Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Prime Day Deals
  • Superman
  • Donkey Kong Bananza
  • Switch 2 stock
Recommended reading
Resident Evil Village
Games The 25 best video game villains you just love to hate
Stardew Valley pig-farming money strat
Simulation Games Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone "assumed people wouldn't like Pierre," but thinks he's "not as bad as some people think"
The key art for the full release of Deltarune
RPGs Toby Fox worried two Deltarune villains were too similar for anyone to "really care," but he's come to think they're "characters who mutually enhance each other"
The Evil Queen in hag mode from Snow White
Movies The 33 greatest Disney villains
Super Mario RPG Remake
Super Mario Nintendo tracks Super Mario friendships on official web page that reveals Pauline is an outcast, Waluigi is controversial, and Mario canonically doesn't like you
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
Adventure Games The 25 best video game stories to play right now
Haylee Skye, one of the Fortnite Characters in Chapter 6 Season 3
Fortnite Fortnite Characters locations in Season 3 of Chapter 6
  1. Games

Top 7 Game characters you're wrong for hating

Features
By Hollander Cooper published 21 April 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Haters, they're gonna

Haters, they're gonna

Let's partake in a thought experiment: I want you to picture a video game character you hate. Not like, a boss that's hard to beat--that's for another day--I mean a character you just can't stand. Got that character in your head? The one that's a blemish on your favorite game, or the returning flaw in the franchise you love? The super annoying one. Great. Now, what if I was to tell you that you're wrong for hating that character. How would that make you feel?

Well, good news: unless you were picturing one of the seven in this article, I'm not going to be bursting any bubbles. If, by chance, you were thinking about one of the characters I listed, well, then yeah. I'm going to be telling you that you're wrong. Sorry. Look on the bright side--if all goes well, I'll be illuminating an opinion you might not have heard, and that's fun, right?

Page 1 of 9
Page 1 of 9
7. Tom Nook (Animal Crossing series)

7. Tom Nook (Animal Crossing series)

When you arrive in Buttsville you've not a bell to your name, but by the time you're ready to turn in for the night there's a warm bed with your name on it. Who do you have to thank for that? Tom Nook, of course--Animal Crossing's resident entrepreneurial raccoon. And once you're able to pay him back for the home (which he doesn't charge interest, on, mind you), he offers to upgrade your house. And yet, despite that kindness, people have the audacity to call him a villain (including the people who write for GamesRadar, who put him on the 100 best villains of all time list).

At what point did an honest, hard-working small businessman become the enemy? What did he ever do to you? Tom Nook doesn't send his cronies to shoot your kneecaps with a slingshot if you fail to pay him back; he doesn't send you to live with the horse mackerel ("Holy mackerel!") if you skip out on the bill. Instead, he continues to sell you wallpaper and buy your fruit, because he's a good person. Err, raccoon. Whatever. He's good.

Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
6. Dante (DmC: Devil May Cry)

6. Dante (DmC: Devil May Cry)

When you first saw Dante's redesign in DmC: Devil May Cry, you hated him. He wasn't suave. He wasn't sexy. He looked more like one of Ramona Flowers' evil exes than a badass nephilim superstar. But then when you played the demo for DmC you still hated him. But! If you played the first few hours of the game alright, you'd still hate him. He wasn't very likable at first blush. He was rude. He was dumb. He was the stereotypical apathetic emo hipster.

So you might have stopped playing right then and there, but that'd have been a mistake. Thing is, all that apathy is build up for--wait for it--character development. In a video game. I know, I was surprised too. By the end of DmC, Dante's a likable character that grows and learns from his mistakes. He's actually well-developed and interesting, all because he started off as a foul-mouthed little jerk.

Page 3 of 9
Page 3 of 9
5. Baby Mario (Yoshi's Island/Story)

5. Baby Mario (Yoshi's Island/Story)

I read a lot of "most annoying video game characters" lists before writing this article, and I was shocked to see how many included Baby Mario. Basically an anthropomorphic health bar, Baby Mario rides atop Yoshi throughout all of the Yoshi's Island/Story games, and does so without making a peep. Ever meet a baby? They're fussy as hell, always grabbing your keys and slobbering all over the place. Baby Mario? A saint, in comparison. Well, except when he cries.

