10 Video Game Characters You Didn't Take Seriously (Until They Killed You)

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! is a such a soothingly dreamy experience, all floaty gem-gathering and ambient Stewart Copeland tunes (he was in The Police, you know), that it's very easy to drift off into a reverie with no appreciable impact on difficulty. That is, until you're jolted awake, bolt upright with a soiled mattress, by Gulp, Ripto's pet pulveriser.

Though Gulp's name adequately describes his appetite - and explains his sizeable frame - he's anything but the lumbering oaf typical of other platformers. Sidestepping attacks until he stupidly charges into a wall isn't the tactic here. Indeed, sidestepping attacks is scarcely possible to begin with, such is the accuracy with which Gulp leads a barrage of fire from two cannons mounted on his back. As if that isn't bad enough, pterodactyls start dropping bombs for him to explode in your face in the battle's latter stages. Oh, and chickens, which he can heal with.

It'll take all your dragonly dexterity just to dance, let alone damage, the dastardly dinosaur. Hold your nerve long enough, and you'll just about pulp Gulp. Then it's back to sleep for the rest of the game.