Participating in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge

At first, it was just fascinating to hear the voice of an idol I liked in an FPS game. In Sudden Attack, if you use a celebrity character, an actual audio track plays whenever you trigger an emote.

Today, I want to talk about why Sudden Attack’s K-POP collaborations have stuck with me for so long.

Sudden Attack is an FPS game built around firefights. It’s the kind of game filled with gunshots, footsteps, and explosions, so hearing the voice of an idol I liked in the middle of all that felt surprisingly unique the first time. That’s how the celebrity characters work: when you pick one and use an emote, an actual audio track plays.

Sudden Attack has released a pretty wide range of celebrity characters over the years, from idols and singers to actors and comedians. It started with PSY and Yoo In-na, then later added singers like Jessi and Kisum, and in 2026 it even got a Red Velvet Wendy character. That made Wendy the first idol from SM to appear, 18 years after the game began releasing celebrity characters.

The real appeal of Sudden Attack’s celebrity characters is that their emotes use actual audio tracks. Each one has its own voice and music built into those emotes, so during a match you get these little moments where you suddenly hear the voice of an idol you like.

There was something both funny and oddly amazing about idol music suddenly playing in the middle of a firefight. After taking out an enemy, using an emote, and hearing the voice of a singer I liked in that moment made it feel like more than just a standard FPS match. It felt memorable in a different way. And because the system lets the whole team hear the audio when someone uses a celebrity character, it was always nice when a teammate happened to be using an idol character I liked.

One disappointing part of Sudden Attack’s celebrity character collaborations is that characters with audio tracks have gradually become less common. Because of its relationship with the music rights association, it later became difficult for singer-type celebrity characters to include those tracks. At this point, the only characters that still seem to have audio left in their emotes are Jessi, Kisum, and PSY.

So when I see a player using one of those older celebrity characters that still has its audio intact, it almost feels incredibly rare. Being able to hear K-POP music directly inside an FPS game is exactly why Sudden Attack’s celebrity characters still feel so special in my memory.

The most recent big talking point in Sudden Attack’s K-POP collaborations was the release of the Red Velvet Wendy character in 2026. It was the first time an idol from SM Entertainment had appeared, 18 years after Sudden Attack first began releasing celebrity characters. For a long time, players almost treated it like an unspoken rule that idols from SM just wouldn’t show up in Sudden Attack, and Wendy’s release finally broke that pattern.

The fact that this collaboration happened after 18 years is exactly why it felt so meaningful to longtime Sudden Attack players. Seeing an older game become a hot topic again through a new K-POP idol collaboration really made it feel like proof that Sudden Attack is still alive and well as a long-running game.

Sudden Attack’s celebrity characters offer a uniquely memorable way to enjoy K-POP in an FPS game. Do you remember which celebrity character you used in Sudden Attack? Let me know in the comments.