Today, Guinness World Records, the global authority on record-breaking, announce the Top 50 Video Game Villains of All Time as voted for by over 5,000 of their readers. The list, which is revealed in its entirety in the new Guinness World Records 2013 Gamer’s Edition book, sees the iconic Bowser from Nintendo’s long-running Mario franchise crowned king, with Portal’s GLaDOS beaten into runner up spot.

Bowser, from one of the most iconic and best-selling video game franchises of all time,Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985) landed top spot with over 20% of the vote. Mario’s arch enemy is nothing if not persistent: few enemies would attempt to kidnap the same princess twice, let alone eight times during the past 28 years! It seems his malevolent persistence has paid off with the ‘King of Koopas’ becoming the king of the videogame villains.

Xehanort doesnt approve.

WTF,as much as I love Mario and Nintendo,but Bowser??????? REALLY??????

 

What about Ganondorf????

 

What about Kefka????

 

What about any other villian.....but BOWSER????????

 

 

The only thing I'm sure of is that Bowser has married Peach and that's why he had Bowser Jr. Nothing else

My personal favorite video game villian is Alex from the Golden Sun series. He's successfully manipulated and tricked all the main party members and the other villians and of the series, almost got immortality and ultimate power(God intervened), almost obtained ultimate power again, didn't die at least twice, etc.

Wow. Didn't see that coming. .-.

He just does the same thing over and over again really.

Bowser is the right choice.

 

He's the father of all modern video game villains. Before him, what did you have to fight? Sure Donkey Kong was kind of intimidating, but not as much as a fire breathing dragon-turtle hybrid. He basically set the standard for video games afterwards, making sure that the heroes didn't just run to the right side of the screen, but had to fight someone when they got there. And not just someone, but someone who the main character had a personal vendetta against. The villain had to be over the top in his power and threat in order for the true escapist nature of video games to be realized, while still remaining just beatable enough so that the day could be won by forces of good. Bowser has always been that: in the obstacle course of Mario, he is always the ultimate obstacle.

 

Bowser set that tone, and every other villain since is in his wake since.

PFF .. I VOTED FOR VANITAS!!! 

HE IS THE TRUE PRES BOSS!

As far as character depth/development, Bowser probably doesn't deserve that spot, but Glados does fulfill that role well.  Portal 2 was amazingly written.  As far as success goes, Bowser probably is the most successful villain in video games, which this article pretty much convinced me of.  So, I can see how he got number one.  The Mario franchise just lacks story development really...

 

Well, you obviously haven't played any of the RPG Mario games. Those games was where Bowser had more developement. And they are also Mario games that have story developement. So if I were you I'd give Super Mario RPG, The Mario&Luigi games, and Paper mario series a try before saying that the franchise lacks story.

 

Xehanort doesnt approve.

Well, Xehanort isn't even a well known villian. Not too much people know about him except for people that played Kingdom Hearts.

 

PFF .. I VOTED FOR VANITAS!!! 

HE IS THE TRUE PRES  BOSS!

Too bad Vanitas has only been in one game (not counting KH3D) and not in over 100 games like Bowser has been. The only plan Vanitas had was forge with the X-Blade while Bowser cam eup with a crap ton of plans and never seems to run out of ideas.

LET'S KIDNAP PRINCESS PEACH FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME

Bowser is the right choice.

 

He's the father of all modern video game villains. Before him, what did you have to fight? Sure Donkey Kong was kind of intimidating, but not as much as a fire breathing dragon-turtle hybrid. He basically set the standard for video games afterwards, making sure that the heroes didn't just run to the right side of the screen, but had to fight someone when they got there. And not just someone, but someone who the main character had a personal vendetta against. The villain had to be over the top in his power and threat in order for the true escapist nature of video games to be realized, while still remaining just beatable enough so that the day could be won by forces of good. Bowser has always been that: in the obstacle course of Mario, he is always the ultimate obstacle.

 

Bowser set that tone, and every other villain since is in his wake since.

 

 

Y'know what, I think you're right.Bowser was the first video game villian we ever got now that I think about it,back then we were fighting mere dots in Atari 5200.

 

While he isn't as big as he was back then,I think you're right about Bowser despite that I really wanted Ganondorf to be there .

Well, Bowser at least deserves for a medal for being a "try-harder."

Edited January 25, 201312 yr by LunarMadness

So... the villain who does the same exact damn thing every damn game is the "best"? Whatever.