Top 10 WTF Celebrity Cameos in Video Games

We thought these voices sounded familiar! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 weirdest celebrity roles and cameos in gaming.

For this list, we’ll be looking at the unusual and bizarre roles and cameos celebrities have had in video games. To qualify, they need to interact with the player in some fashion.

These two musicians are brutal legends in their own right, so it’s oddly appropriate that they appear in this ode to rock and metal; although, their roles are just as offbeat and goofy as the game’s overall tone. Each plays a character based on themselves, with the Prince of Darkness Ozzie Osbourne playing the Guardian of Metal, who acts as a kind of shopkeeper who can upgrade your weapons, while the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister appropriately plays a character named Kill Master, a motorcycle driving mystic who, contrary to his name, has sworn off violence and acts as a healer.

We didn’t feel this cameo coming, in the air tonight or otherwise! Famous musician Phil Collins appears in this PSP game as himself, making him the first celebrity to appear as themselves in the Grand Theft Auto series. The player must protect Collins from being killed by the mafia, who are gunning for his manager. Besides protection, you can also attend several in-game concerts, complete with full vocals and visuals for several songs. While Collins’ cameo does help sell the 1980s time period, it’s still pretty weird.

Sports games are known for having some odd cameos and Easter eggs, but NBA 2K13 upped the ante with these celebs. The first of the two we’re highlighting is Justin Bieber. Besides his stature being an unusual fit for basketball, the singer is a divisive one and his fanbase doesn’t necessarily overlap much with sports fans. Even so, he was the MVP of the 2011 Celebrity All-Stars game, so there is a connection there. Next, and equally as strange, is Brian Baumgartner. Best known for his role as Kevin, the slow, dim-witted accountant from The Office, Baumgartner is another guy we don’t associate with the NBA look, despite displaying excellent shooting skills.

The late king of pop was always an out of this world character in real life, but playing a literal one in a video game was a little on the nose. Michael Jackson appears in this rhythm game as “Space Michael,” a character that is basically himself; and, following a brief cameo in Space Channel 5, is promoted to become the station’s chief in the sequel. The pale pop star showcases his dance moves and vocal talents while assisting the channel’s top reporter in her dance-themed battles against aliens and robots.

Continuing the popstar trend from our last entry, Ariana Grande is definitely not the first, or even the hundredth person, that springs to mind when it comes to logical candidates for a Final Fantasy cameo—but she’s in this mobile title nonetheless. The actress/singer appears as several playable characters all with appearances based on her likeness, including some costumes from her music videos. Some of her songs also appear in the game along with her. We’re not sure whose weird fantasy it was to have Grande in this game, but we can only imagine that they had a total fan meltdown when she agreed.

There are many celebrities who, were they to show up to your house party, would easily turn it into a rager and ensure that it goes down in history as legendary. No offense to Drew Carey, but the former sitcom star and current game show host is not on the list of stars who immediately come to mind. In this 2001 game, Carey can join your titular party if it’s kept going for long enough. The actor even did some cross-promotion for The Sims on his show at the time, featuring several jokes that referenced both the game itself and the style of speech by the characters.

Two former correspondents on The Daily Show, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert are both great comedians and huge stars now. Yet in the early 2000s, their fame had not yet taken off and the duo often did voiceover work, including acting as the announcers in the Outlaw Sports franchise. Known for its fan service and risqué content, this series may not hold up well graphically, but hearing these two big “Steves” commentate over trashy sports games like they’re in a strip club is bizarre and absolutely hilarious!

This strategy game features a surprisingly large number of famous and respected actors; and while it was tempting to choose one of them (or wrestler Ric Flair) as our choice, we had to give it to this cameo from the final moments of the Allied campaign. David Hasselhoff plays the Vice President who holds a press conference after taking office from his predecessor. Hasselhoff’s charismatic, unflappable performance as he states his admiration for the former President, despite the latter being a murderous war criminal (as well as his over-the-top patriotism) makes this brief cameo a strange treat.

Though music tastes have certainly changed in the years since, Fred Durst’s rap/rock band “Limp Bizkit” ruled the charts during the early 2000s. Far harder to comprehend, however, was the singer’s inclusion as a playable character in the Fight Club fighting game. Apart from Durst’s penchant for shirtlessness, and the fact that his music appears in the game’s soundtrack, we’re honestly at a loss for why he’s a playable fighter. Regardless of the reason for his presence in the game, we’re just surprised the developers “rolled” with it. But hey, we’re still talking about it over a decade later, so it was clearly a memorable move.

When one thinks of the late Gary Coleman, one generally thinks of his iconic role on Diff'rent Strokes, yet the actor turned his cuddly image on its head when he appeared in the violent crime game Postal 2. In one mission, Coleman appears as a fictionalized version of himself, who, while signing books, is accosted by the police, leading him to fend them off with assault rifles and grenades. It’s as weird as it sounds and then some.