The 10th Hour 06.27.08: Top 10 Video Game Villains

Posted by Derek Robbins on 06.27.2008

While you play as a hero, the villain of a game almost always drives the plot. They give you a purpose to play. So today, 411's Derek Robbins discusses which ten villains he deems to be the greatest.

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour! As always, there are a couple of tangents I would like to go off on before I get things rolling.

-I enjoyed the WWE draft this Monday. It wasn't the annual "Let's Rape Smackdown!" draft for a change, but an actual one where the rosters were actually shaken up. While Smackdown didn't get raped, ECW did…and that's a shame. At least Miz and Morrison are still there.

-I am still trying to find a buyer for my 360. It's quite problematic. The odds of me sticking with the system are quite low…so I'll find some way to unload it. I'm just not paying Microsoft 90 bucks to fix their faulty shit.

-…Still no MGS 4. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to talk about it.

Reader Feedback

Last week I discussed my favorite sports titles. I decided to lob in wrestling because I really don't think I could ever make a top-10 wrestling games list. Anyhow, let's see what you had to say.

Triple J - the result of a Jeff Jarrett/Triple H mating dance – likes soccer

No Winning 11 = EPIC FAIL!


The rules stated no soccer games because they're not my cup of tea. I don't appreciate them. I can admit that they are fun games, but I just don't enjoy them. Not fair? Damn right. But it was in the rules.

RavenTazECW delivers a lot, including a list of his own

Oh sweet, I made mention for a sports list a few weeks back after
discussing MVP 05 and here it is! Good to see RBI Baseball on your
special mentions, as I've had the song from the game stuck in my head
for the past 17 years, haha. MVP 05 is probably my second favorite
baseball game behind the original Baseball Stars for the NES. There
were only 6 teams playable in the career mode and no teams or players
were real, but there was huge customization for team names, colors,
and players to trade, sign, upgrade, and the likes.

The old EA NHL games were fun, but it was too easy for me to score
skating downwards, skating to the right side of the net on screen,
deking back to center in front of the net, then quickly back to the
right and shooting and scoring. The fights in those games were good
times though, heh heh.

I loved the original Punch-Out and it'll be one of the first Virtual
Console games I purchase if I can ever find a Wii down here in
Florida (people just seem to snag the console immediately and eBay
it, overpricing it).

I've played a ton of Madden games, but I can see why it was left off
the list. I prefer the NCAA Football games, personally. Slightly
surprised at the lack of the 2K NHL games, since they are pretty damn
good and realistic, even including the NHL Skills Challenge.

NBA Jam rocked the world. I wish that would be placed on the Virtual
Console, but due to licensing of players, I can see why I should never
expect to play it again. Also nice to see FPWR get some love. I
haven't played it as much as I should, especially since I took the
time to manually edit all of the names to their real counterparts.
The gameplay is pretty damn fun, even the MMA aspects of it (though
I'm not as good at the MMA fights than I am at wrestling matches). I
didn't play No Mercy much since my friend owned it, I was always a
WCW/nWo Revenge fan.

I guess I'll compile a quick list of my top 10 favorite
sports/wrestling games, though they aren't necessarily the
"best."

HM: Hot Shots Golf Fore!, Wayne Gretzky Hockey (NES), NBA Jam, ESPN
College Hoops 2K5, Mario Power Tennis
10) WWF Attitude
9) ESPN NHL Hockey (2K4)
8) NCAA Football 2005
7) Super Mario Kart (how could you forget this game? Hahaha)
6) THPS2
5) WCW/nWo Revenge
4) FIFA 2005
3) MVP Baseball 2005
2) Baseball Stars
1) Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

Lots of 2004-2005 games there, but I thought it was a good year for
sports games. Only a personal list, I've never played the Winning
Eleven games and only one of the NFL 2K games.


I've heard a lot of good things about the 2K hockey series, but I never got around to trying them. Perhaps I should since I've got regular access to a Dreamcast and I figure that's when they were at their height.

As for MMA fights in FPR…I never bothered. I can't stand MMA. I'm not going to get into WHY I dislike it – since I respect our MMA section here – but just know that I can't stand it.

