I have a character in the game I'm writing that is in a wheelchair, but she isn't the protagonist, she's a secondary protagonist.

It would be interesting to see how that would work, though. I bet it's happened and/or is happening.

There's Bentley from the sly cooper games. He had his legs crushed at the end of Sly 2. But, he built his own rocket powered wheel chair so he could stay out in the field and help his friends in Sly 3. He's not the main protagonist, but he's a playable character, and best friend of Sly's. I think he's pretty cool.

In Killer7, the leader of the Smith syndicate, Harman Smith is wheelchair bound, but he can transform into 7 different assassin personae, so I'm not sure if he counts

Well, Simon Henriksson from "Cry of Fear" is actually in a wheelchair, but he doesn't realize it.

Hmm... funny how entertainment business keeps beating around the bush there. Who will have the courage to go straight for the metaphorical kill?

I mean, imagine the gameplay opportunities. It doesn't even have to be serious-themed. Imagine an action shooter game where you can use all kinds of addons for your wheelchair, like miniguns or short-distance dimensional jump drive, complete with fiery tracks á la Back to the Future.

And wheelchair racing for fun has been practiced for ages on a small, spontaneous, private scale. Maybe it's time to bring it to the computer screen.

"Special Racer" would be a title as wacky as the game itself would be.

Darn, if I had the means, skills and energy to make a computer game myself, this could be the next Goat Simulator thing.

I definitely claim royalties!

 Bentley is playable. He has all kinds of stuff. His wheelchair is rocketpowered, he can double jump and hover, he has mines and sleeping darts, explosive darts too. He has remote controlled vehicles. He's actually pretty awesome.

Closest one to my idea then. But not good enough, haha. Because in entertainment media, there is a profound difference between first and second, between hero and sidekick, primary role and secondary role. Remember, Uhura was a bridge officer, but at the comm. Outrageous and daring enough at the time, but a black captain would have blown people's fuses.

BTW in the recent MLP episode they had a pony in a wheelchair-like contraption, and it even looked kinda steampunky. That was such an awesome moment. I always like it when the show portrays characters and other elements in a style we haven't seen on the show before. (Maud Pie is another good example.)

There's the guy from Happy Wheels. But that is an interesting piece of information... I'm going to have to design a game around that one day.

There's Oracle/Batgirl in the Arkham games.

There's Oracle/Batgirl in the Arkham games.

Details please.

Funny thing is, its difficult for developers to create those things.. that is a big reason why wheelchair main characters dont show up, and the majority of gamers dont need them, so they (wheel chairs) are rarely put into games..

but back in the day, White main characters were easier to add in than their black counterparts.. now its easy as hell xD

Well, it's no secret that innovation and challenging ideas in gaming become more and more difficult when profit interests dominate. But in a time of indie game boom, it shouldn't be any problem.

The world has seen a fighting game with ponies created as a hobby. Wheelchair hero is peanuts.