Meanest Animals In Games

Highlights

• Animals in video games can be rude, evil, or diabolical, seeking to cause hardships for the protagonist. Some even hinder the player’s progress or strive to become rulers.
• Examples of mean animals include Tom Nook from Animal Crossing, Killer the Doberman from Dog’s Life, the Guardian Ape from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic franchise.
• These animal characters exhibit traits such as greed, loyalty to evil masters, feral nature, and complex moral paths. Despite their mean nature, they often face defeat in the end.

Throughout the history of humankind, animals have been a constant source of utility and nourishment. They’ve also been the cutest and cuddliest bringers of joy that pet owners could ever ask for. Sometimes, though, animals can be extremely mean, and in video games, this can translate to them being rude, evil, or downright diabolical.

These creatures are often anthropomorphic, but their basis is in everyday animals that fans all know. Their goals also range widely from wanting to personally inconvenience a player by impeding their story progress to becoming ruler of the land. Regardless of what it may be, it seems that not much can stand in the way of gaming’s meanest animals.

1 Tom Nook

Animal Crossing

As a motivational tool for players to leverage to keep themselves on the right track financially, Tom Nook is essential. But that’s overshadowed by the fact that his blatant greed puts the player in immediate debt at the start of each entry.

Nook even gets his family in on the action in later games, making his advances toward the players’ wallets all the more uneasy. Luckily for this sleazy raccoon, the villager’s newfound home is a necessity for their survival in each game.

2 Killer The Doberman

Dog’s Life

Some animals in video games take the evil thing to heart, devising maniacal plots to end the players’ bid for peace, while others are just doing what they’re told. In Dog’s Life, Killer, a Doberman under the command of a dastardly dogcatcher, falls into the latter category.

Throughout the game, Killer will chase the player pups at the bidding of their master. A solution to this is found later in the game, as the player bribes the dog to get off their tale. It just goes to show how fragile some alliances can be.

3 Guardian Ape

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Players of Soulsborne games are frequently met with some incredible boss designs to break up the madness they must endure, not least of which are tucked into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The Guardian Ape is probably the best example, as it is a giant, disheveled monkey with a sword embedded in its neck.

With the boss’ feral nature, players have to fight first and ask questions later. However, through the course of the battle, it’s revealed that this creature’s wild nature is actually the doing of an undying parasite that kept the ape living for much longer than intended. The situation turns sad pretty quickly after this realization.

4 Shadow The Hedgehog

Sonic

Created by the grandfather of the Sonic series’ long-running antagonist, Dr. Robotnik, Shadow the Hedgehog is definitely a complicated case. On one hand, he is squarely considered a villain in early entries of the series, but on the other hand, he has done some extremely heroic things during his tenure in the Sonic franchise.

It’s best, then, to look at the character’s standalone game, Shadow The Hedgehog. The game allows the player to traverse three separate morality paths, with the evil path having Shadow conspire with a literal alien, and murdering humans. It’s a bad look, even if Shadow’s cool factor shoots up when he’s holding a laser gun.

5 Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong (1981)

One of gaming’s oldest mean animals also has one of the simplest motivations. In the original Donkey Kong arcade game, Kong wants nothing more than to steal away the gorgeous Pauline. It’s up to her love interest, Mario, to save his damsel from certain death, climbing scaffolding and dodging barrels along the way.

It’s something fans have seen as far back as the original King Kong flick, but for arcade-goers in the 80s, it was no less harrowing. The defeat of this barbarian on the game’s final screen is a satisfying victory for those who saw themselves to the end.

6 The Koopa Bros.

Paper Mario

The Koopa Bros. are pretty much just a gang of turtles that fell in with the wrong crowd. Unfortunately, that crowd was led by The King of the Koopas, Bowser. These mischievous dudes, featured in Paper Mario for the N64, seem to have a lot going their way, even having their own fortress named after them.

However, after their defeat, the Bros’ true nature is confirmed as a handful of half-baked half-shells that have gotten in over their heads. This is why it’s all the more surprising that they simply don’t stop trying to get the upper hand on Mario, leading to further embarrassment throughout the game.

7 Eide

Night In The Woods

Eide is a mysterious cat that is the source of a lot of grief in the world of Night in the Woods. As an emphatic member of The Cult, he does some messed up stuff in its name that helps to brand him a mean animal, not least of which involves human sacrifice.

It can be argued that sympathy should be given to members of a cult, as it’s often a long history of misfortune and a hefty amount of brainwashing that lands one in their clutches. That being said, the heinous stuff that Eide does in Night in the Woods just can’t be forgiven.

8 The Empress

A Hat In Time (Nyakuza Metro DLC)

If the scar across her eye didn’t give it away, then the Empress’s cold demeanor toward the players’ helpfulness throughout this DLC should be a telltale sign of her intentions. Once Hat Kid’s usefulness runs out, it’s one against an army of her feline minions.

The Empress slinks around like she owns the place because she basically does, and she treats the kitties in her employ with a hefty amount of disregard. When all is said and done, she retains a few scratches to her ego but is still at the top of the city’s food chain.

9 King K. Rool

Donkey Kong

Unlike a lot of royalty, King K. Rool is not afraid to get his snout dirty in his quest for the riches of the Kong family. Plus, his seemingly insatiable appetite for power and vengeance leads him to cause havoc throughout the Donkey Kong games.

It also seems like no means of achieving his goals is off limits, with K. Rool amassing a smorgasbord of weapons and abilities to take out his nemeses. But even with everything from cannon balls to a blunderbuss at his disposal, this killer croc is always inevitably defeated. It just goes to show that it never pays to be mean.