12 Most Ridiculously Overpowered Video Game Characters

12. Max Payne

Max Payne is the interminably depressed, gun-totting cop protagonist of the video game series of the same name, a wiry man with a perennially-constipated look on his face, but don't let that fool you: put two Dual Uzis in his hand, and he'll mow down an entire room of goons before you can even say "John Woo".

The Bullet Time gimmick introduced in the first Max Payne was a totally revolutionary way to empower players, though the flipside of this is that it made all of the series' enemies so ridiculously easy to blast through, even on the higher difficulty settings. Throw in the fact that Max can carry a hilariously unrealistic number of weapons, and you have a game that, while claiming to be "gritty" and down to Earth on the surface (by way of its film noir-inspired style), is really closer to a superhero comic book with its time-slowing mechanic.

It's an insane amount of fun, so most players wouldn't have it any other way, but even so, it's easy to feel like Remedy gave the player just a little too much power, or the enemies not enough.

11. Sephiroth - Kingdom Hearts

It first became apparent that Sephiroth was immensely overpowered when he briefly appeared in Cloud's party in a flashback in Final Fantasy VII, where he's essentially indestructible. This isn't so much fun, though, when he turns up at the Olympus Coliseum as an optional boss in Square Enix's brilliant Kingdom Hearts.

Thank all that is holy that this is just an optional boss fight, because it likely would have been game-breakingly difficult for most players otherwise. Being at a high level before taking the fight on is a given, but even at level 99, it's still no cake walk, as Sephy has a large amount of HP, and his Heartless Angel attack will instantly kill Sora if it isn't interrupted first.

The ludicrous degree of strategy and thought required to beat Sephiroth makes it only worth attempting for the most dedicated and hardcore players, though that feeling of adrenaline-infused joy when he finally falls is totally worth the hours of angrily cursing Square Enix's name. Honest.

10. Eddy Gordo - Tekken

Anyone who's played Tekken with a buddy will know the feeling of barely-suppressed rage if their pal ends up picking Eddy Gordo as their fighter of choice. Widely regarded as the series' "cheap" choice, he's a wildly overpowered character great for newbie players to score a few easy victories, because his frantic breakdancing style of combat (known as Capoeira) is just such a pain to both defend and attack against.

Because Eddy can destroy opponents through sheer button bashing, he proves to be a challenging fighter to even the most skilled Tekken players. Blocking is the key to taking him down, but even then, it's not exactly a walk in the park. On the other hand, if you're playing as Eddy, it's hilarious watching your friends get bent out of shape as you spam random buttons on the controller and win without even looking at the screen.

And because Namco are clearly trolls, they introduced a female equivalent of Eddy's character, Christie Monteiro, in Tekken 4.

9. Dante - DmC: Devil May Cry

In fairness, Dante is the son of a demon, so it's none too surprising that he's shown to be an absolute beast throughout his tenure in the Devil May Cry games. That said, the original franchise did occasionally show him getting into a spot of bother, something which was completely thrown out the window in the decidedly more casual-friendly 2013 reboot, DmC.

Compared to the insane difficulty of, say, Devil May Cry 3, DmC was a decidedly more streamlined game, allowing Dante to make short work of pretty much any enemy on the normal Devil Hunter mode, while even the more challenging Dante Must Die mode feels significantly nerfed compared to the same mode in the previous games. Though playing as Dante is still fun to a point, when a game is just too easy, it reduces the thrill, as it's easy enough to just coast through without having to pay too much attention or get too immersed in what's taking place on screen.

A little vulnerability endears us more to characters most of the time, and that's something the new Dante is totally lacking.

8. Oddjob - Goldeneye 007 & 007: Nightfire

Despite the N64's Goldeneye 007 being one of the greatest multiplayer FPS games ever made, it in fairness hasn't aged well at all, a fact made no clearer than the inclusion of the ridiculously unbalanced character Oddjob, who is essentially the Eddy Gordo of the FPS genre, but far, far worse.

The key problem (or appeal, as some might say) with Oddjob is that he's the shortest character in the game (for reasons unknown considering that he's of regular size in the Goldfinger film), and as such players cannot simply use auto-aim to fire at him as they can every other character. Instead, they have stop moving and employ manual aim to shoot lower down, at which point anyone playing as Oddjob has likely already turned them into Swiss cheese.

That's not all, though: Oddjob's OP status continued with the 2002 game 007: Nightfire, where Oddjob's famous razor-rimmed hat was insanely accurate to an extent that could certainly be called unfair. As such, in both Goldeneye and Nightfire, many players instituted a "no Oddjob" rule for multiplayer, and rightly so.

7. Solid Snake - Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake is without question one of the most bada** characters in video game history, but to the same token, he's also one of the most ludicrously overpowered. The original Metal Gear Solid game's torture sequence is crucial because, if the player is able to endure the torture, they will earn a Bandana for their second play-through (which grants them infinite ammo), but if they succumb to it, they will earn Stealth Camouflage (which renders them invisible to every enemy who isn't a boss or part of a set-piece).

Still, earning the ability to completely steamroll any subsequent play-through at least requires players to get through the game first once, right?

Not a problem: just keep your rations equipped during any battle (which the games hand out like candy), and unless you're totally useless at MGS, you'll be pretty much unable to die. This is especially the case in the fourth main game, Guns of the Patriots, where maxing out your ration load is incredibly easy (despite being able to store twice as many as in the earlier games), and as such, even the game's tougher bosses aren't particularly stressful to contend with.

