40) Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – SUB-ZERO
2008

Sub-Zero gets the special treatment in the big DC crossover game. He’s the only guy on the Mortal Kombat side who’s aloud to take down Batman in a straight fight in the story mode. The story mode also paints a picture of Sub-Zero being a guy who’s unsure of what it is he should be doing. He’s more virtuous than what his ninja clan stands for, but he’s also the odd man out when it comes to the other defenders of Earthrealm. Nobody trusts him to do the right thing, but he does want to do the right thing.

Inspired by Batman, Sub-Zero decides to use his efforts to being a cape-wearing vigilante who creeps through the darkness and cold to crush evil wherever it lies. This way he can be a good guy and defend Earthrealm without having to put up with Liu Kang and the others. The Lin Kuei doesn’t take the desertion well and much like Batman, Sub-Zero will now have to contend with a pissed off league of assassins trying to hunt him down.

39) Skullgirls – PEACOCK
2012

Peacock is the one character in Skullgirls who has a personal connection with the final boss Marie (otherwise known as the Skullgirl). Patricia was mutilated by the mafia and her friend Marie, in all her sadness and anger, found the Skull Heart and wished for revenge. She’s since started massacring the mafia, while at the same time, becoming more and more of a puppet for the Skull Heart’s evil and turning into something increasingly demonic. Patricia was rebuilt as Peacock to destroy Marie, augmented with reality-bending cybernetics. Due to her own shattered psyche over what she’s gone through and her love for cartoons, Peacock takes the form of an old-timey cartoon character and fights with cartoon physics.

Peacock confronts Marie and tries to talk her down to no avail. Marie shows off that she even took out the man who nearly killed Peacock and started this mess. Still, Peacock knows that Marie is fighting a losing war for her soul and it’s only a matter of time before the Skull Heart takes over completely and makes her unstoppable. Peacock defeats her friend and as part of her victory, is offered the Skull Heart. She’s able to make any wish her heart desires, but why do that when she’s already the strongest?

Marie is still alive, but is falling to pieces by the second. She apologizes for all she’s done. Peacock smiles and forgives her, saying that they’ll always be friends. Besides, now that she’s fulfilled her purpose of destroying the Skullgirl, she can find a new purpose in continuing where Marie left off, killing off mobsters left and right. Marie feels happy about this and burns to nothing.

Peacock makes good on her promise and takes out most of the mafia. With only a couple left, she goes after a mobster named Lorenzo. Lorenzo has something up his sleeve with his enforcer Black Dahlia. It ends with Peacock and Dahlia going at it.

You know what’s crazy? In an ending where our hero kills her best friend, it’s still the most optimistic ending in such an otherwise colorful and wacky game.

38) Mortal Kombat: Deception – NOOB-SMOKE
2004

Deception has the cool pairing up of Noob Saibot and Smoke, creating a two-in-one tag team character. While this is explained via Noob reprogramming Smoke to do his bidding, there isn’t much that links them together. Noob Saibot is a demon henchmen while Smoke is a ninja transformed into a cyborg. Their ending shows that they have more in common than we realized. They go to the Netherrealm to start creating an army of cyber demons (I’m guessing Noob has an axe to grind with Flynn Taggart or something). Turns out Sub-Zero followed them and that’s when they drop the bomb.

Smoke obviously recognizes Sub-Zero, but so does Noob. It’s here where we find out that Noob Saibot is Sub-Zero… the original Sub-Zero. The older brother from the first Mortal Kombat game and the Mythologies prequel. After all, if Noob was such a big soldier in Shinnok’s army, why wasn’t he helping out during Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero? There’s zero mention of him there. His first appearance is Mortal Kombat II, the first game since the original Sub-Zero’s death. It’s because they’re one and the same!

Raiden warns Sub-Zero at the end of Mythologies. He tells him that if he continues to live the way he does, he’ll go to Hell when he dies, but he can repent and change his fate. Sub-Zero chooses loyalty instead, leading to his entry into the Mortal Kombat tournament and therefore his death. He’s basically the ninja version of Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction. Much like Sub-Zero created Scorpion, Scorpion created Noob Saibot. The difference is that Scorpion was reborn a spectre, a creature of passion. Noob Saibot is a wraith, a creature of coldness and evil.

Noob doesn’t care that this younger Sub-Zero is his brother. He lacks the emotion to do so. He and Smoke tear Sub-Zero in half and Noob begins his rule as Lord of the Netherrealm.

37) Injustice: Gods Among Us – BATMAN
2013

Batman’s ending is the perfect epilogue to Injustice’s storyline and works as a good epilogue to Batman himself. The story involves a crossing over between two worlds. One is the regular DC universe (or a reasonable facsimile) and the other is the Injustice universe, a world defined by Superman and most of the Justice League ruling as well-meaning tyrants.

