10 Most Hated NPCs In Video Games

8. The Dog - Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt
Nintendo

Another NPC that managed to earn our hate with barely any pixels was the dog from Duck Hunt and his barely stifled giggling every time we missed a shot.

Sure, it seems like he’s on your side. Helping you in your hunting endeavours, collecting all the ducks you’ve unalived. But in actuality all this dude does in the 1984 NES classic is pop up and laugh at you if you take a shot at a duck and it doesn’t connect. He just snickers at you mockingly. He has no other purpose than to make you feel bad for missing. It’s pretty impressive to be a hateful dog in video games, a realm that otherwise embraces canines of all shapes and sizes, but this dude knows exactly what he did to earn our ire.

I guess we can thank the Duck Hunt dog for being the first universally hated NPC, but that’s definitely all we can thank him for. At least you can beat the crap out of him in Smash, now.

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Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.