Top 10: Best Cleavage Part VI

Cleavage: the depression between a woman's breasts especially when made visible by the wearing of a low-cut dress.

Character designers and marketing folk have a particular prediliction for female breasts. (See Parts I, II, III, IV, and V if in doubt.) It's as if they're under the impression that if a female character doesn't feature cartoonish boobs and possibly a plunging neckline to reveal an over-generous amount of cleavage, there's no way the player will be able to clue into the fact the character is a woman. Very few women characters, no matter the genre, actually showcase more moderate mammary measurements.

Cover Elf (Silverfall)

If sex sells, Silverfall would have sold a bazillion copies. 

Naya (Dark Summit)

Snowboarding is a cold sport. Any time I've ever hit the slopes, it has been while cloaked in winter gear. Not so with Naya. It's not enough that she has big boobs to tell the gamer that she's a woman, she needed to have the top of her skin-tight snowsuit unzipped. Okay, we get it!

Juliet (Lollipop Chainsaw) 

This 18-year old cheerleader is the protagonist of the nonsensical zombie-killing game, Lollipop Chainsaw, and the "youngest" character on this list. Japanese designers tend to handle nudity and cleavage differently than Western developers, to a point. In general, teen girls in a Japanese games can have big chests but in Western games that doesn't happen until 19 (or 21 in some states). At which point all bets are off.

Isabela (Dragon Age 2) 

There's an unwritten rule somewhere, probably first penned by Robert E. Howard with invisible ink, that all designers of medieval fantasy type games should have at least a big handful of female characters with ample cleavage. Because, you know, armour just gets in the way when you're fighting ghouls and dragons. Bioware certainly put the rule front and centre with Isabella.

Rao (Okami)

Before Clover Studios was dissolved and reconstituted as Platinum Games, responsible for the likes of Bayonetta and MadWorld, they released Okami. Critically acclaimed by most that played it, this particular character never gets a mention when critics are lauding praise. Why is that? Is a memorable character not mentioned because she sports water-colour cleavage? Is there any wonder more women aren't working in the games industry?

Legends of Norrath 

Taken from art to showcase the online card game, Legends of Norrath also takes its cues from the long-established role of women in medieval fantasy: bikini filler.

Or troll killer. I sometimes get those terms confused.

C. Viper (Street Fighter IV) 

According to the Well of Knowledge that is Wikipedia, C. Viper's designer Daigo Ikeno had "a 20 year old single mother" in mind when developing the look of the character.

Okay. Take a long look at the picture above.

Did that term "20 year old single mother" leap to the forefront of your thought process. No, it didn't. And if it did you have the same skewed view of reality as Daigo Ikeno.

Margot (The Witcher 2) 

In this picture she sports a red cap to obscure her face to put even more attention on her chest. Honestly, it's character designs like this that make me wonder why I haven't Kickstarted a website that puts female models through fighting routines while dressed as game characters to show just how impractical it is to fight with boobs on display (and under-supported).

Summer (Outlaw Volleyball) 

Of all the characters on this list, Summer probably makes the most sense. She is, after all, a stripper. Cleavage makes sense for this character and the overall vibe of Outlaw Volleyball, a game that showcases outlandish stereotypes in the first place.

Elizabeth (BioShock Infinite) 

With oversized eyes reminiscent of an escapee from an anime flick, Elizabeth also features boobs of the same description. While BioShock Infinite won't be released until 2013, Elizabeth is already gaining traction on the cosplay circuit. And it's quite possible that there's some larger themes at work behind the design and looks of Elizabeth, but on the face of it, even the strongest game designers take shortcuts when trying to fill out a female character.

- Aaron Simmer