There’s a bit of foreshadowing early in the game’s story mode where the regular DC Lex Luthor mentions his plan of getting a bunch of villains together, having the Joker blow up Metropolis and then using his company to rebuild the city, thereby winning him public favor. That plan is ultimately foiled and that Luthor isn’t heard from again in story mode, but keep this part in mind.

Meanwhile, in the Injustice world, Luthor was always a good guy. He was Superman’s best friend and according to the comic tie-in, has always known everyone’s secret identity while using his resources to secretly protect all their loved ones. Considering Superman’s recent actions, Luthor has been working with Batman and the Insurgency, hoping to help overthrow Superman. That betrayal ends up costing him his life and finally pushes Superman over the edge into outright villainy.

Batman, meanwhile, has had his own problems. Superman publicly revealed that Batman is Bruce Wayne. He’s been betrayed by some of his closest allies, including not only Superman and Catwoman, but his own son Damian, who had killed Nightwing and took his identity. When DC Batman offers to help by bringing in his world’s Superman, Injustice Batman is violently reluctant because he can’t bring himself to trust any kind of Superman. He ends up giving in and everything works out, leading to Injustice Superman being defeated and held in captivity.

In Batman’s ending, he finds out that Lex Luthor had it in his will that Bruce Wayne would inherit his tremendous fortune. The press follows as Batman opens up a vault filled with walls of gold bars. Now he’s double rich and can help rebuild Metropolis and Gotham City after the climax of the story leveled them both.

Inspired by Batman, the citizens of both cities work tirelessly to help rebuild and reform the communities. Usually, Batman would have tried doing this on his own, but with his renewed ability to trust, he has all but done away with his masked identity to lead as Bruce Wayne. It seems Luthor had something with that plan of his.

36) World Heroes 2 Jet – ALL ENDINGS
1994

The term “Engrish” gets tossed around and outside of the Samurai Shodown games, I’m not sure I’d call SNK’s translations “Engrish”. It’s more than that. Like, the words and phrases ALMOST make sense as things someone would say, just not in the context they are given. The main villain of King of Fighters 2001 reacts to his defeat with, “Is this the end of lovable Ignis?” and Terry Bogard says nonsense like, “Wubba wubba, I’m in the pink today!”

The endings to World Heroes 2 Jet are the pinnacle. The game only has three endings, all based on how well you do against final boss Zeus. No matter the ending, you get this screen.

What madness he says next all depends on how much health you have in the final round. My personal favorite is when you barely have any life left. And I quote:

“YOU FILTH, YOU SLIME, YOU LAWYER! To think you had such power… But, heh, heh, heh… it was a crazy, hip time!”

If you have a middling amount of health left, you get this. And yes, it does misspell “twighlight”.

“But when we meet again, think of it as your twighlight time! Wah, hah, hah!”

So far so good. But then when you win with practically all of your health, things get silly. Zeus’ henchman Jack appears (in a more cartoony form) and tries to tell him that everything will be okay. Zeus stands tall and agrees, saying that they should get back to doing some evil stuff. Then I’m guessing he’s addressing the winning character when he says this gem:

“Hey, you. Still can’t walk and chew bubblegum at the same time? Oh, nooooooo!”

He and Jack then run off across the world to escape.

35) Vampire Savior – BABY BONNIE HOOD
1997

No doubt about it, the breakout character of the third Darkstalkers game was BB Hood, the adorable-yet-murderous little girl dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, who happens to be better armed than an entire third world country. Her ending shows a twisted, cartoony neighborhood that looks inspired by Halloweentown. The anchor on the Vampire News talks up news on a serial killer going around in the guise of a young girl. A little boy is watching this and turns around with tears in his eyes, revealing him to be a wolf.

His mother reassures that he’s safe, claiming that his father will always be there for him. An outside shot of the home (where not only do the trees have faces, but one of them is smoking a cigarette) shows that BB Hood is on her way to find her next victims. The music suddenly transitions into something sounding much like the shower screech from Psycho.

34) King of Fighters ’97 – TEAM KOREA
1997

The dynamic between Kim, Chang and Choi has been built up over the years. Kim practically adopts two criminals and abuses them with constant training, lecturing and more than likely a few beatings. All for the sake of making them better people. In ’94 they’re pretty open about being up to no good and are given another year of punishment. In ’95, Kim says they aren’t ready yet and they try to escape. In ’96, Kim’s about to let them free, but they get so wrapped up in the moment that they talk shit about him in his presence and that freedom is revoked.

