Hayate – Dead or Alive 4
you know you're really screwed when this guy shows up
Hayate, (or Ein as he was known in Dead or Alive 2) with his calm and collected demeanour, may not seem all that blood thirsty at first, but we all know that characterisation doesn’t mean jack in fighting games. Hayate is violent, destructive and over the top in every way. He’s just so overpowered in Dead or Alive 4. He’s one of the quickest characters in the game and his attacks seem to do a tonne of damage, leaving nothing but destruction in your wake so long as you’re controlling him. A man is only as violent as his actions, which in Hayate’s case puts him on the same level as a serial killer.
Hotsuma – Shinobi
Crazy sci-fi fashion choices and violent tendencies usually go hand in hand
Having missed some of the really early incarnations of the Shinobi series, my first real introduction was with the PS2 reboot the franchise got in 2002. Considering a lot of other games were slowing down in pace or adopting cute cel-shaded graphical styles at the time, Shinobi’s gory and fast paced hack and slash gameplay really stood out from the crowd. The game’s protagonist, Hotsuma, seemed particularly violent as well, with a sword that would start to drain away at his soul whenever he stopped killing. It might not be his fault, but violence is violence.
Rikimaru – Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Just look at his scarred face. It houses the cold dead eyes of a killer!
This game was my dirty little secret as a kid. I managed to play this game at a very young age having borrowed it from a friend. Did it corrupt me and turn me into a mass-murdering stereotype? Arguably not, so channel Five and Jack Thompson can suck it. All it did was make think that Rikimaru was an absolute bad ass. The guy was clever, composed and sneaky in his violent ways, but yeah, he also did a lot of killing. I’m not saying it’s the kind of thing every kid should be exposed to, but Rikimaru’s over the top stealth kill animations certainly put a smile on my face in my youth.
