First one to make a Lazy Town joke gets shot
[Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, readers of all ages – welcome to yet another edition of Dtoid Draws! This is a tradition near and dear to my heart, so without further ado, let’s let the community’s hands do the talking! – Wes]
Good morning, everyone! Destructoid Draws’ usual host, Bass, fell prey to a very sudden and terminal illness. Thankfully, I was able to take over for him, so the show will go on as usual! Plus, if we’re being totally honest, I am better than he is anyway.
Don’t you just love memorable villains? An entertaining rascal can make even the most mediocre game worth playing to the end. And the villains that are truly worth hating, oh they are something else! How satisfying it feels to finally punch their face in the face, and bring justice to the land. They can often be the most fleshed-out characters in a game because their motivation goes beyond simply wanting to help people.
So this one goes out to all of you world dominators, revenge seekers, social manipulators, or insane characters out there. All of these drawings are of our favorite villains. This is their darkness’ time to shine, for it has made our gaming days brighter.
Joker from Bam Ham
“One could be forgiven for thinking that is Willem Dafoe from Beyond: Two Souls. However, it is actually The Joker from the Batman: Arkham series! While not the best video game antagonist out there, the Joker himself is my favorite villain of all time. One of my favorite characters ever, he is a villain who, even when written poorly, has moments greater than most bad guys. Particularly, the Arkham City Joker has some of the best dialogue ever written. He even comes across as somewhat sympathetic in the end…somewhat. Of course this is all reinforced by Mark Hamill’s amazing voice performance, making him the most interesting character in the game. Make no mistake, The Joker is a bad guy. He is extremely likable, funny, and even badass in his own way. But he is also an abusive, manipulative murderer. One of the rare villains that allows you to like him, while still rooting for the good guy to take him down. You never WANT Joker to win. He never has good, reasonable motives for his actions, and always he will acknowledge what a piece of shit he really is.”
Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog
“To say the Sonic the Hedgehog series has its ups and downs is being particularly gentle. It’s a series that goes from Sonic 3 to Sonic 4, from Sonic Adventure 2 to Sonic 06, from Sonic Generations to Sonic Boom. One could call it irony considering the series’ trademark loop-the-loops. But there’s one particular thing that has stayed stable all the way. Dr. Eggman, the genius that can never learn not to mess with forces beyond his control, is just such a funny character. And you know what they say, the more the merrier! Generations has both his older and newer designs, and their banter is great.
SHODAN from System Shock
“Most chilling character I’ve encountered. There’s a cold feeling in my gut even now!”
Ghaleon from LUNAR
“Ghaleon’s voice (John Truitt) was one of the first time I noticed how the Sega CD added a crucial element of gaming immersion: Real voices. Taking it for granted today is understandable, but as one of the first games I played on this brand new system, I can tell it made a whole lot of difference. LUNAR fans of the original will know exactly what I’m talking about. Ghaleon’s voice acting was perfect. His voice actor returning for the the next three iterations of the character should be proof enough. As the games depicted mild violence, you can blame the terror, insanity, and hunger for revenge portrayed by Truitt’s acting for the inspiration resulting on my fanart homage.”
Teisel Bonne from Mega Man
“Teisel Bonne is like the perfect Saturday morning cartoon villain. He and the Bonne family are technically evil, but sympathetic foils for the hero. Teisel is the brash but lovable older brother and leader with a killer laugh. And even though he’s a pirate, he still seems like a nice guy just trying to get by. You can’t help but find yourself kind of rooting for him and his family.”
Tron Bonne from Mega Man
“Tron Bonne is a favorite Villain of mine, mostly because of her particular brand of villainy. While I still haven’t had the chance to play either Mega Man Legends game, I have had the pleasure of playing the spinoff, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.
In it, she’s the goofiest yet most effective evil doer ever. Her Servbots would do all the dirty work and petty thefts, while the lady herself took charge in her mini-mech, Gustaff, blowing up anything that even remotely resembled a threat. She never kills anyone, only going so far as to wreck their stuff, steal their money, and get while the gettin’s good! Back at her base, she micromanages her mass-produced army, who surprisingly have a number of interests, personalities, and talents, not unlike Ghost in the Shell‘s Tachikoma. She clearly cares for them all, while still showing them who’s the boss.
