Being one of the most celebrated game series as
far back as it’s early days on the N.E.S..., Mario has been on a lot of adventures throughout
the years. Ranging from running after Bowser to stop him from stealing Peach, all the
way to stopping a hostile planetary takeover. He’s always willing to race into danger to save
the day. And throughout all these risky heroics, there are villains more than capable of
making Mario’s life a living nightmare. But with all these villains, who
is the worst of the bunch? I’m Brad with 1upBinge, and today, we’re
taking a trip around the Mushroom Kingdom, to see which villains are the friendliest faces
and which villains are the most corrupt and cruel. Before heading out, we’re going to have
to make some rules, because if we include every single Mario game, spin off, and so on, this
list would be longer than the time it takes to get all the power moons in Super Mario Odyssey.
First off, we’re only going to be counting villains who debuted in a Mario title. For
example, we’re going to count Donkey Kong due to his role in the Mario VS Donkey Kong,
series, but we’re not including King K Rool. However, for our second rule, we are going to be
counting any deeds they do outside the official Mario series, so Donkey Kong’s good deeds will
also be counted. First up, we have a duo of good guys These two are Heroes, and are only villains
in a small number of games, with their heroic antics greatly outnumbering their crimes. We’re
just putting them here to check off all the boxes. First up in this list, we have a face that you
might have forgotten was a villain at one point, but here, we didn’t. That face is none
other than the main man himself, Mario. No, we’re not talking about the idea
that Mario is actually a brother-hating animal terrorist who cheats on Peach based on
cherry-picked evidence taken out of context… No, we’re talking about the time where he was
a legit villain in Donkey Kong Jr. Here, he is following through on the events of the first game,
and has Donkey Kong in a cage and is planning on shipping him, somewhere. Could be back to the
jungle, could be putting him in a zoo; we really don’t know. This is from a time where the story
wasn’t as prominent; in fact, its predecessor, the original Donkey Kong, was one of the first
arcade games to include any kind of story. Speaking of the original, we really can’t
blame Mario for what he’s doing here. Donkey Kong originally started off kidnapping Pauline and
trying to escape Mario. And even in Donkey Kong 3, he still is a villain, bullying Stanley by
ruining his flowers by disturbing insects. It’s certainly hard to argue that Mario
should just let Donkey Kong run loose. There is one more theory though, with
the idea that he actually used to abuse Donkey Kong by keeping him in a cage
and made him perform in the circus. That said, this is something that falls under the
umbrella of it being more acceptable in the past than it is now. Sure, nowadays such practices are
shady and animal circuses are even being banned, but back then, it was way more socially
acceptable and common practice. Plus, with how many times this story got
retold, this detail seemed to be forgotten and lost. Heck, the only reason we know about
this story is from an interview by Miyamoto. The original doesn’t even mention this;
not even on the arcade box itself. Aside from that, other versions of the game,
like the Gameboy remake, have Mario make peace with Donkey Kong in the end and make no mention
of this circus life. Even then, all of this isn’t taking into account that Mario is a hero nowadays.
You all know his good deeds by now; always rising up to the challenge to save the kingdom
from any variety of dangerous threats, from princess stealing turtles to an alien
army aiming to annihilate the entire planet... Or even venturing out to stop the multiverse from
being destroyed. He has pretty much done it all. Needless to say, even if he was bad
before, and with how dodgy the story is, that’s still a huge question
mark the size of a mega mushroom, he has more than redeemed himself.
We all know Mario is truly a hero. And for our second hero with a small
villainous side, we have the king of swing himself, Donkey Kong. Now, this isn’t the
same Donkey Kong as the original Donkey Kong; we’ll get to him later. Rather, he’s the
successor of him and is the hero of the Donkey Kong Country games, going against the
likes of the banana hoarding King K Rool. So, he certainly does have his own share
of heroic deeds to his name. So, just where is his villainous side? The Mario VS Donkey Kong games. Here, he’s seen
as just someone who wants some Mini Mario toys, and when they were sold out,
resorted to stealing them. A crime, sure, but hardly the worst we will see.
