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The Top 25 Video Game Villains of Every Subtype Imaginable
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<blockquote data-quote="CC13" data-source="post: 123759" data-attributes="member: 1151"><p>And Sean DonCarlos does it again! How did a massive gloved hand make it to the #16 spot on this list? It's partly a question of legacy, as we'll talk about below:</p><p></p><p>16. Master Hand (Super Smash Bros.)</p><p>Developed By: HAL Laboratory</p><p>Published By: Nintendo</p><p>Platform: N64</p><p>Year of Release: 1999</p><p></p><p>In hindsight, a massive company-wide crossover like Super Smash Bros. seems supremely obvious for a company with Nintendo's storied video gaming legacy, but its beginnings were quite humble. In fact, the game initially was not planned to have Nintendo's famous roster at all, but a suggestion from former HAL Laboratory president and current Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata to game director Masahiro Sakurai to add Nintendo characters to what was then know as Dragon King: The Fighting Game set the stage for the mascot fighter series we all know and love, though Sakurai did have to work on the game in secret for much of its early development, as the idea of a Nintendo-themed fighting game may not have gone well with HAL Laboratory's partner. Thankfully for gamers across the globe, the prototype was approved, the game sold well in Japan, Nintendo decided to localize it in the West and the rest, as they say, is history.</p><p></p><p>The bare-bones, budget-game origins of the original Super Smash Bros. can still be seen in much of the game's design. The most commonly-seen example is the Wireframe Fighters, whom you fight en masse in the penultimate stage of the single-player campaign (and also race against in the third bonus stage). There is also not terribly much hidden content in the game, with only 4 hidden fighters (Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Luigi & Ness) and 1 hidden stage (Mushroom Kingdom) up for grabs, as well as 3 bonus stages (Break the Targets, Board the Platforms & Race to the Finish) for each character. Master Hand's simple design, consisting solely of an enormous gloved hand, also seems redolent of this simplistic design style, and on some level, I have to admit that it is, but there is also a historical precedent for Sakurai having a giant hand as the final boss.</p><p></p><p>In Kirby Super Star, one of the modes you can unlock is The Great Cave Offensive, a massive treasure hunt with 60 items to find across 4 worlds. In addition to its refreshing take on the Kirby premise (not to mention premiering Simirror, which is probably my favorite Kirby power in any of the games I've played), its four main boss battles stand as some of the best in the Kirby franchise. First, in the Sub-Tree Area, you face off against Fatty Whale, a pipe-smoking whale who dresses like a sailor and whose sheer bulk sends rocks flying down from the top of the screen; next up, at the end of the Crystal Area, is Computer Virus, a sequential boss who pastiches JRPG battle tropes, while Chameleo Arm, a fast-moving chameleon with a prehensile tongue, awaits Kirby at the Old Tower. However, Wham Bam Rock (most likely literally) stands above them all. At the end of the Garden Area, this massive rock titan will assault you with his massive fists, grabbing, slapping, punching, pounding and dropping rocks on you; his attacks should mostly seem familiar to anyone who ever faced off with Master Hand. Kirby Super Star Ultra ups the ante, placing a souped-up version of Wham Bam Rock called Wham Bam Jewel at the end of Helper to Hero, a new mode for Super Star Ultra that places you in the shoes of one of Kirby's many helpers (hint: Bonkers=Easy Mode); in addition to Wham Bam Rock's attacks, Wham Bam Jewel can also drop bombs along with rocks (though the rocks are now jewels, they can still give you the Stone ability if you swallow them, though you'll only get the opportunity in The True Arena), as well as fire energy blasts from his fingers; this was almost certainly cribbed directly from Master Hand's arsenal (though Master Hand fires bullets/missiles instead of energy blasts), as Wham Bam Jewel, unlike Wham Bam Rock, premiered after Super Smash Bros.</p><p></p><p>It would be interesting enough to see that Master Hand's inspiration came from the Kirby series, but he actually has made a canonical Kirby boss appearance in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. First, he shows up as a miniboss throughout the game and can be inhaled after you defeat him (hint: you can both reach and defeat him very easily in Rainbow Route with Spark) to give you the Smash ability. This copy ability essentially gives Kirby his Super Smash Bros. Melee moveset, including Stone, Final Cutter and Hammer, along with several others. Later, you can find him at the end of Candy Constellation, where he guards one of the pieces of the titular mirror alongside Crazy Hand. They have all the team-up moves you would expect from them, though their damage output is somewhat toned down from Melee. This raises some questions about the way SSB fans typically view Master Hand...</p><p></p><p>The intro to the original Super Smash Bros. makes it very clear that the fights you play out are all happening at Master Hand's behest. What remains vague, however, is precisely the nature of the Master Hand as relates to the characters he has fighting for his amusement. One common interpretation is the most obvious one based on what we see–namely, that the fighters are simply toys, with Master Hand standing in for the person playing with them. However, if we take this in combination with what we just read in the last paragraph, this leads to some strange and disturbing results (I sincerely doubt that a reasonably well-adjusted child could come up with the likes of Dark Matter...). Even if we leave that aside (as I intend to do), what does that make Tabuu? This is important, as Master Hand was actually controlled by Tabuu during the events of The Subspace Emissary.