Image via Complex Original
In Disney's Wreck-It Ralph (out this week), the "villain" finally gets an empathetic treatment as a protagonist. The appeal? For our entire lives, we've been taught to cheer for the hero, and boo the villain. Always.
But there are those moments when you simply can't ignore the charisma—or outright coolness—of a well-performed baddie. Video game villains tend to be exponentially cooler than the heroes they're typically pitted against. For example: Who wouldn't want Sephiroth on their team instead of Cloud Strife's emotional ass?
Not us. As such, these 50 Coolest Video Game Villains Of All Time should give you a good idea of just who—or what—we're talking about.
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50. Alma Wade
Game: F.E.A.R.
What Makes Her Bad: A troubled little psychic girl seeking revenge against Armacham.
What Makes Her Cool: She'll take her revenge in any way possible. And we mean in any way possible.
When Alma wants to make her presence known, she'll be right in your face. The lights will dim. You'll hear a few blood-curdling screams. A few helpless soldiers may be tossed around like ragdolls. And she'll do this all with her mind. If that doesn't scare the living daylights out of you, then we don't know what will.
49. Tom Nook
Game: Animal Crossing
What Makes Him Bad: This guy charges you for every move you make. Without your permission.
What Makes Him Cool: You still pay him, because you have to. And he doesn't ever say sorry for breaking into your house.
Tom Nook is content to rob you blind under the pretense of upgrading your living situation and giving you more room to play around with. In reality he's a cheat who wants nothing more than to keep you in debt so that you're chained to him and his stupid store for the rest of your life. Unless you want to hear Resetti ramble on all day and night. And no one wants to submit themselves to that.
48. Lich King
Game: World of Warcraft
What Makes Him Bad: Master and lord of the Scourge.
What Makes Him Cool: He was able to rule telepathically from a frozen throne. Can you do that?
Defeating the Lich King is an undertaking in itself, and for good reason. He singlehandedly rules the Scourge and has the death of Arthas and destruction of Frostmourne on his hands. And you still wanna raid with this guy? You're gonna have a bad time.
47. Necromorphs
Game: Dead Space
What Makes Them Bad: Grotesque creatures that wish only to infect the living creatures around them.
What Makes Them Cool: You can't kill these creeps, but it's tons of fun to slow them down.
Everyone these days loves their zombies. Over the past ten years the entertainment business has more or less been flooded with the undead, clawing their way into just about every major franchise you could dream of. The military stylings of Call of Duty, the untamed west of Red Dead Redemption, and even Japan's last street brawler Yakuza has seen an outbreak of the undead hit its streets. It's hard to find them scary anymore, But thanks to 2008's Dead Space and its sequels the dead are a bit more terrifying again. Once infected, people transform into any number of contorted abominations straight out of The Thing, with the sole purpose of killing everything in their path and spreading even further, the real kicker being that not only can they spread using corpses of the recently deceased but once they've changed you can't kill them. You can only dismember them to the point where they can't chase you down anymore (until they start growing limbs back at least). The cramped corridors and blood-stained walls of space stations and mining colonies make for a perfect setting where you find yourself constantly on edge wondering if you'll have to fight for your life around the next corner, or if you should stop and see what may be creeping right behind you.
46. Eve
Game: Parasite Eve
What Makes Her Bad: Eve wishes to imbue all the world with mitochondrial essence...and/or immolate them.
What Makes Her Cool: That hair, those strange claws, and the ability to cause every single body in the opera house to spontaneously combust makes Eve particularly awesome.
Eve's greatest hour was no doubt in the beginning of the original Parasite Eve, which marked an iconic departure in survival horror and made the mitochondrial queen one of the most memorable villains in the PlayStation era. Floating around with her gravity-defying hair and mammoth claws, she's a sight to behold.
45. M. Bison
Game: Street Fighter
What Makes Him Bad: He basically wants to become a dictator, in control of the entire world.
What Makes Him Cool: That outfit, bro. We can't get enough of it
Even though M. Bison is actually Vega and Vega is really Balrog, that doesn't keep us from thinking he looks completely and totally rad. We could almost forgive the whole "taking over the world" thing if we could try on that awesome suit. No, really. We can write it off as just some sort of silly mistake.
44. Mother Brain
Game: Metroid
What Makes Her Bad: An AI created by the Chozo who wants to "reset" the universe.
What Makes Her Cool: Mother Brain is actually a brain. With an eyeball. Check her out.
