2010 AG Awards: The Kim Jong-il Award for Best Villain

Feature from Nat - Tuesday, 21 December 2010 @ 3:23pm

The 2010 AG Awards: The Kim Jong-il Award for Best Villain

For every Mario, there is a Bowser; for every Sonic there is a Dr. Robotnik; for every Caractacus Potts, there is a Baron Bomburst. All great stories and great lead characters have an equally great antagonist to play off of, and gaming in 2010 was rife with lovably hateable bad guys. Here's a few good ones.

the AG nominations:

I was sorely tempted to joke around and chuck in Montezuma here with his ridiculous antics in Civilisation V but Kerrigan... when I saw how they'd visualised the moment Kerrigan meets her fate, my breath caught. Blizzard gives us the best kind of villain in the Queen of Blades, one that keeps the player secretly cheering her cause because she's so damn awesome. Or was I the only one? Sure, she's not new to 2010, but Starcraft II added so much more depth to the character and hell, the reason I'm hanging on to every word of news for the next installment is because of her, not Jim.

Firstly did I get picked for the Kim Jong category because I was Asian? I’m totally cool with that, just wanted to make sure my heritage is what drives my output is all. Yaag is Final Fantasy XIII’s Sephiroth wannabe. The silver hair, the military status and the all-round bad ass attitude puts him in this category. His role in the game is pivotal from the start and his character is one of the only non-convoluted parts of FFXIII. Jon Curry voices Yaag which is a great fit for villain material.

I’m giving my vote to the third season of Telltale Games updated Sam & Max game – specifically Max. Yes, our favourite lagomorph is turned into a huge monster and begins terrorizing New York like a B-grade horror movie creature. It’s up to Sam to rescue his now not-so-little buddy by delving INSIDE him, which is where the majority of one of the episodes takes place. It’s twisted, hilarious, and represents some of the most clever writing I’ve come across in a video game in a long time.

I like to call him "Maxthulhu", myself.

From beginning to end, Dr. Fetus is the perfect example of what a good personifies. Unique, powerful and extremely antagonistic, Dr. Fetus wants nothing more than to get his little suited hands all over Bandage Girl and kick the unholy crap out of Meat Boy. A truly unique villain, he was a blast to play against and was truly evil to the core.

P.S: Bonus points for those who got the Chitty Chitty Band Bang reference without googling. You people need sunlight.