Best/Worst In-Game Announcers/Narrators?

[Moonface]

I know these are mostly common in sports titles, but they do appear in other genres too. Either way, an in-game announcer/narrator can potentially make or break a game depending on how much of a role they play I think and I find it's rare that they come up in general game discussions. So what in-game announcers/narrators do you really enjoy, and are there any cases where they were bad enough to detract from a game for you?


I don't know how well the more modern games do it, but WWE games are atrocious for the in-game ring announcers and commentators. It always sounds so stiff and unnatural which I know is partly down to it being generated on the fly based on what is happening, but it also gets so damn repetitive that even if it sounded good it'll just end up being the same few lines on repeat. I always turn them off in any WWE game I've played and it sucks because even when the ring announcers don't sound too bad all of the in-game voices are on a single slider, so muting all the bad voices also kills any of the few good ones too.


Destruction Derby 2 has a GOAT'ed announcer though. He adds so much personality to that game and I can't ever not think of his lines whenever I reflect on that game. They might be the in-game announcer I get the most nostalgic for thinking about it.

[ShiraNoMai]

Smash has such an iconic one; it's amusing how it was attempted to come across the same way across all 5 games, too.

A lot of the N64 era ones really strike me, but that may be because it was the first console I encountered to feature such a thing. Diddy Kong Racing's "T.T." is a big proponent of that, along with Mario Golf's accidentally condescending announcer, more than likely because both of them you'd hear quite frequently in moments of exasperation.

[Moonface]

Smash has such an iconic one; it's amusing how it was attempted to come across the same way across all 5 games, too.

I was curious if the voice actor for that had been consistent at any point to explain the attempt of keeping the delivery similar across all the games, but turns out every game has had a different voice actor for the announcer except for 4 and Ultimate.


You mentioning DKR I realized I haven't played any kart racer that has any announcing in it, and I think the only racer I've played that uses an announcer to convey info to the player is WipEout. I don't think the first game has any, and WipEout 2097 has it but it's incredibly hard to make out what is being said. For me Wip3out has the most iconic announcer and that's when the series finally had every weapon pickup verbally stated to you so you knew what you have without needing to look at the UI, but that info is relayed at its best when the series moved to HD Fury because of the implementation of surround sound audio.


Also because I know it'll get mentioned sooner or later, Bastion for me is probably the best narrator in any game period that I can think of. I can't even imagine the game without him. 
Oh, actually I forgot about Darkest Dungeon which comes incredibly close but doesn't top Bastion for me.

[Mr EliteL]

Melee's announcer is the best out of the Smash games, especially when he says Bowser, Ganondorf and Mewtwo as they're the villain reps in the game so he does a bit more deeper, menacing tone for them. The rest, although I'm not familiar with 64's, are all good just not one par for me.

Although not necessarily an announcer but an umpire, Toadsworth in Mario Power Tennis I just found him annoying and would rather the screen have the points and such show up as text instead.

For WWE games I could tolerate the commentators for a while but yes their lines get too repetitive. Only until I played Day of Reckoning 2 on GameCube that only played music instead did I realise how I much preferred that over the PlayStation WWE games' commentators.

[Moonface]

For WWE games I could tolerate the commentators for a while but yes their lines get too repetitive. Only until I played Day of Reckoning 2 on GameCube that only played music instead did I realise how I much preferred that over the PlayStation WWE games' commentators.

For me it got less tolerable when the series moved in a more simulation direction starting with the 2K line. When WWE games were more arcadey it was easier to forgive it but if you're gonna target simulating the real thing you need to be hitting as much stuff as closely as possible I think.

I'm still trying to decide my favourites but I'm curious on your take, which Tekken games have the best announcer for you?

[ShiraNoMai]

Melee's announcer is the best out of the Smash games, especially when he says Bowser, Ganondorf and Mewtwo as they're the villain reps in the game so he does a bit more deeper, menacing tone for them. The rest, although I'm not familiar with 64's, are all good just not on par for me.

The Smash 64 announcer had practically the same inflections across all the characters, but the intonation is still something to admire cuz it felt very ring-announcer like.



(if the video doesn't keep the timestamp, go to the last chapter/4:21)

[Mr EliteL]

I feel the earlier games for Tekken up to Tag 1 and including Smash 64 suffer from sound quality issues that immediately knocks them down for me personally. It's between Tekken 4 and Tekken 5 as my favourite, possibly Tag 2 as well only because I played that so much I got used to it. T4's got me hyped to fight against Heihachi in his nappy amongst pretty much any other fight. It mainly comes down to how well they say "Round" or "Final Round" for me anyway.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah sound chips weren't the greatest, though I think it's strange that for a PS1 game, who wasn't particularly limited on the soundchip department, also suffered quality issues. Could be for compression purposes, though.

Bastion (and arguably Transistor, but Bastion primarily) leans HEAVILY on having one of the strongest narration in a game I can think of. I genuinely think the game would be a lesser experience and possibly even a mid game overall without the presence of the Narrator.