As for your list, I think it's pretty good. I didn't include racing because I plan to make a racing list someday. I should have mentioned it though, hahaha. WCW/nWo revenge was my first wrestling game on the N64 and I loved it to death. That said, I think that the later wrestling games improved on it a lot.

Obviously I disagree with FIFA, but your top-3 are just about un-disputable in my eyes. Mike Tyson's punch-out is a classic, baseball stars is a fun little game, and MVP 2005 is my favorite sports game ever. So…good job there. I like the list a lot.

Hey yo


Hate the Red Sox, but

Don't
Insult
The Murphys

So, apologize.
I will wait.


No. That song makes my blood boil every time I hear it.

Con-Air - the nickname I appointed him – dislikes sports.


Sports suck.

;D

Watch me get raped by the legion of sports fans who read this.

My two cents: Megaman Soccer is not on!? ARE YOU INSANE!? YOU, SIR,
ARE A MORON.

I sound like them, too, haha.


I don't know why, but I've always loved sports. Perhaps it's some fault of my own genetics, but watching sports is just a blast for me.

Now as for Megaman Soccer…that game WAS pretty fun. A non-traditional soccer game. That said, it would have broken my "no-soccer" rule and would have been un-fair to FIFA and Winning 11. We all know I'm all about being fair!

David Redkey - The Captain of the Comments - gives us his take:

Did Mike give you permission to write the 10th Hour this week? I
guess someone is going to get some hate mail. That is for damn sure.
:-D

I agree with your list. MVP Baseball 2005 was the last baseball game
I enjoyed. **** exclusive deals. **** them up their stupid *****!

Actually, besides NHL '94 (never played) and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
(not a fan), I find no fault with your choices.

I'm sooooooooo glad that you didn't put that bastardization of
NFL....aka the Madden series. With the end of NFL 2K series and MVP
series, I hate...hate...HATE exclusive deals. The only people that
suffer are the gamers.


Yeah, I hate exclusivity. It angers me. Console exclusivity is one thing, but SPORTS exclusives just boil my blood. What makes me particularly angry is that my favorite baseball franchise no longer exists and my favorite football franchise doesn't either.

Glad you agreed with the list mostly. I think I may be a little biased against the Madden franchise because I'm a little biased against current-day EA. Or perhaps it's just that I never thought the franchise was that special. I'm not sure which.

Electric Hotdog offers his…shocking…opinions (bad-duh-psh)

I would have went with Fire Pro 2, because of the victory road
setting. Returns just feels like simming one match at a time with no
goal. The Baseball Mogul series for the pc is a much better pick for a
baseball game, it has a farm system and contracts and takes yrs. for
player to develop having every player from the last 90 years or so,
and the computer will offer you trades.... is there a console game
that does this? I've never found a console game that would initiate
trades. Nice list


I like baseball mogul a lot. It's fun assembling a franchise and running it. I've made some pretty awesome trades in my lifetime on there. THAT said, I give MVP 05 the advantage because I can actually play baseball as opposed to manage it. I like managing as much as anyone, but hitting your own walk-off homerun just feels awesome.

As for Fire Pro 2…I guess I could see where you are coming from. I just feel FPR: Returns is a deeper overall game. Probably the best twenty dollars I have ever spent. I need a new Smackdown vs. Raw every year…but I know that FPR: Returns will last me a long, long time.

Cardinals Fan states:


LOOK, I JUST MADE LITTLE WAYNE'S HEAD BLEED

I'm not a huge fan of that movie, but that line cracks me up to this
day. So true. Also, my team got fucking SWEPT in the World Series
(Cubs fans just don't know that kind of pain) by the BoSox the year
before MVP 05 came out, but you'll never hear me begrudge the
Dropkick Murphys for that one. Show some respect to a great band,
yo.

P.S. I'd laugh about Zambrano, but...yeah. We're minus Pujols,
Wainwright, and Molina (not to mention Carpenter and Mulder), and we
just got swept at home by the ROYALS. Gaaaah.