That's actually the reason he's on most lists--because he cries. Because a baby, who is being dragged around a scary world by a dinosaur, has the audacity to cry when he's BEING KIDNAPPED. Seriously, that's the only time he even makes a whimper, when monsters are in the process of stealing him. Listen, all I'm saying is that if I were a baby, I'd cry if Kamek was trying to kidnap me. I don't know what this creepy Magikoopa wants with me. I'm a fucking baby. I'm gonna cry.

Page 4 of 9
Page 4 of 9
4. Ashley Graham (Resident Evil 4)

4. Ashley Graham (Resident Evil 4)

I can't imagine that Ashley Graham expected to be kidnapped by cultists and brought to a strange, village full of zombies mumbling in Spanish. I mean, no one expects that to happen, but when you're the president's daughter you kind of think you're going to be protected from that sort of thing. But she wasn't--so she was whisked away and held captive until Leon Kennedy came to take part in one of gaming's longest escort quests.

And that's why she's hated: because you need to drag her around. But think back to your time with the game, did you really? I mean, she'd sometimes get attacked by a Los Plagas, but she usually gave you plenty of time to spin-kick the assailant before being dragged away. Plus, you could always tell her to hide in a box or a trashcan, and she always did so without a fight. That's a true friend. Plus, consider this: She's scared shitless and doesn't have a gun. Leon at least seems experienced in this sort of thing AND is good with a firearm. I'd say she handled everything quite well.

Page 5 of 9
Page 5 of 9
3. Waluigi (Mario Spin-offs)

3. Waluigi (Mario Spin-offs)

Hate him all you want, he doesn't care. He gets it all the time. Such is the life of Waluigi, a character who was only invented because Wario needed a doubles partner in Mario Tennis. Everyone seems to have decided that Luigi's unfortunate-looking rival is worth despising. They laugh at his dumb name, his dumb face, and point out that Nintendo hasn't even bothered to give him his own game. Hell, they haven't even allowed him to star in a non spin-off. He's that friend you call when you need a +1, but never just to hang out.

But whenever he is in a game, he's actually pretty badass. He's one of the best characters in most Mario Sports games thanks to his lankiness, and he's usually assigned some weird term like "tricky" to describe his play style. Whenever he has a Mario Kart stage it's fantastic--seriously, Waluigi Pinball is an absolute delight. Maybe Nintendo hasn't put him in his own game because they're afraid he'll overshadow Mario--ever think of that?

Page 6 of 9
Page 6 of 9
2. Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic the Hedgehog series)

2. Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic the Hedgehog series)

Google "Tails is annoying" and you'll find a lot of really weird Sonic fanart--it's weird. But you'll also find countless forum posts wherein Sonic fans lambast Miles Prower, AKA "Tails." Why? Because he has an annoying voice. Because Sega has made him "too serious." Because he's the first in a long line of side characters that eventually bogged down and overcomplicated the Sonic franchise. First... he's named "Tails?" The fact that he has two tails instead of one is basically a birth defect. Calling him Tails is like calling someone born with one leg "Hops." Anyway, yeah, he might have been a harbinger of doom for the Sonic franchise, but that's not entirely his fault. The only reason Sega continued to pile additional creatures (including the scandalously sexy Rogue) was because everyone liked Tails. So back off, alright? It's our fault, not his.

Page 7 of 9
Page 7 of 9
1. Navi (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

1. Navi (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

Yeah--wai--no I know. "Hey, listen! Hey, listen! Hey listen!" I get it. I played Ocarina of Time, too. Navi said that a few times and if you ignored it, she'd say it a bunch more. But when you take a step back and appreciate the whole story, you realize that Navi's actually getting the short end of the stick in that relationship. She might have said that thing that people got annoyed by a few too many times, but it was all in the interest of trying to guide a lazy, mute idiot to save the world.

