The 6 Best Nintendo Protagonists With Villainous Tendencies

Nintendo has a few of the all-time finest villains in video video games. Within the Mario franchise, Bowser reigns supreme, at all times attempting to kidnap Princess Peach, destroy the Mushroom Kingdom, and customarily being a thorn in Mario’s aspect. The Legend of Zelda franchise has Ganon, or Ganondorf relying on the timeline, who additionally loves stealing princesses and ruining Hyperlink’s day. Come to consider it, Nintendo seemingly has a factor for villains who wish to kidnap girls.

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Nintendo has its fair proportion of iconic villains, however a few of them have a softer aspect.

Oddities apart, these villains are iconic, however these villains have kinder sides too, similar to Nintendo’s many protagonists. Even heroes have darkish sides to them, which is precisely what this record will discover. Are these Nintendo heroes worse than their true villains like Bowser or Ganon?

6

Captain Olimar

Leaves His Pikmin Troopers Behind To Die On Numerous Events

Captain Olimar is from the Pikmin sequence, that are like mini-RTS adventures. Most video games observe Captain Olimar or his fellow cadets on a mission to assemble supplies on a brand new planet. To help of their adventures, the explorers befriend the titular Pikmin, and process them with doing every thing from preventing monsters to gathering items. That is all whereas Captain Olimar and the others sit again and watch, thus resulting in many Pikmin deaths.

It’s unhappy to see the little spirits evaporate off of those tiny plant creatures. It’s much more miserable when Captain Olimar abandons a planet as shortly as attainable after a victory (or defeat), leaving Pikmin behind to presumably die. This may be blamed on gamers for his or her actions, however Captain Olimar and the others are culpable too within the franchise’s lore.

5

Donkey Kong

When He is Out Of His Nation, DK Does Unhealthy Issues

Donkey Kong started as an menace to Mario in his titular Donkey Kong arcade sequence. With the appearance of Donkey Kong Nation on the SNES, Donkey Kong abruptly grew to become a hero, together with his fellow Kongs. Since then, he’s largely been seen as a hero within the video games he seems in. Nevertheless, Nintendo nonetheless releases occasional entries to remind followers that this banana-loving ape has a darker aspect.

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Mario vs. Donkey Kong was the primary sport on this puzzle platformer sequence, which started on the GBA. It just lately acquired a remake on the Swap in 2024. It was a very good remake, and it was additionally a very good reminder that Donkey Kong nonetheless has some quantity of deep-seated resentment in direction of Mario, which he must let loose every now and then.

4

Kirby

Nothing Can Satiate His Urge for food

Kirby was seemingly created to attraction to a fair youthful demographic than even Mario might cater to. He is pink, fluffy, he can fly, and his sucking capacity is immediately intuitive. Kirby started on the Recreation Boy with Kirby’s Dream Land which was adopted up by Kirby’s Journey on the NES. In Kirby’s Dream Land, Kirby might merely suck and shoot enemies.

In Kirby’s Journey, sure enemies gave Kirby power-ups like the power to wield a sword. It’s a cool gameplay mechanic, but additionally a actually darkish thought. Whereas Kirby could look harmless, all of that consuming is sort of sick and twisted. How horrifying wouldn’t it be to be eaten in a single gulp? Not solely that, however Kirby by no means appears to… “course of” what he eats. So what occurs to these creatures? Do they die in his abdomen, or do they develop into part of Kirby when he absorbs their skills? Are they nonetheless acutely aware? The idea will get darker and darker the extra deeply it is examined, however it’s plain that Kirby has a unfastened set of morals on the subject of his meals.

3

Mario

Nintendo’s Biggest Hero, Or Nintendo’s Secret Villain?

Nintendo’s flagship character has a darker aspect too, and all of it started with Tremendous Mario Bros. on the NES. Within the guide, it states that the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom have been was bricks. These bricks, in fact, are those gamers (and, by extension, Mario) break within the sport. Nintendo might retroactively state that not all bricks comprise Mushroom Kingdom souls, or any souls in any respect, however even when Mario is not out crushing them, it’s a grotesque state of affairs regardless.

Apart from that nugget, Mario’s conduct in all of his video games may very well be thought-about sociopathic. He wantonly kills enemies with no second’s hesitation, from Goombas to Koopa Troopas. That’s how the Mario video games are designed as platformers, they usually ask gamers not to consider the results of their actions. It’s a darkish thought to have about Mario, however one price dissecting additional.

2

Noah

His Previous Haunts Him, Pushing Him Into Doing The Unthinkable In One other Life

Spoilers Forward for Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Noah is the protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This can be a main spoiler, however the faction that Noah and his teammates struggle within the sport is seemingly led by two characters initialed as N and M. In a plot twist, N seems to be Noah from one other timeline, and Mio, his love curiosity, is M.

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Regardless of being villains, these Sq. Enix characters nonetheless are likely to have surprisingly heroic and noble tendencies every now and then.

N was sick and uninterested in seeing his comrades, particularly M, die repeatedly. So, he turned to the darkish aspect in hopes of conserving his allies alive. Noah struggled with this revelation, questioning if he too would succumb to this illness. It’s a lesson about how far one will go for the love of their life.

1

Princess Peach

Possessed By An Evil Spirit, Peach Does Unhealthy Issues

Spoilers Forward for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door

Princess Peach has had some evil interactions too. Gamers who’re into the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door on Swap could already know the place that is going. Within the sport, Princess Peach is kidnapped, as common, however this time its not Bowser doing the evil deed, however a corporation often known as the X-Nauts.

Led by Grodus, he desires to sacrifice Princess Peach to the Shadow Queen, who wants a vessel to be resurrected. Within the ultimate battle of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door, Princess Peach is possessed by the Shadow Queen and seemingly kills Grodus, after which she makes an attempt to take over the world. Princess Peach can largely be forgiven for these actions, since this was a possession. However who is aware of if Peach could have loved the ability somewhat?

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These Nintendo video games are in determined want of a sequel resulting from their distinctive mechanics and incredible tales.