Sidekicks... I can't remember the name of the game, but it was a trippy platformer for the PSX and there was a character named either id or ego and his sidekick (a talking jester's wand) was the other. He was funny because he tried to flirt with the female main character. Sam, the half deadite from Evil Dead: Regeneration was an ok sidekick, but he failed to induce the same sort of laughs that Ash quotes did. As an afterthought, Ash's boomstick was a more colorful character and far more helpful sidekick all around. Yoshi was at one time a sidekick (before he got his leads in games) and was quite the kick ass dino. Tails, though kind of stupid, was incredibly helpful if you knew how to control him. His real name is Miles After the Sonic Adventures(?) games started coming out and Sonic ran around grinding rails with his sneaks I wondered to myself- Soap shoes? In Crash Bandicoot, though not a formal sidekick, I loved the tiki mask you could wear. It had its own voice saying, "Boona-ba-ga" everytime you picked one up. I can't really think of many sidekicks in video games and I am really racking my brain here. EDIT: How the fuck could I forget Rush from the Megaman series... jeez.
Sarge is a kick. I like the variants in his rapport in the various levels of complexity. Also of interest are variants in visuals. "Listen up! When I joined the Marines, we had two sticks! And a rock! And we had to share the rock!" When you complete HCE (1) in legendary Sarge and the Elite are standing on the surface.... Sarge and the Elite look at the downed ship at the initiation of the core blast, then at the elite and says "Hold me", whereas they hug, but if you note, the elite goes for an assgrab just prior to detonation. The kid and I say "grope" at the same time every time. I've been taking a bit more notice of comments made by other soldiers in H2, especially after I was just standing next to the redheaded chick who hands off a shotgun going into the tunnels just after crossing the bridge. She says something to the effect of "The staring and heavy breathing doesn't do anything for me". I've been keeping her around a bit closer when she shows up.
The Good Bee from The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Frankly I can't think of many "sidekicks" in games that I liked.
I can't think of many sidekicks in games I've played, period. There's Mei Chen or whatever but she drops out of sight early on, Feng Li is goofy but I think you have to hang around by the main character's side, or at least play gofer or something, to be a sidekick . . . Mei Chen does come back later, I guess she counts . . .
Minsc and Boo, all time best. Dogmeat from Fallout and Fallout 2. Miria from Fallout 2. Of course, she's totally useless, but she does have the advantage if you can pimp her out or sell her into slavery later on. Maniac from Wing Commander.
