Yahtzee's use of Alternative Character Interpretation is invoked for a number of games he reviews, his viewpoint tends to cast the protagonist in an extremely negative light.
- His first instance of this is reviewing
Tomb Raider: Underworld, where he portrays Lara as an irreverent, iconoclastic kleptomanziac. Later reviews add "sociopath" to the tally, and he theorizes that Lara is actually a hedonistic thrill-seeker with a murder fetish who only got into the "archaeology" business because it provided the best opportunities for travel, death-defying stunts, and, well, murder.- Lara from Tomb Raider (2013) has asthma. She's also just as psychotic as the old Lara, and has added an Electra complex to the mix.
- Lara from Tomb Raider (2013) has asthma
- Burnout Paradise is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the car sat-navs became sentient and wiped out humanity, and Atomica is the last human alive, who sets up ramps all night and encourages the cars to all crash each other during the day so he can one day reclaim the Earth.
- Demon Hunter Nero from Devil May Cry 4 is a coward.
- Nathan Drake of Uncharted is portrayed as a murderous racist and hypocritical Smug Snake who hides behind a thin veneer of personability.
- The birds and pigs from Angry Birds have no limbs because of a leprosy outbreak in their world.
- Faith of Mirror's Edge could "easily have been a terrorist" without changing the game much.
- Rico of Just Cause 2 is an "immortal, physics-defying wizard."
- He encourages viewers to play Heavy Rain whilst pretending that Agent Jayden is from the future.
- Also, the Origami Killer is a cheap rip-off of Jigsaw.
- Vanille of Final Fantasy XIII either has Alzheimer's or is from space. Funny about that...
- The protagonists of the Pokémon games have chips in their mind and are actually hunting rats in a Creepy Basement.
- The protagonist of Fable III is shagging his dog.Yahtzee: And I'm not even being disingenuous, when you "Pet" your dog, it strongly resembles making out. Especially when you dip it and stick your tongue down its throat like you're teaching it Dirty Dancing.
- Cole Phelps from L.A. Noire is a robot who's named after the fuel he runs on (i.e. Coal PH31-P5).
- He's also available for birthday parties.
- Bowser of the Super Mario Bros. games is a charismatic union leader similar to Jimmy Hoffa, who defies the upper-class bourgeoisies of the Mushroom Kingdom but secretly yearns for their approval; hence the cockney accent.
- Additionally, Bowser is painted as a multifaceted villain (quoting Iago in one review) who chooses to be evil because he has seen what "goodness" in his world leads to: an airheaded ditz like Peach consorting with a pair of foreigners (who herself is a Gender Flip of Silvio Berlusconi)."Society calls him evil, but he wears their label! He reclaims it! And that is why they will never get him down!"
- However, his review of Yoshi's Crafted World portrays Baby Bowser as trying to find ways to pass the time "in these days before puberty hits and he takes an interest in date rape".
- Additionally, Bowser is painted as a multifaceted villain (quoting Iago in one review) who chooses to be evil because he has seen what "goodness" in his world leads to: an airheaded ditz like Peach consorting with a pair of foreigners (who herself is a Gender Flip of Silvio Berlusconi).
- Jack Slate of Dead to Rights is more murderous sociopath than law enforcement agent, and is violently insane to the point of understanding no laws except those dictated to him by a mad ocelot god only he can see.
- Vincent of Catherine is a bumbling idiot whose friends only pretend to like him.
- The Batman franchise revolves around hordes of impressionable, poverty-stricken young people having all their arms and legs broken by an extremely rich businessman... in his pants!note
- The Arkham Knight is an idiot who, despite his claims to know Batman's weaknesses, hasn't realized the problems of sending unmanned drones against a character with a no-kill policy.
- Snarky!Hawke from Dragon Age II is Camp Gay.
- Link from The Legend of Zelda is a pathetic drug addict and Sociopathic Hero who can only function when given an adventure or while absolutely snowblind.
- Sonic the Hedgehog is a drug addicted paedophile.
- 50 Cent destabilized the Middle East, leading to the events of Call of Duty 4.
- Lana from AMY is an absolute idiot.
- Suda51 was the result of a bizarre cloning experiment. Either that, or he was named after his Wi-Fi password or the license plate on his car.
- The Fateless One from Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was actually pre-destined by fate to become what they became.
- 'Splosion Man is a Broken Bird.
- The protagonist of Red Faction: Guerrilla is a Norse god wielding the hammer Mjolnir.
- The player character in Sniper Elite V2 is either a hallucinating clock tower sniper a la Charles Whitman, or trapped in a combat simulation.
- Max Payne is actually actively looking for trouble.
