Ten Videogame Villains You Love to Love

Excellent point, Clifton! There's definitely a need to identify with the character in a game. Anyone ever roll a character in Mass Effect, KoToR, or any other RPG with "moral" choices and have to reload because you aren't okay with the consequences of something you did? It's because you don't like the character anymore. You definitely don't want to play as someone you don't like.
So in that spirit, here's a list of ten bad guys you love to be.


10. Kratos: God of War I, II, and Chains of Olympus.
He's not a good guy. He's ruthless. He's badass. He used to be awesome. He's low on the list because I honestly stopped liking him in God of War III. He turned from avenger to asshole. And any chance of redemption was dashed by the end of the game. Still, love those blades.

9. Niko Bellic: Grand Theft Auto IV.
Illegal Alien, murderer, car thief. Nico's list of offenses is as long as the game. But he's a mass murderer with a heart of gold, and you can't help but love the guy as his world of ridiculous characters unravels around him. Much more human than the Tony Montana rip-off Tommy Vercetti.

8. Agent 47: Hitman Series. Cold, efficient, brutal. 47 can snipe your armed guards, dose your bodyman with a silent syringe, then garrote you with filament wire, then go have a cup of tea at the bistro down the street. He's got a kickass arsenal and a hundred tricks. But his enemies are always deserving and his cause just.

7. Bowser: Super Mario Brothers. The Godfather of videogame nemeses, the Koopa King is always a blast to play. He's made the evolution over the years from wicked mastermind to hilarious foil. His antics in "Bowser's Inside Story" were hilarious and entertaining. Plus, dude breathes fire.

6. Starscream: Transformers. Sure, Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons and all around bad dude, but in the 80s series, Starscream's ideas were always better than Megatron's. They always went with Megatron's plans and failed, but if they had listened to Starscream... In the recent "War for Cybertron" Starscream is fast and lethal, and in my opinion much more satisfying to play as then his cannon-wielding boss.

5. Sagat: Street Fighter. He's been around since the beginning. Before Bison, before Bison, before Doctor Manhat... Seth. Sagat's motivation has always been to prove once more that he's better than Ryu. He's huge, scarred, overpowered, and terrifying. I may be awful at playing as Sagat, but his motivation is simple and human. Be the best.

4. Kain: Legacy of Kain series. I played Soul Reaver before Blood Omen, so my first introduction to Kain was as nemesis. He's an ancient vampire lord, time traveler, and divinely chosen guardian of balance of his entire world. Given the choice to die and potentially save his world or live on and damn it to decay and evil, Kain chose to hang around a few thousand more years, just to see what happened. Calculating, manipulative, and genius are only a few of his attributes, and his plan to save his world spanned 10 thousand years and eventually wrapped all the way back around to the beginning. If that's not enough, this guy's a vampire who can drink your blood from ACROSS THE STREET. Badass.

3. Big Boss: Metal Gear series. Naked Snake, Jack, Big Boss. Big Boss had an illustrious career starting with preventing all out nuclear war between the US and Russia in the late 60s. His first mission was to hunt down and neutralize his mentor and the woman he loved. Over the next fifty years he would orchestrate wars, uprisings, terrorism, and even try to kill his own son. Even after his apparent death, he worked behind the scenes to steer the world to its breaking point, playing the role of the country's greatest traitor to eventually expose the truth of the greatest global conspiracy ever seen. His road to hell was paved with the best of intentions, but also the bodies of millions.

2. The Joker. DC Comics. The Clown Prince of Crime has a sick charisma that no fan can resist. He's a raving lunatic, or is he? Genius or Madman or both, the Joker has been on more top villains lists than just about anyone. He's funny, terrifying, alluring and repulsive. And the last few years have seen his most dramatic reinventions yet. The Dark Knight showed us the darkest, most terrifying version ever to grace the screen. Arkham Asylum gave us the sinister voice in the back of our heads, spinning little webs of doubt and at one point, even putting a bullet in our skulls. The Joker challenge maps on PS3 were challenging and suitably vicious, satisfying a longtime desire to don the purple suit ourselves. Then in Lego Batman, he was made of Lego! Automatic win. Being a lego villain means you've REALLY made it. Speaking of...

1. Darth Vader: Star Wars. Whatever you know about my movie predilections, there is no denying that Vader is the ultimate badass. I don't need to use this space to convince you. You already knew who this was going to be. He's awesome in Lego, sure. And yeah, you could play as Anakin in several games over the last few years. But all that was just the appetizer to the opening level of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Say what you will about the game, you cannot complain about the first level. The man stalks coolly amid the treetop village on Kashyyyk, flinging Wookiees into the distance. The low, ominous drone that resonates in every nerd's head for their entire life fills your speakers as you march, emotionless, to the lair of your quarry. It's 20 minutes of dream come true. We need more games where you get to play as Vader.

Choose Your Own Adventure.

So today I downloaded the demo for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, the sequel to a game I have to say I cannot stand. This one takes the duo to Shanghai and lets you play as Lynch (the crazy guy with the skullet) instead of Kane (the balding guy with one working eye). while the gameplay is significantly better (I daresay even GOOD), the video streaming look is novel and well implemented, the framerate well more than solid, and the controls are drastically improved, I still don't like it. While I was playing it I couldn't quite put my finger on it, after getting about halfway through it hit me: I don't want to play as either one of these guys.