When the Chozo created Mother Brain, they couldn't have known what a pain she'd end up being. After the Space Pirates invaded Zebes, she found true potential within them, and figured that if she could turn them over to her line of thinking, together they could "reset" the universe.
43. Albert Wesker
Game: Resident Evil
What Makes Him Bad: A double-agent with decidedly selfish intentions.
What Makes Him Cool: Neo-lookalike, stoic badass with some incredibly terrible one-liners. We still love him.
42. GLaDOS
Game: Portal
What Makes Her Bad: She wants only to test you thoroughly.
What Makes Her Cool: She's a madwoman with sass. If you don't know what makes her amazing, you haven't been gaming long.
GLaDOS has no problem with dropping you into a pit of fire and calling it "cake." Perhaps that's why we're so enamored with her. Or maybe it's because she's always quick to come at us with a clever quip or sarcastic remark. For science. You monster.
41. Dr. Wily
Game: Mega Man
What Makes Him Bad: Instead of creating innocent childlike robots, Wily created evil ones.
What Makes Him Cool: That crazy mad scientist is a villain we love to hate.
Dr. Wily could have kept himself content with creating robots that were playful or childlike in nature. Instead, he grew jealous of Dr. Light's robots and decided to dedicate himself to rolling out vicious bots with heinous powers in order to prove himself. Talk about a superiority complex.
40. King Pig
Game: Angry Birds
What Makes Him Bad: Reigns over all the pigs who terrorize the Angry Birds.
What Makes Him Cool: He's a green pig wearing a crown.
Those birds are pretty angry. We'd be, too, if we had to deal with a group of green piggies and their large, silly-looking King. He's a relative newcomer to the world of villainy, but what with the massive popularity of Angry Birds, he deserves an honorable mention here, for being the leader of that ragtag bunch.
39. Dr. Robotnik (Eggman)
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog
What Makes Him Bad: Terrorizing Sonic and pals with no remorse.
What Makes Him Cool: Those crazy inventions, man. What are those anyway?
38. Bowser
Game: Super Mario Bros.
What Makes Him Bad: Stealing away Princess Peach to turn Mario's life into a living nightmare.
What Makes Him Cool: He still manages to intimidate despite being hopelessly incompetent.
One of the more memorable of the classic gaming baddies and easily the most persistent. Spanning a never ending number of sequels he's been terrorizing kingdoms since the golden days of gaming. But he rarely finds success in any of his dastardly plots, failing time and again to kidnap Princess Toadstool and defeat the heroic plumber that everyone has grown to love. One would almost start to believe that for that scenario to play out as many times as it has that there's a story going on behind the scenes. The princess never seems to defend herself or the kingdom, and of all the people who could save her, it's a lowly plumber. All three parties must be getting something outta this, but we may never know.
37. Kuja
Game: Final Fantasy IX
What Makes Him Bad: Eradicating the world so that it can't go on without him.
What Makes Him Cool: Being a complete and utter psychopath doesn't keep Kuja from being refined and stylish.
Kuja is the more ladylike Sephiroth, who's so narcissistic he can't stand to have the world go on without him should he cease to exist. So he decides on destroying the universe so that no one can enjoy a world without him in it. And you thought reality TV stars were selfish.
36. Ganondorf
Game: The Legend of Zelda
What Makes Him Bad: The Dark Lord wishes to conquer the entire world. How original.
What Makes Him Cool: Whether he's Ganon or Ganondorf, he's ruthless and peerless.
Ganondorf has always been around to ruin gamers' plans and to keep Link and Zelda apart, but look at him. He practically oozes awesome. Living in the desert certainly hasn't dulled his sense of style, and he's not afraid to look fly while wrecking your business.
35. Sephiroth
Game: Final Fantasy VII
What Makes Him Bad: Becoming one with the Planet and avenging his "mother's" death has always been Sephiroth's modus operandi.
What Makes Him Cool: We've all wanted to be as cool as "that" flame scene. You know the one.
What can we say about Sephiroth that hasn't been said before, hundreds of times over? Nothing, really—except he's always going to be the poster child for J-RPG villains everywhere. Flowing silver locks, bondage gear, and a sword that's more than a little overcompensating? You win, Sephy. And we're still going to draw all of that fanart of you. You can't stop us.
34. Sinistar
Game: Sinistar
What Makes Them Bad: Run, human!