- Ben from Call of Juarez: The Cartel is paranoid and constantly over-reacting, and is essentially only on board with the job because he wants revenge on some guy who made fun of his hat some decades ago.
- The Arisen of Dragon's Dogma is essentially pimping his/her Pawn.
- Protagonists who activate Bullet Time by doing acrobatics have air-cooled brains.
- Skateboarders are masochistic twats.
- Raul Menendez is a freedom fighter seeking justice for the murder of his loved ones while the psychotic American military constantly gets in his way.
- By a similar token, the Ghosts are moronic racists who have no concept of stealth whatsoever, and were only annoyed about the death of their black squadmate because then they couldn't claim to have black friends. The Federation that invades the United States is entirely justified in doing so, as the United States has committed genocide judging by its demographics and possesses a massive military and orbital weapons that it's quite eager to fire at them.
- The main character in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is actually suffering a guilt induced breakdown delusion.
- Ellie, Joel, and pretty much every human being from The Last of Us are psychotic murderers.
- Eric Bane from Dark isn't actually a vampire; he's either pretending or the other vampires are lying to him.
- Amadeus, the wizard protagonist of Trine, is not a wizard. He merely has access to the level editor.
- The leader of the Saints from Saints Row, particularly Saints Row 2, is the cousin of The Riddler from Batman.
- The rebooted Dante from DmC: Devil May Cry is a nine-year-old boy.
- Judging By The Cover is based solely on trying to extrapolate details about plot and character from still publicity images. In the very first episode, he concluded that the protagonist of Bloodborne was "a Victorian goth carpenter" who builds weapons from chair legs and nails, and strongly suspected them to be the all-consuming shadow mentioned on the back of the box. He's also claimed that the Robot Masters (and God himself) are trying to fist Megaman, ICO has a "three-foot todger", and the cover of "Hitman: Agent At" depicts the invasion of the Mirror Universe.
- The Frank West who appears and perishes in the non-DLC ending of Dead Rising 4 is, in fact, Frank West's boring cousin Marlon - hence why he has a different face and a different voice, and has gone from lovable and charming to a desperate Ash Williams Expy.
- Beck of Mighty No. 9 is a Category Traitor and Boomerang Bigot, eager to force his fellow machines back to Happiness in Slavery by destroying their personalities, with even his name implying his servile nature.
- Wonder Woman in Injustice 2 is a Sociopathic Hero who was incredibly eager to go Jumping Off the Slippery Slope despite having no motivation to do so.
- John Donovan, the CIA operative in Mafia III, is actually a Fairy Godmother, which is why he has enough resources to singlehandedly supply Lincoln's operations and why nobody else seems to talk about him.
- Duke Nukem is mentally handicapped, possessing two testicles in place of a brain, which makes him only able to communicate in pop-culture references.
- Prophet, by the time of Crysis 3, is a dick and a body snatcher, who destroyed the personality of Alcatraz to facilitate his own return.
- Jason Brody in Far Cry 3's "Save Your Friends" ending will turn out to be a Stranger in a Familiar Land, and inside of a week is going to be skinning pedestrians.
- The Jackal in Far Cry 2 is actually a perfectly nice guy who wants to be best friends with the protagonist.
- People in the Halo games know that "Mister Chuffy" is the protagonist, which is why they care so much about what he's up to, including random dreams.
- Emperor Uriel Septim VII of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is aware that he's in an RPG, and knew he was going to die not because of prophetic visions, but because he realized he was talking to the protagonist.
- Darius Mason, the protagonist of Red Faction: Armageddon, is suffering from a Guilt Complex that makes him take responsibility for disasters that weren't his fault and he had no way to stop - and on a related note, he's a complete moron. In addition, the oft-mentioned backstory of Armageddon referred to a cancelled game that would have starred Darius's dad, and considering that Darius's story was apparently the worthier of the two, his dad was "a geography teacher who defeated the cultists by diligently doing his taxes at them." note
- Senua, the protagonist of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, is sexually attracted to doors according to the post-review livestream of said game. Her face paint is actually paint that had not yet dried during an intimate moment with one particular door.
- Yahtzee assumes the dead wife and child of [PROTOTYPE 2] protagonist James Heller that were killed in the events of the first game to be two of the civilians he used to refill Alex Mercer's health while fighting the Hunter.
- In his review of Resident Evil 2 (Remake), Yahtzee claims that Mr. X is a creepy anime-obsessed nerd with no sense of personal boundaries who is following Claire and Leon around, not to cover up Umbrella's actions, but because he's trying to force them to watch more of his anime collection.
- Artyom of the Metro series suffers from a very specific social-anxiety disorder that renders him completely unable to speak outside loading screens.
