Nothing makes a video game quite like a good villain. From evil spiked turtles to alien invaders, here are 10 virtual antagonists who have all earned a place in our hearts.

10. GLaDOS: This female-voiced computer was truly a maniacal and devious villain in “Portal.” Not only would she constantly berate us when we messed up, but she would also berate us when we accomplished what she wanted us to do! On top of this, she’s also a horrible liar; telling us and other hapless experiment victims that there would be a delicious cake at the end for us to eat, only to try to kill us with poisonous gas. She also forced us to kill our beloved Companion Cube for absolutely no reason. As a truly heartless AI program, GLaDOs makes for a great video game villain.

9. King Hippo: He may not be truly evil, but he was far from the happiest of characters in NES Punch Out!!. Hippo served as an early skill check for Punch Out!! fans, preventing players from mindlessly jabbing away like you could do with his predecessors. He may have encouraged violence against fat people everywhere, but he certainly gave Little Mac and everyone else a fun villain to upper cut.

8. Sigma: Dr. Wily is to the “Megaman” series as Sigma is to the “Megaman X” series. He keeps coming back! Unlike Wily, Sigma dies at the end of almost every single “Megaman X” game, and despite this, he always manages to come back stronger and crazier and cause more trouble in the next game. Not only that, but he has always managed to be one of the most frustrating and cheap final bosses in every single game.

7. King Drool: The Bowser of the Bonk series, King Drool took the evil spiked dinosaur routine and made it cool. Instead of an infinite army of turtles, he had dinosaurs and mini-bosses. Instead of a castle, he took the protagonist to the moon. Instead of pipes, he had elevators made of bones. King Drool made “Bonk’s Adventure” a challenging and slightly darker game.

6. Psycho Mantis: “Metal Gear Solid’s” Mantis was perhaps one of the best boss fights of all time. The character completely breaks the fourth wall with his mind-reading powers by reading my memory card and seeing what we’ve been playing. We never would have guessed that the way to beat this guy would be to switch the controller into Slot 2 on the console. Truly a great boss that was literally unbeatable without thinking outside the box.

5. Cyberdemon: From the second episode of the original PC Doom franchise, the Cyberdemon was one bad-mother- shut yo mouth. It took about 50 rockets to bring this guy down, all while playing cat and mouse in a giant courtyard full of rocket launcher ammo. The Cyberdemon was an exclamation point to the original hardcore first person shooter title, earning a place in our hearts, even if it took hours of missed sleep to bring him down.

4. Dr. Robotnik: In his early, pre-“Eggman” days, Dr. Robotnik was a truly sick and devious guy. He took cute and cuddly little creatures and turned them into mindless robot slaves that did his bidding. Not only that, but “Sonic CD’s” Bad Future levels showed just how far this guy could go if he ever actually beat Sonic. It’s also hard to forget the sad tale of E102-Gamma from “Sonic Adventure” which showed how thoughtlessly and cruelly Dr. Robotnik treated his minions.

3. Ganondorf: Almost as finite as Bowser is to the Mario series, Ganondorf is the antagonist of the “Zelda” franchise. However, unlike Bowser, you never see this guy until the last dungeon of every game. He sometimes makes an early appearance to make an evil grin or vague threat to Link before riding off, only to be seen again after about 50 hours of game play. But nonetheless, Ganondorf has a truly evil and power hungry persona, and unlike his Mario counterpart, always makes for an entertaining final battle.

2. Andross: No one thought a floating head and set of hands could be so sinister until the final level of “Starfox 64.” He is far from the most challenging of villains to fight, but the imagery of a fox with human features fighting a giant monkey’s disembodied head in a space fighter is a sight to see, putting Andross at number two.

1. Bowser: It may seem rather cliché, but it’s impossible to talk about video game villains and not bring up Mario’s arch-nemesis. While he seems rather shallow in many of the “Super Mario” games, Bowser truly shines through the various RPG “Mario” games which show him as the truly awesome and cocky bad guy that he really is. Even though he has helped Mario fight other villains from time-to-time, his passion for crushing Mario is never forgotten. As soon as he gets a chance, he’s right back on the offensive. He also gets an “A” for effort since he never seems to gives up on that Princess Peach plot, even when he knows how bad of an idea it is.

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