The reality of this list is that most of the characters that you play as in video games are destined to be defeated every now and again. Most of what’s great about the puzzle solving of video games is the trial and error, and most of the time error means losing a life or getting sent back to the checkpoint to start again. So when you measure the number of times a character respawn to how powerful they become in the endgame, it’s like night and day.
That being said, Mario and Donkey Kong and characters of their nature get wiped out in one hit most of the time. That’s pretty weak. A lot of the other characters on this list wouldn’t survive a wound in the real world either. So as powerful as many of the characters seem, they have vulnerabilities. Pretty big ones too. But don’t blame them, blame the people who created the games.
But don’t get too salty. If you were super powerful and undefeatable in a video game it wouldn’t be any fun and there wouldn’t be any stakes. Half of the enjoyment video games offer is the rush when your character nearly perishes and you make it out alive. Having learned some new survival trick or gained enemy combat intel, you feel like you’re growing. Unless you count god mode in GTA, because that’s different.
25 Mario Should Stick To His Day Job
Mario is one of the most recognizable symbols in the entire world. He can jump high he can save princesses, but if he touches a single enemy, his life is going to end or he’s going to be in bad shape.
The only time Mario really had tons of power is in an RPG setting where he can be leveled up and become a beast, or when he has the star power fueling his muscles. For all the love he’s given, he’s way weaker than everyone really thinks.
24 Just Monkeying Around
DK is in a similar boat to Mario in that he’s a one-shot knock out kind of guy in both offense and defense. It’s no one’s fault really, except maybe apes in general.
But as strong as this gorilla looks, he’s sort of a chump sometimes.
The problem with Donkey Kong is that he gets wiped out by fish in the same vein that he gets wiped out by 50-foot tall birds. If you’re so capable of defeating giant enemies, then where is your resistance to the little ones?
23 The Hero Reborn
This entry of the list only applies to early-game Link. The Link that has only a lantern or a wooden sword and is just realizing he’s probably never going to see home again. He is, after all just a kid in most of the games.
But he has to grow up fast.
When you wake a little kid up in his treehouse in the village and let him know he’s going to have to slay thousands of enemies to save the world, that childhood has ended. Link becomes a beast. But at first, he’s a chump.
22 The World’s Greatest Bounty Hunter?
The same way Link is weak in the early game is similar to how Samus is weak in the early game. But not entirely. The difference is Samus is a hardcore space bounty hunter with tons of skills and powers at the beginning of the game. The very beginning.
She eventually meets up with some bad guy and he drains all her powers.
Then you have to spend the whole game going through Chozo ruins trying to get stronger and unlock new stuff. Her weakness comes from the lesser state. Samus is still awesome, though.
21 The Changeling
Kirby may be on of the most controversial characters in all of video games regarding power and strength. I, myself, have personally placed Kirby at the highest levels of power in many other articles, but new evidence has come to light since those days.
Nothing pink can really be that powerful.
We honestly can’t believe that anyone thinks Kirby is strong. Again, nothing pink is strong and nothing pink can control the hearts of thousands and force them to do anything.
20 He Wants To Be The Very Best
This is Ash. Yeah, Ash is tough and has a lot of fighting spirit. But none of us understand why he’s still alive after how bad of a trainer he is. He never captures the strongest of Pokemon and almost always loses the first time.
But let’s talk about how none of the creatures he’s captured has ever truly turned on him like a lion or tiger at the circus. Whats stopping these things from turning around and going after him instead? If it ever happened, bye bye Ash.
19 Eating His Way Around
PacMan, the eater of ghosts and random fruits. The powerhouse gobbling up civilizations left and right, destroying all who stand before him when he gets his powerup. Seems like a pretty tough and popular fellow.
Not really though. On the toughness.
He gets wiped out so easily in every single game that his wife has to come to save him. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Equality. But Pacman doesn’t deserve any power respect.
18 Making Emo Cool Again
Just by looking at this guy, you’d think he’s an intense warrior who does some epic battle stuff and knocks everybody to the curb with his face. Well, half of that is true.
Especially the face stuff.
Vincent Valentine has some of the worst stats of all the characters in FF7. He has a double-edged sword type power up and needs to be in the back row. Long-range makes him weaker. He’s not in the top three at all.
17 The Pilot
For all the trash that this bird talks in the game, he goes down just as easily as Slippy Toad does. Granted, Falco can take out more enemies than Slippy and doesn’t often need the help of Fox, but if he does, and Fox bails, Falco perishes.
