Vashj as its only female character for most of the duration, with Maiev showing up for one mission. "Legacy of the Damned" zigzags this trope: while it has two female characters in Sylvanas and Lady Vashj, the campaign follows two plotlines, with the each character taking part in only one of said plotline. Finally, "The Founding of Durotar" bonus campaign plays this straight again with Jaina as its only female character of note.

* ''Warcraft'' games: Out of all the 12 heroes available in the initial third ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', only one is female (Priestess of the Moon). The expansion averts this by adding three more female heroes (Warden, Dark Ranger, and Naga Sea Witch).

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' has eight male major gods [[note]][[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus, Hades, Poseidon,]] [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Ra, Set,]] [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin, Thor and Loki]][[/note]] and only one major goddess ([[Myth/EgyptianMythology Isis]]). The ''Titans'' expansion averts the principle, by adding [[Myth/GreekMythology Gaia]].