The 20 greatest bad guys in videogame history

Bosses. Sometimes they can make or break a videogame. If they’re all too easy then you end up with a bunch of gamers who are complaining that there’s no challenge to your game. If they’re too hard, chances are you’ll get the same bunch of gamers yelling at you for making the game too unbalanced. Sucks, huh?

When all the creative juices come together at just the right mixtures and you end up with a boss that gamers can actually (gasp!) like, then that’s when you know that you’ve got a veritable hit on your hands. Hey, it’s easy to form an attachment with the hero since you’re playing as him, but get a gamer attached to the game’s boss/bosses and, more often than not, you’ve turned someone not just into one of the faceless masses who play your game, but into a fan.

Okay, that was pretty long-winded, but we like bosses. We like boss fights, we like to pick at how they think, we like to analyze why they’re evil, we like to ask ourselves, “Are they really evil or just misunderstood?” In celebration of our love of these level-closing baddies, we’re bringing you an article from The Phoenix that outlines their choices for the 20 greatest bosses in videogame history. The list includes a wide range of games – from the NES to PC games, and it lists such luminaries as Sephiroth and Ganon alongside names like Abobo and Metal Man.

Now most of the baddies who made the list are from old-school games, so we’d love some input from you guys on who you think the baddest bad guys from new videogames are. Also, everyone has his or her own personal favorite bosses, and everyone also has his or her own personal top five. So if your personal picks are not in the list, don’t fret. Let us know who they are and why you picked them by leaving a comment on this post.

Bosses. Sometimes they can make or break a videogame. If they’re all too easy then you end up with a bunch of gamers who are complaining that there’s no challenge to your game. If they’re too hard, chances are you’ll get the same bunch of gamers yelling at you for making the game too unbalanced. Sucks, huh?

When all the creative juices come together at just the right mixtures and you end up with a boss that gamers can actually (gasp!) like, then that’s when you know that you’ve got a veritable hit on your hands. Hey, it’s easy to form an attachment with the hero since you’re playing as him, but get a gamer attached to the game’s boss/bosses and, more often than not, you’ve turned someone not just into one of the faceless masses who play your game, but into a fan.

Okay, that was pretty long-winded, but we like bosses. We like boss fights, we like to pick at how they think, we like to analyze why they’re evil, we like to ask ourselves, “Are they really evil or just misunderstood?” In celebration of our love of these level-closing baddies, we’re bringing you an article from The Phoenix that outlines their choices for the 20 greatest bosses in videogame history. The list includes a wide range of games – from the NES to PC games, and it lists such luminaries as Sephiroth and Ganon alongside names like Abobo and Metal Man.

Now most of the baddies who made the list are from old-school games, so we’d love some input from you guys on who you think the baddest bad guys from new videogames are. Also, everyone has his or her own personal favorite bosses, and everyone also has his or her own personal top five. So if your personal picks are not in the list, don’t fret. Let us know who they are and why you picked them by leaving a comment on this post.