AAll of the video game characters seen in Wreck-It Ralph live inside arcade machines. Each character is sentient and has their own thoughts and personalities. Though each character is given a back story by their human developer, they really act how they want when they're not being played by humans. Inside the game there is either a large window or a camera which shows human players the inside of each game world. When game characters are standing in front of the window or camera they must pretend they do not have free will. There are also places in each game world where there is no window or camera, and the characters are free to act however they want (like the backstage of a theater). If game characters do act of their own free will in front of humans then it is only assumed that the game is broken. When humans are not watching them, like when the arcade closes, characters can leave their own games by traveling out of the arcade machine's electrical plug and into other games. When they are in other games, what they are doing can be seen on the screens in the arcade. There is a "Game Central Station" where characters can switch between games, which is actually an electrical strip which connects all the games to one plug. If a character dies outside its own game, they will not re-spawn and will actually die.
A*Fix-It Felix, Jr.: The game is largely based on the original Donkey Kong. Both villains, Ralph and Donkey Kong, are large and angry characters who stand atop a building structure and toss objects down at the hero. Both heroes, Fix-It Felix and Jump Man (aka Mario), are handyman characters who climb up and around the building to eventually reach the top and watch the villain fall off the tower. The game's name is also a reference to Donkey Kong Jr. There is a slight reference to Rampage, a game in which the player controls kaiju-style monsters (including one representing King Kong and another one named Ralph). In this game, the monsters climb the side of the building, punch open the windows, and grab the residents inside. Ralph is seen doing this at the beginning of the movie when the game is first seen. The game's building, opening/shutting windows, and the fact that Fix-It Felix scales the front of it also all somewhat resemble Crazy Climber from the early 1980s.*Hero's Duty: Inspired by various futuristic armored soldier games such as Doom, Quake, Halo, Mass Effect, etc. The Cy-Bugs are inspired by the Metoroido and Aliens franchises and could be seen as an homage to movies like Starship Troopers, which also had games made based on the property. The name is a reference to popular first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty.*Sugar Rush: Inspired by cartoonish kart racing games like the Mario Kart series, Diddy Kong Racing, and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with cute characters, power-ups for offense and defense, boosts, obstacles, and various weather conditions. The game's design is based on the board game Candy Land.*Turbotime: The game is inspired by Namco's Rally-X; the colors and designs match almost perfectly. Turbo himself greatly resembles Rally-X's unnamed protagonist.
ABecause doing that would cause the entire game to glitch out and become unstable. This is not said in the movie but is common sense if you understand how modern video games are developed. Often game developers will create characters, vehicles, or stages that will later be decided against. These are called beta elements. Developers find it is more work to delete these elements from game code because it would cause other things to glitch out. Instead these beta elements are just locked away and made unplayable.