Nintendohas a history of creating family-friendly and likable characters. Because of this, creating villains may be a little challenging. Villains are supposed to be mean, dastardly, and sometimes downright evil. If they weren’t careful, Nintendo might have a problem creating great villains that were still in line with their brands.
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That’s not the case, though. Even without going into dark territory, Nintendo has still managed to create a great lineup of villains that can challenge their heroes. With fun sports and competitive games, these villains have garnered a loyal fan base of their own that sometimes rival the heroes they fight. Here’s a list of some of their top villains.
10Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is an interesting character considering that he has been reformed considerably into becoming one of Nintendo’s popular heroeswith his spinoff game Donkey Kong Country, but he didn’t start out that way. In his own titular game, Donkey Kong was actually the villain.
Even before Mario faced off against Bowser, his iconic and legendary rival, Mario had to contend with Donkey Kong. He was such a villain that he even roped Donkey Kong Jr into his villainous ways. Obviously, it wasn’t meant to last, but it’s important to remember that Donkey Kong’s roots as a villain are inherently tied to Nintendo’s origins as a company.
9Bowser Jr.
It wasn’t enough that Mario had Bowser to contend with. In Super Mario World, an entire Bowser family was introduced. Although there are many in the Koopa family that fans love, there’s something about Bowser Jr that stands above the rest.
Probably because he shares a name with the patriarch. He has such a goofy and lovable design that it’s hard to take him seriously as a villain, which is hilarious when he throws tantrums because of it. Still, he has been known to cause a ruckus for Mario and others on more than one occasion.
8King K Rool
Nintendo and quite the job ahead of them when they sought to rebrand Donkey Kong from a villain into a loved hero. However, in order to pull it off, they needed to create a new villain for Donkey Kong to go up against. King K Rool and his army of Kremlins were a great choice.
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They are most definitely lizards and share a bit of a resemblance to the Koopa villains that take on Mario. Their leader is a particularly nasty foe that was impressive enough to last several sequels.
7Master Hand
Master Hand is a rather odd and ominous villain in the Nintendo roster. He doesn’t have a particular backstory and isn’t grounded to any one character. As far as fans can tell, he’s merely the hand of a person or puppet master playing with his favorite toys, but that’s never been particularly confirmed.
It’s only greatly hinted at by theSuper Smash Brosintro. He’s the overarching boss for the entire series, but his villainy is abstract and without context. Still, with the series as popular as it is, Master Hand should be given respect for being responsible asits main foe with his own level.
There are so many iconic enemies in the Mario games. There are Piranha Plants, Hammer Bros, and Goombas. Boos are another iconic enemy, and it helps that these mischievous ghosts have a king that Mario and Luigi can face directly.
The boo has become such a popular image that even non-gamers can pick it out from a lineup by name. Having a huge boo with a crown on his head is a target that can push this devious class of enemies into the spotlight regardless of the game they’re featured in.
5Team Rocket
It’s hard to narrow down a single antagonist for thePokemonfranchise.The original Pokemon video gamessometime become conflated with the anime, so fans may think that the villains of the video game franchise are the same. They’re really not. Even then, it’s hard to pin down.
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Mewtwo is often seen as a villain, but he’s just a misguided Pokemon. Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket, is often depicted as the main villain, too. But his presence as a mastermind is largely absent from the games. Instead, it’s Team Rocket as a whole that has served as the main villain across the series.
Since Mario got his twisted mirror version with Wario, it was only a matter of time before Luigi got his, too. Physically, whileLuigiis a great caricature of Luigi’s tall frame. However, his naming convention wasn’t easily as decipherable as Wario’s.
It seemed that Nintendo was just being lazy placing a “wa” in front of Luigi similar to what Wario had for Mario. However, “warui"means bad in Japanese. So the name was a lot more clever than fans first realized. And since he was a dominant force inhis first appearance in Mario Tennis, he has since grown a fan base of his own.
Even though he is not Mario’s main villain, Wario is still an incredible mirror version of the popular hero. He’s a perfect caricature of Mario’s features as a fat, dastardly character that has his own group of loyal fans.
What makes him so perfect is that the “M” in Mario’s name is flipped upside down to create a “W” for Wario. However, in Japanese, “warui"means bad. So it’s an extremely fitting coincidence that makes Wario Mario’s opposite in more ways than one.
Just like Link and Zelda are continuously evolving throughout the Legend Of Zelda franchise, so is Ganon, also known as Ganondorf. He has had many different forms across the series, sometimes eventaking multiple forms in a single game, but he has always remained the title’s main villain.
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Even when games come out featuring other bad guys, fans know it’s only a matter of time before Ganon returns. After all, he represents the third member of the Triforce alongside Zelda and Link. They are all characters locked in a continuous struggle across the ages.
As far as villains in the video game industry are concerned, Bowser may be at the top of the list, just as Mario is at the top of the list for heroes. He’s always been alongside Mario for all of his sports gamesand family-friendly gamesand even has been considered a hero in games like Super Mario RPG. But Bowser and Mario’s rivalry is legendary.
Perfectly in line with Nintendo’s brand, he’s both scary and cuddly at the same time. Regardless of how he looks though, he’s always considered a threat and even has a family of Koopas at his side to help him in his schemes.
