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Vigilantes
Convoy
- Big Badass Rig
- Big Good: He's the leader of the Vigilantes.
- Cool Old Guy
- Disney Death: In the second game, he is killed by Slick Clyde, but resurrected when Houston goes back in time to turn the tables.
- Happily Married: To Houston.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Sheila's in-game biography in Vigilante 8: Second Offense mentions that her uncle Convoy "ruled the household with an iron fist".
Houston
- Action Girl
- Brainwashed and Crazy: In the first game.
- Energy Weapon: Her special weapon in the first game.
- Cyborg: Her body has been reinforced using OMAR tech.
- Heel–Face Turn: After she removes OMAR's wristband, she joins the Vigilantes and marries Convoy.
- Sassy Black Woman: Her characterization in the first game is pretty much "robo-Pam Grier". In the second game, she drops the robo part.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: According to the backstory of Second Offense, Houston suffers nightmares as the result of her brainwashing and mind control from her time as an OMAR mercenary.
- The Reveal: Her real name is Tanya, and she's the long-lost sister of the Flying All-Star Trio.
- Trapped in Villainy: In the first game, when she's a brainwashed and mind-controlled mercenary for OMAR. It's also kind of lampshaded by her victory quote in the first game.Houston 3: (robotic voice) Program complete, baby. (normal human voice) Why am I doing this?
John Torque
- Earthquake Machine: His special weapon in the first game.
- The Gambler
- Mr. Vice Guy: He's addicted to gambling.
- Number Two: To Convoy.
- Shockwave Stomp: His Bass Quake weapon.
Sheila
- Action Girl
- Gatling Good: Her special weapon.
- Taking Up the Mantle: Sheila takes Chassey's car and becomes an FBI agent after Chassey runs off with Chase.
- "Well Done, Son!" Guy: She joins the Vigilantes against her uncle Convoy's will, hoping to prove herself to him.
Chassey Blue
- Action Girl
- Boobs of Steel
- Happily Married: To Agent Chase at the end of the second game
- Ms. Fanservice
Dave
- Aliens Are Bastards: His special weapon (a UFO attack) is one of the most annoying in the game.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: How his followers see his getting taken up by a UFO.
- Cloud Cuckoolander
- Taking Up the Mantle: Dave's Followers replace him in the second game.
- New-Age Retro Hippie
Coyotes
Sid Burn
- Big Bad: Of the first game
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets a hefty cash reward from OMAR in his character ending, but he's out of gas and thanks to his terrorist actions, he's 100 miles from the nearest gas station. John Torque then captures and presumably kills him.
- Land Down Under: Sid is (apparently) from Australia. He uses the phrase "shrimp on the barbie" when he wins a match in the first game.
- Pyromaniac
- Western Terrorists: Sid's a terrorist-for-hire and he's (apparently) from Australia.
Slick Clyde
- Big Bad: Of the second game.
- Chain Lightning: Literally the name of his special weapon in the second game, and it shocks every car within range.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Evil Mentor: Took in two orphans, Kieko and Darius and had them trained as his personal mercenaries.
- Face–Heel Turn: He joins (and takes over) the Coyotes after putting on Houston's mind control armband.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: His special weapons all involve lightning.
- Rhymes on a Dime
- Token Evil Teammate: In the first game. If the loading screen expositions are anything to go by, it's safe to say that Clyde wasn't a very nice guy to begin with. At one point, he even thinks about overthrowing Convoy and taking over the Vigilantes. note
Keiko "Obake" Uzumi
- Awful Truth: Her mentor Lord Clyde was the one responsible for murdering her father and disposing of her partner and friend Darius.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Her father's death is what lead her into Lord Clyde's employ.
- Dark Action Girl
- Dead Partner: She spends a lot of time reflecting on her missing partner and friend Darius. Finding out what happened to him drives her to turn on Lord Clyde.
- The Dragon: To Slick Clyde.
- Heel–Face Turn: At the end of the second game.
- Heel Realization: The main reason she was evil in the first place is because Lord Clyde obfuscated a LOT of the evil deeds he did while she was under his employ.