He is a bit more dangerous in the second game, “March Of The Minis”, kidnapping Pauline after
she seemingly ignored his mini Donkey Kong toy, and even then, at the end of the game,
he does seem remorseful for his actions. Afterwards, he seemed to be a good friend of
Pauline, even if he does kidnap her a couple more times... And even then, two out of the three
times he kidnapped her were planned with Pauline… Be it to test the Mini Marios, or to
just lead Mario to a surprise party. Aside from his anger issues, Donkey
Kong is genuinely a good guy. Up next, we have three entries
in the The Redeemed category. These three either regretted their
actions in the past, became better people, or helped the heroes enough
to be redeemed in our eyes. For our original Donkey Kong, that title
will go to our best non-hero villain, Cranky Kong. This was the Donkey
Kong that once kidnapped Pauline, and later made a mess for Stanley in his
greenhouse. He certainly was more active in his younger years, but now, he’s retired and
content letting his grandson take up his mantle, even if he is a hero. When he moved to
Donkey Kong Island, he was at constant war with the Kremlings, with them even going
to a college to learn how to beat the Kongs. Now in his old days, he is more
inclined to sit on the sidelines, giving advice to his grandson and his friends. He
is also willing to either help brew new potions for Donkey Kong or even sell him stuff.
Heck, in the latest Donkey Kong game, he’s even willing to join up with
Donkey Kong and fight alongside him. Of course, anyone who played Donkey Kong
Country will tell you, Cranky Kong got his name for a reason. And that is because he
is, well, cranky. He’s always ranting about how things were better during his time and how
he could have easily outperformed Donkey Kong and his friends in his heyday. However, make no
mistake. This ape, though old and, well, cranky, still does deeply care for his family, and
is definitely more a hero now than before. Our second of the three redeemed villains is
Count Bleck. First kidnapping Peach and Bowser, he would force them to marry one another
in order to create the chaos heart, a weapon powerful enough to destroy all
of existence in all dimensions. Of course, Mario heads off to stop such a heinous plan,
collecting the pure hearts throughout the story to counteract this heart. But what caused
Count Bleck to do such a terrible thing? Well, it’s a long story, told in between the
chapters of the game. First being called Lord Blumiere, he was once a guardian of the Dark
Prognosticus, stealing it with the Tribe Of Darkness in order to ensure that its dark powers
won’t be used for evil. During his travel with the tribe, he came across a lady by the name
of Timpani, who helped him feel better after he fell off a cliff. The two formed a romantic
connection with one another, with Count Bleck even getting ready to run off with her, only
for Blumiere’s father to cut their love short by sending Timpani to a faraway land and turning
her into a pixl, with her new name being Tippi. Distraught by this, he turned to open the Dark
Prognosticus to get back at his father. However, he became placed under the book’s spell
and became much crueler than anticipated, with the book influencing him to change his
goal into the complete erasure of all worlds. This puts a pretty reasonable explanation for
Count Bleck doing what he does in the game. He literally was not of a sound mind. Even then,
he does seem to be a decent boss. He is never mad with his minions and doesn’t punish them, and
even offers them to leave if they don’t like his plan of destroying the multiverse. When he
realizes that Timpani is indeed still alive, he does genuinely want to stop his plans,
but alas, he has gone too far and can’t stop everything at once. He even wishes for Mario
and his friends to beat him in his final fight. This isn’t just for show either. He willingly
sacrifices himself by finally marrying Timpani, counteracting a final attempt at destroying
the multiverse. For as much grief as he caused, he was in just as much himself, and
was even willing to make up for it. For our final entry here, we have yet another
paper-based villain, or rather, origami-based, with King Olly. First created by a toad, he
found out that this toad scribbled something onto his body and was distraught by the news.
