Inventories: 1980s Video Game Heroines
Momoko from Momoko 120% (1986)
Momoko is a very weird game - the titular heroine escapes through burning buildings while fighting strange aliens. With each new main stage, she grows older for some reason - she starts combating the extraterrestrial invaders at age four(!) and the game ends fourteen years later with her marriage and a dream of babies, because that of course is every woman's main purpose in life... fighting aliens in burning buildings just to get married and have children. Interestingly, the game was originally intended to be a tie-in to the anime series Urusei Yatsura, and its NES port is exactly that. Momoko also returned for a series of mobile games called Momoko 1200% in 2006.
Altiana from Space Hunter (1986)
It's easy to draw some conceptual parallels between Metroid and Kemco's Space Hunter, seeing as both are open-ended space adventures where you explore maze-like caverns. Whereas Metroid focused on a single planet, there's a whole solar system to explore in Space Hunter. And the heroine, a cyborg named Altiana, doesn't even need a spaceship - she just rockets all around the cold darkness of space using the jet thrusters in her legs. Her arsenal, including Bomberman-esque bombs and laser swords, further establish her as a powerful force, and that's without the need for any power armor.
Sayo-chan from Kiki Kaikai (1986) and sequels
On the surface, Sayo-chan may look like just another cutesy anime girl, but she has a rather peculiar profession: She's a Japanese shinto priestess and spends her days hunting ghosts. The game itself is a run-and-gun similar to Commando, but instead of rifles, she primarily attacks by tossing card-like charms. The first game in the series was not released outside of Japan (except in later compilations), so English speakers probably know her from the second game, as the eponymous Pocky in Pocky & Rocky for the SNES. (Rocky is her tanuki friend, who also joins her for subsequent outings.)
Yuko Ahso from Valis (1986)
Another one that distinguished herself more through her legacy than her first appearance. Yuko is a typical Japanese magical girl heroine, of the kind that was popularized in the West by Sailor Moon, but within a few years, Valis had expanded into a solid franchise with a dedicated fan base. But it also serves as a sad cautionary tale. Like Sailor Moon, the series had always played up a mild sexyness, but when the publisher Telenet (presumably) hit on hard times in the new millenium, they sent their former leading lady into full-on prostitution, and Yuko ended up starring in a series of shameless fetish porn visual novels.
Lucia from The Wing of Madoola (1986)
The heroine in The Wing of Madoola is a big-haired anime-styled warrior named Lucia, who tends to get overlooked when discussing female protagonists in video games, probably because The Wing of Madoola isn't all that fantastic of a game. Although clad in a warrior swuitsuit outfit, at least she's not as embarrassingly portrayed as some of the more famous Japanese video game leading lady's Namco's Wonder Momo, who is often highlighted for all of the wrong reasons. The fantasy stylings of the heroine are very similar to the anime OVA Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yoko, which also heavily influenced the Valis series.
Layla from Layla (1986)
This Famicom maze action game from dB-Soft stars an intergalactic warrior named Layla as she infiltrates a series of asteroids commanded by the evil Dr. Manitoka. Midway through the game she rescues her friend Elise, who tags along for the rest of the journey.
Jane from Jungle Jane / Croc' Madam' (1986)
This is another bland supermodel heroine, but that depiction absolutely pales in face of the incredibly insensitive racial stereotypes that are her enemies. The game is a clone of the arcade classic Pooyan, only in place of a pig who has to defend itself against wolves, Jane fights off big-lipped, bone-ornamented cannibals that are trying to eat her. If you lose, you have to watch her get cooked alive... Ugh!
The Mighty Fighting Amazon from Soldier Girl Amazon / Sei Senshi Amatelass (1986)
The heroine of Soldier Girl Amazon is another swimsuit model warrior - who apparently wears high heeled boots in combat - in a top-down run-and-gun like Ninja Princess. Unlike Ninja Princess, the game is just an unreasonably difficult quarter thief. The protagonist shoots fireballs from her sword, and apparently can also man combat vehicles - if you ever survive long enough to see them.