</p><p></p><p>If we go forward with the assumption that Master Hand is indeed a person playing with toys, then it follows that Tabuu must represent someone or something that wants to prevent him from doing so. Indeed, taking a look at TV Tropes' Wild Mass Guesses for Super Smash Bros. reveals that some variation of this idea is the basis for many of the WMGs that relate to Master Hand and Tabuu. The more literal interpretations seem to like interpreting Tabuu as Master Hand's father, who is forcing him to clean up his toys, but a more figurative interpretation makes Tabuu into a manifestation of social disapproval of Master Hand's hobby, which would make The Subspace Emissary a parable about the value of hobbies that not everyone might appreciate. After having been pressured into putting away his trophies, Master Hand, now a grown man, stumbles across the trophies for King Dedede, Ness and Luigi, finding an online community of likeminded hobbyists around his own age, with one particular hobbyist whose favorite trophy is Sonic being the one who convinces Master Hand to bring his trophies back out, even buying Toon Link & Wolf to add to the collection.</p><p></p><p>In a sense, it is very appropriate that Master Hand should take the form of a hand wearing a glove, for his simple form belies a surprisingly complicated bundle of questions. In addition to the high probability that he was meant as some sort of placeholder at some point, we also can find a descendant of his creator's design lineage, a crossover character who raises quite a few questions, an ambiguous MC and perhaps even an audience surrogate of sorts, reassuring the players that their continued love for supposedly "kiddie" video games well into adulthood is perfectly fine, maybe even a good thing. That's quite a lot for one disembodied hand to encompass, but we'll find ourselves back in the Smash universe again before too long...</p><p></p><p><strong>Next Time on The Top 25 Nintendo Villains</strong>: Exit light, enter night...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'll admit I'm not terribly familiar with F-Zero lore, but there are certainly characters who are much more villainous than Captain Falcon would even dream of (Black Shadow, Blood Falcon and Deathborn, anyone?). Also, I seem to recall that both Samus Aran and Fox McCloud are bounty hunters, yet nobody calls their heroic credentials into question. Besides, with the memetic power of the Falcon Punch, I'd say you could make a pretty strong case for Captain Falcon having displaced Samurai Goroh as the series mascot at this point (though the point is moot unless we end up getting more F-Zero games).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CC13, post: 123759, member: 1151"] And Sean DonCarlos does it again! How did a massive gloved hand make it to the #16 spot on this list? It's partly a question of legacy, as we'll talk about below: 16. Master Hand (Super Smash Bros.) Developed By: HAL Laboratory Published By: Nintendo Platform: N64 Year of Release: 1999 In hindsight, a massive company-wide crossover like Super Smash Bros. seems supremely obvious for a company with Nintendo's storied video gaming legacy, but its beginnings were quite humble. In fact, the game initially was not planned to have Nintendo's famous roster at all, but a suggestion from former HAL Laboratory president and current Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata to game director Masahiro Sakurai to add Nintendo characters to what was then know as Dragon King: The Fighting Game set the stage for the mascot fighter series we all know and love, though Sakurai did have to work on the game in secret for much of its early development, as the idea of a Nintendo-themed fighting game may not have gone well with HAL Laboratory's partner. Thankfully for gamers across the globe, the prototype was approved, the game sold well in Japan, Nintendo decided to localize it in the West and the rest, as they say, is history. The bare-bones, budget-game origins of the original Super Smash Bros. can still be seen in much of the game's design. The most commonly-seen example is the Wireframe Fighters, whom you fight en masse in the penultimate stage of the single-player campaign (and also race against in the third bonus stage). There is also not terribly much hidden content in the game, with only 4 hidden fighters (Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Luigi & Ness) and 1 hidden stage (Mushroom Kingdom) up for grabs, as well as 3 bonus stages (Break the Targets, Board the Platforms & Race to the Finish) for each character. Master Hand's simple design, consisting solely of an enormous gloved hand, also seems redolent of this simplistic design style, and on some level, I have to admit that it is, but there is also a historical precedent for Sakurai having a giant hand as the final boss. In Kirby Super Star, one of the modes you can unlock is The Great Cave Offensive, a massive treasure hunt with 60 items to find across 4 worlds. In addition to its refreshing take on the Kirby premise (not to mention premiering Simirror, which is probably my favorite Kirby power in any of the games I've played), its four main boss battles stand as some of the best in the Kirby franchise. First, in the Sub-Tree Area, you face off against Fatty Whale, a pipe-smoking whale who dresses like a sailor and whose sheer