Reasonable enough, right? Well, he decided to take revenge by creating an origami army, forcing
the paper residents into origami to serve him, and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom,
and planning on making 1,000 paper cranes so he can make a wish to erase
every single toad in existence. That's significantly less reasonable, and this
isn’t taking into account him nearly killing Olivia, his own sister... Might we add,
forcing Bobby to kill himself to save her, and even using Peach’s own body
as a decoration for his castle. His goal may be smaller than Count Bleck,
but his actions were far more cruel than his. So, just what exactly happened to
make him redeemed? After his defeat, Olivia read to Olly the message that was written
on him. Said message was about how the toad that created him wanted Olly to be a fair and kind
king, which he certainly failed at doing. In his last moments, Olly realized
just how foolish his actions were and requested for Olivia to fold his body
into the last origami paper crane to undo his mess. As irrational as his hatred was, he
did at least seem genuinely sad by his actions and was willing to make up for it to undo
everything... Apologizing as he passed on. Meaning that he at least barely
scraped by into the Redeemed side. If he didn’t die without apologizing, you would
definitely be seeing him way lower on the list. In our next section is The Wild Cards.
These faces can either be friend or foe depending on the game and
circumstances you meet them under. First up for these wild cards,
we have the, quite literally, dreamy Wart. His only major role was in Super
Mario Bros 2, and by that, we mean the American version which is just a Doki Doki Panic reskin,
not the hard Japanese NES game of the same name. He may not be a Mario villain at first due
to being in what is essentially an official Nintendo ROM hack of another game, but due to how
Nintendo is treating this game as the official American Super Mario Bros 2, we’re counting
him as one. He’s the frog king of Subcon and is capable of creating monsters with his dream
machine, using his army to take over the world, or in this case, the dream world. Pretty
standard villain stuff, right? Well, it’s going to get a bit complicated, as
we’ll have to look at Link’s Awakening. Yes, I know this isn’t a Mario game, but bare
with us. In this game, plenty of references to past Mario foes appear, with one of them being
Wart, going under his Japanese name, Mamu. Here, he’s actually a nice and decent guy, teaching
Link a song to help him on his quest. Given how both games deal heavily with dreams,
and how Wart is a product of these dreams, it definitely raises questions about his morality,
making him an easy pick for this grey area. Up next we have a foe who predates
Bowser himself, Foreman Spike. Way back on the NES in Wrecking Crew, he was the
boss of Mario, hiring him to take down a building. However, for some unknown reason, he sees it fit
that he impede the very job he set them out to do. This was back in the NES, mind you, so any real
logical reasoning for his actions weren’t thought of as important, and the focus was just more on
the gameplay. Him trying to stop the very same work he hired others to do is possibly
an attempt at giving the crew a bad name. Another lesser known foe is not for Mario
specifically, but for Toad, namely Draggadon. To the dragon, Toad is just another
person who trespassed into his lair, and considering just how much coins and treasure
he has, it’s safe to say that he doesn’t want to lose them. However, he also isn’t afraid to
help out Toad or Toadette after losing to them. He also makes an appearance in Color
Splash, being more than eager to eat Mario, or aid him in exchange for a magma
burger. He can be a friend or a foe, depending on how he’s feeling in the moment. Getting to some of the more well known nasties in
the kingdom, we have the greediest of the bunch, Wario. Literally the anti-Mario, he’s
here to prove that he’s the better Mario, taking over his castle and hypnotizing the
residents of the land into attacking him. As time went on, he became less evil, and more
greedy. He’s a powerhouse who specializes in treasure hunting, looking for gold and riches and
not being afraid of anything that threatens him. To him, treasure is number one and being a good
guy is just something that happens by accident. He does end up stopping great threats to the
world, like the Shake King in Wario Land Shake It, and Terrormisu in Master Of Disguise, but he was
already going to do that just to get some money. In Super Mario 64 DS, he ends up helping Mario,
Luigi, and Yoshi save Peach, without any monetary reward. He does have his moments, like making sure
a black cat that was following him in Wario Land 4 was saved. He’s most friendly is in the WarioWare