I don't dislike the Dropkick Murphys, but that song makes me ANGRY. If I hear that song as I am starting up MVP 2005 (Which I can't anymore, hurr hurr fucking x-box) I have to immediately mute my television. I just hate the Yankees and Red Sox…and all media dedicated towards them.

As for your team…I was skeptical at first man, but I have to tell you…after getting swept by the Royals you come right back and win two-of-three from Boston in Fenway. Not bad. On top of that, you're still within striking distance of the Cubs without your best player – who happens to be the best player in baseball. To be frank, the Cardinals could very easily make a run. This division is a three dog race…and I am very excited to see how it'll end.

Flying Hawaiian and I share something in common

if you like your fighting fake then you should love boxing....... :)


I loathe it, but I love Mayweather. He keeps a private jet, you know?

somecoolname tries to be helpful


You mean to tell me you DON'T know about the "Xbox360 towel
trick"?!? If you get the redrings of death, just wrap the xbox
in a towel and leave it running for about twenty minutes. It causes
the machine to heat up and reset itself, or something to that effect.
Take the towel off, turn the machine off for a minute, then turn it
back on...voila! I *think* that is how to do it. Just look up
"xbox" "towel" "red rings" etc on
youtube and there are instructional videos on how to do it properly.
I know a few people that have used the trick multiple times, and they
all say that it DOES work.


Sadly, my system is apparently "over-heated"…so the towel-trick doesn't work. As soon as I turn it on, the system turns right off. So it's a pain in the ass. When I had the actual red-ring the towel trick worked like a charm for the first…couple of weeks. I had to eventually send it in though. Thanks for trying to help though.

Jed is persistent about this


No mention of Mutant League Football=epic fail.


I think you've mentioned this before. I'll try it out. Just for you. It better be good!

G-Walla wraps up our comments this week with the following:


I recommend Tiny Toon All-Stars for the Sega Genesis. It's got Soccer
and Basketball, along with some mini-games, and a story mode that
makes you play them all. Pretty fun game.

Decent list. While NBA Jam might have eaten your quarters, Arch
Rivals used to eat mine. I still hold it in slight regard above NBA
Jam, but they're both great.

Blitz got played many, many times in college (along with Goldeneye).
That video game single-handedly got me interested in football. We'd
put in the code for no first downs to make it interesting. Always a
blast.

Your wrestling choices are pretty spot on. Tony Hawk was a good
choice. Skateboarding has come a long way since Skate Or Die (though
that game still rocks).

I hate the lack of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (or Punch-Out featuring Mr.
Dream), but that's alright.

Good list, fun remeniscing.


Tiny Toon All-stars huh? I'm not surprised…The Tiny Toons were in a series of decent games. It's kind of sad that now-a-days the childrens shows don't translate as well to videogames.

I had never played Arch Rivals, I may have to try it out now though considering you prefer it to JAM. I'm not a huge basketball guy though, so I hope it's friendly to the outsiders like JAM was.

Blitz was a great game. It's one that you can pick up and play on any day of the week and have a blast with. Simple fun like that is always very welcome in my book.

As for Mike Tyson's Punch Out…I look at Mike Tyson and Super Punch Out on the same level. Both are great games, but I only really wanted to include one of those games. I'll remember it for next time though to be fair, heh.



Top-10 Villains

This list was never published on this site, so I've decided to re-visit it. This isn't the same as the original list as I decided to revise it a bit. These are the villains that I deem to be the top-of-all-time. As with a list like this, there are probably millions of villains that I am forgetting…so if I leave off your favorite make sure to tell me about it.

Rules are simple. Any game I have played is eligible to have a villain represented in some shape or fashion. Only games released in America are eligible.

Also, before you ask in the comments…No, I did not forget Sephiroth.

