Top 5 Most Bad-Ass Male Leads in Recent Video Game History

Brandon Thompson writes: "In the world of games the male lead has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Among the things a hero has to accomplish is being a tough guy or a bad-ass in this case. While plenty have accomplished this throughout the history of gaming, few have made major impacts in gaming in the last ten years. What does it take to be a bad-ass you ask? Well first of all you have to be able to hold your own in a fight despite all the odds being stacked against you. There's no denying that the guys on our list meet that criteria. Besides being able to handle themselves, a real hero (or anti-hero) has to be able to almost win a fight without ever taking a swing. That is to say his appearance alone should be able to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies."

[vgn24]

A top 5 without teh boobs? I'll approve it I guess.

[moegooner88]

Without Nathan Drake this list fails !!

[BeaRye]

Nathan Drake? He's cool, but who calls Nathan Drake badass? He's cool and funny, not badass.

[AnttiApina]

I don't like characters that are supposed to be "bad-ass" seriously: Marcus Fenix is a shallow character.

However, guys like Nathan Drake and Snake are great! The character developement in these games is great!

[BiggCMan]

did anyone realize that the honorable mentions mention agent 47 from HITMAN, yet it says NO MORE HEROES, hahaha, FAIL!!

[lovestospoodge]

have thee forgotten? drake got with chloe and elana...and climbed a vertical train hanging off a cliff

[Lich120]

@BigC

Im not sure if they changed it but everything checks out. It lists 3 games and No more Heros and hitman are both their.

[execution17]

or Virgil (he's more badass then Dante)

[meetajhu]

Solid Snake is the best video game hero ever made. He is there in every list.

[otherZinc]

The Master Chief
AND
Commander Sheppard
must be on this list.

[WildArmed]

it's definitely a tough call.

Ryu, dante, kartos gotta be there.
And if you've played MGS3, Naked Snake is their daddy! lol (solid snake's daddy that is)

I dont usually associate shooting games with 'badass'..
Sam Fisher are more badass than Marcus. xD
I mean COM'on fisher does crazy ass stealth kills!

Drake is pretty cool. Mainly coz of the stunts you get to do, but nothing that rarely stands out.

So my final list would be:
1. Naked Snake
2. Kratos
3. Dante / Ryu
4. Same Fisher
and i'll squeeze in a 6th here.

6th - Choas -> Darksiders 2 please! or the Guy from Yakuza 3 lol

I havn't played NMH but i heard the hero is pretty badass

[vhero]

No Cloud?? Epic Fail..

[LoaMcLoa]

Nice to see that you atleast mentioned Travis Touchdown. Number 1 Bad-ass for me :D

[BeaRye]

Travis is a smarta55 and he just kills one assassin after another. I mean to move up the ranks in No More Heroes 2, you gotta be pretty bada55.

[fourtwenty2009]

...also evil Cole from inFamous says hi!

[BattersUp]

lmfao at inFamous. You are hilarious, but not as funny as the practical joke inFamous was on anyone who bought it.

[BlackTar187]

one of my top 5 games this gen.

[STICKzophrenic]

inFamous is an awesome game and Cole is a badass.

[WildArmed]

lol.

inFAMOUS was my runner up GOTY for last year.
It's ok if you dont have any taste in gaming, but don't just start ranting off.

And yeah, inFAMOUS cole + double charged = badass black lightining

The guy from Prototype was pretty cool too..
what was his name?
Alex Mace? or Mercer?

[fourtwenty2009]

Kazuma is like a Japenese Tony Montana. Dude has a full back tattoo, eats the toughest gangsters for breakfast, and WILL F-you up. Way more bad ass then Ninja Gaiden, Master Chief, or Solid Snake.

Kratos, Cole, Kazuma FTW!!

[GunShotEddy]

It's not a wise-cracking list. Master Chief would choke out Nathan Drake while drake cracked wise.

Drake gets laid and Master Chief kicks ass. Nuff said.

[VG_Releaser]

How can anyone say MC ain't cool? He's cool enough to warrant HUGE marketing campaigns and multi-million dollar titles, franchises, and merchandise. Stop being a flaming fanboy. Looks like everyone got represented. Even the Wii boys got some No More Heroes love.

[WildArmed]

regardless what i think about halo the game.
The marketting definitely make MC look VERY badass.

I mean have you guys not seem those amazing adds where he GAH!? I cant even explain how epic it was.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

HOW awesome is that!
xD

[Gun_Senshi]

Dante of DMC, the cosplay is of the emo kid nero, not Danta lol

Master Chief or Marcus are definitly not bad arse. MC is generic space marine which downgrades from Warhammer 40k, while Marcus...meh all the cast of GeOW is horrible

For snake they forgot something "walk thru mircowaves"

[BattersUp]

Why did they include Nero with Dante? Looks like some bad editing, lol. OHHHH. I see. You are a Sony fanboy. The whole bashing every single Microsoft character thing was a clue. Keep that in the Open Zone.

[Gun_Senshi]

lol fanboys always points fingers.

Kindly tell me how am I a sony fanboy? I'm more of a PC Fanboy.

What I said is a fact. The games are fun to play but the characters are generic, just like Resistance has generic characters

A Mute that don't even have a face which is a super space marine
A bald guy on steroids swearing only

Geeze I wonder where I saw those!

Oh wait why am I answering a duplicate account troll

[Strikepackage Bravo]

Your clearly an Xbox hater, this was not about the genericness of the characters, its about the badassness of them. To say Marcus is not badass is just moronic, he is the very definition of badass, which is why so many call his character cliche.