games, valuing all his employees as friends, just as long as they don’t ask him about
their salaries. He even treasures them to the point of leaving his door unlocked just
so they can come inside whenever they want. He’s certainly greedy and is willing
to do whatever to make some cash, but as long as money is out of the
picture, he is surprisingly a chill fellow. Next up for our wildcards,
we have the ever so curious Birdo. First meeting up with her in Super Mario
Bros 2, helping Wart keep his control over Subcon. Here, Birdo was actually a male who just wanted
to be a girl. The games tend to bounce back and forth with what Birdo’s preferred pronouns
are, but the one thing more confusing than that can of worms is her morality. She started
out helping Wart keep his rule, but eventually, she does appear in other games
with a more friendly attitude. She ends up helping Toad in Wario Woods, and
even aided Princess Peach by disguising as her in Superstar Saga. However, she
can also just as easily be a foe, like with her sudden appearance in Super
Mario RPG, or teaming up with Popple later on in Superstar Saga, fancying herself
as his lover. She is rather flirtatious, even flirting with Mario himself. Truly, one of
Mushroom Kingdom’s more eccentric characters. At the bottom of our Wild Card
Category is Wario’s partner, Waluigi. At first he was just the Luigi
to Wario, with his name literally being bad Luigi. We do get some brief acknowledgement
to this with the two being teamed up in sports games, having fun messing up a tourney board in
Mario Power Tennis, and training under Bowser. As time went on however, Wario expanded and had
his own adventures while Waluigi was left on the sideline. He still helps Wario out, like with
him aiding Wario in digging up an old tennis racket that was said to be super powerful. Most of
the time however, he’s just incredibly petty and mean to others. However, there was one time where
he was the main threat of the kingdom, and that is DDR Mario Mix. Here, he stole the keys in the
game to become the universe’s best dancer, just so he can use his incredible dancing to hypnotize
others into letting him take over the world. It’s an incredibly convoluted approach, but it is
a bid for the world nonetheless. And unlike Wario, who at least has been shown to do some good deeds, be it for money or just because, Waluigi
has no such outings to prove himself. Finally, we arrive at the actual Mario Villains,
The True Threats. These are either the most recurring villains in Mario’s universe, or
the most dangerous. This section is where most of the cast lies, even with our rules.
Buckle up; it’s going to be a long boss rush. First up on this list, we have the original
villain of Yoshi’s Island, Kamek. First trying to kidnap the baby versions of Mario and Luigi,
he ends up trying to take them to Baby Bowser’s castle, seeing the future for his baby as
someone who always lost to Mario and Luigi. Wanting to avert this for his baby, he plans to
kidnap them to stop them from beating Bowser in the future. Despite these villainous goals, he
really is just doing this to get the best for his child. He’s constantly shown throughout
the series to genuinely care about not only Bowser’s health, but also watches over Bowser
Jr, even giving him sound advice throughout Bowser Jr’s journey to help him grow. He views
Bowser as a son and Bowser Jr as a grandson, and just wants to make sure they’re happy, even
if they are villains and constantly harassing the kingdom. He is a good parent, it’s just that
his goals aren’t that heroic, to say the least. Speaking of the two, up
next is the son, Bowser Jr. Being Mario’s enemy ever since Sunshine,
his goal is just to beat him and kidnap Peach. All because his father told
him how he keeps losing to Mario. Truthfully, while he also is more than happy
to join his father on attempts to kidnap Peach, he’s also just as willing to want to have
friends, even befriending a paper version of himself in Paper Jam when Bowser and Kamek
didn’t trust their paper versions. He views the Koopa Troop and Bowser as friends and family,
looking up to them and wanting to do them proud. Even if they are bad guys, he will stick by with
them through. He still shows genuine concern for them, apologizing to the Koopalings for
acting so rough with them in his side mode, Bowser Jr.’s Journey, and even being scared for
his father’s safety in Mario and Rabbid’s Kingdom Battle… And in Bowser’s Fury, even teaming up with
Mario in the latter to help him get under control. Even after he kidnaps Spawny in
Mario and Rabbid’s Kingdom Battle, he does show care and concern for him, fretting
for his life after he falls from a cliff and giving him to Peach in the end of
the game. Truthfully, he is just a kid that wants the best for his family...
