RELATED: Villains Who Deserve A Standalone Video Game
The decade was particularly notable for its use of mascot characters who made excellent marketing tools, with heroes like Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic The Hedgehogbecoming recognizable faces worldwide. However, for every hero, there’s a villain, and the ’90s were also home to some of the evilest, charismatic, and ultimately memorable villains in gaming history.
6 Doctor Eggman
Doctor Eggman is the arch-nemesis of Sonic and has been a prominent figure in the blue hedgehog’s franchise since the very first game hit stores in June 1991 on the Sega Genesis. Eggman is today one of gaming’s most iconic villains, with his egg-shaped body, signature yellow and black clothing, and emphasis on using machines to stop Sonic all being recognizable features.
The classic villain may be on the verge of some design changes, however, as the recent Sonic The Hedgehog film was a huge commercial success, Sega may alter Eggman’s design in the future to be closer to Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the character in the movie.
5 Doctor Neo Cortex
From one evil doctor to another, Doctor Neo Cortex is the nemesis of Crash Bandicoot and has appeared in every single one of the orange marsupial’s main series adventures, almost always as the leading villain. Neo Cortex created Crash Bandicoot with the intent of using him and other genetically enhanced animals to take over the world, though Crash managed to escape and has been trying to stop the evil scientist’s plans of world domination ever since.
RELATED: Most Evil Henchmen In Video Games
In 2004’s Crash Twinsantiy, Cortex was redesigned to have a more comical role. This comically incompetent but still villainous interpretation of Cortex has stuck and was how he was presented in the series’ latest main series entry, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
4 Ganon
Ganon, also known as Ganondorf in his humanoid form, is the main antagonist of the Legend of Zelda franchise. Ganon appears as the main antagonist in two of Link’s ’90s adventures, namely A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time - which are still considered to be not just two of the best Zelda games but two of the best action-adventure games of all time, period.
Although Ganon often only appears at the end of Legend of Zelda games, he is a looming presence that is always built up as being a major threat in the story and through conversations with NPCs. This sense of danger and foreboding is key to many Zelda adventures, and rarely being able to see Ganon until the end of the game wonderfully builds tension, like waiting to see the shark in Jaws.
3 SHODAN
SHODAN is a looming threat to players like Ganon, but unlike The Legend of Zelda’s antagonist, SHODAN’s presence is constantly felt. Like Portal’s GLaDOS, SHODAN is a female A.I. that watches over the player and ensures that they never feel safe, with nowhere to hide from the A.I.’s all-seeing eye.
RELATED: Best Survival Horror Games Of The Last Console Generation
SHODAN is from the System Shockseries, a pair of cyberpunk games that were highly influential to both the first-person shooter and role-playing genres. Although many video games and movies have tackled the subject of artificial intelligence gone wrong, it’s hard to beat SHODAN in terms of menace.
2 Sephiroth
Sephiroth is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy 7 and is a key antagonist in the franchise’s extended universe.
Sephiroth became a celebrity war hero and a poster child of the Shinra Electric Power Company’s SOLDIER program following his success in battle. However, Sephiroth would join the other characters on this list in deciding that his destiny was to take over the world after discovering the shocking truth that he was the result of a Shinra experiment as they injected him with extraterrestrial cells as a fetus.
Sephiroth’s unique combination of a god-like aura, calm demeanor, and frighteningly aggressive actions make him an enigmatic villain that is tough to forget.
1 Bowser
Bowser’s appearance on this list should come as no surprise, considering that he is gaming’s most recognizable villain by quite some distance. Bowser appeared as the main villain in Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, which were both released in the ’90s and are considered to be two of the greatest platforming games of all time.
Today, Bowser has been beaten by players so many times that it’s difficult to think of him as a threat. However, back when Super Mario 64 was released, the 3D model of Bowser was genuinely intimidating, and the developers did a great job of building up to his appearance with numerous unsettling appearances from him throughout the adventure, such as in the painting that changes from Peach to Bowser before a surprise drop and the endless staircase.
MORE: Most Difficult Mario Games, Ranked