Lady Wilde from Legend of the Amazon Women (1986)
Typhoon Gal is not even the only fighting game femme to predate Chun Li. Lady Wilde has the distinction of starring in the first fighting game with an all-female cast, as she stalks through the jungle to beat up a tribe of club-wielding amazons. Like most fighting games that predated Street Fighter II, it's also completely terrible.
The nurses from Mad Nurse (1986)
This game puts you at the command of a whole cohort of Mad Nurses, who serve as additional tries should one of them get fired for neglect. They all have comical names like Brenda Bumwash, Cathy Cuddlecare or Fiona Feedface. Their task is to grab up the toddlers that storm each ward, and carry them into their beds. Disturbing fact no. 1: Never, ever let a baby get too close to a power outlet. The SID screaming will scar you for life. Disturbing fact no. 2: The nurses' main means to prevent this should things get too heated is by gasing the house to temporarily stun all the babies.
Mary from Alien Syndrome (1987)
This Sega arcade game was, clearly, inspired by the Alien franchise. The male hero, Ricky, looks vaguely like Michael Biehn, and the female character, Mary, looks like Sigourney Weaver, at least in the arcade game. In the finale, the two share a romantic kiss, creating an ersatz happy ending that never happened in the movies.
Princess of Moonbroke from Dragon Quest II / Dragon Warrior II (1987)
The story of Dragon Quest II begins with the sacking of the Kingdom of Moonbrooke. The hero sets off to save them, and during his journey, he comes across the displaced princess of the country, who joins the adventure after being dispelled of a curse. She serves as the primary spellcaster for the remainder of the game.
Momo from Wonder Momo (1987)
The developers of this arcade game at least gave some personality to Wonder Momo, who mimics the MGM lion roar when the game boots up. She reveals quite a bit of leg when she kicks, pretty much inventing the saying "she kicks high" well before any of the Dead or Alive girls. The game makes her the heroine in an homage/parody to cheapo tokusatsu series (which in the West are most well known by Power Rangers), where she gets to fight villains with silly costumes, like bugmen and creepy masked men in black leotards. Momo of course can transformed into an uniformed justice fighter, who fights with a yellow hoola hoop.
Christine AKA Janet Dwight from El Misterio del Nilo / The Mystery of the Nile (1987)
Christine (renamed to Janet Dwight in the English version - the game is originally from Spain) shares the spotlight with two male companions in this Indiana Jones style action adventure. But in a reversal of the damsel-in-distress trope, she is the only available character in the beginning. To make the other two available, she first has to rescue them, bombing and shooting an army of turban-wearing villains on the way.
Nina from Saboteur II: Avenging Angle (1987)
Well, those outside of the UK might not have heard about it, but Saboteur! was quite a popular game in Britain's Spectrum scene. The first game still starred a male ninja, but he was killed off before the sequel, causing his sister to go on a crusade for revenge. The cover still depicted her very unninjalike with waving hair and a plunging neckline, but in the actual game she's fully covered in ninja wardrobe. If you take the game's title screen over the cover, she also might be the first black video game heroine - unless that simply stems from the system's limited color palette.
Mama and Lina from Yume Kojou: Doki Doki Panic (1987)
Nintendo's vaguely Arabian Nights-inspired platformer featured not one, but two female characters in its main cast. They're physically weaker than their male companions, but one of them can jump really high, while the other has the power to float in mid-air for a second or two. The game of course famously became Super Mario Bros. 2, and so one of them just had to be turned into Luigi, while the other was replaced by Princess Peach, who thus became a playable character for the first time. Even though the count of female characters thus went down to one, this was still unusually progressive for the Super Mario franchise - the monarch's next appearance of this kind would only follow five years later in Super Mario Kart. She never became playable again in a mainline Mario platformer since - New Super Mario Bros. would rather have two differently colored clones of Toad - and her first headlining role in 2006's Super Princess Peach had... issues.
