Wolverine Publicity/Video Games

• In Final Fantasy XIII-2 The cover of the game shows only Lightning in a badass pose, but we only get to play as her younger sister Serah and Noel.
• In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, almost all chapters prominently feature Rena in the cover, even those that have nothing to do with her.
  • She is missing only in Meakashi-hen and Minagoroshi-hen (And Rei, if that counts). That's 2 out of 8, people!
    • But she's hardly ever a main character. She's less important than Keichii, Rika or Mion, yet she's absolutely everywhere on merchandise, while Rika and especially Keichii get really little space.
  • Rena is also on the PlayStation 2 remakes covers, except for Kakera Asobi, where Rika and Hanyuu are there instead.
    • Actually, Rena was the main focus of Kakera Asobi's Append Version cover. So, yeah.
  • That's because she's so cute everyone wants to take her home :3
  • Rena was the cover girl from the beginning and only 3 characters can really be said to be "more important" to the plot and those are Keichii (cuz he's takes the role of the typical main character), Rika, and Hanyuu (due to their situation but that doesn't get revealed til half the series). Also, her arc is pretty much the turning point of the series and therefore probably one of the most important arc. She is also the central character that makes Keichii remember the events of the first arc, which is the catalyst for the turning point. That being said, it's a sure thing she gets the most attention due to her popularity.
• Christopher Walken appears on the box cover and on the serigraphy of every single CD of Black Dahlia. He has a three minute bit part in the game.
  • But it's still Christopher Walken, so it's a memorable bit part.
• Strangely inverted in Yoshi's Safari -- Mario makes a legitimate and prominent appearance everywhere... outside of the game's cover. (Granted, he doesn't appear directly in the gameplay, but that's because the game is played in a first-person perspective from his point of view.)
• Zero, Ensemble Darkhorse was a supporting character in the first Mega Man X who got promoted to co-protagonist in the sequels, had a retroactive cameo in the original series, gained his own series in the form of Mega Man Zero, and (arguably) returns from the dead as a Biometal in ZX. Aside from that, he was also mentioned in two more (Legends and Battle Network), with the latter even including an Expy in one of its Gaiden Games as well as the anime. Last but not the least, he appears as a playable character in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The only series he hasn't appeared in, yet, is Star Force.
• Always expect Ryu and Chun-Li to pop up in Capcom's crossover games. Excluding the Street Fighter-less Cross Edge, they're the only characters with a perfect attendance record, and Ken would had got it too if he wasn't one of Ryu's transformations in Marvel vs. Capcom and an entirely different character with the same name in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. And predictably, the trope namer has appeared in all of Capcom's Marvel-licensed fighting games. He even has two versions of himself in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
  • Zangief is also present in nearly all of the crossover games; his absentee counts are SVC Chaos (where he's replaced by Hugo from Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact), Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (where he's replaced by Alex from Street Fighter III), and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (where he's replaced by Haggar from Final Fight) as the Capcom side's grappler.
  • Morrigan is next to them. Since the first Marvel vs. Capcom she was always present, except in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos where she's replaced by Demitri as the Darkstalkers character. And it's still played straight, since said game wasn't developed by Capcom, but by SNK.
    • To put it in perspective, she's the sole Darkstalker in FOUR games: Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Given that she's essentially a Pirate Who Doesn't Do Anything (succubi are supposed to use their charms to corrupt good men's souls, not get modelling gigs), that's pretty impressive.
  • Capcom intends to give Frank West the same treatment.
  • On the topic of Street Fighter: When Akuma first appeared in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, he was in every piece of promotional material for the game. The home conversions of the game prominently featured him on the cover art. Lastly, Akuma appears in the intro of the game opposite Ryu. In spite all of this promotion, the conditions to fight Akuma are so exceedingly difficult to attain due to the game's difficulty that it's safe to say that most people have never seen him in the arcade version. In addition, the code to play as that character requires such precise timing that the average player probably wouldn't get it right after the first 30 tries. After all of this, though, Akuma has been guaranteed an appearance in almost everything Street Fighter-related since.
  • Oddly enough, when it came to the initial release of SFA3, Cody ended up taking this spot. Despite not being a 'main' character story-wise or even the most high-profile of the new additions, he ended up a major presence, if not the focus, of most promotional art for the game, including one of him vs. Ryu, with the rest of the cast in the background.
• Marisa Kirisame of the Touhou Project is the second playable character, having been in the games since the second on the PC-98. To date (up to UFO), she's the logo for all ZUN-made Touhou games in the Windows domain - even the one where she doesn't even appear in, Shoot the Bullet. Not even Reimu (the lead) is capable of boasting that she's appeared in every game in one form or another.
