Top Ten Badies of All Time

[J.T.]

I haven't played Chrono Trigger or Earthbound yet, because I'm apparently adept of depriving myself of things that rock, but I've watched their respective boss battles, and I'm gonna say Giygas is worse than Lavos. Bit more backstory, and hella more disturbing than Lavos.

 

[goldenquagsire]

Lekain: OOOOH, souund evil. Unfortunately for me, I haven'y played Radiant Dawn yet. D=

i think i may have somewhat spoiled the plot for you.

but then again, by Part Three you'd have guessed that you'll be fighting him anyway.

so yeah.

 

[Dannichu]

These guys:

That's Metal Gear Solid's FOXHOUND, by the way. Clockwise from the guy with the massive gun; Vulcan Raven, Decoy Octopus, Psycho Mantis (named "second greatest boss" by Electronic Gaming Monthly in their 200th issue), Revolver Ocelot, Sniper Wolf and Liquid Snake (named "Best Villian of All Time by IGN).

What makes them so great? Have an explanation I stole from here, because if I get started I'll never stop.

The cast of characters in Metal Gear Solid is so rich that it's hard to pick one who stands up to the rest. In fact, Liquid Snake, the leader of the terrorist cabal FOXHOUND, is the least interesting of the bunch. Of the rest, take your pick. There's Psycho Mantis, whose fear and guilt of his telekinetic powers fed a lifelong spiral into madness and nihilism, and who finds redemption on his deathbed by showing Solid Snake the path forward ("Strange – it feels kind of nice.") There's Revolver Ocelot, the scheming sharpshooter who gets his jollies torturing interrogation subjects. There's Vulcan Raven, the Inuit mystic who takes Snake's presence in Alaska personally.

But for my money, the best of all is Sniper Wolf. Like Psycho Mantis, she bears scars from a traumatic childhood. After witnessing her family and thousands of others exterminated, she began to live the way she fought: always from a distance, afraid to get too close. Melodramatic, maybe, but that's designer Hideo Kojima's stock in trade. Sniper Wolf's lonely death in a snow-covered field is one of gaming's most poignant scenes. I get misty-eyed just thinking about it – not like Solid Snake, who leaves the scene by remarking to a blubbering Otacon, "I don't have any tears left to shed."

The Beauty and the Beast Corps from MGS4 are all pretty awesome baddies, too.

That's Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven, Screaming Mantis and Crying Wolf (their names are taken from the FOXHOUND members in MGS and the Cobra Unit (The Joy, The Fury, The Pain and The Sorrow) from MGS3). They're four women suffering from horrific PTSD who try and kill Snake. All their stories are painfully tragic and they're pretty awesome boss fights.