The best video game characters manage to last the test of time. While some of the most famous ones have been largely mute, like The Legend of Zelda’s Link or Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman, a good vocal performance can go a long way in defining the character.
While some voice actors have made their characters iconic, they haven't always played the character. For one reason or another, they've had alternate versions that required a different performer in the booth.
7 Batman
Obviously Batman didn’t start off as a video game character. But he has appeared in a lot of them since the days of the ZX Spectrum and the NES. While some of them have been good, the best Bat-games are the Batman: Arkham series. They had the Dark Knight’s most famous voice actor, the late Kevin Conroy, reprise his role from the Animated Series for all 3 of the mainline games from Arkham Asylum to Arkham Knight.
However, the prequel Arkham Origins and its 3DS sequel Arkham Origins Blackgate needed someone else to do a younger take on the Bat. They found him in Roger Craig Smith, best known for voicing Chris Redfield in the Resident Evil games. He'd later return to the role for the Batman Unlimited series, the Batman Ninja movie, and Superman: Red Son.
6 Ratatoskr
Everyone jokes about Troy Baker being in nearly every role under the sun, but they're made for a reason. This won't be the last time his name turns up. First off, he was primarily in the 2018 God of War game as Thor’s son Magni. He also provided funny quips for Atreus’ spirit squirrel Ratatoskr as he dug for pickups.
He reprized the role for God of War: Ragnarök with a difference. His Ratatoskr isn’t the same as the actual squirrel creature from Norse mythology. He's just a ghostly recreation made from Atreus' magic. The real Ratatoskr in Ragnarök is voiced by ‘ProZD’ SungWon Cho, the man behind Hyodo in Aggretsuko and Tesso in Lost Judgment. He's just as much of a smart Alec, while being more tangible than his Baker-based apparition.
5 Kratos
Sticking with God of War, its leading man Kratos was originally voiced by TC Nelson across the classic Greek games and his guest appearances. He really captured the character’s barely suppressed rage and occasional sense of melancholy. Christopher Judge continued this angle for the character in the Norse games too, making him more weary and reflective.
What might not be well known is that he was also voiced by Antony Del Rio (of Pit from Kid Icarus fame) for God of War: Ghost of Sparta’s flashbacks to his childhood. It showed he was just as angry as a child. Though without his scar and tattoos, he looked more like Bully's Jimmy Hopkins than a god of war.
4 Nathan Drake
Likewise, Sony’s other big star from the Uncharted series is synonymous with Nolan North. He’s voiced the character in everything from the mainline series to PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and the Subway commercials. That's not to mention his cheeky cameo in the Uncharted movie. Still, like Kratos, the role has occasionally required a younger actor to voice the character for flashbacks.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception had Billy Unger play a teenage Drake during its opening stages, which showed how he met his father figure Sully for the first time. While Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End went back further, showing Drake as a young boy playing truant from his private school, where he was voiced by Avatar: The Way of Water’s Britain Dalton.
3 Revolver Ocelot
Metal Gear Solid offers up some good examples of this topic’s opposite: the same voice actor playing separate but similar characters. For example, David Hayter and Christopher Randolph famously played Solid Snake and Otacon before playing their dads Big Boss and Huey Emmerich. While Steve Blum used the same voice for both villains in Portable Ops and Peace Walker. However, there is one character who fits the bill: the sneaky multi-agent Revolver Ocelot.
The character's most defining actor was Patric Zimmerman from MGS1, 2, and 4, who voiced him with a sly, sinister relish. In MGS3, he was voiced by Spectacular Spider-Man actor Josh Keaton, who portrayed a younger, cockier Ocelot who liked to point at people and meow. Then, for MGS5, middle-aged Ocelot had Troy Baker give him a more subdued, authentic cowboy voice, which he would later give to another Western enthusiast: Mortal Kombat's Erron Black.
2 Mario
Charles Martinet has voicing Nintendo's premier mascot for so long that it’s hard to remember when he wasn’t behind the Italian plumber’s set of pipes. While he's been behind the character for 30+ years now, others have had a go with Mario. His earliest VA, Ronald B.Ruben, voiced him in 1991's Mario Teaches Typing, before being succeeded by Nicholas Glaeser for Mario is Missing!
Marc Graue of Ratchet & Clank and World of Warcraft fame gave Mario and his brother Luigi a more Italian-American sound in Hotel Mario a la Captain Lou Albano and Walker Boone from the TV shows. If this list counted those and movies as well, Mario would need his own list. Still, they did provide Mario his earliest speaking roles, the first of which was actually done by Transformers' actor Peter Cullen for the 1983 Donkey Kong cartoon.
1 The Playa/Boss
Saints Row’s Create-A-Character protagonist is unique as, from Saints Row 2 onwards, the games made them different depending on which of the 6-7 voices (3 male, 3 female, and a gimmick option) the player chose. In Saints Row the Third, they could be a hardened London Cockney (Robin Atkin Downes), a Russian woman with a crush on her sidekick Pierce (Tara Platt), or an incoherent, mumbling zombie (Steve Blum).
Saints Row 4 went meta by offering ‘Nolan North’ as an option. This isn't as an in-character performance. It's just Nolan North as himself quipping about his multiple voice acting gigs while occasionally lilting into his Nathan Drake and Deadpool voices. They could've done the same joke with Troy Baker if he wasn't already one of the default male options.