10-) Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney Franchise) - Miles Edgeworth is a guy that many of you would consider as more of a rival than a villain…but the fact is that for the majority of the franchise the guy who is opposing you is none other than Miles himself. He is a sensationally well-developed character with a strong sense of justice that makes him absolutely perfect for being a prosecutor. What makes him a good rival is that every single time that you think that you've got him cornered…he weasels his way out with some absolutely breathtaking turn of events. Hell, at the end of Phoenix Wright 1 when you are defending him he prevents the trial from ending even though you are defending him. Always adding twists until the end, eh Miles? The thing about the Ace Attorney Franchise is that each and every one of their characters is well-developed and fleshed out. If you were to post a given quote of any one of the characters from the game, odds are a fan of the franchise could easily point out who said it…because the characters are so well-defined. Nobody really says anything too out of character and as a story-telling medium the Ace-Attorney franchise is really tops. So I find it no surprise that your main rival of the series is one of the most complicated and well-defined characters in recent memory. Miles Edgeworth is a wonderful character and if you haven't tried out an Ace Attorney game you need to, just to see what I am talking about. While many of you may not consider him an actual villain, I feel his status as a rival was more than enough to earn him placement on this list.

- Objection! He's not even really a villain!

9-) Psycho Mantis (MGS 1) - Metal Gear Solid was an instant success on the Playstation 1. It was very easy to see why after all…it had a wonderful story, excellent gameplay, and a very interesting assortment of boss characters. It seems that years after its release there is still one boss fight that gets a ton of talk. The battle with Psycho Mantis is one of the most memorable fights ever. For starters, before the fight Psycho Mantis tells you about how you've done in the game so far and describes so fairly accurately. Big deal, I know…he SHOULD know. He's an AI in the game and knowing that your fighting skills have been weak…really isn't shocking. After that though, he does pull a surprise out. He proceeds to read your memory card. Go back in time, act like you didn't know he would say "You like Castlevania, don't you?" Wasn't that shocking? On top of that, for the actual battle you had to elude his psychic powers by placing your controller into slot two. It was interesting and has made Psycho Mantis a rather memorable villain. The boss fight wasn't the only thing great about Mantis though. The way he spoke and his motivations were interesting as well. He wasn't just a hired hand that wanted to help Liquid out…he was a man who loved killing. He loved human suffering. He had a very bloody past…and the thing was, he felt Snake was even worse than he was. He even says so! When he accuses you of being worse than himself…it makes you wonder more about Snake's character. When a villain can make you question the lead, they're doing a pretty good job. Psycho Mantis is the sort of villain we see mimicked a lot, but we'll never get the same experience again. It was something quite special.

- I see you...are currently browsing 411mania.com

8-) Bowser (Mario franchise) - Mario is a franchise that I can feel quite comfortable calling legendary. Odds are if you have read this column at some point you are aware of who this character is, what the Mario franchise is, and what your typical Mario game comprises of. You could almost say that Bowser's placement on this list is sort of a recognition of the status the Mario franchise has. You can always count on one thing when it comes to Bowser, he wants Princess Peach. World Domination? Bah! That's sort of a secondary thing. I mean, sure, he technically tries to capture the Galaxy in Mario Galaxy…but that's usually not his goal. What Bowser really wants is a piece of that peach pie. Mario just won't let him have it, so their battle will always wage. Whether it's evading Bowser to stamp on a lever which will lower the floor from under him sending him into lava, grabbing his tail and lobbing him into a mine field, or proceed to engage in combat with him in a structure that resembles a bathtub…you can always count on a battle with the big man. Bowser may not be a character we know much about outside of his carnal desires…but the fact is he is one of the most recognizable game characters out there and is the villain in the most famous series in the history of existence. His inclusion on this list was a cinch.



7-) Dr. Robotnik - Sonic and Mario always seem to be feuding. While the feud is completely one-sided these days…the sega genesis days were very kind to the hedgehog. They were so kind to him, that through several absolutely horrid current gen installments he STILL survives…probably because most everyone knows who he is. Next to Mario, Sonic is probably the most recognizable game character out there. As a villain though, I've got to give the nod to Robotnik over Bowser. While Bowser just wants some of Peach, Robotnik is stuck in a world where everything around him is anthropomorphic and he fucking hates it. Fur is not his friend. So what has he done? He turns every little animal he sees into his robotic henchmen to create a new world where robots rule. He hates the natural environment and wants the world to bend to his own will. Now, of course, Sonic has changed since the beginning and all of a sudden humans are much more common in Sonic's world…but Robotnik doesn't care. He still wants to turn every animal into a robot and still wants to take over the world. That's some pretty solid dedication. Plus, unlike Bowser, he's never stooped so low as to team up with that cursed hedgehog. Well, I mean, you could point out the end of Sonic Adventure 2 as evidence against this, but Robotnik was faced with two choices. "Die" or "TEAM WITH THAT CURSED HEDGEHOG." The option seemed pretty obvious. While Sonic may be going through a horrid funk, the fact remains that Dr. Robotnik is one of the most renown villains out there and deserves to be represented on this list.

