Beware the ape!
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"Oh, I can talk alright. And I got a pretty good memory. 'Fiora! Get outta there! Get out!' Her screams were music to my ears, as my claws slid right through her soft flesh, like a hot knife through butter! GAHAHAHAHAHA!" |
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Nintendo despite its reputation for light-hearted games has managed to produce a bunch of vile villains.
Only Video Games developed by Nintendo and related companies will be listed here for adaptations go to the responecive media or franchise pages.
See also:
- Pious Augustus of Eternal Darkness. While he is The Dragon to an ancient evil god (you can choose from three), he is the main antagonist. When you first see him, he is a playable character, a Roman legionaire who stumbled on an ancient temple in Persia. In the end, he is corrupted by one of three artifacts and serves that god. It is not known when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon, but he is clearly over it for the rest of the game, committing horrific acts gleefully, including throwing hundreds of innocent people into a tower of corpses during Roberto Bianci's scenario (him included). He kills other characters you play as as well. In the final battle, Alex as well as all the spirits of those killed trying to stop Pious do battle. Alex kills Pious for good with his own staff if you win, although he hints before his death that Alex killing him would actually make things worse. But if you lose, you see a special scene of Pious gloating over a dead Alex. It is also implied in one cutscene that he may intend to betray his god in the future.
- From Kid Icarus: Uprising we have the game's Big Bad Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. While he is hammy and amusing, he also establishes himself as an absolutely evil bastard the moment he's introduced in the game by fabricating a tale about a supposed Wish Seed, which would grant any wish (as the name suggests) and spreading it among humans, causing them to break out in a bloody war over a lie. It gets even worse when he reveals that while his job is to take the souls of dead humans and prepare them for the reincarnation cycle, he instead chooses to either use them to power up his Underworld troops or simply eats them whole, both of these acts completely destroy the souls. And if his treatment of Medusa is any indication (He admits that he can revive her as much as he wants until he gets bored with her and discards her for good), his callous disregard for any life whatsoever extends to his own minions as well. And even when the alien Aurum invades the planet, he helps out Pit, Palutena, and Viridi's Forces of Nature not because of any altruistic reasons, but because he wants to be the one who destroys the planet instead of the Aurum, and he still sends his troops to attack Pit for the hell of it. It's no surprise that EVERYBODY, even extremists like Viridi absolutely loathe him, and all want him eliminated due to him being the biggest threat the world faces.
- On the flip side, Hades is also an example of the work playing with this trope. Since this game has No Fourth Wall and all the characters have awareness that they're players in a ludicrous video game plot, Hades at times appears to be almost a Mean Character, Nice Actor character who's merely playing the part of a Complete Monster for the game's story that he's obligated to make work. The other characters, both his allies and enemies, have no qualms with cracking jokes along with him or even right back at him. And he occassionally displays Pet the Dog behavior during Out-of-Character Moments. In terms of the actual plot, though, he is a definite example of the trope, and his Laughably Evil attitude actually serves to make him more despicable.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Lands: Most Kirby villains are unknowable eldritch horrors with motivations beyond our understanding, once-noble people corrupted into twisted maniacs against their will, or genuine villains who turn over a new leaf. Then there's Specimen ID-F86, aka Fecto Forgo, the malevolent half of the Ultimate Life Form, Fecto Elfilis. In the past when they were whole, Fecto Elfilis arrived in the Forgotten Land and threatened all life on the planet, only to fail and be captured for use in warp-technology experiments. In the present, Forgo brainwashed the king of the Beast Pack, Leongar, and opened a portal to Popstar, forcing Kirby, his friends, and hundreds of Waddle Dees into the Forgotten Land. The Waddle Dees were kidnapped by the Beast Pack and forced into slave labor on the top floor of Lab Discovera so it can use them as a power source. Later, they'd Mind Rape King Dedede into kidnapping Elfilin and shipping him off to Lab Discovera, where Leongar was planning to reunite him with Forgo. When Kirby confronts and defeats Leongar, Forgo grows furious and assimilates Leongar and the Beast Pakc into itself to get to Elfilin. Once they assimilate Elfilin, they become Fecto Elfilis again and battled Kirby. Upon being defeated, Fecto throws a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum and attempts to Colony Drop Popstar onto the Forgotten Land in an effort to kill Kirby alongside them. Even death doesn't put an end to its evil, since in the postgame its disembodied spirit forcibly possesses the body of Leongar, which is shown to cause its host considerable pain when Kirby fights him. While not much about Fecto is known, what's shown to us paints a picture of it being an arrogant, manipulative being who views all other life forms as beneath it, and a murderous maniac with a very short fuse.
