20 Video Game Villains You Couldn’t Wait To Kill

Batman: Arkham City is the GOAT of the Arkham games, opening up the world from the first one, piling in more and more of Batman’s rogue’s gallery and giving us gadgets, abilities and combat mechanics that would put games even a decade down the line to shame. And, of course, it’s the game where Batman’s true nemesis, the Joker, finally meets his end.

We have not just been waiting for a no-holds showdown with the Joker since Arkham Asylum, but pretty much since the dawn of Batman video games, antagonised by the fact that Batman will never put him down for good. And, in City, the Joker is at his most wretchedly evil, infecting Batman with his own blood disease, making a slaughterhouse of the steel mill, using chemical agents to create an army of warped and mutated people, and murdering Talia al Ghul.

Quite simply, we love to hate him, and can't wait to finally get our hands on him, and yet when the moment comes he's already a used-up wreck, teetering on the brink of death. Destroying Ra's al Ghul’s Lazarus Pit allows us to effectively kill Joker, with a final clash spoiling the antidote that might have saved the clown. And yet, after the pay-off and moment of victory, when Joker’s body is carried out of the City by the bat, we can’t help but feel a little heartbroken.