Games where the bad guys are not defeated in combat

Summary

• In the following games, the bad guys can be defeated without physical violence.

• Competitive puzzle solving is sometimes used to defeat video game enemies.

• Some games instead require you to avoid and outsmart enemies.

In many genres of video games, villains are a fundamental aspect. Most of the time those same genres revolve around defeating the villain in some form of combat. That being said, video games have evolved to the point where some villains cannot be defeated by brute force, or even physically at all.

In these contexts, sometimes the “bad guys” are just as bad, but need to be defeated in a way that doesn't directly revolve around confronting them. Here are some examples of video games where the bad guys still have to be defeated, but not through any physical violence.

5

Ace Attorney

Beat them in court

The Ace Attorney the franchise is rooted in a mix of mystery solving and legal drama. The series and its special nature allow these aspects to fully come to life in a visual novel format. The show's villains are often murderers and their accomplices who use a legal system that is unfairly biased against prosecution to get away with their crimes. Sometimes they may even overlap with the prosecution itself.

The villains are beaten when the proper evidence is uncovered to identify them as the culprit. The audience is then treated to a comedic and dramatic meltdown as the killer loses it in the stands. It's also worth noting that in this game, the use of brute force is typically a feature of either a villain or just an antagonistic character. In the initial Ace AttorneyPhoenix Wright has repeatedly lost evidence by directly confronting the guilty outside of court. He got punched, tasered, and even had the mob called in to separate him from his evidence.

After the first game, most prosecutors are also prone to use “weapons” in court, starting with Franziska Von Karma in Justice for allwho whips anyone who frustrates her. While these attacks are undoubtedly frustrating and painful for defense attorneys, they show that physical violence is largely futile in court, as these characters almost always end up either losing their case, being convicted of their crimes, or sometimes both.

4

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Crush through the puzzles

• Developer: Compile Corporation
• Publisher: Sega
• Released: December 1993

Competitive puzzle games can be a one-player experience at times. This is usually achieved by giving the player character CPU enemies to solve puzzles against. The player's ability to solve puzzles is often put to the test against enemies, as the player's solutions will directly hinder their opponents and vice versa.

One such example potentially familiar to Western audiences is Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. This game is a reskin Puyo Puyoitself a spinoff of the popular Japanese series known in the west as The Witch Saga. Mean Bean Machine uses for the most part Sonic the Hedgehog characters namely Scratch, Grounder and Robotnik and other villains who appeared in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog place of occupation Puyo Puyo. This means that the main character, Has Bean, is a direct copy of Carbuncle, the mascot of Puyo Puyo. Competitive takes on single-player puzzle-solving standards such as Tetris they are also widely available.

3

Mario Super Sluggers

Baseball battles

While sports “villains” exist in real life and are potential enemies in sports games, the villains of Super Mario the series may be more recognizable to some players. One example of such a game is Mario Super Sluggersa baseball classic featuring a variety of Mario characters, including many not often playable in the main series. In addition to exhibition matches, where the player can choose from an ever-expanding list as more unlockables appear, there is also a story mode (referred to as Challenge Mode).

Not only is this mode an alternate way to unlock characters, but it also has a few villains of its own. Bowser is usually the leader. Challenge Mode begins with Bowser Jr. and his goons (including some who seem to defect to other teams after the opening) stumble upon the Baseball Kingdom, where various ballparks exist, and add one of their own. Mario recruits various other players, including four team captains, to form a team to defeat the delinquent rookies.

These players often have challenges to complete in order to secure their own recruitment (hence the mode's name), after which it is usually possible to play. After assembling the right team to defeat Jr., his father arrives and the team must defeat a new incarnation of Jr.'s team, with Bowser acting as captain. There are also other antagonists, such as King K. Rool and the handful of Kremlings who serve him, appearing in DK Jungle. Finally, even the “bad guys” can be recruited for regular play in Challenge Mode, but Bowser and his team, the Bowser Monsters, will always be available. Although many characters have special attacks designed to damage or limit opponents, the way to “beat” the opposition has more to do with loading the bases and scoring home runs.

Other Mario Sports and party games also use this motif, where the player defeating the villain is based on competitive prowess rather than direct combat; however, the two often overlap somewhat in these types of games.

2

Super Monkey Ball

Represents an occasional antagonist

This popular Sega series is a platform game where you rotate your playable character (which is often, but not exclusively, a monkey or some other type of monkey) in a sphere to collect bananas and reach the goal at the end of the platform. The franchise has developed a number of characters since its inception, with the six most common being AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon, Baby, Doctor, and YanYan. The series has a variety of other playable characters, including occasional guest characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Kazama Kiryu, or other monkeys who tend to make more sporadic appearances.

Villains, while present, are probably not entirely necessary Super Monkey Ball experience. GonGon played the role of the main antagonist in the original game, but has been AiAi's constant friend ever since. One notable villain is Dr. Bad-Boon, an evil scientist from the future who debuts in Super Monkey Ball 2. Bad-Boon was attracted to MeeMee, but she was already married to AiAi and had also given birth to Baby, their time-travelling child.

In an attempt to sabotage their romance, Bad-Boon travels back in time to terrorize AiAi and his friends in a misguided attempt to win MeeMee's love. Bad-Boon tends not to interact as directly with gameplay; he is instead shown intermittently in cutscenes between levels when AiAi and his companions stop him. His plans tend to deviate from his original goal of winning MeeMee's love, where he attempts to shrink and eat the heroes and tries to cast a spell to make all bananas taste like curry, among other bizarre crimes. Finally, the player can “defeat” him by clearing the last level.

Antagonists with whom they interact more directly appear in other games in the series, such as Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitzwhere each world is topped off with a boss fight where the player must damage the boss without crashing himself.

1

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

There are enemies, you just can't attack them

When done right, survival horror is every bit as terrifying a genre as its name suggests. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one such example. In addition to the puzzle solving elements, the “horror” is directly transferred to the game. Daniel is unable to directly attack monsters and in most cases it would be wise to avoid them. Daniel's health doesn't allow him to take many hits from monsters, so he normally has to stay out of their line of sight unless he can block them.

This also comes with problems, as Daniel's apparent nyctophobia (or fear of the dark) lowers his sanity, which can cause him to hallucinate enemies that aren't actually there, or even die on harder difficulties. Although Amnesia is passable to say the least, the gameplay never gives you the satisfaction of definitively destroying otherworldly monsters or the darkness itself. This means that both can be temporarily countered with resources found throughout the game.