- Porky Minch was already a spiteful Jerkass in Earthbound, but by the time of Mother 3, he's become something far worse. In this game, he has taken over the Nowhere Island and is using it as his toy box, making him responsible for every single bad thing that happens in this game. Early on, he orders his newly formed Pigmask Army to start a forest fire purely For the Evulz, which almost caused a little girl and her father to be killed in the blaze if it wasn't for Flint being there to save them. Then he has all the animals on the island cut into pieces and then mixed into his Chimeras, and had those that weren't remade into Chimeras converted into brainwashed Cyborgs against their will, just so he could "make them cooler" as he put it. This results in the death of Flint's wife, Hinawa, at the hands of a Cyborg Drago, causing Flint to lose his mind in front of his children. When Claus goes to avenge his mother, only to fall off a cliff to his death, Porky reanimates him into the Masked Man, to serve as his mindless robot slave. And all of Fassad's deeds, including his horrible treatment of Salsa, are an extension of Porky's own crimes. What settles his evil here is that he has no sympathetic qualities besides acting like a deranged child, which he gleefully abuses to do all of these horrible thing simply for his own twisted amusement! To top it all off, he shows no remorse for any of this and even admits to Lucas and Co. that he plans to destroy the world just so he can be the only one left alive. While he may have been a Jerkass Woobie in the beginning, before all of this, the fact that he commits atrocities for no justifiable reasons and his belief that everyone around him are his toys to be played with only to be thrown away when they stop being fun seals him as one of Nintendo’s most evil villains.
- Star FOX:
- Once a respected and esteemed researcher, the brilliant Dr. Andross went from a benevolent scientist who wished to improve life within the Lylat System to a power-hungry, psychotic dictator who proved to be among Fox McCloud's most hated enemies. Despite being warned about the consequences, Andross carried out all sorts of unethical experiments without caring about how dangerous they could be, and as a result he annihilated a large portion of Corneria and transformed several of the Lylat System's planets into inhospitable wastelands. Having been banished to the deadly planet Venom for his crimes, Andross slowly formed an army formed by the nastiest scum that the Lylat System had to offer and set out to conquer the Lylat System. He also experimented on himself, becoming a living mutated brain covered by a large disembodied head of himself, with hands made for literally crushing his enemies. Against Andross's army, all resistance was crushed, entire planets were poisoned, and even innocent civilians weren't spared as Andross had their cities sacked as well until he was soundly defeated by Fox, thus bringing peace to the galaxy. Or so everyone thought. While his body was destroyed, Andross's spirit lived on and fled to Dinosaur Planet where he grants the bloodthirsty General Scales enough power to conquer the planet. After betraying Scales and seizing the Krazoa spirit he had within him, Andross reveals himself and declares his intentions on destroying the Lylat system so that he can create his own galaxy from the emptiness, after he's done with Fox. All of this cements him as one of the most depraved antagonists Shigeru Miyamoto has ever created.