Given that the fourth game revolves around an older, weaker Snake, this seems like something of a contradiction, does it not?

6. Mike Tyson - Punch Out!!

One of the most infamously difficult final bosses in video game history, Mike Tyson is pretty much the dictionary definition of an overpowered boss, apparently engineered solely with the purpose of selling more NES controllers given how many must surely have been broken because of this indecently unfair fight.

It isn't just the power of Tyson's punches that makes him ludicrously overpowered, but the speed with which he delivers them, almost completely un-telegraphed in some cases, which isn't even true to the sport of boxing, for Christ's sake! As such, a combination of reflexes and memorising Tyson's attack patterns are key (even if these patterns are never exactly the same).

Even getting to the Tyson fight itself isn't easy (unless you use a password), so once you're there, having to face off against such an unbridled beast is an incredibly tense, adrenaline-fueled scenario. Though Tyson's in-game ferocity reflects his real-life dominance of the boxing ring at the time, he's still overpowered to near-superhuman levels with his insane strength and speed.

5. Lu Bu - Dynasty Warriors

Lu Bu is the video game equivalent of a bowel movement that just won't flush away. The notoriously overpowered baddie appears in pretty much every Dynasty Warriors game and, as soon as he catches sight of you, will pursue like a dog chasing a bone.

So ferocious is Lu Bu that a meme has been made of the phrase, "Do not pursue Lu Bu!", though in many of the games, players do not need to directly confront Lu Bu to proceed: most often you will need to kill another General and simply avoid Lu Bu's wrath long enough to do so. If you do have to fight him, one common strategy is simply to run away from him for long enough that you can funnel him through to other soldiers more capable of inflicting damage upon him (especially if your health is low, which it probably will be by this point).

Even so, he's able to cut through most of your men with the utmost ease, though it is hilarious watching everyone around you collectively crapping themselves once he shows up. Only the hardiest players should even consider confronting Lu Bu one-on-one, and given his real-life reputation as the toughest soldier in Chinese history, his absurdly overpowered status at least makes sense.

4. Tommy - Prey

Relatively early on in 2006's underrated first-person-shooter Prey, the player gains the ability to Death Walk, such that when player character Tommy is overcome by enemies, he doesn't simply die and force players to reload from their last checkpoint.

Instead, he's sent to the spirit realm, where the player must shoot coloured wraiths to determine how much health and spirit power they will have upon being returned back to the near-exact spot at which they died just moments earlier.

It's an interesting gimmick that means the game never gets too frustrating, but to the same token, it also means that the game is never really a fair fight, and there's absolutely no tension or fear of death because the game is so ridiculously forgiving. It's pretty unfair on the bad guys, really: once one of them gets word that Tommy can just keep coming back from the dead, you'd think the rest would just give up...

3. Monkey - TimeSplitters

The monkey in the TimeSplitters series is the Oddjob of the contemporary FPS game, but it ranks higher on our list because, in this day and age, these sorts of cheaply overpowered characters are pretty unacceptable.

After making their first appearance in TimeSplitters 2, the monkeys have been a source of tremendous anguish for anyone not playing as one. Whether you're taking them on as CPU opponents or as controlled by a buddy in multiplayer, the monkeys have the irritating combination of being short and extremely fast, making them a pain to hit, and in some cases, difficult to even notice amid the frantic environment.

That cheeky little circular face only makes their deviousness all the more irritating as they dodge your bullets and put you down with ease, such that, much like Oddjob, the monkey often has to be banned for player use during split-screen play. Hopefully if a TimeSplitters 4 ever actually happens, the pesky creatures will be nerfed a little bit.

2. Blue Shell - Mario Kart

Anyone who has ever played Mario Kart will know the pain of calmly sliding into first place in the final lap of a race, only for another player to hurl a Blue Shell your way. A Blue Shell attaches itself to whoever is in the lead and, upon detonating in their face, will typically send them back to 3rd or 4th place by the time they've recovered, which is all the more infuriating if it comes moments ahead of the finish line.

What's truly irritating about the Blue Shell (and amazing if you're anyone but 1st) is that it's incredibly difficult to avoid (either by slowing down to 2nd place quickly enough or using a mushroom or star), and often the smartest tactic is simply to slow down enough that other players get caught in the blast as well, so at least you can make a few of your buddies share in the misery.

Still, it's one of the most widely-criticised and controversial aspects of the Mario Kart series, perceived to be punishing skilled players while rewarding the less-skilled, and even allowing them a fluke victory as a result. In terms of shifting the balance of a game, few "characters" are as ludicrously overpowered as the Blue Shell.

1. Meta Knight - Super Smash Bros.

There's one character who is considered so OP that he's been banned from most major professional gaming tournaments, and that's Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. His attack speed and recovery abilities have been cited as unfairly high compared to other characters in the series, yet he is returning for the upcoming Wii U Smash Bros. game, though with some apparent changes made to his skill set, it's widely expected that he has been nerfed somewhat.

At present, with his enhanced ability to recover from attacks that would have any other character unable to return to the stage, Meta Knight is regarded as the most powerful SSB character in history, and as such anyone with even just moderate knowledge of the series knows to pick him above all other fighters, unless you're operating on an honour system and implement a self-imposed ban on the ridiculously overpowered character.

Whether he is still at all OP in the new Smash Bros. game or not, there will inevitably be players complaining either way. Which video game characters do you find to be the most overpowered? Shout it out in the comments!