Announcer Chatter

Every sports game played in the world always has one man or woman who plays the role of the announcer, whose job is to tell the spectators the scores, which team is entering the field, who the winner is, etc. Some announcers may add their own wit and charm. Video games also have some form of announcers that give short phrases or announce things during the game. While it can enhance the gameplay, if the announcer talks too much, it can become irritating. Generally, announcers in video games announce character names and who the winner is.

Compare Combat Commentator, who talks even more.

"Howard: You know what that title means - Bloodbath Challenge time!
 * The arcade dungeon-crawler Gauntlet may have been the first game with an announcer, featuring ongoing commentary tailored to the player's actions. The disembodied voice praised and criticized the player's actions, offered hints and advice, and sometimes challenged the player ("Let's see you get out of here!"). Some of its catch phrases, like "Wizard Needs Food Badly" have become part of the pop culture lexicon.
 * Mad World has two announcers, and one of them is Bender! And the other is Whose Line star, Greg Proops! Naturally, their characters serve as comic relief throughout the game as card-carrying pervert Howard "Buckshot" Holmes and Kreese Kreeley, a former competitor and fellow Testosterone Poisoning victim. An example of their dialog is as follows:

Kreese: I'm really embarrassed to admit that I can't read.

Howard: Really? That's pathetic.

Kreese: I blame our schools!"

"Howard: I still don't understand why a city has giant sawblades in the middle of the streets.
 * They also help lampshade videogame breaks from reality:

Kreese: Are you a city engineer?

Howard: No, I'm not a city...

Kreese: Well then, SHUT THE FUCK UP! They don't come up here and tell you how to be a commentator!"

"Howard: The animators are the guys who bring the action to life!
 * They even provide commentary over the credits ("commentary" meaning "insulting every single member of the developers")

Kreese: You mean they're the guys who﻿ get NO action their whole LIFE!"

"Howard: After everything I've seen, I think the designers should be fired!

Kreese: All part of their grand design!"


 * Even better when you consider that Proops is/was the voice of children's TV show character BOB THE BUILDER.
 * Pokémon Stadium has an announcer voice that says which Pokémon came out, current standings, etc. The announcer also has a habit of getting very excited and becoming overenthusiastic when the action gets tense (such as "TAKEN DOWN WITH ONE HIT!"). There is an option to turn the announcer off.
 * The announcer never shuts up if you stall your turn due to taking a break or whatever. He'll spew lines like "What's the matter, trainer?" and the like over and over again until you take your turn.
 * Strangely enough, the announcer is absent when you fight  after clearing the entire stadium challenges and Gym Leader Castle.
 * It's even worse in Pokémon Battle Revolution. The announcer constructs sentences out of Mons' names, attacks and stock phrases, but the gaps between pieces and changes in inflection make it painfully obvious the voice actor read each piece separately without the director notifying him how they fit together.
 * Additionally, the Battle Revolution announcer is quite a lot chattier than his Stadium counterpart, and there is no way to turn him off.
 * Super Smash Bros. has an announcer that not only announces character names and who the winner is, but also loudly announces the title of the game (except for Brawl), mode of play chosen, a countdown when five seconds are left in a match, congratulating the player for beating single player, and the classic "Continue?" and "Game Over!"
 * Super! Smaaaaaaaaaaaaaash Brothers!!
 * Interestingly, the announcer's voice is also that of Master Hand's Evil Laughter when he appears. The non-WMG Backstory is that the Smash Bros. games (or at least the original) are a kid playing with his toys, and Master and Crazy Hand are his own hands, so it would make sense that the voice is the same.
 * Need for Speed: Pro Street had a few people venting their anger on forums after having to listen to the race commentator chatter on and on about Ryan Cooper (the player character), with undiminished enthusiasm from the first to the last race.
 * Every sports video game since the technology to put voice in a game existed. Many of them are real sports commentators.