What Makes Them Cool: Beware. I hunger. Beware! I AM SINISTAR!
You're cruising along in Sinistar, minding your own business, when suddenly a horrible voice interrupts the darkness—"RUN, HUMAN. BEWARE! I AM SINISTAR!" More blood-curdling words have never eked out of our speakers. We won't ruin how completely terrifying this can actually be, so go ahead and open a new tab and procure this game somehow. You've got to see it.
33. Dracula
Game: Castlevania
What Makes Him Bad: Stealing away precious life force, being a general nuisance to the Belmonts.
What Makes Him Cool: If you've ever been a vampire fan, look at Dracula and know that Edward Cullen is simply not cutting it.
Dracula knows he's kind of a big deal, and he's not afraid to show it—not to you, not to your momma, or any of the weakling Belmont clan. Just ask him about what a man is, and he'll tell you about that miserable pile of secrets. And then he'll bring you to your knees to make you suffer for all eternity. Can Team Edward do that?
32. Mecha-Hitler
Game: Wolfenstein 3D
What Makes Them Bad: Stomping around in the castle making a mess. Being Hitler.
What Makes Them Cool: It's Mecha-Hitler. Kill it with fire.
If for some reason you thought Hitler was dead (suicide, no less) then you must have never touched Wolfenstein 3D, where he makes a grand reappearance as a mech. We're not sure what this means either, but the boss battle is oh so sweet.
31. Team Rocket/Giovanni
Game: Pokemon
What Makes Them Bad: Setting out to capture all the world's rarest and most valuable Pokemon, they'll stop at nothing to get what they want.
What Makes Them Cool: The motto, the duds, the incompetence—prepare for trouble and make it double.
Team Rocket seems a little meaner by way of the Pokemon games rather than the anime series, and that's a good thing, because at the very least they bring some occasionally challenging battles in-game as well as after-battle spoils. But the classic Jessie and James duo are what make us giddy for our youth, because we can still remember every single line of that motto.
30. Dr. Breen
Game: Half-Life
What Makes Him Bad: Signing over the Earth to the Combine in return for becoming the "ruler" of the planet. More like a figurehead, actually.
What Makes Him Cool: Dr. Breen looks like a mega-goof when you play around with his character model in G-Mod.
Dr. Breen signed the Earth away in exchange for safety and a peaceful pact that essentially made him the ruler of the entire planet, even if that meant just making him a figurehead. And you need an explanation as to what makes him a bad guy? Contemplate that for a moment. All of us. Signed us away. To the Combine.
28. Big Boss
Game: Metal Gear Solid
What Makes Him Bad: He's Big Boss. Let that sink in for a moment.
What Makes Him Cool: Big Boss founded FOXHOUND. Rad.
Big Boss is, without a doubt, the Metal Gear series. Without him, how memorable would the journey have been? For all the soldiers downed in battle in the name of keeping with his principles and the soldiers taken out in the name of military without borders, we salute thee.
27. Origami Killer
Game: Heavy Rain
What Makes Him/Her Bad: Through a series of devious trials, the killer seeks to find out how far a parent will go to save their offspring.
What Makes Him/Her Cool: The Saw-like puzzles Ethan Mars and other victims' loved ones were put through were sick and twisted in all the right ways, making for an excellent thriller of a game.
The Origami Killer was a fantastic twist on the pre-established torture-porn genre with a series of interesting trials that put parents and others in the crossfire of the killer to the test. That's why we played Heavy Rain several times over hoping our outcome would change. You didn't deserve that, Ethan. We're sorry, Jayden. Wait, we don't wanna give the killer's identity away!
26. Carmen Sandiego
Game: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
What Makes Her Bad: Master thief and master of all disguises. Carmen's always out to get into some mischief.
What Makes Her Cool: That dashing red hat! That darling red coat! Carmen, where do you shop? How come you're so great at teaching us geography?
Carmen Sandiego's certainly a familiar face for those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with the educational software she often starred in, ranging from teaching us math, art, and geography. And though she was a master thief, she always had time to ensure kids learned where South America was and could point it out on a map. Charming, Carmen. We love you.
25. The Joker
Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum
What Makes Him Bad: A complete and utter disregard for human decency. Everything's a joke to the Joker—especially killing Batman.
What Makes Him Cool: Mark Hamill makes the Joker come alive, no matter what craziness he gets himself into.