- It's Personal: After discovering that Clyde killed her father to take over his conglomerate and then had her best friend Darius roboticized into the bio-bot Dallas XII, Obake vows to kill Clyde herself.
Dallas XIII
- Brain Uploading: Has Darius' brain and thus a databank of his memories.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: His human memories continually interfere with his performance with Lord Clyde making more and more extensive changes to him in order to keep him in line.
- Energy Weapon: His special weapon.
- Evil Counterpart: He's basically what Houston was shaping up to be if she never broke free from OMAR's control. Straight down to the flashes of humanity that interfere in his programming. His car is even from the same model that Houston used during her tenure, the Palomino.
- Killed Off for Real: Ends up as scrap after his final run-in with Houston.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers one to Houston in his ending, only to have it served right back to him when Houston gets a Heroic Second Wind
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Dallas was originally an orphan named Darius that Clyde adopted alongside Obake to be his bodyguard.
- You Have Failed Me: After badly botching a mission, Clyde had Darius roboticized as punishment.
Boogie
- Beware the Silly Ones: At first, Boogie comes across as a silly, disco-dancing comic relief character (which he kind of is). So it's easy to forget that he's a actually a dangerous criminal who is in cahoots with an Australian terrorist.
- Bumbling Sidekick: To Sid in the first game. It's also kind of Played With since Boogie comes across as a silly comic relief character, yet he's still a dangerous criminal.
- Disco Dan
- The Dragon: To Sid.
- Lethal Joke Item: His special weapon, "Disco Inferno"; an inflatable disco ball that shoots fireworks and explosives. It is actually quite powerful and can actually "trap" other drivers for a few seconds if they get too close (similar to Dave's UFO attack).
Molo
- Big Bad Wannabe
- The Bully
- Jerkass
- Lethal Joke Item: His special weapon, which is actually the most powerful in the game.
- Series Mascot: The buses Molo drives.
Beezwax
- Bee Bee Gun
- Grumpy Old Man
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets blown up after one of his bees sets off a nuke.
- It's Personal: He joined the Coyotes because government nuclear tests mutated his bees.
- The Swarm: His special attack.
Drifters
Garbage Man/Y the Alien
- Ascended Extra: Became a playable character in the sequel after being an unlockable character in the first game.
- Flying Saucer
- Kill All Humans: His goal in the first game, since his friends were dissected by scientists.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: He considers himself this, since most people view him as a creepy hermit. He's actually collecting garbage to find parts to repair his saucer with.
- Take This Job and Shove It: One of his death phrases.
- Tomato Surprise: He is revealed to be Y the Alien in Second Offense.
Astronaut Bob O.
- Ax-Crazy
- Cloud Cuckoolander
- Everything's Better with Monkeys
- Interspecies Friendship: At the end, he befriends Y and accompanies him back to his home planet.
- Tomato Surprise: At the end of Second Offense, he is revealed to be a Chimpanzee.
Agent Chase
- Dogged Nice Guy: To Chassey Blue.
- They Do: With Chassey.
- Time Police: A federal agent sent back to the past to aprehend Lord Clyde.
- Time Stands Still: People caught within the blast radius of his Hard Time special attack end up frozen in time for a few moments. While it doesn't cause any damage by itself, it makes getting Whammy Combos all too easy.
- Turn in Your Badge: Chase ends up quitting the Time Police force after falling in love with both Chassey and the 1970's.
Padre Destino
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: He gets vaporized by a fireball from heaven after trying to bring about The End of the World as We Know It via a cult ritual.
- The Fundamentalist
- To Hell and Back: His special weapon opens a portal to the underworld, which then shoots his vehicle out of the ground from underneath the targeted car.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "BEWARE!"
- Stripped to the Bone: What happens to Destino after the Bolt of Divine Retribution mentioned above.
Dusty Earth
- Badass Pacifist
- Blow You Away: His special attack has him summon a tornado to lift up and batter his opponents.
- Magical Native American: Strongly implied.
- You Fight Like a Cow: One of his victory quotes: "You fight like a one-legged buffalo".