"Announcer: Ooh, good hit!"
 * Dance Dance Revolution has an announcer announce combo benchmarks, and combo breaks when he gets to ya. Then there's the general chatter he says during gameplay. The newest version of the game has one talk almost all the time over and over. Did we mention that the announcer sounds like a Mexican gangster?
 * And then there's the announcer for the DDR emulator Dance with Intensity, a bizarro-world version of the real thing. For example, where the 'real' announcer would say "You're like sunshine on a cloudy day!" the DwI announcer will say "You're like sunshine on my Raisin Bran!"
 * The announcer can also get real abusive if you're about to fail in the "Hottest Party" games. As if we weren't under enough pressure from doing bad...
 * "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
 * Dance Dance Revolution X got a new announcer, who was much more restrained
 * Other Bemani games (besides Dance ManiaX) generally keep the announcer in the menus.
 * In most of the games after a certain point, you can turn off the Announcer's commentary (sometimes called "praise" in the options menu), but he'll still call out combos. In 2010 Dance Dance Revolution (Hottest Party 4 in some areas), this option was removed. Plus it seems like he comments every third arrow.
 * S 4 League: "CRITICAL-CRI-CRI-CRITICAL!" "Amazing! Is it Possible!?" "Excellent! You the max!"
 * On a side note some of the quotes were probably taken from DJMAX.
 * Almost every first person shooter with multiplayer has announcer voices.
 * Team Fortress 2 has the slightly psychotic female announcer, The Adminstrator, who runs both sides. When a checkpoint is captured, she's more encouraging to the successful attackers and scornful to the failing defenders, and, if the round ends in a tie, dismisses both sides with a frustrated "You failed!!". She doesn't keep her contempt for both teams a secret and it's hardly surprising that she has the same voice actress as G La DOS from Portal (and the Combine Overwatch in Half Life 2).
 * Time Splitters Future Perfect announces how a kill was carried out (Lobotomy!!).
 * The announcer from Unreal Tournament has plenty of phrases:
 * For kill streaks, in multiples of five: "Killing spree!" "Rampage!" "Dominating!" "Unstoppable!" "Godlike!!" and, depending on the game, "Wicked Sick!" and "MASSACRE!!"
 * For kills in rapid succession, there's the progression of "Double Kill", "Multi Kill", "Ultra Kill", "Mega Kill" (post-UT'99), "M-M-M-Monster Kill", "Ludicrous Kill", "Holy shit!"
 * "Head shot!" after the player scores a headshot.
 * "Denied!" whenever a Redeemer gets shot down or a flag retrieved a few feet from the capture zone.
 * Score X kills with one weapon, get an award title, i.e. "Rocket Scientist!" for 15+ kills with the Rocket Launcher in Unreal Tournament III.
 * Some server-side Counter-Strike mods are designed to play the UT announcer sounds.
 * Quake III Arena would announce "Humiliation!" when a player scored a kill with the melee weapon to both the killer and the dead player.
 * The announcer also yell Holy Shit as well. They'll do it in CTF games if you're the flag carrier and die just a foot away from your flag/capture point.
 * Quake Live adds a "Denied!" message for when you miss picking up the Quad Damage powerup within a step or two of an opponent picking it up. Which typically results in you dying a (sparkly-) gibbed death.
 * Tribes 2 had one of these. "Team Inferno... SCORES!" "Five, four, three, match begins, now."
