15 Greatest Videogame Villains

By The Manolith Team on January 11th, 2010

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We’ve been playing video games since the ’70s, and they only ever get better — be it their graphics, speed, size of game world, or even vastness of plot. While we’re playing those games, we nearly always play them through the avatar of a hero. What we rarely stop to consider in most of these games is just how great an enemy we’re facing — how awesome the villain must be to cause the ruckus they have caused. These are the 15 greatest video game villains, they’ve been a part of our lives for longer than most of the people we’ll ever meet.

Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Series)

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DK wasn’t great because he was more or less the pixelated incarnation of King Kong, nor was he great for stomping Mario into the ground before he was even Mario — he was great because he was unbridled 4-bit savagery in a time when video games were barely a whisper in the hallways of a few Japanese corporate skyscrapers. His story was one of revenge and hatred. He was mistreated by a mustachioed douchebag, so he stole the man’s girlfriend and held her hostage just to taunt him. It doesn’t hurt that he was a giant ape, either.

The Lich King (World of Warcraft)

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Say what you will about the players of World of Warcraft, but the game itself, its quality, and the story lines it encompasses or carries on, are nothing short of amazing. Blizzard set out to conquer a market, and they did it right — and they managed to conjure up some formidable arch-villains along the way. The Lich King is a blend of what was originally two separate beings and one great evil; all were meshed into one seemingly unstoppable nightmare. His story of defiance, rage, and an unquenchable thirst for power is nothing short of epic, and for that, so is his greatness as a villain.

Mike Tyson (Mike Tyson’s PUNCH OUT!)

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Before he lost his gourd and developed a taste for ear — and beating women — “Iron” Mike Tyson was much feared, and much loved. His video game counterpart, however, was hated and reviled even back in 1987. For kids back then, Mike Tyson wasn’t just a famous boxer, but an unbeatable nightmare villain who haunted every waking hour until defeated. 

Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid)

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Psycho Mantis was a fantastic villain for gamers because of the designers’ idea to make the fight personal, between him and the player, as much as it was between him and the story’s protagonist. It’s something that had never been seen in a video game before, the game’s evil antagonist actually spoke to the player, read what was on the memory card, talked about it, and basically creeped the unholy crap out of anyone playing the game. 

Andross (Star Fox Series)

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Andross is a villain of the old school Galaga sort, only in modern console action. He began as a scientist, then became a mad scientist, and grew in both power and insanity as time progressed. The guy got himself banished from his planet after blowing up a portion of the city in an experiment — only to build an army on the planet he was banished to. He waged interstellar war against armies and fleets, all after basically losing his actual body and becoming a giant floating head.

Dr. Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog Series)

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The mad scientist routine is a good one for video game villains, but most of them are quite slow and incapable in battle without their minions to do their fighting for them. Dr. Robotnik, on the other hand, was not only evil and demented, but he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty in a fight. In Sonic the Hedgehog, that meant he had to be fast, and ruthless, because the games themselves were some of the absolute fastest ever made. The man had an IQ of 300, and was hell-bent on world domination of the Terminator or Matrix variety — with himself on a throne.

SHODAN (System Shock)

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Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, or SHODAN was one of the greatest villains in video games largely because she was so far ahead of her time. Taking a Gibsonesque cue and going full-on cyberpunk with the story, designers made SHODAN a sentient computer system that had its morality stripped from it. What happened next is history. The real kicker was the way that SHODAN was written, she was downright creepy; take a listen to her ridiculously creepy voice, in case you don’t still remember it.

Dracula (Castlevania Series)

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Time and time again, the Belmont family has been forced to deal with the scourge of the land; Dracula and his minions. Every 100 years or so, the battle takes place all over again, and every time, Dracula seems to only be stronger than the last. The story is epic, and ancient, and the villain is as eponymous as the idea of evil itself. Dracula is a master of the diabolical, and he was the perfect villain for us to grow up frightfully hating.

Dr. Wily (Mega Man Series)

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Mega Man was nothing but pure, bright goodness and bravery, and his complete opposite was everything that Dr. Wily strove to create — or bastardize. Wily was an evil genius, a mad man, and a maniac bent on ruling the world through the use of his machines. Relentlessly, Wily tries and fails to make a lasting power grab, only to be thwarted by Mega Man, and then turn around to try again. He was ruthless.

Mother Brain (Metroid Series)

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Mother Brain was literally a giant brain, encased in a stasis chamber that allowed her to run the operations of an entire planet full of space pirates. The pirates did her bidding, and her bidding was to rule any and all life under an iron heel — and she was prepared to kill as many people as she needed to kill in order to pull off her plans. Mother brain was a huge step in the development of villains, and to this day she may well be one of the most creative ever conceived.

Diablo, Lord of Terror (Diablo Series)

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Diablo was written to quite literally be the Lord of Terror, as in one of the three prime evils, next to his two brothers Baal and Mephiso. He’s a demon who ruled Hell, and even after imprisonment by angels, broke free and terrorized the world of the living to the point that it descended into chaos and darkness. Diablo and his story are truly among the greatest ever told, and it’d be hard to find a more evil villain in any story.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

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Sephiroth is the villain that we all loved like a hero. He lived a life that wasn’t his own, and he felt abandoned and used. He also felt hatred and loathing for the entire world, and felt that his birthright was to rule it as a god. We’re talking about an alien-human hybrid megalomaniac with mommy issues and a sword twice the length of a man — and no conscience. He was a perfect villain, for a perfect game.

CATS (Zero Wing)

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CATS may not be well-known to many today, but the effects of his entrance into the gaming world are felt by all. In one fell swoop, all your base are belong to us, what he say!? and for great justice! were all born. While he was only ever in the one game, and briefly at that, CATS lives on as possibly everyone’s favorite villain, because he was hilarious.

Bowser, a.k.a. King Koopa (Mario Series)

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While he may have softened over the years, and even become downright likable, Bowser was once the most hated, feared, and evil villain in video games. In the spartan, 8-bit side-scrolling world that Mario had to navigate in his often ill-fated attempts to rescue the princess from him, Bowser looked massive. He was terrifying, and he commanded legions of freaky mushrooms and giant rabid turtles, not to mention the man-eating plants that lived in pipes, clouds and fish who all saw him as god-like.

Ganon, a.k.a. Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda Series)

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Rarely has a video game villain remained so consistently evil throughout his tenure as a character in a game series. Rarely is a game series as massive as The Legend of Zelda to begin with, so to fill the role required of him, Ganon had to be written steadfastly diabolical. His vision wasn’t simply to conquer a land, or even a galaxy; his vision was to conquer existence. He wanted to control time and space, all life anywhere, ever. That’s the kind of truly frightening evil that makes for a true sense of involvement from the player, since it feels imperative that Ganon be defeated at all costs.