In honor of July’s BAMF Loot Gaming Crate, today I’m talking about the biggest badasses in video games!
BAMF, of course, stands for… Well, it let’s just say it stands for someone that’s maximum amounts of badassery, and fortunately for us there is no shortage of awesome butt-kickers in video game history. There’s a lot to choose from here, but I’m going to break down a handful of my favorites – check it out!
(CD Projekt Red)
Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher – I mean, my love for The Witcher series has to be pretty evident at this point, and there aren’t many characters more badass than Geralt. This guy literally hunts and slays monsters for a living, employing all matters of sword skills, magic, and alchemical concoctions – but he’s also fiercely protective of the people he cares about and will go to extreme lengths to make sure they’re taken care of, even if it means taking on the most dangerous and supernatural foes in this, or any, dimension.
(Konami)
Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid – This super soldier, a clone from the famous soldier, Big Boss, is a certified Grade-A booty kicker. Spanning over several gaming generations, several consoles, and numerous titles, Solid Snake is a solid choice for any list of awesome video game characters. This guy uses his suite of skills to infiltrate and dispatch his foes – and in lethal or non-lethal ways too, if you so desire! He’s saved the world from a number of catastrophic nuclear wars, besting talented gunslingers, deadly snipers, giant robots capable of epic destruction, and even some supernatural enemies as well. And if that wasn’t enough, this guy is so proficient at badassery, he can hide in plain sight with only a cardboard box!
(Nintendo)
Samus Aran, Metroid – Arguably the first certified badass I ever played in a video game was Samus Aran when I played through Metroid and Super Metroid as a kid. Samus is also the source of one of the biggest surprises in video game history, as gamers the world over realized that this space bounty hunter was a woman! She’s an incredible character, traversing the universe and exploring uncharted and alien worlds to vanquish space pirates like Ridley and face off against fearsome foes like Mother Brain. And in a sort of Mega Man fashion, when she takes down a particularly difficult foe, she can absorb some of their power or augment one of her own. I think we can all breathe easier knowing that Samus is still out there, defending the universe from evildoers!
(Square Enix)
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider – One of the most iconic characters in video game history happens to the beautiful, and deadly, Lara Croft. But she doesn’t rely on advanced technology in the way Samus does. She doesn’t lean into a wide array of weapons and super spy tactics like Snake does (I mean, she does have the iconic pair of pistols, but that’s about it). She doesn’t have magic or god-like powers the way Geralt and Kratos do. Nope, she utilizes her intelligence, her guile, and her athleticism as she raids tombs, solves ancient puzzles, and takes on evil corporations – all the while still hitting us with quippy one-liners and overall just oozing ultimate coolness. She rocks, and in recent Tomb Raider titles, we’ve gotten to see a little more of the skills and savagery she’s able to employ to take on her enemies, and all in all it comes together to make her easily one of the biggest bad-asses in gaming.
(Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Kratos, God of War – I mean, look, this guy literally fights and defeats GODS for crying out loud! The Ghost of Sparta has had his fair share of run-ins with some of the biggest names in mythology, and thanks to being an unstoppable rage monster that would make The Incredible Hulk jealous, Kratos is able to defeat them all. But not only is he a badass killing machine of awesomeness, but he’s also a pretty solid dad too (in his own special way, I guess?) in the recent God of War installment, that saw him facing off against Norse enemies this time around. On top of ALL of that, he’s also the only entry on this list that would likely beat everyone else on the list handily, so I guess that sort of makes him the king badass? I guess if you have “God” in the title of your game, it puts you a tiny bit above the rest, I guess!