 * Halo has an announcer for multiplayer as well. General announcements such as gametype (Slayer, Capture the flag, King of the Hill, to name but three) exist, and thankfully they only repeat for individual players who might join in mid-game, but other announcements, such as which team has the flag, will play for everyone. Repeatedly. Equally annoying are the kill statements. Thankfully enough the announcer voice is rather good, so the fiftieth time you hear "Killtacular" is just as good as the first time you hear "Running Riot."
 * FLAGDROPPEDFLAGTAKENFLAGDROPPEDFLAGTAKENFLAGDROPPED gets rapidly annoying in CTF/Bomb games.
 * The Halo announcer has a fan base. Then again, it IS pleasing to hear "Double Kill, Triple Kill, Overkill, Extermination, Killtacular, Killpocalypse..."
 * And added alternate announcers. One of the female ones enjoys the carnage a little too much.
 * Modern Warfare matches have a different announcer for each team: Gaz for SAS, Griggs for USMC, etc. all of whom call out incoming killstreak rewards and time limits.
 * Mickey Cantor of Monday Night Combat
 * Killer Instinct: C-c-c-c-c-COMBO BREAKER!!!
 * This is the pop-culture part of the announcer from Killer Instinct, but not actually the primary purpose: in the first game, the announcer would also announce the actual combos, made even more badass by their idiosyncratic names and getting more and more epic at higher levels. Nothing got the blood pumping like pulling off a seven-hitter with the announcer proclaiming "Master Combo!" before someone nails an unfettered twelve-hit Killer Combo!
 * In chronological order, the combos go as such:
 * Triple Combo.
 * Super Combo.
 * Hyper Combo.
 * Brutal Combo.
 * Master Combo!
 * Blasterrr Combo!
 * AWESOME Combo!
 * MMMMMONSTER COMBO!
 * KIIIIIINNNG COMBO!
 * KILLER COMBO!
 * ULTRAAAAA COMBOOOOO!!!!
 * Ultimate... Combo.
 * Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries has Solaris announcer Duncan Fisher, a former Solaris champion that would talk while you fight through the Mech dueling circuit, often talking about things other than the fight, like a scandal where a famous pilot threw a match, or on the talent pool this year, and would follow you as moved from the Light Mech catagory to Solaris Champion.
 * The team behind the Mechwarrior: Living Legends TC for Crysis Wars actually managed to get the voice actor of Duncan Fisher to record new lines for the Solaris Arena gamemode.
 * In Dragon Quest VIII, and in particular in the UK English dub, Morrie's Monster Arena features a verbose announcer who announces each team "In the blue corner we have... OUR HERO'S MONSTER TEAM!!!" and "In the red corner WE HAVE... THE SLIME FAMILY!!!" and introduces each fight with a not-so-witty stock phrase, typically ending in "ITS A HIGH MIGHT FIGHT THAT'S BOUND TO EXCITE! Let's get it on!" Round three starts out with "The moment you've all been waiting for!"
 * The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion contains an arena in the Imperial City in which a player character can become a contestant and fight a series of battles. Despite the game having a fantasy setting that is generally medieval in nature, every fight is preceded by an announcer giving a brief speech about the contestants, followed by the phrase "Let the battle... begin!"
 * That's just making use of the talent, since Wes Johnson is the Washington Capitals' PA announcer, working in America's Imperial City, no less.
 * Played Straight in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands... at first. The game starts with the main characters in an arena fighting to the death. The announcer is an arrogant jerk who taunts and belittles the party constantly - except for when an enemy or a player character dies in combat, which is probably the only way to weasel a compliment out of him. Later, after the party escapes and ends up in the wilderness, you can encounter the announcer and threaten him to get some good items, then kill him to get more goodies.

