Best Villain
Previous Winners
2016: Lusamine (Pokémon Sun/Moon)
2017: Jin (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)
What’s a good game without a good villain? Probably like a puzzle game, or maybe a rhythm game, or any game that doesn’t really have a story. Anyway, villains are an integral part of many video games. They provide us, the player, with an opposing force that both drives the plot forward and facilitates gameplay. They continue to challenge and, in some cases, frustrate us until finally we’re able to overcome their trials, we defeat that final form, and we see the end credits scrolling up the screen.
2018 gave us no shortage of memorable villains, and here we highlight four of them. Some gracing gaming for the very first time, others long time veterans of interactive electronic entertainment.
Mordegon (Dragon Quest XI)
NA Release Date: September 4th, 2018
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PC
Review
Mordegon (no he is not the antagonist of some obscure Dragon Ball Z movie you forgot about) he’s the big bad in Dragon Quest XI. Mordegon certainly looks intimidating. Like some kind of demon punk rocker from the netherworld with that mohawk, pointy ears, and his devil horns.
Dr. Wily (Mega Man 11)
NA Release Date: October 2nd, 2018
Platform(s): PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, XBox One
Review
Possibly gaming’s most iconic mad scientist (I mean no disrespect, Dr. Eggman.), the one and only Doctor Albert W. Wily! How can a man who’s been hatching diabolic plots to take over the world through the use of thematic robots for over thirty years not get a nomination?Sure… the old doctor did take a bit of a hiatus, but he came back with a whole new batch of Robot Masters in Mega Man 11, and this time with a fresh modern aesthetic to boot!
Baldur (God of War)
NA Release Date: April 20th, 2018
Platform(s): PlayStation 4
Review
A son of Odin attempting to stop an apocalyptic event like Ragnarok? Are we sure this isn’t for the Best Hero Award…. no? Well okay. I suppose in a game like God of War, where the point is to kill gods, it makes sense that Baldur would be our primary antagonist. Baldur must seem unstoppable. Not only is he a god, but he literally can’t feel pain. Of course he wouldn’t be the first god to stand in Kratos’ way.
Overlord (The Longest Five Minutes)
NA Release date: February 13th, 2018
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation Vita, Switch
Review
Sure, a lot of games have epic final boss fights with crazy forms that are like really powerful and opposing and stuff, but how many of them literally make up the entirety of their game? Not only that, but Overlord causes existential crisis MID BATTLE.
THIS YEAR’S WINNER IS…
Baldur
How can a couple of simple demons and a mad scientist possibly stand up to an actual god? Of course Baldur is the winner! Kratos might have been able to carve his way through much of the Greek pantheon, having murdered the faces of both Ares and Zeus in previous installments, but Baldur should still prove quite the challenge with his relentless tenacity!
I hope we don’t lose our weeb cred for snubbing Mordegon…
Thanks to Brandon and Brodie for the awesome Featured Images