The Joker—arguably more of a comic book villain than a video game one—his mind games, vicious moves, and wicked personality make his antics a blast to follow, even when he's knocking on death's door. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City were fabulous playgrounds for the devilishly debonair clown in the purple suit to exercise how insane he truly is, and we're all the better for it.
24. The Covenant
Game: Halo
What Makes Them Bad: Wiping out all of humanity. You know, that old chestnut.
What Makes Them Cool: Grunts love to have birthday parties, jackals look like they're having a great time, and energy swords are just too darned fun.
23. Donkey Kong
Game: Donkey Kong
What Makes Him Bad: Stealing away helpless women and tossing barrels at those who would come to save her.
What Makes Him Cool: He's made a veritable empire for himself as a loveable ape though his beginnings were sinister.
Donkey Kong wasted his time back in the olden days by kidnapping Pauline. He should have turned his attentions to Peach immediately, as he made his big break infiltrating the friendlier Mario games before becoming a big, playful brute and the star of his own show. Never forget his roots, though—emember how deadly he was with all those barrels.
22. Zakhaev
Game: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
What Makes Him Bad: Responsible for bringing about World War III.
What Makes Him Cool: This Ultranationalist is the honey badger of Call of Duty.
From black market arms dealer to intimidating terrorist, Zakhaev's ideals and propaganda are widely agreed to have begun the third World War as depicted in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. He may have been a hero to New Russia, but he took out a glut of the American troops and allies of Call of Duty while doing so, making him one of the series' most formidable opponents.
21. Lazarevic
Game: Uncharted 2: Among Theives
What Makes Him Bad: Searching for Shambhala for personal gain. Typical.
What Makes Him Cool: He simply doesn't care who he uses to get what he wants.
Zoran Lazarevic sought out the lost city of Shambhala in order to further his own selfish goals, and in doing so cemented his role as one of the most twisted villains in the Uncharted mythos. Never above methods such as mass murder or torture, he'll squeeze the life out of every living thing he comes into contact with until he's gotten what he wants.
20. Edea
Game: Final Fantasy VIII
What Makes Her Bad: Ultimecia's puppet yearns for world domination.
What Makes Her Cool: Edea rocks one of the most lavish outfits in Final Fantasy history, and totally works it.
Caring for children can be an arduous full time job. One would never think that Edea Kramer would become such a horrible person. Becoming the Sorceress Edea, she was a mysterious character who was an ambassador to Galbadia. She was possessed by Ultimecia, turning the once loving motherly figure into a witch that planned to snuff out all of SEED. Throughout most of the game we see her as a witch—as someone to beat—to only find out that we love her and want nothing more then to free her from the chains of Ultimecia.
20. Wario
Game: Super Mario Bros.
What Makes Him Bad: The "fat version" of Mario who loves to cause trouble rather than play nice.
What Makes Him Cool: Wario may be a fat slob, but he's an entertaining one. His platformers are every bit as good as Mario's too, despite his inability to thwart Mario's plans. At least he's still got his microgame series.
19. Liquid Snake
Game: Metal Gear Solid
What Makes Him Bad: Living as the "recessive traits" of Big Boss takes a toll on the guy.
What Makes Him Cool: "BROTHERRRR!" You just said it in Liquid's voice, didn't you? That's what makes him so awesome.
Being part of a family is hard enough, but being a clone and being told you will never be better than your twin is far worse. Still: Liquid Snake wanted to prove the people who created him wrong. He plotted against his twin to regain his birthright, thus proving his superiority. Even after becoming no more than an arm attached to Revolver Ocelot, he took control to prove that he was better then Solid Snake.
18. Bob the Killer Goldfish
Game: Earthworm Jim
What Makes Him Bad: Bob wishes to conquer the universe so that fish may rule as the highest form of intelligent life.
What Makes Him Cool: How exactly does a goldfish pick up a Southern accent?
Appearing in all three games and even on the TV series, Bob the Killer Goldfish strikes a different kind of chord. Being waited on hand and foot (or should we say flippers) by his cat minions makes for a comical sight. Not being the hardest boss to defeat, Bob made for a fairly interesting villian (to say the least). For example: His desire to obtain Earthworm Jim's supersuit in order to rule the galaxy and to have Earthworm Jim for a tasty midnight snack.
17. Darth Malak
Game: Knights of the Old Republic
What Makes Him Bad: A once-human guy who fell to the Dark Side, who plans on destroying the Jedi Order.
