Unlike in Japan, where it is almost unheard of for the voice actor behind a popular video game character to be recast, it's fairly common practice in the west. Of course, there are some notable exceptions, including the great Charles Martinet, who has been the undisputed video game voice of Mario for almost three decades now. As with the character himself though, that kind of longevity is incredibly rare in the modern era of gaming.
While some recasts go largely unnoticed by western fans, the rest tend to be accepted without too many complaints, with players seemingly more interested in the characters themselves than the actors who are providing their voices. This isn't always the case, however, with one or two recasts having caused their fair share of controversy over the past few years. Some popular video game characters have even changed voice actors multiple times.
Updated October 15, 2022, by Tom Bowen: Over in Japan, talented video game voice actors are treated like celebrities, with fans often paying tens of thousands of Yen to see them perform live at special events. Sadly, the work of video game voice actors is far less appreciated on western shores, with most players neither knowing nor caring who voices their favorite characters. This, in turn, makes it far easier for executives to replace a voice actor in order to save a few bucks, as has often been the case over the past decade or so. These iconic video game characters all changed voice actors, though not all of them were replaced for the same reasons.
12 Bayonetta (Bayonetta)
Initially, it was suggested that a scheduling conflict had been responsible for Jennifer Hale replacing Hellena Taylor as the titular character in Bayonetta 3. However, a few weeks before the game's release, Taylor broke her NDA to give her side of the story, with the actress posting a series of videos on Twitter. In them, she claimed that the real reason that she didn't reprise the role was that she had only been offered a measly $4,000 in order to do so.
Worse still, this was supposedly a revised offer that resulted from Taylor personally reaching out to the game's director Hideki Kamiya, who also serves as the vice president at Platinum Games. Taylor also called on fans to boycott Bayonetta 3, suggesting that they could instead donate the money they would have spent to charity. The revelation made a huge impression on the gaming community, with her initial video receiving over five million views on Twitter in the first ten hours alone.
11 James Sunderland (Silent Hill)
Alongside Nolan North, Troy Baker is probably the most prolific and most popular male video game voice actor in the west. However, Silent Hill fans weren't too happy with him replacing Guy Cihi as the protagonist of the second and third Silent Hill games in the 2012 HD collection. It's not that his performance was particularly bad or anything, but many fans felt that he just didn't quite capture the character as well as Cihi had.
Some believe that this was down to poor direction, while others have questioned whether there may have been a conscious decision to try and make Sunderland a bit more charismatic and likable. Thankfully, the Silent Hill 2 remaster at least allows players to choose between the two dubs, though this doesn't make up for all of the other issues that the Silent Hill HD collection suffers from.
10 Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy)
Although the original version of Final Fantasy VII didn't contain voice acting, Cloud has been voiced in numerous other video game appearances over the years. His first speaking role in the west came in the 2002 release of Kingdom Hearts, in which Steve Burton provided his voice. The American would then go on to reprise the role on 12 further occasions.
It therefore came as a bit of a surprise when it was revealed that Cody Christian would be providing the voice of the spiky-haired hero in Final Fantasy VII Remake, particularly as he had never played a major video game character before. Cloud wasn't the only character to be recast for the game either, with Sephiroth, Tifa, and Aerith among those to get a new voice actor in the remake. The Japanese cast remained largely unchanged.
9 Snake (Metal Gear)
Technically, Venom Snake is not the same character as Big Boss or Solid Snake and so some might argue that the decision to replace David Hayter for Metal Gear Solid V made sense. There being multiple versions of Snake had never stopped the Metal Gear series from reusing Hayter before, though, with the American having lent his voice to the characters on numerous occasions.
While there was nothing inherently bad about Keifer Sutherland's performance, many fans were unhappy with the treatment of Hayter due to his longstanding connection with the series. It has since been reported that Kojima may have already tried to replace the voice actor with Kurt Russell before that, though; the man whose Snake Pliskin character is widely believed to have provided the inspiration for Metal Gear's Snake.
8 The Announcer (Super Smash Bros.)
Few voices in gaming are quite as iconic as the announcer in the Super Smash Bros. games, yet many people might not realize that the actor behind the announcer's English voice has actually changed on several occasions over the years. In fact, the first three Super Smash Bros. games all featured different announcers, with current voice actor Xander Mobus the only person to have voiced the announcer in multiple games.
Jeff Manning was the first person to try their hand at the role and is responsible for many of the signature stylings still found in the series today. Dean Harrington and Pat Cashman then voiced the announcer in Melee and Brawl respectively, before Mobus took up the mantle in Smash 4 at the tender age of 21. He was 25 during recording for Ultimate, which was still considerably younger than his predecessors; all three of whom had been in their fifties while voicing the character.
7 Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog)
No fewer than eight different voice actors have provided the English voice of Sonic the Hedgehog over the years, although only three of them have actually done so in games. The first of those was Ryan Drummond, who voiced the blur in both of the Sonic Adventure games as well as a few other early two-thousands titles. Jason Griffith then took over the role in 2005, appearing in 17 different games over the next five years.