They seemed to have learned their lesson in ’97’s ending. The three do a TV interview where it’s talked up how Kim’s rehabilitation project has been an inspiring venture for the public. Chang and Choi think it’s bupkis, but know to keep their mouths shut. Kim gives them their freedom and they all share an emotional moment where the two former criminals cry crocodile tears in front of their master.

Days later, the two are wearing some swank suits and sit on an airplane to Japan. Over some rather lengthy dialogue, it’s spelled out that they lied about starting a business so they could be granted more prize money, they’re totally going back to a life of crime and they think Kim’s a gigantic idiot for falling for their ruse. Too bad Kim’s been invited to meet with the Tae Kwon Do Club… in Japan. He’s sitting right behind them.

Kim is both furious and disappointed that he’s wasted four years of his life on these guys… but fret not! Kim happily stands and points, swearing on his life that he’ll be able to make these two into great, law-abiding citizens eventually! This time, Chang and Choi’s tears are a little more genuine.

33) Tekken 4 – YOSHIMITSU
2002

Yoshimitsu has always looked pretty unique and badass, but Tekken 4 went way over the edge. Instead of looking like a cyborg alien samurai, Yoshimitsu is redesigned as a skeleton dressed as a beetle, complete with working wings. Plus his voice is all deep and echoey and demonic.

He is the leader of the Manji Clan, which essentially makes him a modern version of Robin Hood, only with a green laser sword infected with the Soul Edge’s energy that’s been passed down for generations. In other words, not only is he better than Robin Hood, but he’s better than Green Arrow, who is also a modern version of Robin Hood, but doesn’t have a Soul Edge laser sword.

Winning the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament nets Yoshimitsu the keys to the Mishima Zaibatsu. He arrives to Heihachi’s tower alone, seeing Heihachi surrounded by suited goons. Heihachi outright refuses to adhere to his own rules out of his hate for the Manji Clan. He feels that they’re a bunch of con artists and they won’t be getting his precious company. During all of this, Yoshimitsu only says one line.

“Those who tread the path of evil shall face judgment eventually.”

Heihachi just laughs at him, but then gets word that during this powwow, the rest of the Manji Clan have stolen the entire treasury vault and airlifted it away with a helicopter. Yoshimitsu stands silently as Heihachi realizes that he’s been set up. He yells at his men to open fire, but that has no effect.

Heihachi curses Yoshimitsu as he flies off into the night.

32) Street Fighter X Tekken – ZANGIEF AND RUFUS
2011

Oddly enough, Street Fighter X Tekken isn’t much of a crossover game. I mean, they have special rival matches that have the separate companies interact, but the game’s storyline is more about interactions between people from the same series. It’s from the tag team scenario and the need to pair up all the characters. A lot of them make sense like Ryu/Ken, Vega/Balrog, Paul/Law, Lars/Alisa and so on. But then you get a lot of characters who otherwise wouldn’t interact outside of maybe a character-specific win quote here or there. Teams like Sagat/Dhalsim, Julia/Bob and Rolento/Ibuki. These work out pretty well. For instance, Julia becomes interesting for the first time ever just by giving her some romantic tension with Bob.

Zangief and Rufus – or as they call themselves, the Space Cyclones – are the best pairing. Zangief is sent by Russia to bring home Pandora’s Box and he gets Rufus to watch his back. Rufus only wants to go along so he can destroy the box out of revenge for its publicity taking the starch out of his recent US martial arts tournament win. Over the course of the game, the two go from borderline reluctant to a cohesive unit to outright admiring the other’s style. Go figure that the team with the Russian guy would lead to excellent comradery. Once they’ve defeated Ogre, they get a closer look at Pandora’s Box.

Rufus is too busy talking a mile a minute and the box opens up. A strange, blue light creeps out of it and slowly engulfs the two. Neither are sure what’s going on and Rufus continues to talk through the entire process. Once the light takes effect, we’re left with our two heroes in their new forms. No longer is Zangief a mountainous brick house and no longer is Rufus a mobile blob. The two have been given fit bodies more reserved for the likes of Ryu and Ken.

Upon realization, the two scream in horror, “NOT MY IRON BODY!” and, “NOT MY ABS OF STEEL!”

The text epilogue is pretty nice. Zangief is knocked into a deep depression from his transformation, but Rufus calls him up, figuring that they should make lemonade out of these lemons. They’re going to train together and take the fighting world by storm with their new bodies. Zangief is taken in by Rufus’ optimism and follows his lead.