"AAAAAAAAAAALRIGH! DAS KOOL!"
 * Capcom vs. SNK's announcer talks almost constantly every chance he gets: during the high score screen, the groove select screen, the character select screen, the victory screen, and even adds in his own two cents during certain events of a match (like if a character gets in an attack right at the start of the round, or successfully pulls off a really powerful attack). Naturally, his commentary can't be turned off, and he's also much louder than the average fighting-game announcer. KEEP ROCKIN', BABY!!
 * "This battle is about to explode!"
 * Street Fighter Alpha 3 has an announcer who sounds extraordinarily happy most of the time, and likes to talk a lot. Most fighter fans know his phrases off by heart. Triumph or Die! GO FOR IT, MAN!
 * Street Fighter IV seems to be following in this trend, with an announcer that delivers commentary with every third hit or so. THIS IS GONNA BE ONE HELL OF A SHOW!
 * And the announcer in Super Street Fighter IV pretty much breathes fiery passion. Among other things, he even drops a Shout-Out to Killer Instinct with ULTRA COMBO FINIIIIIIIIISH!
 * Marvel vs. Capcom: "I almost had a heart attack there!"
 * Actually, the above announcer from MvC2 is actually pretty chill, only really giving his two cents at the victory screen (which is done so rather softly). The previous three announcers were much more pumped for the ensuing battle, with the MSHvSF one actually belting out the names of your Hyper Combos with much aplomb if you won a match with them.
 * Subverted with the announcer in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. He is very minimalist in comparison, and is generally more calm and direct than most announcers. Although he does break this for one particular line...

