As you all know, Deepavali/Diwali starts tomorrow. This festive celebration is where people who practice Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, light up diyas to signify victory of good over the evil within an individual – an allusion over the homecoming of Hinduism avatar Rama. While that epic tale of Rama alone could be great source material for a triple-A videogame, we’re not here to talk about that possibility. Instead, let’s delve into the top five videogames that shows off aspects of Hinduism, either from the characters they have or from the themes the games contain in its story:

5. Flame Man – Megaman 6 (NES)

First off, have you noticed Flame Man’s huge turban and pointy shoes as of late? His stage which is basically set in a futuristic version of the Taj Mahal, only it’s housing a huge oil rig instead of a dead wife. While I would say that he has the ability to conjure fire, they’re more scientific than mystical in nature (look at the pipe connected on his gas tank, for one). All that’s missing is a robotic elephant and a curry bowl with googly eyes and robot arms and legs. Seriously though, Flame Man tries to pass off as a Sufi mystic with his tricks and giant turban, but he’s not fooling anyone.

4. Great Tiger – Punch Out! (NES, Wii)

Guess the Big N can’t always be perfect when it comes to being PC. A lot of critics have touted Punch Out as the most racist game Nintendo has created, and seeing the lone Indian boxer who has the power to create duplicates of himself, wears tiger-striped pants and a giant turban with a crystal in the middle, and screams “Aiyoh!” when hit (in the Wii version at least), they might be on to something there. He’s essentially a Sufi mystic in boxing gloves. Still, you have to admit that fighting Great Tiger on both the NES and Wii version (Title Defense mode) of the game is challenging and fun at the same time.

3. Entire Game – Hanuman, Boy Warrior (PS2)

This oddity appeared last year and is an action game created by a game studio located in India. The whole game is suppose to be a love letter to Hindu culture and an ode to the epic-sized Ramayana, much like how Okami was to Japanese mythology. Unlike Okami though, Hanuman – Boy Warrior looks and plays like a first generation PSOne game and is said to be one of the worst games in existence. Hey, I never said I would include just good games on the list.

2. Dhalsim – Street Fighter 2, 4, Alpha, EX, etc. (Arcade, etc.)

Speaking of Capcom adding in blatant ethnic caricatures, how can we have a list like this without Street Fighter’s sole Indian participant? Based on this world warrior’s choice phrases for battle cries, he practices the art of Yoga. Yoga, as we all know by now, is a meditative practice discipline that’s used in Hinduism, and it’s refered to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. Call me crazy, but I doubt that said philosophies involve having the ability to stretch your arms to elongated proportions, teleporting left and right across the arena to piss off your foes, and spewing flame of different degrees of heat from your mouth. At least his win quotes show off his calm and wise nature.

1. Entire Story & Narrative – Digital Devil Saga Series (PS2)

You probably remember this pretty cool RPG back in the days of the PS2. Basically a “casual” version of a Shin Megami Tensei game, the game is about a bunch of characters who are reincarnated in a virtual world who have to somehow remember their past lives and set things right again. To say that the game has allusions to Hinduism and the concept of Nirvana is saying that the earth is round. Your characters can transform into demon avatars named after Hindu gods and mythological heroes while they traverse places like the Samsara River and fight bosses named after, you guessed it, evil Hindu gods and tricksters. Hell, in the tradition of SMT games where you fight the Almighty Creator, the last boss of the entire series is Brahmin.

Oh, and if you haven’t played the game yet, I would suggest you do so. It’s pretty cool, albeit hard.

So what have we learned from all this?

i) It’s okay to have racial stereotypes as game characters, provided that your game is good to begin with.

ii) The Digital Devil Saga series is as close as you can get to a great game which has a story that mimics the Ramayana.

iii) Hinduism allusions are hard to come by in videogames

Anything else I’m missing? Just post your 2 cents below.