It’s just that this family is evil. From one turtle enemy... onto 7... The Koopalings.
And no, we’re not counting them all separately. This list is already long enough as
it is. Seriously though, it’s because they're all pretty similar. This group is
made up of Larry Koopa, Morton Koopa Jr., Wendy O. Koopa, Iggy Koopa, Roy Koopa,
Lemmy Koopa, and Ludwig von Koopa. Their goal is pretty much to fight with Bowser
out of a sense of loyalty. Be it just because they want to, or if they are his children; it tends
to change on a game by game basis. Regardless, they are more than happy committing
villainous deeds in the name of Bowser. From transforming kings into
animals and leading invasions, they are definitely threats, even if
they love Bowser as much as Bowser Jr. Up next, we have the Bowser to Toad,
Wingo. This treasure hungry bird loves shiny objects, like coins and power stars.
After seeing one that Toad and Toadette found, he swoops in to steal it from them,
only ending up stealing Toadette as well. Forcing Toad to chase after him to
get her back. Even after that adventure, he steals yet another power star the duo
found, kidnapping Toad as well this time. At first, you could say that he was just doing
it because they ended up getting in the way, which is fair enough. He could have just seen
the star and not noticed them clinging onto it. But at the end of the second book, he
willingly kidnaps Toadette and attacks Toad to knock him off a building. And at the start
of the third book has Wingo willingly steal a star from Toad, laughing at him while doing so.
Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and thrice is on purpose. He even ends up tricking
Toadette into letting her get more treasure, letting her go and letting her think he
accidentally dropped her, only to kidnap her again. For as little of we see of him,
he certainly makes it clear he doesn’t care about Toad or Toadette, and only wants riches.
Somehow, he makes Wario look like the better man. Finally, it’s the main man himself, Bowser.
You've seen Bowser do it all these days. He played the role of constant threat to the
Mushroom Kingdom, kidnapping Peach and trying to make her his wife… and as the savior of the world,
stepping up to defeat Fawful and the Dark Star, even if he was just angry at
them for stepping on his turf. He’s gone from viewing Mario as an enemy, to
willingly saving him in Mario Super Sluggers, and even teaming up with him
in Paper Mario The Origami King to help him stop King Olly. One of the
more constant things that we have to give him severe props for is that for as
loud and angry as he can be at times, his followers are genuine supporters of him,
and not because they’re scared of him. His troops greatly respect him, with
him returning that respect. Anyone that walks away from being a villain is just as
valued as a regular supporter in his eyes, with Bowser even wishing rogue soldiers good
luck with their new lives in Super Mario RPG. He’s also a proud father figure to his son.
Attacking the Mushroom Kingdom because his son got hurt due to him keeping the book
with the paper world inside away from Mario. And saving Bowser Jr from some folded soldiers
in Origami King. He definitely does have some good traits; it’s just that he’s also
the most constant threat to the kingdom. From a recurring threat to a small time
threat, up next is Tatanga. Being first introduced in Super Mario Land, his goal was to
take over Princess Daisy’s kingdom, Sarasaland. Hypnotizing her subjects, he plans on
forcing her into marrying him. Of course, Mario quickly put an end to that scheme, leading
Tatanga to retaliate by helping Wario guard one of the six golden coins that belonged to Mario’s
castle. After Mario defeated him again, that was pretty much all we heard of him. He pretty
much vanished from Nintendo’s lineup since. Heck, Wart made a more recent appearance than him,
being in the Link’s Awakening remake. He hasn’t been seen since the gameboy era, and
it’s unknown if we will ever see him again. Up next is one of the more well known
workers for Bowser, King Bom-Omb. Thanks to the power of the star given to him,
this king has taken over Bom-Omb Battlefield, claiming the land for himself and his troops. As Mario’s first foe in Super Mario 64, his role is to teach the player how 3D spaces
work, and as such, is one of the more polite members on this list. He insists on having
a fair fight, with his attacks being him throwing Mario in the original game... and using
bom-ombs for Yoshi in the DS version of the game. Even after being beaten by the
player, he is still respectful, even if he is arrogant about
his mustache. In Paper Jam, he gets more destructive. Wanting to keep the
secret where all the paper terrain is coming from, he tries to self destruct to destroy all the
evidence, with a high potential to harm not only the Mario brothers, but also his own workers.