""You the best DJ!"
 * Marvel vs. Capcom 3 not only has one announcer whose lines pay homage to Alpha 3 and CvS2, but the latest builds also have a second announcer (who sounds like Issun from Okami) who runs commentary throughout the match, commenting on how the fighters fare and their strategies akin to the aforementioned Capcom vs. SNK 2 announcer. (Issun doesn't have any audible speech, merely providing the text for Amaterasu's victory quotes.)
 * The early arcade game Berzerk, one of the first games to have speech, is also one of the first games to have commentary, as the voice of robot leader Evil Otto urges his robot minions to attack and destroy the player-controlled humanoid. He also taunts the humanoid, calling him a "chicken" if he leaves a room without destroying all the robots first.
 * Some of the replaceable lines can get interesting in the more recent Professional Wrestling games that try to reproduce the announcers' dialogue, including 'witty' banter. A few can get it horribly wrong, as some reviews for Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 indicated--typically, in a niche game like this, it helps to actually, you know, get the maneuvers named correctly.
 * Smackdown Vs. Raw '09 is a little better with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, but worse with Michael Cole, who will oftentimes do nothing but repeat one category of move (calling any kind of kick "a vicious stomp," for example) or just plain mis-call moves. More cynical fans will consider this a subversion, as Michael Cole tends to be rather terrible in reality.
 * It got worse in 2010: not only do the commentators say the same thing five times in a minute (and lack much of the enthusiasm of a live event) one time there was a comment on a move from Snitsky. Snitsky isn't even in the game. As good as the other advancements are it's disappointing that some areas were just dialed in with no effort.
 * Acclaim's wrestling games for the WWF and ECW had one cheat code that gave everyone high pitch voices, including the announcers, making their commentaries hilarious.
 * Frustratingly enough, Smackdown Vs. RAW 2011 --at least the PS 2 edition-- has an option to disable Lawler and Cole's commentary that doesn't always work. In certain match types, they still yap at full loudness even with the voice volume turned completely down.
 * Ridge Racer 64 has a terrible, over-enthusiastic announcer saying what's going on during the race. Thankfully, he doesn't chatters too much. Ridge Racer Type 4, meanwhile, has a calmer, much better announcer with a deep echo added to his voice. Rage Racer gave us a cool female voice who I think we are meant to take as being Reiko.
 * Played around with Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat; given that he's the announcer in the second and third games, he says "I win" instead of "(character) wins" when victorious.
 * "It is official; ''you suck."
 * The arena announcer in Ratchet and Clank Going Commando. "It's like watching a train wreck! WOW!"
 * Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked also had this. "Team Darkstar is making its mark on Dreadzone!"
 * "Team Markstar is making its dark on Redzone! Oh dear, I've gone cross-eyed."
 * Captain Qwark shows in Tools Of Destruction as the announcer: "Guess our competitor isn't by impressed by all this next-gen weaponery!"
 * Throughout The Warriors, the radio DJ keeps up a running commentary on the events of the film, including taunting the Warriors for getting themselves into trouble. She provides the same service during the video game adaptation - after every mission, stand by the radio for a moment and she'll recap what's gone down. (If you die, she mocks you for it, as well.)
 * The original Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2 had a parody game-show announcer to voice pick-ups, bonuses, special feats, and the player's death. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 had an announcer with a rowdy Cockney accent.
 * Soulcalibur, "A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold..."
 * This victory strengthened the soul of... Sophitia!
 * The Mahjong Fight Club series has a female announcer who tallies up yaku (hand points) for winning hands, announces the parameters and tells you what wind position you are at the start of each hand, and speaks in the menus -- she's silent during actual gameplay.
 * Meanwhile, MJ4, a similar Mahjong game, has a male Large Ham Announcer who comments on the game. Each player can only hear announcer comments about his/her own hand, and any game status that all four players would know. Which is a very good thing, as if the other players heard the announcer excitedly yelling "" talking about your hand, they'd know you have a big hand, which would severely hamper you chances of actually winning with your big hand.
 * Smash TV had an announcer you would end up fighting in the end, in a rather creepy manner
 * Wave Race 64 had one announcer that would always make a commentary if you blew past the competition, fell behind, or got knocked off your jet ski. Its sequel, Wave Race: Bluestorm, demoted the announcer to just one phrase: "Ladies and gentlemen! Start your engines!" The constant chatter was moved to your character's coach and like in the previous game, would always comment when you fell off, passed a buoy the right or wrong way, and told you when you had turbo power.
 * In Blue Storm, there's an Easter Egg that went undiscovered for nine years. What is it? Basically, "Your Coach Is An Asshole" Mode. Absolutely hilarious.
 * There's an announcer in the Naruto: Clash of Ninja games, but he never talks during the battle. It's also different in every game (Naruto, the Third Hokage, Hayate and finally Genma).
 * Teammates in Need for Speed: Carbon often fulfil this role.
 * In Knights of the Old Republic, you have the chance to earn some credits in the duelling arena, where you can fight with no chance of death. The announcer, speaking to your audience, describes both you, going by the handle "Mysterious Stranger", and your opponent like it's a professional wrestling match, hyping you in the first two duels as having "No history, no past, and no name!" He seems to be enjoying himself each time, but he really, really enjoys announcing the one and only deathmatch.
 * Jade Empire had a similar (though longer and more plot-relevant) arena sequence; the announcer there wasn't as much of a Large Ham, though.
 * Trauma Center: New Blood has an intentionally annoying announcer in the "Medical Miracles" storyline, where the Caudceus crew are on a game-show-styled TV show about medical operations (which culminates in a fight against Ops, one of the Stigma). All the time, the doctors comment on how they'd like to suture his mouth shut.
 * The announcer in Fusion Frenzy 2 is notorious for chattering non-stop. One can press the A button at least ten times before any minigame starts or after any minigame ends and the announcer still wouldn't be finished commenting. Even within a game, he has the compelling need to eradicate silence with incessant commentary on every player's current status.
 * Mario Party 8 has a talking hat host who makes lots of nonsensical noises in lieu of actually matching the text. He talks so much though, that the hat even comments on how much is being said.
 * The DJMAX series is generally good about keeping the announcer restricted to menus. But then came DJMAX Trilogy. If you have Live Mode enabled, songs will have a cool reverb effect when you achieve x3 Fever or more...but you'll also have the announcer shout your combo at set milestones ("100 Combo extend!", etc.), and make comments every time you activate a Fever gauge:

"Amazing! Is it possible?!"

"Oh God! Can't stop!""

"Jim: Now that looks like a pretty serious injury.
 * The Thunder Force series has an announcer call out the item you obtain.
 * Thunder Force AC, an arcade port of the console game Thunder Force III, extends this: in addition to the usual weapon-calling, there's a second, male announcer (for reading out the stage number and announcing the end of a stage), and the usual female announcer says the name of the stage.
 * Thunder Force VI's announcer reads out the stage name and warns you of approaching bosses...in Tangut.
 * In Jak X, Pecker and G.T. Blitz provide stimulating commentary on your races.
 * This was largely the gimmick of Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius.
 * Hydro Thunder. Hydro freaking Thunder. "Fire the booster! Fire the booster now! Booster at max! Booster at 50%! Booster running low! Hit the ramp! Traffic up ahead! You're in 3rd place! You're in 2nd place! No, seriously, fire the booster! Detour up ahead! Watch yourself! Hit that other ramp! Get that icon which refills your booster, which is really important! Right turn up ahead! Left turn up ahead! No wait, a right turn then a left turn!" Worse. Than. Mortal. Kombat.
 * Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 featured one of the more effective uses of this trope. To replicate the chatter heard on real TV and radio commentaries in quiet moments of the game, the various two-man commentary teams in BLIC '05 will engage in unscripted dialogue on general cricketing issues and tactics when there's nothing happening on the field of play.
 * Super Monkey Ball, especially from Super Monkey Ball 2 and onwards, as the most insane announcers you'll ever hear. The guy is constantly yelling in the hammiest way possibly. And sometimes speaks Engrish. It's amazing.
 * The Real Bout Fatal Fury games have a very enthusiastic, very friendly announcer who you just can't help but adore.
 * "HEY, HOW'S IT GOIN' DUDE? AND LET'S BEGIN! CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER!"
 * "WOW, HE LOOKS TOUGH, AND REALLY ANGRY!"
 * "AW COME ON, DON'T GIVE UP! YOU MIGHT WIN THIS TIME!"
 * Blood Bowl has Jim Johnson the vampire and Bob Bifford the ogre commenting on the matches. Mostly in the PC game, but they are lore-wise the most famous duo of commentators, too.

Bob: Just a flesh wound!

Jim: Four inches deep?"


 * In Real Life, this sometimes happens near the end of a blowout. For example, near the end of a Wisconsin-Michigan St. game on ESPN had Captain Obvious himself, Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin killing the final two minutes rambling about everything from YouTube (including a brief mention of sideline reporter and resident Ms. Fanservice Erin Andrews) to Sylvester Stallone using human growth hormone for one of the Rocky films (causing an audible groan from Musberger, who had a cameo in the second movie).
 * Dead Rising 2's Terror Is Reality has TK as the host introducing the games, but then has two other commentators who actually comment during the games themselves, including a very funny ex-player as the color commentator.
 * This is the main complaint done to Loudmouth Larry's comments by fans of Rock 'n' Roll Racing.
 * Eggman does this for background chatter in Sonic Colors, over the park's PA system. Alternates between taunting Sonic and parodying common amusement park sayings.
 * There's also an actual announcer who announces when you get combos during tricks ("Good! Great! Awesome! etc.") and whenever you get a Wisp power-up (Spike! Rocket! Frenzy!)
 * In Project Blackout, a disembodied voice announces all of your headshots, chain kills, etc.
 * A mainstay in EA Sports series like NHL Hockey and FIFA Soccer.
 * In Mod Nation Racers, Biff Tradwell and Gary Reasons fill this role as commentators. Generally though, their conversations are limited to their personal lives and you only outside of career mode cutscenes hear them speak immediately before and immediately after each race (During the race, you only hear the player character's crew chief). One of Biff's post-race lines lampshades this by saying that he fell asleep midway through, with one of Gary's pre-race lines saying that Biff usually takes a nap during the actual race. Biff also doesn't seem to care one way or the other about his job, evidenced in lines at the end of the race where he ponders ways to get his own show, expresses happiness at the fact that he is on overtime pay as a result of said race, and laments the fact that despite being one of the commentators he doesn't get a copy of the broadcast free of charge.
 * Blood had a memorable announcer for the Blood Batch gamemode, who also did the voice of Tchernobog. the voice was done by Monolith's then-CEO and featured such immortal lines as "Disemboweled!" "Anal justice!" and "Rectal redemption"