  • She is not the logo for Double Spoiler or Fairy Wars'. She is, however, fightable in both... and Reimu isn't in Fairy Wars at all.
• Nomura has said that he wants Sora to be in every Kingdom Hearts game, even if he has nothing to do with the story.
  • Well, that's not quite accurate. What he actually said was that Kingdom Hearts is ultimately Sora's story, so every game has to tie into him somehow. It's less about popularity (because certainly, his other half, Roxas, and his rival, Riku, are much more popular) and more about him simply being the main character.
• And of course, that brings up Final Fantasy VII Cloud Strife. In addition to the media directly related to his universe - VII, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus - he's popping up in other universes with frightening regularity. He gets a Shout-Out in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX, he's an unlockable Guest Fighter in Final Fantasy Tactics, a recurring character in Kingdom Hearts, in Itadaki Street, and he's in Ehrgeiz and Dissidia Final Fantasy (Which he would have been in either way, being the hero of a main numbered entry). The character designer of Final Fantasy XIII, Tetsuya Nomura, was specifically told they wanted a female Cloud Strife for a main character, which is how he came up with Lightning.
  • And with Cloud comes Sephiroth. If Cloud shows up in the work, chances are Sephiroth is going to be his nemesis or get a shout out.
  • Gilgamesh, originally from V, is a recurring character in several numbered entries (or, if they preceded his game, their remakes), thanks in part to his status as a Breakout Character. To date, he's appeared in more games than any other character. Additionally, it is heavily implied that it is the very same Gilgamesh from V in most of his reappearances.
• Kyosuke Nanbu of Super Robot Wars Original Generation. Either him or his Alt Eisen Mecha (or any variation of the machine) will undoubtedly be displayed on the game covers of the Original Generation series, including the Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier Gaiden Game.
  • In the regular crossover titles, sometimes a series will be add to game without its plot. The biggest example of this is Mazinger Z, who lately is just kind of around. Even without that, he's on every game, as well as a Gundam series (Often two or three, minimum.), which count as regular examples.
  • If UC Gundam is included in the game, then you can be sure that Amuro will get his Nu Gundam, no matter if he's the incarnation from Chars Counterattack or Zeta Gundam or even the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The poor RX-78-2 Gundam hasn't been in a fully animated Super Robot Wars game since Advance Portable, and the Dijeh has only ever appeared once.
• The Bonus Boss of Dragon Ball: Attack of the Saiyans, none other than "Legendary" Super Saiyan Broly, despite the game covering until the saga before Super Saiyans appear on the plot, about 15 volumes and 150 episodes before the point Broly's movie could happen. Proving why he belongs in this trope, they used him on ads for the game. When was the last time you saw a Bonus Boss on ads?
  • Broly has actually appeared in a total of 17 games. Broly is also one of two characters to get a "What If" Super Saiyan 3 form in Raging Blast, the other being Vegeta, who's arguably more fitting for the status.
  • While Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu is not, by any means whatsoever, a good (or even decent) fighting game, it was heavily promoted as the first game in the US to include Broly, which is probably Taiketsu's only claim to fame.
  • Cooler gets a lot of advertising, and has appeared in 9 games.
  • Revenge of King Piccolo only has King Piccolo himself show up for the last few stages. Most of the game is spent covering the Red Ribbon arc. The Japanese name counts too, as it refers the Tournament Arc that gets even less stages than King Piccolo's arc. At least the Red Ribbon is prominently featured on the cover.
• The AC Nine Ball from Armored Core has only shown up in four out of thirteen games, yet is the series' unofficial mascot and every AC fan worth their salt will instantly recognize him.
• Mario, his supporting cast, and to a lesser extent Link has a habit of making cameos in games on Nintendo systems. The Mario gang has made appearances in even third party games for Nintendo systems, sometimes even as playable characters. The Gamecube release of Soulcalibur II was the best selling version of that game almost entirely because Link was a character in it. This has even been Lampshaded in some of the Mario RPGs.
• Shadow the Hedgehog and his motorbike. The bike is actually a hidden vehicle, only in a couple of levels, and handles lousy too, but it still manages to get in all the trailers, and was a big deal for many gamers who kind of expected it to be a little more important than that.
  • Possibly toyed with with the heavy bike in Sonic Riders; not only does it offer a big speed boost (taking advantage of Shadow's already top-notch speed) but it just seems... fitting for him. Looks more badass than him skating around at least.