Which is what drops him so low on our list. Here comes the bride, uh, I mean The Broodals.
These four wedding planners; Topper, Spewart, Rango, and Hariet, were hired by Bowser to
steal famous attractions from around the world to use in his wedding on the moon. Their
boss, Madame Broode, is more than happy to get in the way as well, even if they know that
Bowser and Peach’s wedding were less than ideal. Sure, it’s just their job, but they
are too dedicated to that job. From stealing a priceless artifact from the Sand kingdom to
kidnapping a living ghost crown, they caused more than a fair share of worldwide incidents,
even if it is part of the job. That said, we’re pretty sure that their constant attempts at
killing Mario shouldn’t be a part of any wedding planners resume. In fact, the world seemed to
agree. Apparently, after the end of the main game, causing a global incident and letting everyone
in the world see them at their worst made it so that they not only lost their jobs, but
are also extremely unlikely for anyone to hire them again. This leads to them
wanting to get revenge on Mario at the end, showing that they pretty much learned nothing.
1 out of 5 stars; would not recommend. Up next, we have three very noticeable members of
Bowser’s Forces, the Elite Trio. Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk, and Sergeant Guy are a gang
that works for Bowser. At first, they seemed to very much be on his side, helping him fight
back against Fawful. However, once Bowser’s guard was down, they willingly betrayed him, sending
him to Fawful for a reward. They seem to be more on Fawful’s side than Bowser’s, even willingly
trying to plant a bomb on the Koopa Cruiser. Unlike the other members of Bowser’s army, they
don’t seem to believe in treating others fairly or respecting Bowser, and only came back to
him because Fawful was defeated. While Bowser may have shrugged their antics off, the rest
of the army didn’t, and for very good reason. Their fates of being used as Bowser Jr’s training
partners were well deserved, to say the least. Up next, we have the oddest plant in the
kingdom, Petey Piranha. Being first shown in Super Mario Sunshine, more than happy to pounce
on Mario and spread his goop around the village. After his defeat, he would take a
break from being in the main games, only appearing in side games. However,
he would later return in Partners in Time, being more than willing to
not only aid the homicidal Shroobs, but also eagerly eat up Princess Peach, a friendly
photographer and a baby had no one stepped in. Anyone that is willing to eat
a baby is pretty horrible. Up next is the first foe in the Mario and Luigi
line, Cackletta. First appearing as ambassador of the Bean Bean Kingdom in disguise, she stole
Peach’s voice with Fawful and planned on using it on the bean star. Her goal is to get the bean
star to awaken by using Peach’s voice to grant her wish of taking over the kingdom. One problem;
Peach was alerted to this plan ahead of time, and used Birdo as a decoy to make sure that
the star wouldn’t be used by her. After getting mortally wounded by the Mario Brothers, Fawful
ended up putting her soul inside Bowser’s body, becoming Bowletta... The original gender
transformed Bowser before Bowsette happened. This allowed her to not only get control of
Bowser’s castle to destroy the Bean Bean Kingdom, but also trick Bowser’s subjects into
serving her. It takes literally getting inhaled by her and having the Mario
Bros face off against her very soul before they could claim victory. This fiend
is definitely a persistent and hostile witch. From Mario and Luigi to the original Super Mario
RPG, we have Smithy. The leader of the Smithy Gang, he’s first seen causing the destruction
of Star Road, stopping wishes from coming true. He’s a forger, who created most of the enemies
and bosses we faced throughout the game, and shows that he really doesn’t care about his
forces. Of course, since he did make them all by himself, to him, they are literally replaceable
people he could build. He came into the Mushroom Kingdom not only to take over the world,
but to create a world filled with weapons and hopelessness. He’s also very easy to agitate,
willing to hurt his workers if he’s angry enough. Be ready for a nightmare, because up next we have
the bat king, Antasma. The villain of Dream Team, this Boogeyman was once a regular bat,
but due to him feeding off of nightmares, he slowly turned into his current form.
