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I think it is time that we discussed the Funny Little Guy loop in gaming culture.

This. Is Kirby. Kirby is what we know in the scientific gaming community as a Funny Little Guy. He is fun. He is happy. He enjoys life and lives by the happiness of others. He is a pure soul and embodies childhood.

Mario too, is a Funny Little Guy. Ness is a Funny Little Guy. Pikachu, Yoshi, toon Link, Pikmin, everyone in Animal Crossing, Mega Man.

They are all Funny Little Guys. They are where we start our gaming journeys.

Eventually, however, we don’t want to play merely as Funny Little Guys. We wanna be cool, we might develop a bit of a mischievous attitude. A desire to bend or break the rules. This reflects in the games that we play. We go from playing Funny Little Guy games to…

Rude Little Dudes

They’re fun, happy, enjoy life, but also are a bit of a troublemaker. They don’t wanna do homework or go to school they just wanna play. All the time.

Sonic, is a Rude little Dude.

Look at Donkey Kong in this intro here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2YurnXXoF8

Classic Rude Little Dude behavior. Wario is a Rude Little Dude, Banjo is a Funny little Guy but Kazooie is a textbook Rude Little Dude. Inklings are Rude Little Dudes.

But then… We get even older, we realize the world isn’t quite as fun as it once was. The world can be dark and scary, the future cold and uncertain.

We no longer feel like our fun-loving games match our cold and cynical interiors. And rather than playing happy Funny Little Guy games or Rude Little Dude games, we become serious and our games grow serious, dark and gritty with us. Soon, we’re only playing Scruffy Toughie games

And in the process we become a bit of a scruffy toughie ourselves.

You may know someone in your life who exclusively plays only scruffy toughie games. And to their credit, some of the best games ever made are scruffy toughie games.

Nathan Drake, Gordan Freeman, Cloud Strife, Simon Belmont, Doom Guy. They are all Scruffy Toughie characters.

However… Once you get even older… You may realize how silly it was to put these dark and gritty games on a pettlestool. They are not as mature or adult as you once thought. And that just because you play Scruffy Toughie games doesn’t make you any more adult or cool. Besides, even if they are who are you trying to prove that to?

Often, once we get our fill of our Scruffy Toughie games, we miss the simplicity of our childhoods and yearn for that innocence again. So eventually we find our way all the way back to…

Funny Little Guys.

Or, perhaps, you’ve moved onto a different category not discussed. Such as Sad Lad games? With emphasis on personifications of negative emotions like trauma, grief and depression. Doki Doki Literature Club, Danganronpa, Limbo, or Omori, which are all Sad Lad games.

For me personally? Admittedly I mostly play Scruffy Toughie games. Wife and I are playing through Sons of the Forest and the MC of that game is the scruffiest and toughiest of the scruffy and toughie. I’m also playing Fallout 3 which is a very scruffy toughie game.

But I also balance that with Funny Little Guy games like Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Sad Lad games like Omori.

What do you guys think? Where are you on the spectrum? Do you still play Funny Little Guy games? Do kids at school give you a hard time because they think they’re too good for Funny Little Guys? Or do you play a mixture like me?

I like a game with good well-thought out direction. Kirby games really bail the squishy whimsical feeling, and it’s great! Half-Life 2 is gritty disgusting and dystopian, and it’s also great!
Now gameplay wise, I’m not actually thr biggest kirby fan but that’s besides the point

Earthbound is 100% a Funny Little Guy game. In fact, the game’s core theme of growing up emphasizes this. The game feels childish. Like it was made by children. Ness is afraid of growing up. He is worried about what the future will hold. He feels how we feel when we start trying Scruffy Toughie games for the first time.

In fact, at the end of the game when it starts to feel less like a Funny Little Guy game and more like a Kooky Spooky game, the game reassures us that friendship prevails and that while we may be growing up, we do not have to lose that childlike sense of wonder. And ends as a Funny Little Guy game.

I play all of these, at different times lol

Some of my favourite franchises are Sonic, Touhou, Resident Evil, and Like a Dragon. Sometimes I feel like a bit of everything!

Good. This is where you want to remain

I think the best kind of scruffy toughies are the kind that have a caring love for funny little guys. This is why I like Doomguy. He’s a scruffy toughie – but he’s fighting for all of funny little guys, rude little dudes, even the sad lads, out there in big wide world. Think his late, best little pal, Daisy. Or, if you recall the far-gone year of 2020, you may have an image of the percieved friendship of the Doom Slayer and Isabelle. Doomguy is justice, personified. The toughest of the scruffies.

I don’t prefer anyone over one another. Some of my favourite guys are scruffy toughies like members of the Belmont Clan or the aforementioned Doomguy. Some of my other favourites are funny little guys, like Kirby, Mario, and especially Pikachu. Rude little dudes bring the ’tude, and I always sympathise with all the sad lads out there.

I have a question – Where does Donkey Kong fall on this list? He’s far too big to be a funny little guy. What about Link from the Legend of Zelda? Would that be a case-by-case scenario? Is Wind Waker Link a funny little guy? Is Twilight Princess Link a scruffy toughie? Are there any rude little dude Links?

Are there other types of guys? Or are there only the ones mentioned?

Oh – I misread that as Diddy Kong. Who themselves of course would be a rude little dude, although I can also see a compelling argument to label him a funny little guy.

Can Donkey Kong be a rude little dude, though? He’s far too big if you ask me. I propose the Big Bumbling Boy. A larger, tougher variant of the rude little dude or funny little guy, who protects his smaller pals to his best ability, but isn’t competent enough to be considered a scruffy toughie.