Sonic's current voice actor is Roger Craig Smith, who has held the role since 2010. He did quit in early 2021, but changed his mind and returned to the series a few months later without missing a game. With 28 appearances, he has already appeared in far more games than either of his predecessors, although is still some way behind the Japanese voice actor for Sonic. Junichi Kanemaru has voiced Sega's mascot in an incredible 42 titles, making him one of the most experienced video game voice actors of all time.
6 Doctor Neo Cortex (Crash Bandicoot)
Though there are numerous actors credited with having voiced the titular character in the Crash Bandicoot series, most players likely won't have noticed due to his total lack of dialogue. One character who does speak during the games, however, is the nefarious Doctor Neo Cortex, who, like his arch-enemy Crash, has also had multiple voice actors since the series first debuted back in 1996.
Brendan O'Brien, who was also the original "voice" of Crash, played the insane doctor in the original game but was replaced by Clancy Brown for the sequel the following year. Lang reprised the role on multiple occasions but eventually left in 2003 due to his dissatisfaction with how much video game voice actors were being paid at the time. Since then, Lex Lang has been voicing the character and has appeared in nine games to date.
5 Luigi (Super Mario Bros.)
Not only has Charles Martinet portrayed Mario an incredible 88 times, but the legendary voice actor has also lent his voice to several of the other characters in the Mushroom Kingdom. The most notable of these is perhaps Luigi, who Martinet has now voiced on 71 occasions. Unlike with Mario, however, Martinet is not the only person to have voiced the long-suffering sibling in western releases.
Outside of the educational spin-off titles that were released in the early nineties, Luigi was first given a voice in Mario Kart 64. Martinet was unsurprisingly the man chosen for western releases of the game, while French translator Julien Bardakoff offered a more high-pitched voice for the east. For whatever reason, Bardakoff's Luigi recordings were later used for the western releases of the first two Mario Party games as well as Mario Kart: Super Circuit in 2001. Martinet has been the undisputed voice of Luigi since then, however.
4 Fox McCloud (Star Fox)
Unlike Mario and Charles Martinet, the Fox McCloud character from Nintendo's groundbreaking Star Fox series has never really had a definitive voice actor in the west. Despite Mike West having voiced the character more often than any other English voice actor, he is far from the only person to have lent his dulcet tones to the barrel-rolling fox over the years.
Dan Owsen's voice was used in the original SNES release as well as in Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Steve Malpass was given the role for both the much-maligned Star Fox Adventures and Super Smash Bros. Melee, while Jim Walker took over for Brawl and Star Fox Assault. West has appeared sporadically during that time, although has voiced Fox for the character's last three video game appearances.
3 Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil)
Leon Kennedy may well be the most popular character in the Resident Evil franchise, but the zombie-killing cop has struggled to hold down a steady voice actor since his debut back in 1998. In fact, no English voice actor has ever reprised the role in a mainline Resident Evil game, despite the character having shown up in three of the series' eight numbered entries; one of which was remade from the ground up just a few years ago.
The first person to voice the character was Paul Haddad, who did so for the release of Resident Evil 2. Paul Mercier then played the character in Resident Evil 4 and a few spin-off titles, before being replaced by Matthew Mercer for the series' sixth installment. Despite Mercer also going on to appear in a few spin-offs and movies, however, he too failed to return for the Resident Evil 2 remake in 2019, with Nick Apostolides instead taking up the mantle.
2 Dante (Devil May Cry)
Another Capcom character who has found it a little difficult to nail down a regular voice actor is Dante from the Devil May Cry series. The paranormal mercenary was voiced by three different people in the western releases of the original DMC trilogy, with several of those actors overlapping with one another at various points throughout the years that have followed.
Drew Coombs was the first to take up the role in 2001 but was replaced by Matthew Kaminsky for Devil May Cry 2. Both actors then reprised the role for Dante's guest appearances in Viewtiful Joe and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne respectively. Since 2005 and Devil May Cry 3, however, Reuben Langdon has played Dante in every game in which he has appeared, with the exception of Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble, which once again featured the voice of Coombs.
1 Frank West (Dead Rising)
Despite his omission in the third installment, Frank West is undoubtedly the face of the Dead Rising series. He's played a starring role in three of the franchise's four mainline entries and has also appeared as a guest character in numerous crossover titles. The voice of the character hasn't always been the same, though, with four different people having portrayed the character over the years.
The first and most regular actor to voice Frank was TJ Rotolo, who has appeared in two Marvel vs. Capcom games as well as the first two Dead Rising titles. Peter Von Gomm lent his voice to the character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, but it was Ty Olsson who was given the nod when Frank returned for Dead Rising 4. In what may well prove to be his last ever appearance, the character was voiced by Scott McNeil for 2017's Puzzle Fighter for iOS and Android devices.