Stealing the Dark Stone to conquer the world and spread nightmares to all, he was
stopped and imprisoned in the Dream World. However, as one last act, he shatters the Dark
Stone and practically destroys a civilization. Until Mario and Luigi showed up. Teaming up
with Bowser later, he helps him steal Peach in order to continue his original plan, only for
him to get betrayed by Bowser in the very end, leaving him at the mercy of
Mario, Luigi and Dreambert. Even then, this master of nightmares still stood
his ground and was willing to fight them to the death. As villainous as he was, we do have to
respect him not going down without a fight. Up next is the troublesome Fawful. Originally
Cackletta’s pupil, deep down he always felt like he was meant for bigger things than just being a
lackey. After her defeat, Fawful went underground, using beans that the baby Mario brothers gave
him in exchange for badges to help finance his plans. These plans came forth in Bowser’s Inside
Story, where he ends up taking center stage, infecting the Mushroom Kingdom with the
Blorbs virus (very topical today, I know). He ends up getting his own
minion in the form of Midbus, showing just how far he came. He even
shows genuine care and concern for him, be it out of not wanting him to grow
hatred for him like he did with Cackletta. Regardless, it is one of his very minor
good traits. His goal is to use the Dark Star to destroy the kingdom. Not take over;
destroy. Even after failing, he tries to use his remaining power to try and blow up the Mario
Brothers. It failed, but for his willingness to go down and try to take the Mario Brothers with
him, it just adds to his list of bad deeds, and drops him this low on our ranking. His
fury was definitely well heard and received. From one loud and hammy villain, to a more
serious one, The Shadow Queen is up next. The main threat in The Thousand Year Door, it was
sealed away a Thousand Years ago in fear of its power and desire to take over the world and drown
it in darkness. Thanks to Grodus freeing her, she ends up not only immediately killing
him, but also possessing Peach to continue her scheme of world domination. This is one of
the more serious threats in the Mario universe, being the very cause that started the adventure
in the first place. She is essentially a god, only getting defeated thanks to the crystal
stars weakening her enough to let Mario attack her. Given just how much mayhem she caused
prior to being sealed up, and how quickly she is to get back at it, her imprisonment and
spot on this list were both very well earned. Reaching the top 5, we have the Megabug. This
threat is a virus that was spawned thanks to the Rabbids playing around in a scientist’s lab.
This creation is the vortex that dropped all the Rabbids inside the Mushroom Kingdom in
the first place, causing the Rabbids to run amok and fight against the heroes. Truthfully, it
does remain out of the way for most of the game, only growing in the background. However, once
the team reaches the second half of the Lava Pit, it ends up possessing Bowser and becomes a true
threat. It wants nothing less than the complete destruction of both the Rabbids
universe and the Mario universe. Just right outside of the top three, we have
The Dark Star. The artifact that Fawful stole, it was sealed away due to just how evil it was,
with it being made of pure evil and malice. Even in the Mushroom Kingdom, nobody knows
just what its origin is, only that it is pure evil. When Fawful tried to use it on
himself, the Dark Soul only went haywire and ended up fleeing into Bowser’s mouth,
copying his DNA to become Dark Bowser, with plans to continue his goal of destroying
the world. He even plans on making all the residents vanish in a dark hurricane. It has
nothing but a desire to destroy everything, and had it not been for Bowser and the
Mario Bros, it could very well do that. And you thought only Kirby had to
deal with planet destroying threats; Mario is no stranger to that as well. Entering the home stretch with the top 3,
our first entry with the bronze medal of evil is not Mario’s enemy, but Luigi’s foe, King
Boo. His first outing in Luigi’s Mansion has him creating a fake mansion for Mario and Luigi
to check out, kidnapping Mario and being seemingly ignorant to Luigi at first. It’s only when he
realizes that Luigi not only beat his fellow boo subjects does he show dismay, calling
them his friends before challenging Luigi to one last fight. In the sequels however,