- I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG.

6-) Ghaleon - It's no secret that I am a fan of RPGs that are…not super popular. Earthbound may be the first one that comes to mind for you, but another one that I am quite fond of is Lunar: Silver Star Story. Everything about this title I absolutely loved, and while the sequel was pretty good in its own right, nothing will replace how much I enjoyed the original on my initial run through. Hell, I even named my e-mail address after the game's protagonist, Alex. What helped make the game such a memorable experience for me was the main antagonist Ghaleon. When the game starts up, you know that Ghaleon is a legendary hero. He's one of the most respected people in the world and he's out to help Alex become a Dragon Master. On your quest though, Ghaleon suddenly turns against you and captures your main character's love interest…Luna. As if that wasn't bad enough, he even turns a member of your party, Nash, against you. He seems to be a pretty dominating bad guy. He eventually gets close to his goal of world domination, but the newest Dragon Master puts an end to that and squashes what was at the time the strongest mage in the world. Ghaleon introduced several interesting plot twists into an already great game…and had a fairly interesting personality to boot. He is more than worthy to be on this list.

- The best white-haired villain.

5-) Pyramid Head - Resident Evil is often the series people point to when they mention games that scare them…but for me and a lot of other people, Silent Hill has always been a far more creepy sort of game. Honestly…with the mood, the atmosphere, the story…and well, everything…it's hard not to be a little creeped out. There is one character though that really seems to stand out as the scariest though. Pyramid Head. He is an absolutely vicious creature who will do anything to anyone – fiend or friend. Rape, murder, etc…Pyramid Head is ruthless. In appearance, he looks like a pale man with a large-and rather painful looking triangular helmet on his head. He carries a pretty large blade or spear with him as well. What compounds Pyramid Head's creepiness is the fact he doesn't talk. He'll moan in pain, but he won't say a word. He'll just go about his business and in the weirdest way…it's the creepiest that he could hope to be. In Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head is created due to James's – the main character's – grief over his wife. He not only mourned her, but felt that he needed to be punished for what happened to her as well. So the pyramid head pursues him. Only when he lets go of his grief does the pyramid head relent in his pursuit. I think it's horribly creepy that your own personal feelings can create such an apparition. If you can't control what you feel or get over things…you're going to die. That's really distressing and part of the reason why Silent Hill 2 is one of the scariest games ever. Great plot combined with pure terror is a rarity in this world, so I recommend you check it out.



4-) Ganondorf - Just like Mario, it's safe to say that the Legend of Zelda is a fairly recognizable franchise. Most people who know videogames know who Link is, they know what the triforce is, and they know who Princess Zelda is. With that said, I feel Ganondorf is probably a bit less recognizable than those who surround him. I figure this is because Ganondorf in his human form wasn't really around prior to the release of Ocarina of Time. Before then it was just pig/beast Ganon. After Ocarina of Time came out, I would have said that Ganondorf was a pretty good villain but not "top-10" worthy…but when Wind Waker came out all of that changed. Ganondorf in Windwaker seemed to be the pure embodiment of evil. The goddesses of hyrule flooded Hyrule and sealed Ganondorf away just to keep him under-wraps. When he came out, he was understandably pissed and desperately wanted that power back. So he tried to kidnap as many girls as he could in search of the triforce of wisdom. I felt this time if he had achieved his goal…he wouldn't have created the grim world that we see in Ocarina of Time. He would have simply taken revenge on the world for confining him. As if his actions weren't enough the battle against Ganondorf at the end of Wind Waker, with water flooding the room all around you, stands out as one of the most impressive boss battles of all time. The awesome battle is capped off with Ganondorf getting a good old stab to the head. Any villain who can create such an epic battle is certainly top 10 worthy. Ganondorf will always be looked at as Link's rival…and as long as The Legend of Zelda remains popular, Ganondorf will always be one of the most recognized villains out there.