Link is basically worthless without Navi in Ocarina of Time. When she arrives at his home she finds a slovenly sack who can't be bothered to roll out of bed, even when the TREE THAT SATIATES THE LIFE OF HIS VILLAGE IS DYING. Yeah, know what? I'd say that's worth a "Hey, listen!" And the fact that he doesn't know how to do basic tasks like, I don't know, look up at someone sitting on a balcony? That's "Hey, listen!"-worthy. Shit, I might say it's worth two.

Page 8 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Kooloo-Limpah!

Kooloo-Limpah!

And if you're looking for more grievances, check out 9 crazy overpowered RPG bosses that (almost) made us rage quit and 8 tired boss fight tropes that need to die.

Page 9 of 9
Page 9 of 9
CATEGORIES
Android iPad iPhone PC Gaming Wii-u Nintendo PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms Mobile Gaming
Hollander Cooper
Hollander Cooper
Social Links Navigation

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade. 

See more Games Features
Read more
Resident Evil Village
The 25 best video game villains you just love to hate
Stardew Valley pig-farming money strat
Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone "assumed people wouldn't like Pierre," but thinks he's "not as bad as some people think"
The key art for the full release of Deltarune
Toby Fox worried two Deltarune villains were too similar for anyone to "really care," but he's come to think they're "characters who mutually enhance each other"
The Evil Queen in hag mode from Snow White
The 33 greatest Disney villains
Super Mario RPG Remake
Nintendo tracks Super Mario friendships on official web page that reveals Pauline is an outcast, Waluigi is controversial, and Mario canonically doesn't like you
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
The 25 best video game stories to play right now
Latest in Games
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Futures Unwritten Ultimate raid
Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P admits recent raid was "a misstep in development" that "wasn't meant to be hardcore," says Square is "trying to satisfy both" casual and hardcore MMO players
Elden Ring Nightreign Gaping Jaw
I hope you're ready for round 2, because Elden Ring Nightreign is bringing back 3 weeks of mega-bosses – except this time they come in pairs for more varied pain: "F*** my life"
The Last of Us 2
The Last of Us Part 2 is fast becoming Sony's Skyrim: Naughty Dog has come up with yet another excuse to revisit it – a "chronological experience" update that rearranges the story
Elden Ring Nightreign Wylder running alongside spectral hawk at the start of an expedition
I hope you're not squeamish, because Elden Ring Nightreign lets you find and loot your own corpse to steal back your best gear on your next run: "I couldn't have even imagined that was possible"
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) screenshot showing Darth Vader walking through a hangar flanked by two stormtroopers
I've spent 11 hours fighting AI in EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2, and it's taking me back to the glory days of PS2 skirmish modes
Halo Infinite
Microsoft reportedly doesn't include lost first-party game sales when calculating Xbox Game Pass profits, but the subscription service is apparently earning money regardless
Latest in Features
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017) screenshot showing Darth Vader walking through a hangar flanked by two stormtroopers
I've spent 11 hours fighting AI in EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2, and it's taking me back to the glory days of PS2 skirmish modes
Dollman is lost in thought in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
This is now a Dollman fan account: Death Stranding 2's puppet pal makes for my favorite PlayStation duo since Ratchet & Clank
Agent 47 on a mission in Hitman: World of Assassination
I'm loving Hitman: World of Assassination on Switch 2, but the game's always-online requirement is worse than ever
Kaizen: A Factory Story key art featuring a production line making a toy electronic
"Make games and die. That's my plan": Coincidence's Zach Barth on making games about making things, a year of teaching, and being in it for the long haul
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Cyberpunk Edgerunners season 2: Everything we know about CD Projekt Red's anime
Ghost, Bob, Yelena, and John Walker peeking around a corner in Thunderbolts
Marvel Phase 5 closes a weird, ramshackle chapter in MCU history – and shows what Marvel needs to get right in Phase 6
  1. A Gundam style mech in Mecha Break
    1
    Mecha Break review: "This mech battler makes up for lacking customization with a varied roster that lets me live out my Evangelion fantasy"
  2. 2
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  3. 3
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  4. 4
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  5. 5
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  1. David Corenswet as Superman inside the Fortress of Solitude in James Gunn's Superman.
    1
    Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU"
  2. 2
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  3. 3
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  4. 4
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  5. 5
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...