his anger is squarely centered on Luigi. In his first attack against Luigi, he breaks the
Dark Moon to drive the peaceful ghosts crazy, and when Luigi is close to repairing it,
opens up a ghost portal that could destroy the universe if left unchecked, all just
to try to kill him. He’s definitely gotten more bloodthirsty since his first
defeat, and his hatred for Luigi only grew, getting more and more angry the
more Luigi beats him. In Luigi’s Mansion 3, King Boo shows a complete distaste for Hellen
Gravely, even after she helped him escape. All he can think about is killing Luigi, wanting
him dead, even willing to trap the entire hotel in a painting just to get Luigi in there
as well. He is a ghost filled with vengeance. With the silver medal, we have the last
entry for the Mario and Luigi series, The Shroobs. And yes, we’re counting the entire
race; from Princess Shroob, Elder Princess Shroob, and all their subjects. They’re a race
of aliens that only know of one thing; destruction. One of their catchphrases you see
them say constantly through the game actually means destroy. They’re more than happy to
commit horrible acts throughout the game; from destroying a town that was celebrating
Christmas, feeding Peach to Petey Piranha, and taking over the entire Mushroom Kingdom,
they’re a force literally out of this world. Coming from a planet that is just about dead, they
came to the Mushroom Kingdom to continue spreading their species, and also their rampage and damages.
The species plans on destroying the entire planet. We also really don’t know if this is the first
time they did this stunt. It’s very likely that other planets fell to them. Due to just how close
they were with their goals and how dangerous said goal was, that being planetary genocide, they
rank as the second worst threat Mario faced. For the worst of the worst, there is only
one person who can truly be fit for the gold, that being Dimentio. If Count Bleck was hesitant
about his goal and had to be broken by the Dark Prognostic’s power to go for multiverse genocide,
and was even willing to back out from his goal, begging Mario to beat him... Dimentio is pretty
much the exact opposite of Count Bleck. He is more than happy to destroy every single
universe and speck of life. If you talk with Carson enough, it’s even implied that Dimentio
just may have had a hand in writing the Dark Prognostic itself, meaning he was plotting
on destroying the multiverse from the word “go”. His actions only further show how careless
he is of others, seeing both the heroes and villains as just pawns to further his own goal.
Even when he joined Count Bleck’s army, he always planned on overtaking him to reshape the entire
universe to his own image. He’s been pulling the strings behind the stage to ensure that everything
falls in place. From carrying out the events described in the Dark Prognostic, to even being
willing to destroy the entire multiverse after he dies just to be spiteful, he has done plenty
of vile deeds in order to get the job done. However, perhaps the most shocking one was him
casually popping in and flat out murdering Mario, Peach, and Bowser in one fell swoop. We even see
the heroes waking up in the Underwhere, the game’s version of the underworld. In just a snap of his
fingers, Dimentio did what no other Mario baddie managed to do; flat out kill not only Mario but
the princess and his most constant enemy. That alone puts him pretty high up. He also ends
up killing a brainwashed Luigi, thinking he is Mr. L, just to free him of his original
hypnosis and to, once again, brainwash him into serving him, and him alone. This is probably
the closest villain that Mario faced who is a flat out sociopath and doesn’t care about who falls in
his way. He is willing to exploit Count Bleck’s feelings to use up the pure hearts so he can
claim the chaos heart all for himself. He’s always smiling when causing misery, he’s making jokes at
others expenses, kills the main heroes, backstabs when he’s done using people, his goal is to at
the very least become a god of a new multiverse to rule as he sees fit and is definitely not
mentally stable to do so; it’s pretty obvious that this jester is no joke, is deserves the
gold medal for being the vilest Mario villain. But what do you think? Let us know who you think the most ruthless and evil villain
is in the Super Mario franchise. Be sure to hit that notification bell and binge
our Good to Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite
videogames... But most importantly, stay wicked!
