Clownloadable Content

Sylvando is a flamboyant circus performer who wants nothing more than to make people smile. He dazzles audiences in a circus big top and hopes to one day open his own theatre, and he never loses his flare for the dramatic. When Sylvando is separated from his friends and the world is thrown into darkness, he takes it upon himself to travel the countryside and recruit people for an extravagant parade. Sylvando demonstrates expert juggling skills and is shown to be a top-level horseback rider, and he’s also a skilled swordsmen with a profound knowledge of knighthood. There’s more to him than meets the eye, but he’s content with being a colorful jester. Sylvando’s theatrics border on the annoying at times, but nobody on this list cares more about entertaining others than he does.

Cicero is a peculiar assassin who is regarded as bothersome due to his flamboyant attire, high-pitched voice, and tendency to refer to himself in the third-person. He’s difficult to understand and seemingly talks to himself, so it’s not surprising that he’s considered insane. Before he descended into madness, Cicero was respected as a contract killer. When he was hired to kill a jester, however, he became obsessed with his target and began to adopt various aspects of his persona. Dragonborn can obtain Cicero’s enchanted jester outfit by killing him, but there are many benefits to letting him live. If recruited by Dragonborn, Cicero will make off-beat jokes and humorous observations about their quests. He’s also prone to random acts of dancing, which helps him stand out as one of the most unique followers in the game.

A manipulative scholar with supernatural abilities and knowledge of demonic folklore, Arkham serves as the primary antagonist of Devil May Cry 3. He has a talent for exploiting personalities and creating conflict between others, and he secretly plots against those who he pretends to help. Under the guise of Jester, Arkham mocks and challenges Dante as part of a larger plan to pit him against his brother Vergil. When he’s not busy instigating battles between others, Arkham finds time to taunt his estranged daughter, Lady. Arkham sacrificed his wife as part of a demonic ritual, and Lady seeks to avenge her. Arkham enjoys toying with Lady and likes the attention she gives him. His obsession with his daughter could be described as unhealthy, and he gets way too caught up on the idea of spanking her fat ass.

Pandemonium! and its sequel have been tragically lost to the annals of time, but they were among the best platformers of the PlayStation generation and helped pioneer the concept of “2.5D” gameplay. Fargus is a court jester who uses a puppet named Sid to perform various attacks. They spend their days traveling to various festivals in order to entertain audiences, but they often embarrass themselves and wind up on the receiving end of fruit and other perishables. When Fargus meets a young acrobatic sorceress named Nikki at a wizards seminar, the two hit if off immediately and soon set off on a quest to defeat a monster that destroyed their village. Fargus has a very loose grip on reality and his friends seem to grow tired of his antics over time, but he still manages to keep himself entertained.

Putting a mime on this list will likely create shockwaves among clown enthusiasts, but I’m not one to get caught up on semantics. Mimes are viewed as acceptable targets for mockery, but it’s not my intention to belittle any performance art. Mr. Mime has always seemed a little off to me, and it has nothing to do with how he acts. In fact, I think his attacks are pretty cool. By rapidly moving his fingers, Mr. Mime can create an invisible wall in thin air. Unlike most mimes, he doesn’t have to pretend that a wall is in front of him. The strangest thing about Mr. Mime is that he’s a humanoid Pokémon instead of the garden-variety, animal-based Pokémon. The premise of Pokémon raises enough ethical questions as it is, but it really seems like you’re crossing a line once you start capturing mimes in the wild and forcing them to fight.

Women in fighting games often look like they hang out on street corners, but this has a very different meaning for Lola Pop. The applause-seeking clown has traveled the world as a street performer, and she hopes to one day open her own circus. Her clowning skills and colorful outfits would make her the center of attention in any arena, and the ARMS Grand Prix is no exception. Her fighting style is based around her uncanny ability to inflate her body, and her crowd-pleasing moves confuse her opponents. I’ve seen a lot of balloon tricks in my day, but it’s pretty rare to see someone turn themselves into one! Lola Pop is eternally cheerful, she enjoys entertaining others, and she looks like she’d taste like candy. She’s the sweetest fighter in the ARMS League by far, and she has everything you could want in a woman.

Mr. Do was one of the most prolific video game characters of the early ’80s and the star of numerous games. In Mr. Do!, the titular circus clown was tasked with digging tunnels and crushing monsters with a giant ball. In Mr. Do’s Castle, he passed his time by hitting unicorns with mallets. Mr. Do’s Wild Ride placed him in an amusement park and inexplicably challenged him to climb to the top of a rollercoaster, while Do! Run, Run once again gave him the goal of crushing monsters with a giant ball. Despite his popularity, Mr. Do was reduced to a mere footnote in gaming history following the video game crash of 1984. Mr. Do deserves more respect than he gets and might have been rated even higher if not for the fact that he was depicted as a snowman in the original Japanese version of his first game.

Chrono Cross is one of the greatest RPGs of all time, but I’d be lying if I said more than a handful of its 40+ characters were truly memorable. Harle’s excessive use of Franglais can be a little annoying at times, but she easily ranks among the most compelling characters in the game. Although she bears resemblance to a young woman, she is actually the descendant of an ancient dragon god. Harle is an enigma and can be difficult to read since she’s known for feigning obedience when her loyalties lay elsewhere. Her missions often conflict with her true feelings, so she’s compelled to hide her emotions. This ultimately makes her an effective spy, and she’s quite skilled at earning the trust of others. Harle struggles with sincerity at times, but she is outwardly flirtatious and genuinely fun to be around.

NiGHTS is an androgynous jester created for the purpose of stealing the dreams of humans. He was not keen on taking orders, however, so he was imprisoned between dreams as a response to his disobedience. NiGHTS is a free spirit with a childish personality, so it wasn’t surprising that he was able to enlist the help of dreaming children to help secure his freedom. NiGHTS takes shape according to the thoughts, ideas, and personalities of visitors from the real world, and he has shown the ability to transform into bobsleds, dragons, and almost everything in between. He’s defined by his mischief and seldom thinks about the consequences of his actions, but his carefree attitude makes him an interesting character. His rival sibling Reala was also considered for this list, but NiGHTS has a more visible presence and has appeared in more games.

Sweet Tooth is the face of the Twisted Metal franchise, and his demonic ice cream truck has appeared on the cover of every game in the series. He has been demented from the very beginning, and his personality only grows darker over time. Prior to the events of Twisted Metal, Sweet Tooth was a mass murderer named Marcus Kane who was sent to an asylum after surviving the electric chair. The trademark flames on his head were revealed to be the result of a curse that was placed on him prior to his scheduled execution, and they serve as a constant source of pain and anguish. He spends most of his time terrorizing neighborhoods with napalm ice cream cones, but he also made an appearance in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale alongside other tortured souls like Fat Princes and emo Dante.