Plundered Hearts (1987)
All games listed so far have one thing in common: They may have female protagonists, but they were still all designed by men (well, technically there are a few whose staff remains anonymous). Along comes Amy Briggs' interactive pirate romance novel to break that spell. It's still a story mostly driven by the actions of men - the player is more or less assisting her love interest in his fight against the villain, but such are the limitations of a traditional pulp romance story. Yet that also means that the unnamed protagonist is actually allowed to be romantically involved with a dude - something that can apparently still get a game in trouble, as the development history of Remember Me showed.
Wendy and Razor from Maniac Mansion (1987)
Regardless of its damsel-in-distress story hook, Ron Gilbert's first graphic adventure featured no less than two women among its six selectable supporting protagonists. Razor the punk is the more popular, featured on the cover and also might seem as the more interesting of the two at first glance, but with her sexy outfit that isn't really appropriate for the situation, she's actually more typical of female characters in video games. It's also a shame that every single fan remake (of which there are three, although two are still in development) adhers to the conformist hairdo the former rebel was subjected to in the censored NES version. Wendy as a talented writer is actually much more peculiar in hindsight. Most importantly, both are neither defined by their gender nor simply the same as their male counterparts with a different paint job, but like all characters in the game have their own personality and support the cause with their individual talents (once again Wendy's writing skill is more unique than Razor's musical background, which can also be provided by their male companion Syd).
Leaza from Hayato (1987) and Cosmo Saint Leaza (1987)
Leaza is first introduced as the kidnapped girlfriend of the time traveling male protagonist in Hayato, who joins him after being rescued and fights alongside. Only a few months later, however, she got to star in her very own RPG, where she assembles a group of four adventurers to find a new planet for mankind, which is threatened by the cosmic destruction of its home world.
Alis from Phantasy Star (1987)
The Algol star system is ruled by the evil King Lassic, and the few who stand up against him are ruthlessly murdered. A young man named Nero is gunned down for his role in the rebellion, and only his sister Alis can avenge his death. Alis might not be the first playable female character in an RPG, but she is the first that lies front and center to the game's story. Her outfit is also surprisingly modest for an RPG heroine, eschewing the standard fantasy armor, plus she's both a talented swordfighter and a magician. She appears in the non-canon spinoff Phantasy Star Gaiden, but since the sequels all take place in different time periods, she appears later on only as a dream (in Phantasy Star II) and as a memorial statue (in Phantasy Star IV).
Blon-Win from The 4th Unit series (1987-1990)
While The 4th Unit goes completely unknown in the West, in Japan it was actually one of the most massive adventure game series during the late 1980s and early '90s, spanning no less than seven titles on various home computer platforms. The heroine with the unusual name is first introduced as an amnesiac, but she was hired as an agent for the Joint Forces to solve all kinds of mysterious crimes. The games are set in a not too distant future, along with the typical cyberpunk elements like evil corporations that control the world, artificial humans and the like. Remarkably for Japanese computer games, the series never seems to go overboard with sexual content, at least from what we've seen. The third game introduces a command for the player to input Blon-Win's emotions.
Nokko from Attack Animal Gakuen (1987)
Animal Attack Gakuen is a shameless Space Harrier clone for the Famicom. Except instead of fantastical monsters, you fight against animals, and instead of a blond guy, you play as a schoolgirl named Nokko. The whole thing would be kind of embarassing, but for a clone it's pretty good, bolstered by the fact that the official Famicom Space Harrier port was terrible.
Giana and Maria from The Great Giana Sisters (1987)
In this new age of video game feminism, rom hacks that posit women as the stars of popular Nintendo games have become a minor fad, but the first one who got the idea was Armin Gessert, who created a game that was... let's say "inspired" by Super Mario Bros. Particularly fun is the new interpretation of Mario's ability to grow larger, which instead turns the neat little girls into insubordinate punks. Kudos also go to the UK marketing, who dared to put some positively ugly punk brats on the regional cover. The 2012 sequel/reboot Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams takes this case of split personalities and turns it into an ability to travel between parallel worlds.