  • The bike went on to be Shadow's vehicle of choice in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
• Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat is the only character who is present and playable in every fighting game in the series, and is present in every spin-off except for Mortal Kombat Special Forces. He was also the main character in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and he has made cameos in other Midway Games titles such as MLB Slugfest.
  • For a while, even he was upstaged by Goro, who created an amazing amount of buzz for a game he wasn't even in. No, he was not in Mortal Kombat 2. Any version. At all. No, that didn't prevent a kajillion hours of speculation about whether he was alive, where he could be, what exactly happened to him after Mortal Kombat 1, whether Shao Kahn knew about him, etc. When he did finally return, in Mortal Kombat 4, he was given given a superstar's welcome-back and placed front and center on the cover art, despite the fact that he had virtually no story to speak of and no connection to Shinnok's scheme whatsoever.
  • It should be noted that there are actually two Sub-Zeroes: the older brother Bi-Han and the younger brother Kuai Liang. The former was the Sub-Zero present in Mythologies and the first game, only to be killed by Scorpion at the end of MK1 and turn into Noob Saibot in MK2. His younger brother took up his mantle in the same game as Noob's debut. To date, Noob has only been missing from the roster in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, while Sub-Zero has been a series mainstay since MK2. It should be noted that the younger Sub-Zero was the only member of the Trilogy hero gang (i.e. Liu Kang, Raiden, Kitana, Kung Lao, Cage, Sonya, and Jax) to not be killed off by the time DA was over.
  • And speaking of Scorpion... you guessed it. It doesn't hurt that he's not only Ed Boon's favorite character, but a fan-favorite for many. He and (Younger) Sub-Zero have become the series' Spotlight-Stealing Squad, usually receiving top-billing or spots on the covers despite having minimal ties to the overall plot. The only exception was in Mortal Kombat: Deception, where the Elder Gods made Scorpion into their Champion to deal with the threat of Onaga.
    • It has gone beyond top-billing: Scorpion's the logo mascot for Netherrealm Studios.
• Silent Hill: Pyramid Head, after his popularity in Silent Hill 2, was put in the movie. He appears in two scenes. He serves no real purpose other than fanservice and to be scary as hell.
• Thrall and the Horde (or at the very least the Orcish race) in modern Warcraft media. A giant statue of a Orc riding his wolf into battle was even erected right at the headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment because of how popular they are.
• If your knowledge of Team Fortress 2 is small to barely existent, chances are the only class you know from this game is the Heavy.
• The Legend of Zelda: The adult incarnations of Link have only appeared in 4 out of the 15 titles of the series, but you'd never know it from all the times he's showed up. He's been in on the default roster of all 3 Super Smash Bros. games labeled as just "Link", with his Young incarnation(who has in comparison appeared in 6 games in the series) as a secret character in Melee who was replaced with his Toon incarnation(who has appeared in 6 titles of the series) in Brawl. Adult Link even appeared as a Guest Fighter in Soul Calibur II and was the star of Link's Crossbow Training one of the few spin-offs in the series. At this point, Adult Link is probably the most recognized incarnation of the character.
  • This may be because the games featuring adult Link happen to be the more popular games in the series, or vice-versa (games such as Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword may tend to be more popular because they feature adult Link).
  • Technically, adult and child Link are the same character, just from different timelines and time periods. Toon Link is a different character, but he was included as his own character in the first Super Smash Bros game released after his debut.
  • Toon Link as well, in the sixth generation at least, where apparently every appearance of Link that wasn't in a Fighting game required him to have huge chestnut eyes or something. He even got in Brawl! It's only calming down now with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, but Spirit Tracks proves Toon Link isn't going anywhere any time soon.
• Pikachu is the best-known Pokémon example, appearing in almost every single piece of merchandising available (you wouldn't even know that it's actually a fairly rare Pokémon, and unobtainable via normal gameplay in Pokémon Black and White). Furthermore, the Pokémon Company will usually let a brand-new Pokémon not named Pikachu star in a movie or video game, and if it's popular enough, it'll appear in all sorts of merchandise and other games/movies/anime episodes/TCG expansions until the next generation. Although the cute "Pikaclones" in early generations (Pichu and Plusle/Minun) have shades of this, this was first played straight with Lucario, who not only starred in his own movie, but also appeared prominently in every single aspect of the franchise (including a playable appearance in the Super Smash Bros franchise, beginning in Super Smash Bros Brawl). Then after trying again and failing with Zoroark (an Expy of Lucario), the Pokémon Company noticed how popular Zekrom was, and proceeded to give it a prominent appearance in damn near everything (including as the main Pokémon in Pokémon Re BURST and the Nobunaga's Ambition crossover).