- General Scales from Star Fox Adventures also qualifies. To start with, he ambushes the sole survivor from a destroyed planet called Cerenia named Krystal and tries to throw her overboard his ship to her death (luckily she was saved by a cloudrunner). He and his Sharpclaw army later assault Krazoa Palace and slaughter most of the Earthwalker soldiers sent there to defend the sacred place. After removing the four spellstones from their pedestals and breaking the planet apart, he imposes a harsh dictatorial rule on all inhabitants of Dinosaur planet. He spent his rule enslaving the Snowhorn tribe by threatening to wipe them out if they resisted, locking up the King and Queen Earthwalker and releasing the fearsome red - eye tribe, taking over Cloudrunner Fortress and imprisoning the Cloudrunner tribe members who lived there. Strangling the Cloudrunner Queen and having his men savagely beat the queen to a pulp when she refuses to tell him where Fox McCloud is, then electrocuting and capturing Fox when he reveals himself. Turning Dragon Rock into a desolate wasteland and prison camp where he turned several dinosaurs into feral killing machines, and throwing one of his own soldiers at Fox to keep him from reaching a spellstone. It is later revealed that the source of his powers is none other than Andross, to whom even Scales was unaware was only using him and his crimes to revive himself. These circumstances do not give Scales a good enough excuse because he had his own agenda and plotted outside Andross command. Brutal and ambitious to the extreme, Scales represents the savagrey found in both real life dictators and wild animals alike.
- The Aparoid Queen is the source of the Aparoid's will and the Big Bad of Star Fox Assault. Allegedly born without a soul, the Aparoid Queen aimed to bypass evolution. To that end, she spawned countless Aparoid and unleashed them all throughout the Lylat System to infect both inorganic and organic matter through Aparoidedation. Her race threatens inhabitants of countless planets; most notably, Sauria and Corneria suffer the most damage and casualties. Her Assimilation Plot sees other people infected by Aparoid retain some consciousness coupled with the inability to do anything about it, the tragic effects seen most vividly in the fights against General Pepper and Pigma Dengar. Before the attack on her homeworld, she has an armada of Aparoid try and destroy the Orbital Gate, including the deployment of multiple catastrophic missiles, in hopes of ending all of her opposition, including the scientists studying Core Memories. When Star Fox reaches the heart of the Aparoid Homeworld, the Queen uses the information she's absorbed from her spawn's exploits to imitate the voices of the fallen, including Fox's deceased father James McCloud, to break their spirits. Under the belief all existed for them and her race was "truth", the Aparoid Queen threatened existence itself in her quest to turn everything into Aparoid under her control, making her rival Andross himself in malice.
- Pigma Dengar is a (literal) swine, a former member of the original Star Fox, alongside protagonist Fox's father James McCloud and Peppy Hare in his young days, betrayed his comrades and unit resulting in the death of James... just for profit. After this he becomes a member of mercenary for hire group (and Star Fox rival) Star Wolf, under contract by Andross to destroy the new Star Fox team. As the player fights them, Pigma shows no sign of remorse whatsoever for doing what he did as he never shuts up about what he did to James, and even revels in the idea of killing the second generation as well as finshing what he started with Peppy... all while getting a big fat check. After Star Fox 64 and Venom's fall, apparently this guy is so bad that even Star Wolf, who run on their own code of mercenary honor, find him disgusting and expel him. Pigma goes on to possibly sell out his entire species and star system to the hive like Aparoids in Star Fox Assault (although its implied that he had absolutely no intention of actually siding with the Aparoids so much as sell one of their core memories to make a profit, if the ending cutscene of the Fichina mission is anything to go by.), only to be taken over himself. Although his physical form ceases to exist after Assault, his spirit lives on to continually torment Star Fox and anyone involved in it. He's a total, snout-nosed monster in every sense of the word and no one likes him. He also spouts the most disturbing line in the entire series. "Daddy screamed reeeaaal good before he DIED!".
- Pigma is also a Large Ham (pun intended) and is a good example of how a character can be occasionally amusing yet still remain a Complete Monster.
- The Legendary Starfy:
- Evil/Iburu is the Bigger Bad of the first two games, the Big Bad of the third game, and the orchestrator of everything bad that happens. Seemingly enslaving Ogura at a young age, he tells Ogura to destroy Pufftop and, when he fails, gives him " another chance" in the form of painfully transforming him into an Eldritch Abomination. He attempts to execute Moe before his father preforms a heroic sacrifice, but Evil doesn't mind this outcome. At the end of the game, Evil discards Ogura after he is no longer of use to him, claims that he's going to destroy the entire universe, For the Evulz, and very nearly succeeds. A psychopathic, seemingly invincible demon, Evil is a far cry from the lighthearted, sometimes even tragic villains, of the past games, and is a Knight of Cerebus in this family-friendly game series.