What Makes Him Cool: His resemblance of a masked Kratos, and how skilled of a fighter he actually is.
Darth Malak is an apprentice Sith of Revan, and is the main antagonist in Knights of the Old Republic. Malak fell to the dark side in pursuing the Mandalorians, and becomes a Dark Lord of the Sith after betraying his master. However, Revan survives the attack, and makes it his mission to defeat the Sith, which made Malak's battle a most memorable endgame conflict.
16. Sarah Kerrigan
Game: StarCraft
What Makes Her Bad: Becoming one with the Hivemind to wreak havoc on all of humanity.
What Makes Her Cool: The Queen of Blades will rip you to pieces. Believe it.
The Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan, originally appears in StarCraft as a twenty-six-year-old female Terran psychic. Having trained both physically and mentally, she became a supreme agent and assassin. She was turned into a human/Zerg hybrid and became completely under the control of the Zerg Overmind. Being one of the most powerful agents, she replaces Overmind. Even after the war and having control over the Zerg, she sought to rule and have dominance over the galaxy.
15. Pyramid Head
Game: Silent Hill
What Makes It Bad: A psychosexual demon with a penchant for slashing through minds.
What Makes It Cool: That blade. That pyramid head.
There's a lot to say about all the Silent Hill characters. Each one's special in their own way, but Pyramid Head stands out above the rest. A psychological symbol for the main character, it's the town of Silent Hill's constant reminder saying he should be punished for his wife's death. He was largely known for his triangular head and lack of any kind of voice, making him so memorable for his actions rather than lines. In the end James must face this subconscious monster in order to save his own mind.
14. Illusive Man
Game: Mass Effect
What Makes Him Bad: Total disregard for humanity despite his claims he believes they can do better—he's betrayed us all.
What Makes Him Cool: Martin Sheen. Had he been portrayed by Charlie, it might have been a different story.
Remember the days of X-Files when you saw the Smoking Man? Just like in that show, he is brought to life as a man who wants to orchestrate from behind the scenes. The Illusive Man takes it to a whole new level. Having long since forgotten his life before being an informant for Cerberus, Illusive Man used a network of contacts to reach his final goal, making humanity the race above all others. People have stated that he has the best and worst traits of humans put into one man.
13. Cyberdemon
Game: Doom
What Makes It Bad: Annihilating the player in any way possible.
What Makes It Cool: A missile-launching skyscraper with goat legs. 'Nuff said.
Back in the day before consoles systems started to rule the world, PC gamers had Doom and a memorable ending boss, the Cyberdemon. id Software delivered terror in droves with this unknown enemy. Unknown to the Doom player, he wasn't even mentioned in the manual for the original PC version. It allowed there to be more of a surprise to the player, who was brave enough to reached the hellish beast at the end. Being an unfeeling half-demon, half-machine, he deserves a place on the list.
12. Master-D
Game: Bionic Commando
What Makes Them Bad: Trying to control the world.
What Makes Them Cool: His face explodes rather nicely.
The guy very closely resembles Hitler, does he not? Originally this Bionic Commando endboss was meant to be the reanimated corpse of Hitler, but North America got Master-D, who's felled by a satisfying explosion of brains, blood, and ocular orbs that bucked any tradition of "tame" we'd seen back in the NES days. Take that, Hitler zombie!
11. Great Mighty Poo
Game: Conker's Bad Fur Day
What Makes Them Bad: Making Conker's world go to sh...well, you get the picture.
What Makes Them Cool: How many times have you seen a talking piece of excrement in video games?
He may be little more than an enormous dump, but the Great Mighty Poo of Conker's Bad Fur Day is the most disgusting menace most gamers can honestly claim to have ever seen. He's also an opera fan, bringing about his own demise by singing in too high of an octave. Way to go, Poo.
10. LeChuck
Game: The Secret of Monkey Island
What Makes Him Bad: Scheming, terrorizing, and otherwise haunting Guybrush Threepwood and the rest of the cast in order to get to the Governor.
What Makes Him Cool: Arrr, that pirate booty, horrifying face, and pirate outfit.
LeChuck is one of the worst kinds of villain because he can never truly be conquered. He's out to make Governor Elaine Markey his, and in the process has transformed into a ghost, zombie, and even a boring old human, coming back to terrorize Guybrush Threepwood and the citizens of Melee Island indefinitely. Let it go. You've been permanently friend-zoned.