- The best incarnation of the king of evil.

3-) Kefka - Your typical villain wants one of two things. Either world domination or world destruction. Perhaps even a little of both. How many villains have actually achieved their goal though? Usually by the end of the game the hero has thwarted their advances. That's it! They'll never hear from that guy again. Well…Kefka not only takes over the world during the course of Final Fantasy VI, but he also destroys the majority of the population. Most every town lays in ruin and most every human being has perished. Kefka is the king of the world and things look pretty bleak for you. Of course, Kefka had a history of killing people throughout the game. Earlier on he poisoned the water of the Kingdom of Doma, killing everybody in that city except for one man. Their king, Cyan. Kefka was truly a detestable villain because there was nothing he wouldn't do, nobody he wouldn't step over…to achieve his main goal. Sure enough, at the end of the game Kefka bites the dust – as is always the case – but he leaves his mark on the world. That much is a given. At the end of FF VI the world remains in ruins and the cast has nothing left to do but to observe the re-building of the world. Given that Kefka had no remorse and actually accomplished his goal, a case could genuinely be made that he is the finest villain of all time. While I don't think so, I figure any list that doesn't include him in at least a mention isn't much of a list. RPG villains these days seem to try to make you like them a little bit…Kefka didn't try that. He was detestable the whole way through and remains one of the easiest to hate characters ever.

- Clowns really are scary...

2-) Giygas - Yes, yes, let out that groan. It's Earthbound time at the 10th hour once again! Hey, I've gone a while without writing specifically about it…so I think I'm owed one spot on a list, dangit! I mean, it's not like I've forced you through a "Top-10 things about Earthbound list"…yet. Anyhow, Giygas is a pretty fascinating villain purely for the boss fight. Like most typical villains, Giygas wants to destroy the world. Once you garner the eight melodies, unleash your potential thanks to the sound stone, and travel back in time to fight this guy…you think you're ready for anything. Well guess what! You're not. Giygas doesn't really have a form, his power is so great that you can't really comprehend what he'd look like. Giygas proceeds to over-whelm and creep out your party throughout the proceedings. The fight itself was based off of a time Itoi accidentally witnessed a rape scene in a movie. It creeped him out. While you slaughter him Giygas says things like: "H-E-L-P ME" and "N..e…s…s…I …fe..e…l…g..o..o..d" It's just very surreal. Anyhow, yeah, eventually you beat him down and you realize that you can't win through conventional means. Something super natural needs to happen, so you start to pray. You pray and you pray and you pray…and slowly, people you've encountered throughout the game are causing damage to this behemoth. Eventually though, you run out of people…and your calls for help get absorbed by the darkness. At this point, if you haven't experienced the game before, you yourself may start to pray because you don't want to start the battle over again and work your way back to this point. Lo' and behold, Paula finds a new host and prayer begins. They keep praying and eventually YOUR name is revealed in one of the most shocking moments I can remember. So THAT'S why they needed your name in Summers. The whole battle is a total mind-fuck and is one of the most memorable moments in gaming history for me. That alone makes Giygas worthy of this list.

- NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS

1-) Revolver Ocelot - I've made no attempt to hide my love for the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I feel that as far as video games are concerned, they are about the apex of story telling. As far as stories go, they really don't get much better. You Final Fantasy fans may want to state otherwise, but my personal favorite is certainly belonging to Metal Gear. What helps drive this story along is the best villain of all time, Revolver Ocelot. While I haven't played the fourth Metal Gear Solid and can't comment on that one, I can mention the three prior. In Metal Gear Solid 1 he was portrayed as a sadistic man bent on restoring the glory of Russia. Later it is revealed that he really could care less about Russia and is out for his own personal gain. After you beat it, it turns out he was working for the US Government all along, in particularly the president at the time – Solidus Snake. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Ocelot is running things from behind the scenes through much of the game. It is revealed at the end that Ocelot is the puppet master and the true ultimate badguy…but you never get a crack at him. I think this was a good move by Kojima because the player – myself- was just itching for a chance to take him out. He needed to pay for what he did, but…we never got that chance. Period. I only hope that Ocelot plays prominently into MGS 4 because I want to pay him back for everything. I also enjoy how Ocelot is further characterized in Metal Gear Solid 3. Most villains, we don't really get to know their back-story. We just know who they are and what they want to do at the present time. Ocelot is portrayed interestingly in the game, even if you can't really tell that he'll turn out to be the ultimate jackass later on. You see some of the seeds being planted, but it's not blatantly spelled out for you. It's pretty interesting. Ocelot is the driving force behind one of the best franchises of all time so him being slotted at number one is not very surprising to me. Of course, he could always redeem himself in the fourth...since the Metal Gear Solid franchise is infamous for their twists...but as things stand through three Ocelot is by far the best villain out there.

- Six Bullets, more than enough to kill anything that moves.

Well that's all for this week. As always, if you wish to praise, criticize me, etc…my e-mail address is [e-mail] or [e-mail] Your choice. Or you could simply leave a comment below.

Before I depart though, let's take a look at some of the good stuff available to you on our game section here at 411mania

Mike and AJ Minotti host The Exploding Barrel Podcast and do a bang-up job at it. This week AJ defeats Mike's quiz…so next week we'll have the Great American Mikexorz quiz. On top of this, they have a lengthy discussion on Metal Gear Solid 4. I can't listen to THAT part yet, but I know it's lengthy. I checked my itunes and there was about forty minutes left in the show for their MGS bit. So…yeah. Check it out. They do an excellent job.

The Working Title, by the OGRE Jordan Williams, is all about casting gaming movies this week. He casts Dave Batista as Marcus Fenix which makes sense. Both Batista and Fenix are pretty unbearable.

Owain J. Brimfield pens the wonder years. He discusses another game I've not heard of, Pop'n Twinbee. I tell ya', the Wonder Years is the place I go for hidden gems. It's an interesting read, and makes me want to try the DS port of the game.

The Curryman brings us two different takes. Why an MMA game WILL succeed and why it WON'T. This one is why it will This one right here is why it won't. Good job, Curry Man.

Tommy Coloma moderates Fact or Fiction. This week THE OGRE Jordan Williams fights with Jacob Lopez the 411 Brawler. They discuss such topics as MGS 4 catering to long-time fans and whether we should be worried about Boom Blox low sells (we should)

Chris Evans writes the PC-Centric Extravaganza and as always he does a great job. Topics include the new pyro updates (I own the pyro weapons! Yay!), and the spore creature creator. For some reason his comment section includes…Metal Gear Solid 4 comments? How odd.

Vincent Chiucchi writes the hall of shame, and this week he concludes his top-10 list regarding stupid things wacky Jack Thompson has done. He says we won't miss him, and he's right. Even though he's easy to mock, he was more of an annoyance than anything. This list is pretty funny. Vincent also writes the select and start news report. Here that is

Forgotten PC Games, which is authored by Chris Vicari, covers games that were recommended by his readership. This includes Unreal Tournament, Arcanium, and Dark Forces. There are more to come as there is another installment next week. Good Job, Mr. Vicari!

Theo Fraser writes the Nintendophiles. One of the topics he lists this week is the complete track listing for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. There are other interesting tidbits of Nintendo news here including info on a new Star Wars game. Check him out

Mark Salmela writes B3yond the Report. This week, among many things, he discusses the success of MGS 4 – to this point – and what he expects to see at E3 this year from Sony. Good job as always, Mark.

Joe Roche writes The Full Circle news report. This week he discusses a variety of topics including Facebreaker, a cartoony-boxing game, getting a release date. Looks interesting. What's the deal with sony-fanboys dominating comment boxes this week anyhow? Talk about lame. We update on the same day, so check his stuff out.

Achievement Unlocked by Rod Oracheski this week asks what kind of gamer are you?

Alright, well…that's all for now. I think I may finally cave to pressure and do a top-50 or something next week.

til' the crossroads

Screenshots
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