- Mashtooth, the Big Bad of the 5th game, is the cruel leader of a gang of Space Pirates and desires nothing but power. Chronologically, the first thing he does is invade the peaceful planet Bunnera to suck out the essence of its inhabitants, simply to make him stronger. He discards of the smaller Bunnerans, claiming "these snack-sized Bunnerans have given me enough power, but I need more." Mashtooth then goes after their prince, who narrowly escapes with his life. In the final battle, after his subordinates pulled a Heel Face Turn on him, he eats the prince, who is still alive inside him, and uses the moon as a battering ram to try and kill Starfy, and possibly hundreds of thousands of innocents in the way. Ruthless, cruel, and terrifying even to his own minions, Mashtooth also stands out as a Knight of Cerebus in this relatively lighthearted game as a tyrant who would stop at nothing, just to satiate his lust for power.
- Xenoblade Chronicles:
- Zanza, the god of Bionis, is the mastermind behind the game's plot and a monstrous excuse of a deity whose insatiable pride ruins countless lives in an effort to prolong his own. Revealed in the sequel to be one half of the scientist Klaus who accidentally destroyed the universe in his experiments, Zanza became a cruel monster who repeatedly exterminated all life on Bionis through the Telethia whenever they drifted away from him, even possessing the noble giant Argas and managing to destroy Agniratha in his attempt to destroy the rival goddess Meyneth alongside all Mechonis. Living on in the Monado after he was sealed away, Zanza murders a young Shulk and the expedition team who discover the Monado before reviving the boy and using him as a host for years. In the final act of the game, Zanza has Shulk killed again by his disciple Dickson to take form once again, transforms the High Entia into Telethia to repeat the extermination of Bionis all over again, and murders both Meyneth and Egil before destroying Mechonis, dismissing everything and everyone as mere bacteria and food to sustain his own cruel existence. Even in spite of all of his hollow justifications for the perpetual cycle of misery he has created, Zanza is revealed at heart to be nothing more than the definition of megalomania and endless arrogance, disgusting almost every single being who knows of his true evil.
- Originally a slimy, cowardly weasel of a man, Mumkhar ends up becoming something far worse entirely. After smugly leaving his close friends Dunban and Dickson to die on the battlefield, he is captured by the robotic Mechon and turned into one of their own, and willingly betrays his people by throwing in his lot with the Mechon and aiding them in their conquest. Going by the name of Metal Face, he leads a squad of Mechon in an attack on Colony 9, slaughters scores of people, and personally murders Dunban's sister Fiora, all out of hatred, envy, and spite towards the man, and gleefully brags about it to Shulk, her Love Interest. Later on, he leads an assault on Eryth Sea, which ends with him killing Sorean, the emperor of the High Entia. After his final defeat at the hands of Shulk and company, he doesn't hesitate to try to murder them all after they decide to spare his life. Fueled entirely by spite and cruelty, Metal Face cements his status as one of the party's most hated enemies.
- Dickson starts the game off as a seemingly helpful mentor and father figure to the protagonists, before revealing himself in the climax to be the vilest of Zanza's disciples and a willing aide to the destruction and recreation of the universe, shooting Shulk to release Zanza into the physical world. Cheerfully asserting that he's Not Brainwashed when they propose he is, Dickson attempts to murder all of his former comrades while helping to lead to Telethia slay all life on Bionis. When the High Entia army shows up to save the heroes, he and fellow disciple Lorithia convert them all into mindless Telethia, including Melia's brother, Kallian. Dickson descends on Colony 6, now the residence of the surviving people of Bionis, with more Telethia, hoping to exterminate them all, taunting Kallian that he may be Melia's boyfriend in the next life.