9. Dormin
Game: Shadow of the Colossus
What Makes It Bad: Misinforming the protagonist in order to resurrect the spirits was a foul move.
What Makes It Cool: That voice. That horrible, horrible voice. Seriously.
Shadow of the Colossus is confusing, beautiful, and corrupted by evil. Dormin fulfills that role nicely, even though at first it seems that the omnipotent creature is completely on your side. Even more terrifying is the fact that Dormin isn't ever really secretive about his intentions and actually does what was promised. Sure, you get what you wanted, but at what cost?
8. Frank Fontaine
Game: BioShock
What Makes Him Bad: Pretending to be your ally in order to orchestrate a complicated plan? Not cool.
What Makes Him Cool: Were you ever going to figure out what "Atlas'" deal was? We didn't think so.
The friendly Atlas who appears to be guiding you through the depths of the strange new world you find yourself in is actually Frank Fontaine, who once clashed bitterly with his rival (and creator of the game's setting, the underwater dystopia Rapture) Andrew Ryan. Not only was Fontaine instrumental in bringing about the downfall of Rapture, but he's content to use you as a puppet as well.
7. Diablo
Game: Diablo
What Makes Him Bad: He's the embodiment of all evil and isn't above manipulating humans to get what he wants (read: destruction of the entire world).
What Makes Him Cool: He's the boss of the entire world of Diablo.
The epitome of all evil comes in the form of a giant red behemoth that resembles the classic image of Satan as portrayed in most Judeo-Christian imagery, and he's one bad muh.
6. Lavos
Game: Chrono Trigger
What Makes Him Bad: Mingling with escaping cells to transplant copies of himself throughout the universe? Bad boy.
What Makes Him Cool: Unequivocally menacing looks.
The space parasite—ugly as all get-out—crash-landed to Earth and burrowed deep under the planet's core, eventually creating the organisms that would eventually become humanity. The plan to create perfect beings which Lavos envisioned (in order to send creatures much like itself all throughout the galaxy) started to get underway during the events of Chrono Trigger, which leads Crono and the gang to travel throughout time to stop the oncoming apocalypse. All of this while Lavos is hibernating.
5. Yeti
Game: Ski-Free
What Makes Him Bad: He wants to gobble up your skier, never allowing you to complete the game.
What Makes Him Cool: He's an existential kill screen of a villain who will never let you win. Ever.
No matter how expertly or nimbly you navigated the courses of Ski Free, in the end, if smacking into a tree didn't kill you, the Yeti would scramble up out of nowhere and gobble your skier whole. And you thought you were actually decent at Ski Free. Nope.
4. Pac-Man Ghosts
Game: Pac-Man
What Makes Them Bad: They're out to give Pac-Man the business.
What Makes Them Cool: If they touch Pac-Man once, it's game over. They come in different colors! They may not have much of an agenda (save for nabbing Pac-Man) but they're some of the most recognizable villains in gaming history. Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are pretty tough customers.
3. Purple Tentacle
Game: Day of the Tentacle
What Makes Him Bad: World domination.
What Makes Him Cool: He wants to enslave all of humanity, and he's a debonair purple tentacle with arms.
2. SHODAN
Game: System Shock 2
What Makes Her Bad: She's a supercomputer gone rampant with a disdain for humanity.
What Makes Her Cool: That bizarre, fragmented voice, eerie portraiture, and manipulatory tactics? Hnnnng.
What was more chilling in System Shock 2 than the revelation that everyone you thought was still alive had actually been annihilated, and all you had done aboard Citadel was secretly being manipulated by the maniacal SHODAN? Look at you, hacker. You're no match for this eerily intelligent supercomputer with delusions of grandeur.
1. Kefka Palazzo
Game: Final Fantasy VI
What Makes Him Bad: Destroying towns, minds, and entire human beings. He's also a psychopath.
What Makes Him Cool: The colorful clown getup, his completely erratic behavior, and theme music.
Kefka: A clownlike mage with a plan that even his own master can't control. Unlike other Final Fantasy villains, he's loud, destructive, and has a very short fuse. He takes Final Fantasy to a whole new level. One-liners, his better-than-everyone-else appearance, and maniacal hatred for every living thing has made for one of the most twisted villains in the franchise. His personality shines throughout the game, earning the nickname The Psycho Clown among all his adoring fans. Do not get on this clown's bad side, or it's certain he'll have a good laugh at your expense.