It’s the consistency of keeping Tron Bonne and family goofy while still being evil throughout her appearances that I appreciate. Nowadays there are too many Villains out there who are either tormented and broody, or misunderstood and/or unstable. Tron Bonne harkens back to a simpler time when a villain was just doing it “for the evulz,” much like Team Rocket’s portrayal in the Pokemon anime (well, Jessie, James, and Meowth’s team at least). And that’s why she’s awesome!
Also, she’s a qt 3.14159.”
Weslikestacos… Wait, just Wes now?
Boulder from Resident Evil
“Resident Evil is a series where you use guns and rockets launchers and shit to shoot varying degrees of the crap out of zombies. Sometimes, animals and bugs and closet doors get infected, too, and holy shit it’s magnificent. Through seven numbered iterations and thousands of spin-offs, the series has seen some pretty wacky shit. I mean, hell, you fought a giant mecha-midget in RE 4, which is amazing and silly. However, throughout the entire series, no foe has been as formidable, ferocious, and fucking stupid as Boulder.
Boulder made its appearance in the critically-challenged Resident Evil 5, a game where you canoe through Africa and shoot what white people thought all Africans looked like up until the year 1979. In the title, you chase series villain Wesker as he does some stuff that doesn’t really make any sense, culminating in one of the most epic and laugh-out-loud stupid setpieces in the history of gaming – the notorious volcano scene. Wesker goes into a volcano for reasons even he doesn’t know, and for some reason you, as Chris Redfield, chase him down through the molten corridors. At some point a fucking boulder gets in your way. And you punch the fucking fuck out of it. And if you just read that and didn’t pop a hard-on so turgid that you burst a vessel in your dick, you’ve lost all feeling. You’re not human anymore. Get some help, your mother and I are worried about you.
Seriously, in one Resident Evil title you get chased through a hallway by a giant snake, and in another you spend the entire game running away from Atomic Sloth from The Goonies – and THIS IS PART OF THE FINAL BOSS SEQUENCE. A boulder that you have to punch is basically the penultimate boss of the game. Wow.
People complain about this game, and in many ways it deserves a lot of its criticism. But if punching a boulder in an active volcano to stop a zombie-man with a flat-top wearing sunglasses doesn’t have a place in gaming, then I suppose neither do I.”
Skull Kid from The Legend of Zelda
“He has a really cool look and comes across as dangerous and unpredictable, mad with power. But at the same time he’s quite sympathetic, and a great example of the sad personal stories Majora’s Mask is full of.”
Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda
“What I really enjoy about the Dorf is how each game with him has managed to add to the overall lore of the character and that depending on the timeline he has evolved into 3 very different characters.
It’s Wind Waker Ganondorf that I love most since we get to see him at his most human. In WW he is calmer than in his previous game (OoT), being humbled by his former defeats. However, he’s also crippled with guilt over what he did and is desperately trying to figure out a way to undo the damage. This perfectly links him into WW‘s themes which are of regret and living for the future; despite how much he’s learned Ganondorf simply cannot let go of what happened, which makes all the other versions more tragic because in WW we see the possibility of him being redeemed.
Also it’s because Ganondorf is mad disrespect in Smash Bros. yo.”
Dr. Neo Cortex from Crash Bandicoot
“What I love most about Neo Cortex comes down to him being my first. Crash Bandicoot was the first game I beat on my own, and by extension Dr. Neo Cortex was the first villain I beat up.
And that excitement, that rush, the power of it all. It was beautiful. I, an animalistic beast running on slapstick bloodlust, destroyed this man, this doctor. I brutalized him. For that moment, my eyes glazed and drool sliding across my controller, Neo Cortex was my mother, my teachers. All these people who thought they were bigger and smarter than me, people who tried to push me around just like Neo did with fun-loving Crash. He embodied everything I hated, and I let that rage fall through him. I felt the violence crash over me in just the same way that my grandmother and the TV politicians warned me I would. And that was like a drug. There was no going back. And so I’ve been a hardcore gamer ever since.
Also, he has an N on his forehead, which is cool, and I want to get a matching tattoo of it.”
Dragon from Adventure
“In Atari Adventure, there was only one enemy type – the dragon. With the super futuristic graphics of the Atari 2600, the dragon sprites looked like duck-snake creatures with a massive hole in their stomachs. Needless to say, the graphical capabilities of the 2600 left much of your gaming experience to the imagination. This indomitable force was the thing of nightmares until you were able to obtain the “sword” (read: arrow), from which the gentlest poke would be its undoing.”
