20 Smartest Video Game Villains Who Deserved To Win

20. Liquid Snake - Metal Gear Solid

You really have to hand it to Metal Gear Solid's Liquid Snake - the first of several Hideo Kojima villains on this list, and who touted one hell of a brilliant Machiavellian scheme.

Liquid's plan involved blackmailing the U.S. government for both $1 billion and the remains of Big Boss by threatening to launch a devastating attack against them with the nuclear-capable mech Metal Gear Rex.

From here, Liquid kills Solid Snake's mentor Master Miller and poses as him, feeding Solid false information that serves his own goal of activating Rex. 

Ultimately, "Miller" convinces Snake to prime a PAL card he believes will stop the launch of Metal Gear Rex, but in actual fact this is the very card that Liquid needs to activate Rex, much to Solid's surprise when he uses it.

In the end Solid manages to narrowly destroy Rex and defeat Liquid, but damn if his evil clone brother didn't get within a mouse hair of pulling off his entire insane gambit. 

And frankly, with the amount of effort he clearly put in, he totally deserved to.