It’s not really his fault. The life of a fighter pilot who fights alien invaders is probably a short lifespan anyway. Falco seems a lot like the type of guy who makes a ton of money but has nothing in his bank account. He lives hard and fast.
16 The Fighter
Ryu is only on this list because if someone used a weapon on him he wouldn’t last very long. We know that’s a messed up thing to say and think about, but it’s the truth. You don’t bring a fist to a gun fight. Well, you can bring your hands, but like, you get it.
Ryu is a tough guy.
He travels the world to learn and master all sorts of martial arts, but he simply would not last long against a character with a gun. Think about it. All those muscles have no chance of stopping a weapon.
15 Faster Than The Speed Of Light
Sonic is a super fast, super fun guy who likes to hang out with his fox friend. He gets all of this popularity for being this great warrior and running all over enemies, but the truth is, he’s a bit of a weakling.
Sonic loses a life when he gets hit by an enemy or trap when he’s out of rings. So basically, if Sonic doesn’t continually collect rings while being attacked, he’s going to lose. What do the rings even do to protect him? Are they armor?
14 The Koopa King
Bowser actually is a pretty tough turtle. Except when you realize the whole purpose of the games he is in is to defeat him. Most of the time by attacking him in multiples of three. But that doesn’t really make a difference.
He gets beaten every single game.
Sometimes twice. But what we should really focus on is how tough he looks compared to how easily defeated he is in the first game. Hey, what happens when I touch this ax over here?
13 These Halo Guys
All the movies and video games featuring marines in battle make them out to be these warriors of rage that show up and wreck peoples cities. They are. But in Halo, they pretty much just soak up bullets aimed at the Master Chief.
For all their numbers and technology, the marines in the game get wiped out left and right. They’re probably happy to fight for the human race and help Master Chief, but they are really weak. They aren’t ready for space.
12 Dark Souls Guy
The Chosen may be the character that perishes the very most in all of video games. This guy or lady has to non-stop revive because of all the bosses and how difficult they are. The whole situation is unfair.
But all that aside, The Chosen is a pretty intense name and they eventually get really strong. But just one or two attacks from an enemy can wipe out even the strongest Chosen.
11 The BroForce
Anyone who’s played this game understands that the characters are all one shot lives lost. But the thing is, these are some of the most powerful characters in all of entertainment history. We got Neo fighting alongside Machete and The Terminator.
Even the Predator shows up with various incarnations of Chuck Norris.
This is, by all accounts, one of the most star-studded game in existence. But with all that firepower and muscles, these guys go down too easily.
10 Any Survival Game Character
If you’ve played a survival game then you know that the whole purpose of the game’s AI is to destroy you in every way possible. Whether you forget to wear clothing, forgot to drink water, or get attacked by a wild animal, it’s all part of the algorithm.
Survival games are just that. You have to survive.
You have to deal with everything trying to defeat you and make your life miserable. So as tough as these guys may seem, this is probably the 50th version of the character to have lived.
9 Ness
He’s a kid. And therefore a behind. But not a literal one in the street. Just like a behind in the fighting arena. Ness has to deal with aliens and cops and stuff and he does a pretty decent job with his powers.
But the truth is the same with this kid as it is with Ryu.
He’s not going to live through a weapon. For any of you who actually played a game that Ness is in, you know exactly what we are talking about.
8 The Doctor Is In
Neo Cortex, the enemy of Crash Bandicoot and his furry friends. He’s a diabolical jerk with a huge brain. He’s super smart and makes all sorts of machines to defeat his enemies, but most of them break.
But take this evil Doctor out of the lab and force him to fist fight a true hero and he’s going to go down, hard. Crash would mop the floor with this psychopath and not even stop smiling. Technology only helps for so long.
7 He’s A Real Bandicoot
Speaking of Crash, he’s another character who gets wiped out way too easily. He has limited life, like most heroes, and for all of his box art heroics, he gets knocked out pretty easily in the game.
Seriously, how weak do you have to be to not survive falling into a chasm? All those times Crash had to jump over stuff and not make it to the other side has surmounted into millions of passings. Get stronger.
6 Is He Actually A Doctor?
Dr. Robotnik is fat. There is no getting around that. Literally and figuratively. So what does he do to deal with his fatness. He bothers Sonic and tries to take all their happy lives away from them, jealous of their toned bodies.
But Robotnik is another scientist doctor who makes his soldiers and can’t really fight for himself. In a one on one battle, Egghead wouldn’t be able to take on Sonic any day of the week. He’s just too weak. Any day of the week.
