Summary
Nintendodoesn’t get a lot of credit for how dark some of their games can get. While series likeSuper MarioandKirbyoffer a lot of whimsical, kid-friendly adventures, even some of their biggest franchises have some not-so-subtle disturbing undertones. In particular, games likeThe Legend of ZeldaandMetroidhave some terrifying characters among their recurring cast.
These characters from across Nintendo’s various franchises are the creepiest and darkest the company has ever dealt with. From main antagonists to eerie supporting characters, these individuals have a much darker tone than most others that Nintendo advertises. Some of them may even be darker than characters seen in other companies' greatest IPs.
Most of the anthropomorphic characters in theAnimal Crossingseries are cute and friendly, though there’s one character who might disturb young players. Redd is the kitsune fox who runs a shop throughout the franchise selling artwork that villagers can donate to museums. However, Redd’s a shiftier character than one would expect, andwill often sell counterfeits of famous art.
Though he’s a far cry from the darkest characters in video game history, his underground store has a much darker tone than any of the other content in theAnimal Crossinggames. InAnimal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, it’s also implied that Redd and Tom Nook have a checkered history that is not expounded upon, which certainly adds even more mystery to this character.
There are plenty of dark characters throughout theLegend of Zeldafranchise, but none are more frequent than in the Nintendo 64 titleMajora’s Mask. Set in the nightmarish land of Termina, the game’s story centers on Link having to save the world from the impish Skull Kid, possessed by the titular mask, to unleash an apocalypse on Clock Town within three days.
The only character more disturbing than Skull Kid himself is the source of Majora’s Mask: the Happy Mask Salesman, who intimidates Link at the start of the game into finding his stolen item. It can only be imagined by the player how the Happy Mask Salesman came to possess this evil, world-ending mask, but given how much he knows about Link, he can’t be up to any good.
Medusa is one of the main antagonists of theKid Icarusfranchise, having made her debut as the final boss of the original NES title. However, a much darker version of the character appears as the villain inthe first half ofKid Icarus: Uprising, before (spoiler alert) it’s revealed that Hades is the puppetmaster behind Medusa’s returning onslaught against Palutena’s army of light.
While Medusa does return to aid Pit in the fight against Hades by the end of the game, she’s a much more serious antagonist than Hades, who is quite charming and sarcastic. However, it’s her history with Palutena that evokes the most Biblical evil, as she was banished to the Underworld for her contempt towards humans and turned into a hideous monster.
There aren’t many dark characters in theMarioseries. Even the franchise’s recurring villains, like Bowser, Wario, or King Boo, are pretty light-hearted compared to most other video game villains. However, there’s one notable exception of a pretty cold-heartedMariocharacter that would surprise even hardcore fans of the series, at least ones who haven’t playedSuper Paper Mario.
While Dimentio initially appears as one of the minions ofthe game’s primary antagonist, Count Bleck, it’s later revealed that Dimentio has his own agenda to seize the Chaos Heart and recreate it in his own image with his power to manipulate dimensions. Dimentio even uses the Chaos Heart to briefly brainwash Luigi into fighting Mario, pitting the brothers against each other.
On the surface, Marx appears similar to any otherKirbycharacter, as a cute and cuddly creature wearing a jester’s hat. However, the character is much more than meets the eye, as the final boss to theKirby Super Starsub-game “Milky Way Wishes.” Initially, Marx appears to help Kirby stop the sun and moon from fighting, guiding him to the wish-granting comet Nova.
As it turns out, Kirby is being manipulated, and Marx steals his wish from Nova and takes control of Planet Popstar. When Marx is encountered again at the end of the sub-game, he takes on a truly terrifying new form, but what makes him one of Nintendo’s darkest characters is how ruthlessly he’s willing to trick a cute and friendly creature like Kirby.
Out of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, the characters ofFire Emblemare some of the darkest and most complex. The RPG series has disturbing enemies and figures dating back to its Famicom games. However, things have certainly been turned up a notch in recent titles,such asFire Emblem: Three Housesfor the Nintendo Switch, which introduces Edelgard von Hresvelg.
For the first half ofThree Houses, Edelgard is the disciplined leader of the Black Eagles, a house in the Garreg Mach Monastery taught by the player character. Later, Edelgard assumes the throne of the Adrestian Empire and wages war against her former students, and players have the choice to support or fight against her, with the wrong choice revealing a ruthless side to her.
Every mainlinePokemongame has some pretty nasty villains in its roster of human characters, but none are more chilling than Lusamine. InPokemon Sun & Moon, Lusamine is the president of the Aether Foundation, which investigates Ultra Beasts from other dimensions. As a result,she’s neglectful of her children, Gladion and Lillie, and collects frozen Pokemon for preservation.
Eventually, Lusamine goes mad with her obsession and drives her children away, eventually fusing with the Ultra Beast Nihilego to assume residency in another dimension. InUltra Sun & Ultra Moon, her ambitions are similar, though she now teams up with Necrozma to steal the light from Alola, showing that even in an alternate timeline, she’s just as horrific of a character.
Ridley is one of the most iconic villains in the entire library of Nintendo characters, but few may know how dark the character truly is. Ridley appears in mostMetroidgames, ambushing Samus Aran during her missions with the intent of killing her. However, his hatred for Samus dates back to Samus' childhood, in one of the most heartbreaking backstories of any Nintendo character.
As established in theMetroidmanga, Ridley was a Space Pirate who attacked Samus' home planet. When a young Samus tried to befriend the monster, Ridley tried to kill her, but Samus was saved by her parents, who sacrificed themselves to let her escape. Even years later, Ridley is still confronting Samus, killing as many Galactic Federation officers as he can to get to her.
Xenoblade Chroniclesis one of the darkest Nintendo games, though other entries in the franchise vary in tone.The original game, developed by Monolith Soft, starts with a pretty emotional plot twist when Shulk’s childhood friend Fiora is killed by the Faced Mechon, known as Metal Face, during a raid on Colony 9, marking him as one of the game’s main antagonists.
Eventually, it’s revealed that the human behind Metal Face is Mumkhar, who is introduced at the start ofXenoblade Chroniclesas an ally of Dunban, who is presumably killed in the Battle of Sword Valley. As it turns out, Mumkhar is driven by his jealousy over Dunban, and later Shulk, for possessing the Monado, which is quite a petty excuse to become a murderous Mechon.
By far the darkest character in any Nintendo game is Porky (or Pokey, depending on the translation), one of the antagonists in the SNES gameEarthbound, as well asthe Game Boy Advance sequelMother 3. Porky initially appears to be Ness' rude neighbor in Onett, though a lot is dark about his home life; his father is an abusive loan shark intimidating Ness' family.
From there, Porky goes down a dark path, initially joining the Happy Happyist cult and later becoming the right-hand man to the evil entity known as Giygas. Porky later escapes the final battle until he reappears inMother 3, operating a large spider mecha and ruling over the corrupt New Pork City, doomed to live forever inside his Absolutely Safe Capsule.