MC is obviously Bad ass as well but for more subtle reasons, he's the tall silent type, who kills without a peep. Now go, the openzone is that way>>>>>

[Gun_Senshi]

You want real bad ass characters?

Sam Fisher is an example, not generic hero Number 32423515234

[CellularDivision]

I almost cried at the microwave scene :(

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Master Chief isn't cool...at all. Seriously. Marcus is cool because he does and says cool things. MC does nothing cool. Ever. He just happens to be the main character of your favorite game. That doesn't make him cool.

[WildArmed]

I like MC.. I havn't completed the campaigns for any Halo game after combat evolved, but yeah.

I'm not a fan of Halo at all. I barely put 4-10 hours in halo 3.

But after watching this:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
I can't help think of MC as anything but badass.
Again, i'm talking about the portrayal of the character.

Marcus is ok, quite generic like Nathan Hale or Killzone 2 for that matter. (it takes me awhile to even remember Killzone 2's character's names!)

Sam fisher is very badass.
Right along w/ Snake.

[Nebulas Zero]

Crimminy, stop with the lists already. -___-

[BYE]

Ezio Auditore da Firenze should have made it in, I mean what could possibly be more badass than double hidden blades.

But appearently he was eating pasta at his mom's house when this list was made.

[user8397144]

...

[C L O U D]

Solid Snake is a "Bad-Ass" indeed.
Specially in MGS4 now that they implemented the CQC which was in Snake Eater, what was really great was..."Liiiiqquuuuiiiiidd dd!!!!"

[Urmomlol]

I'm loving the originality of this article. Surely no other web site has thought of writing the same exact thing with the same exact characters.

[Xof]

All those characters are twits. This generation has had ZERO badass characters. A badass character is someone like Kain, from the Legacy of Kain series. Not these lame, poorly-written dopes.

[prettyboy1]

kratos owns all of them

[pimpmaster]

id say niko shoulda been on there. hed be the only one on there that could even remotely resemble a real badass and not a cartoony badass.

[BattersUp]

But an open-world game character is more about what you make them. So Niko is what you make him, so not badass by default.

[Obama]

Marcus? Cmon he looks like a steroid abuser!

[Meryl]

he appeals to the level of bot's intelligence

[iMaim]

no love for alex mercer?

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Maybe if Prototype had been a good game? As it stands, Spider-man: Web of Shadows was the same game as Prototype...except Spider-man was FUN!!!

[VG_Releaser]

Smacked in the face with some truth juice! haha Proto-hype sucked

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

I'll take everyone but Ryu. He isn't cool. Ninjas are cool. Ryu is...boring. It's the difference between Tony Jaa and some dude at your local Tai Kwon Doe.

Dante will always be my number 2...behind Wanderer from Shadow of the Colossus. I need Devil May Cry 5 now!!! Then again, Bayonetta put it to shame. Give the DMC games to Platinum, Capcom!!! It's most of the original team anyway!!!

[The_Devil_Hunter]

For reals..although if Capcom gave it to Platinum wouldnt that exclude it from MvsC3 or any future Capcom vs games? Regardless, Platinums needs to show them how its done. Ah.. but i love my capcom.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Not necessarily. They outsource games a lot. Many developers do. Level 5 made Dragon Quest VIII...even though they aren't a subsidiary of Square Enix. The IP still belongs to Square though.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

Your right but, Im going to miss the Capcom feel. But if it has to be done it has to be done.
As long as its an all Dante (or Vergil) game Im all the way in, otherwise im halfway in.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

On topic, Dante and Kratos will always be MY number one bad @ss characters around, with Leon S. Kennedy being my honorable mention.

[Dtoxz]

He's still badass. Marcus Fenix is gritty, dirty, nasty ol' bastard that doesn't take $hit from anyone.

[Obama]

Really? I thought he would be covered with $hit screwing his buddy Dom.

[Dtoxz]

This is a good list. I agree 100%

[Kingdom Come]

Marcus Fenix, the Ultimate Bad-Ass. *Curb Stomps Locust*
"Well we're not here to sell cookies."

[Inside_out]

Ironside...Sam Fisher...Conviction...If you played it, you'd know...

Farcry 2....Jackal....some of the best dialogue on the tapes you find scattered through out the game...chk U-tube, someone put them all together for yah....

The entire Delta squad from Gears...they share the lead at different times...Cole train should get his own spin off with Baird...

[Kingdom Come]

Well, Gears is my Favourite Franchise so I'd agree with ya :] And yeah I know the rest, good choices.

[coldfoot]

- The Overlord from the Overlord games, you have no choice but to be evil, either by domination or killing.

- The illegitimate love child of Zeus and the Hispanic cleaning lady, Rico Rodriguez, with his infinite grappling hook and parachutes, who only lives to cause chaos.

- Darth Revan in KOTOR, if you choose the dark side. You're the dark sith lord who would still murder a random civilian for the 10 credits in his pocket.

[Relientk77]

You forgot Ezio from Assassins Creed 2

he's the definition of badass

[jalen247]

None is more bad-a55 than Kratos.

That is all...

[Meryl]

here is my list
1. Nathan Drake coz he's a sexy badass man
2. Solid Snake
3. Leon Kennedy
4. Kratos - coz he kick's arse but he is nasty
5. Snow Villers - Most awesome FF character in years lol

[Meryl]

Nathan Drake is my number one because he is just damm sexy, can't wait for uncharted 3 (yes i am a girl lol)

[finalfantasymaster]

1.Cloud Strife Zack
2.Solid Snake
3.Kratos
4.Squall Lionheart
5.Dante