bulk sends rocks flying down from the top of the screen; next up, at the end of the Crystal Area, is Computer Virus, a sequential boss who pastiches JRPG battle tropes, while Chameleo Arm, a fast-moving chameleon with a prehensile tongue, awaits Kirby at the Old Tower. However, Wham Bam Rock (most likely literally) stands above them all. At the end of the Garden Area, this massive rock titan will assault you with his massive fists, grabbing, slapping, punching, pounding and dropping rocks on you; his attacks should mostly seem familiar to anyone who ever faced off with Master Hand. Kirby Super Star Ultra ups the ante, placing a souped-up version of Wham Bam Rock called Wham Bam Jewel at the end of Helper to Hero, a new mode for Super Star Ultra that places you in the shoes of one of Kirby's many helpers (hint: Bonkers=Easy Mode); in addition to Wham Bam Rock's attacks, Wham Bam Jewel can also drop bombs along with rocks (though the rocks are now jewels, they can still give you the Stone ability if you swallow them, though you'll only get the opportunity in The True Arena), as well as fire energy blasts from his fingers; this was almost certainly cribbed directly from Master Hand's arsenal (though Master Hand fires bullets/missiles instead of energy blasts), as Wham Bam Jewel, unlike Wham Bam Rock, premiered after Super Smash Bros. It would be interesting enough to see that Master Hand's inspiration came from the Kirby series, but he actually has made a canonical Kirby boss appearance in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. First, he shows up as a miniboss throughout the game and can be inhaled after you defeat him (hint: you can both reach and defeat him very easily in Rainbow Route with Spark) to give you the Smash ability. This copy ability essentially gives Kirby his Super Smash Bros. Melee moveset, including Stone, Final Cutter and Hammer, along with several others. Later, you can find him at the end of Candy Constellation, where he guards one of the pieces of the titular mirror alongside Crazy Hand. They have all the team-up moves you would expect from them, though their damage output is somewhat toned down from Melee. This raises some questions about the way SSB fans typically view Master Hand... The intro to the original Super Smash Bros. makes it very clear that the fights you play out are all happening at Master Hand's behest. What remains vague, however, is precisely the nature of the Master Hand as relates to the characters he has fighting for his amusement. One common interpretation is the most obvious one based on what we see–namely, that the fighters are simply toys, with Master Hand standing in for the person playing with them. However, if we take this in combination with what we just read in the last paragraph, this leads to some strange and disturbing results (I sincerely doubt that a reasonably well-adjusted child could come up with the likes of Dark Matter...). Even if we leave that aside (as I intend to do), what does that make Tabuu? This is important, as Master Hand was actually controlled by Tabuu during the events of The Subspace Emissary. If we go forward with the assumption that Master Hand is indeed a person playing with toys, then it follows that Tabuu must represent someone or something that wants to prevent him from doing so. Indeed, taking a look at TV Tropes' Wild Mass Guesses for Super Smash Bros. reveals that some variation of this idea is the basis for many of the WMGs that relate to Master Hand and Tabuu. The more literal interpretations seem to like interpreting Tabuu as Master Hand's father, who is forcing him to clean up his toys, but a more figurative interpretation makes Tabuu into a manifestation of social disapproval of Master Hand's hobby, which would make The Subspace Emissary a parable about the value of hobbies that not everyone might appreciate. After having been pressured into putting away his trophies, Master Hand, now a grown man, stumbles across the trophies for King Dedede, Ness and Luigi, finding an online community of likeminded hobbyists around his own age, with one particular hobbyist whose favorite trophy is Sonic being the one who convinces Master Hand to bring his trophies back out, even buying Toon Link & Wolf to add to the collection. In a sense, it is very appropriate that Master Hand should take the form of a hand wearing a glove, for his simple form belies a surprisingly complicated bundle of questions. In addition to the high probability that he was meant as some sort of placeholder at some point, we also can find a descendant of his creator's design lineage, a crossover character who raises quite a few questions, an ambiguous MC and perhaps even an audience surrogate of sorts, reassuring the players that their continued love for supposedly "kiddie" video games well into adulthood is perfectly fine, maybe even a good thing. That's quite a lot for one disembodied hand to encompass, but we'll find ourselves back in the Smash universe again before too long... [B]Next Time on The Top 25 Nintendo Villains[/B]: Exit light, enter night... I'll admit I'm not terribly familiar with F-Zero lore, but there are certainly characters who are much more villainous than Captain Falcon would even dream of (Black Shadow, Blood Falcon and Deathborn, anyone?). Also, I seem to recall that both Samus Aran and Fox McCloud are bounty hunters, yet nobody calls their heroic credentials into question. Besides, with the memetic power of the Falcon Punch, I'd say you could make a pretty strong case for Captain Falcon having displaced Samurai Goroh as the series mascot at this point (though the point is moot unless we end up getting more F-Zero games). [/QUOTE]
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