A video game hero always has to have a bad guy or rival to fight. So here’s my top five favorite video game bad guys that I love to hate.

1. The Pac-Man Ghost Monsters
Probably the first video game villains with personality, even if said personality was limited to how they moved around the maze. I like the ghost monsters just as much, if not more than, Pac-Man himself. And they were the first thing you saw when you turned on the arcade machine, not Pac-Man! My favorite of the four ghosts is Inky, but I don’t really have a good reason why. But you know, there’s more than just the four original ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. There’s also Sue, who was originally orange but later was purple in the cartoon and other Pac games. Clyde was replaced by “Tim” in Jr. Pac-Man. Almost forgot Yum-Yum in the Jr. Pac intermissions! And in Pac-Mania, there were gray and green jumping ghosts. They were called “Commons” in the Japanese game, but in the US they were called Funky and Spunky. In Pac-Man Arrangement, there was a yellow ghost that started out of the ghost hideout blue and edible, but if you didn’t eat him and he collided with a ghost, he’d give that ghost a super power. That yellow ghost had the unfortunate name “Kinky.” In Pac-Man World, a grey ghost named Orson piloted the robot Toc-Man, and in the sequel there was a medieval ghost named Spooky. If Namco wants to make any new Pac-Man games in the future, I think they need to give the ghosts as much attention as Pac-Man himself.

2. Kefka
Forget Sephiroth! The BEST Final Fantasy villain was from FF6! A madmad clown with no real motive, he was bad to the bone and actually WON and got what he wanted if you think about it. And who could forget that infectious laugh?

3. Bowser
He’s always been a thorn in Mario’s side. My personal favorite parts about Bowser is the clown car he rode in Super Mario World, and his seven Koopa Kids. I wish they’d bring the Koopa Kids back! When Jeff was little, he ADORED Bowser! He always played as Bowser in Mario Kart and other Mario side games. And one time when we went to the beach, he made a sand castle. Then he took one of his favorite toy swords that he brought along with him and stuck it in the middle of his sand castle (like the sword that was in Bowser’s Castle in Super Mario RPG, a popular game at the time–Jeff called it “Mario PG). When he showed what he made to his mom, she said, “What a nice sand castle.” And he said, “That’s not a sand castle, that’s BOWSER’S castle!”

4. King Dedede
The bad guy in the Kirby games, though he’s not always the LAST boss. He’s just cool, has an awesome theme song, and has a great voice in the cartoon. I’m glad they put him in Brawl.

5. GlaDOS
She’s a newcomer on the list. GlaDOS is the computer you end up going up against in Portal. Her sarcastic comments were so funny, I killed myself in the game so I could fight her again! I even bought a T-shirt with her on it at the Valve store!

Runners Up:
Dr. Wily isn’t a very good villain since all he does is make eight robots in garages for Mega Man to fight, but at least he never gives up. I also like Ridley from the Metroid games a lot. And a new villain, Barbaros from Zack & Wiki, is so sneaky that you think he’s on your side at first! What’s funny is that after I beat Zack & Wiki, I played Soul Calibur Legends, which also had a villain named Barbaros. He followed me to another game!  Ridley from Metroid is also neat.

So who are YOUR favorite video game villains?

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