King Bohan from Heavenly Sword
“Heavenly Blade isn’t really a good game to recommend, but it had some charm. King Bohan is one of the most entertaining villains ever, in large parts thanks to Andy Serkis.
Also, since this is a villain blog, I’d like you to know that both characters I featured are absolute dicks.”
Electrode from Pokémon
[Electrode used Self-Destruct]
Wario from Mario
“I feel like most people have forgotten these days that before he was a garlic-chomping, explosive-farting, motorcycle-riding, indie game developer, Wario debuted as the villain of Super Mario Land 2. That was one of the first games I owned as a kid, and one of my favorite Mario games to this day. I tried to capture the weird derpiness of Wario’s early design here.”
High Priest from Beyond Good and Evil
“Why is he taking people and putting them in crystalisk husks to make soldiers? Why is his power in Jade? Did he have a hand in the disappearance of Jade’s parents? How many planets has he done this to, and what is The High Priest’s end game? Does it even have one? None of these questions are answered by Beyond Good and Evil.
To me The High Priest is a good villain because it has a plan that doesn’t seem to revolve around you and yet still manages to control where you end up, making Jade and the player question whether or not everything you had done up until that point was in some way part of its grand design. Although it’s tough to believe he wanted a 5 ft stick run through his eye, but who knows? The point is unless his motivations turn out to be total weak sauce, he was great at hindering and haunting you every step of the way through Beyond Good and Evil and that is decent villain material in my book.”
Akuma from Marvel vs. Capcom
“Halfway through drawing what I thought was Akuma’s defining trait, his edgy hair, I realized I was just doing a crude Bart Simpson, so I ran with it!
His hair may be more of a mane now in SFV but I’ve always known Akuma for having angry hair. I also will always reference Akuma together with the line, ‘I am violence,’ particularly from that, ‘That’s not honey you’re eating!’ meme.”
Tom Nook from Animal Crossing
“First off, the name Tom Nook is a play on the word Tanuki. Secondly he’s insanely smart with his business dealings! He went from Nook’s Cranny to Nookingtons solely from the profits he gained from 1-4 unassuming villagers.
Finally, he’s fair. Although he takes your money, it’s not without reason; you get sweet upgrades to your house every time you pay off one of your loans (even if you didn’t really want it). He’s a necessary evil in the world of Animal Crossing, and without him, we would still be homeless villagers, drifting through towns, stealing fruit where we can, digging through the dumps for furniture we can’t even use, and sending letters back to our moms that think we’re successful, when in fact you just gave Joan a blumpkin for her last bit of turnip soup.”
Providence from Risk of Rain
“Providence – the meaning of the word is the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power. What a fitting name to the final boss of Risk of Rain. His Monster Log states three things of importance to me. He moves with more purpose than anything on the planet, he can possibly control everyone on the planet, and the writer of the log finishes it off by saying, “Why do I feel like I have made a terrible mistake?”
A fairly unique “villain” as it were. Once you get to this point you start to think about who the real villain of this game is. Is he really a murderer or is he just protecting what’s his? So much left unanswered and up to speculation at this time, I really hope they expand upon Providence in the sequel.”
Ghirahim from The Legend of Zelda
“I like him because he is very sadistic and sounded very menacing. Also he is totally FABULOUS!!! I’m also a big fan of his androgynous character design. And the first fight was very memorable to me, as I almost lost and it was there that the motion controls clicked to me.
But I’m not a fan of hey woops now he is just a sword and here’s the final boss with zero character development, not-Ganon.”
Gnasty Gnorc from Spyro the Dragon
“Check out those gnasty gnipples! Truly the most complex villain of all time.”
Louie from Pikmin
“Picture says it all.”
Heihachi from Tekken
“I like Heihachi because he didn’t let baldness stop him from doing his hair in style.”
Porky from Mother
“Besides featuring in my favorite game, I really liked how he started off as just your shitty neighbor, and progressed in nefariousness and power along with you in the story, instead of being some nebulous threat as most villains are. Also, he sent a good message to youngsters everywhere: You too could be a henchman to ultimate evil if you really tried!”
Go-go that’s a wrap! If you also want to share with us some of your favorite video game villains, feel free to share drawings and stories in the comment section below.