It got me thinking about the concept of assuming the role of character in a video game alltogether. Yes sometimes you want to be a hero, other times it's fun to play the villian, but is it ever enjoyable to play a game as a character that is just plain unlikable?

I really don't think it is, and here's why:

Video games are a lot of things to a lot of people, but two universal themes seem to be escapism and fantasy. To go off and do this stuff that you cannot do in real life, as someone who has skills that you do not have. Now, a lot can be said for creating your own character (Mass Effect, etc), but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Specifically in games where you are dropped into the life of a character of the developer's creation (or license), you are asked consciously or not, to develop an emotional connection to your hero. That is something fundamental that I don't think people examine enough.

Gears of War: You want Marcus and Dom to wipe those damn locusts off the face of Sera and find Maria. Red Dead Redemption: You have to want John Marston to clear his name and be reunited with his family. Hell, even Street Fighter, you have a favorite character and you get a little rush when you win with said character. You can even throw sports in there. If you are in Louisiana and you play Madden 11 as the New Orleans Saints and win the Super Bowl, you will be stoked, because you love that team. Even when the character's not necessarily a nice guy, there has to be something to draw you to that character like incredible powers or something. Kratos seems to fit there. In short, you need to like your character, or he/she has to at least be a complete badass.

And that's my problem with Kane and Lynch. Not only are neither of the characters even remotely likable, you can't even relate to them. Unless you're a criminal, in which case you have more important things to do than playing video games, like running from the cops. Also, who wants to be those guys? A crazy guy with a skullet and a beer gut, or a failed father with bald spot and glass eye. No thank you. It's not like they have some sort of super powers or anything, they just shoot guns. I can find ten games where you just shoot guns with better characters than these two hillbillies right now, and I wouldn't even have to leave my apartment.

The character you play as in a game holds more power than you might think. Tomb Raider would not be a household name if Lara Croft was Larry Croft. At the time when the series released there were no female gaming icons. (Before anyone goes crazy Samus Aran wears a helmet, and the general population doesn't even know who that is.) Lara was gaming's first "sex symbol" as much as I hate that term.

Devil May Cry is an awesome game, but Dante's personality adds a lot. Same with Uncharted. you just LIKE Nathan Drake. It swings both ways, too. Assassin's Creed 2 was leaps and bounds better than it's predecessor, but one overlooked factor was that Ezio was just a way better character than Altair.

I guess what it boils down to is that when I can play games as Master Chief, Marcus Fenix, Dante, Batman, Solid Snake, Ryu Hayabusa, Samus Aran, Lara Croft, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Harry Potter, Darth Vader, Nathan Drake, Ezio Auditore, Soap McTavish, or Kratos, why on earth would I even be remotely interested in playing as Kane or Lynch? What are they really bringing to the table besides the view from a trailer park? Nothing. And that's a shame, because this time around it doesn't look like they're in a bad game at all.

They seriously look like homeless guys.

Choose Your Own Adventure.

So today I downloaded the demo for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, the sequel to a game I have to say I cannot stand. While the gameplay is significantly better (I daresay even GOOD), the video streaming look is novel and well implemented, the framerate well more than solid, and the controls are drastically improved, I still don't like it. While I was playing it I couldn't quite put my finger on it, after getting about halfway through it hit me: I don't want to play as either one of these guys.

My Summer of DLC

Singularity was the last retail release I played. I liked it well enough, and it wasn't even on my radar to give a try, but I played it and it was okay.

The next retail game that's a definite on my list (even if just for the campaign and a little content creation) is Halo: Reach. There are a few things here and there that I'm fairly interested in. Mafia II (losing interest with time), Metroid: Other M (really iffy about the presentation of that one), and Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions (probably a three day distraction.)

No, the retail space is not in the forefront for me for the next couple of months. What has my attention are the digital marketplaces. Downloadable games and add ons are keeping my consoles warm now, and will be for a while.

Deathspank. From the mind of Ron Gilbert, the evil genius behind the Monkey Island series, is a fun and oft funny action RPG that's a blend of Fable II's rhythm inspired combat and the now ubiquitous quest-giver model made so popular in games like Diablo. Deathspank himself, voiced by Michael Dobson, gives over the top but completely straight faced readings of some utterly ridiculous lines that make it all the funnier. The game is BIG for a 10 dollar download, and the funny almost never stops. Completely worth it.

Limbo. Only halfway through this one, so no review, just some impressions. I won't go too deep into this one, just to say that the visual style, ambient "music" and truly disturbing animations make this tale of a young boy's travel through a savage world trying to kill him at every turn a haunting and immersing world that you will be glued to. Also of note is that there's not a line of dialog or a scrap of exposition in the entire game. 15 dollars seems a little steep at this point, but I'm getting quite a bit of enjoyment from it.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane. Hydro. Thunder. Go play it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Due out on PSN August 10th, Xbox Live Arcade August 25th for 10 bucks. The game is brought to us by the insanely talented animator Paul Robertson. Go watch Pirate Baby Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 and Kings of Power 4billion% to see for yourself. Based of course on the graphic novel series and movie of the same name, the game is an old school beat em up in the vein of streets of rage or teenage mutant ninja turtles: turtles in time. Super excited for this one.

Also picked up The Secret Armory of General Knoxx for Borderlands while it was half off, so I'm definitely looking forward to securing a copy of the game to have a few more hours of fun with it.

Long and short, I'll be spending a lot less money and swapping a lot fewer discs this summer, and it really looks like fun.