31) Soul Blade – SIEGFRIED SCHTAUFFEN
1996

Siegfried’s a bit troubled. As a teen, he got a bit too rebellious and killed a knight over some trivial matters. That knight ended up being his father, which drove Siegfried mad. He made himself believe that some major enemy did the deed and put himself on the quest to find Soul Edge so he can get his revenge.

In the “bad ending”, which is also the one used to really springboard the series, Siegfriend finds the discarded Soul Edge swords and picks one of them up. It immediately locks onto his hand and starts pretty much eating his soul as he screams in horror. The voice acting is plenty bad in this game, but this is the one time where they got it right.

He transforms into a horrifying knight and soon we see Nightmare wielding the Soul Edge, staring down at the village below, ready to spread death and destruction.

30) Guilty Gear – POTEMKIN
1998

Despite being the strongest fighter in Guilty Gear, Potemkin is also the most helpless. Hailing from the airborne nation of Zepp (think of the SHIELD Helicarrier as its own country), Potemkin is a slave, forced to do the bidding of his corrupt government while wearing a massive bomb collar. He’s sent by his superior, Sergeant Gabriel, to compete in the Sacred Order Tournament. Potemkin hears that the winner will be granted whatever wish they desire and intends to use that wish for his freedom. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a lie, meant to resurrect the terror known as Justice.

Potemkin defeats Justice and is spent. Sergeant Gabriel appears to him to say that his mission isn’t quite over. He’ll be seen as a hero for defeating Justice and with that, he’ll be something people can get behind. Potemkin realizes that he’s been used and utters one of my favorite video game quotes, “You calculating bastard!”

Then he’s taken aback. Gabriel says that their next target is the Zepp Empire. Turns out, Gabriel’s been working against them for years and has been setting up a massive rebellion. He wants Potemkin to help lead it. Potemkin doesn’t know what to say. Gabriel assures him that everything’s going to be fine and for once, he can remove his bomb collar. It won’t go off. Potemkin is free.

They plot their uprising and for once, Potemkin shows genuine respect for his leader instead of calling him “sir” out of fear and necessity. Coincidentally, by the next game, Zepp is run by President Gabriel.

29) Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade) – BLADE
1995

I love Street Fighter: The Movie. I love it so much. It’s my guilty pleasure. On one hand, it’s a fun little experience as it wallows in its own doofiness, but I also love the adaptation aspect of it. The way so many characters got altered in an attempt to create some kind of cheeseball GI Joe is something that gives me endless enjoyment. Dee Jay as an evil hacker, Dhalsim as an old doctor, Ryu and Ken as traveling grafters, the whole thing is a surreal mess and the world is better for it.

The tie-in games are beautiful in how they act as expansion packs, like the Star Wars novels. You thought the movie’s continuity was ridiculous already? Well, how about tossing Akuma into the mix? Yeah! Akuma in the Street Fighter: The Movie universe! Yet nothing compares to the inclusion of Blade, one of several troopers working for Bison, along with the less interesting Arkane, F7 and Khyber.

In Blade’s ending, we see him strangling Bison. Turns out that Blade has been working with Guile from the beginning and has spent years infiltrating Shadaloo. But who is this man? He’s none other than Guile’s brother Gunloc, who can now resume his professional wrestling career!

For those who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, Gunloc was one of the characters in Saturday Night Slam Masters. He kind of looked like Alex Wright, but due to a couple style connections, the American translation of the game tossed in a random line insinuating that he’s related to Guile. Even though Japan’s like, “Uh, yeah, no.”

This ending is so far down the rabbit hole, I can’t even remember what daylight looks like anymore.

28) Marvel vs. Capcom – VENOM
1998

This might surprise you, but I am a bit of a fan of Venom. Huge shock right there. I’m especially a big fan of Venom from the 90’s, back when his popularity exploded to the extent that he had his own solo series based on him being an extreme vigilante. The comics were mostly terrible, but the idea was sound. He was a self-proclaimed hero who rarely understood the concept and mainly just used it to do what he wanted. He wasn’t like the Punisher, who had a strict set of rules for what he did and why he did it. Venom was just a schizophrenic hobo with entitlement issues who would murder bad guys in front of children, then immediately offer candy bars to the children and be offended when they’re too afraid to respond.

Venom was introduced to the fighting game world with Marvel vs. Capcom during this time. If you defeat Onslaught with Venom, you get a scene of he and his partner standing together. Venom talks up how Onslaught is gone, but there’s plenty of evil out there that needs to be snuffed out and many innocents that need saving. Venom calls his partner to arms.

He points to his partner, who goes into their winpose stance. Then they fall into their “lose by time” pose when he excitedly says, “We’ll crush their skulls and eat their brains!” Then his partner realizes that, oh right, Venom’s a complete sociopath.

27) Street Fighter II – RYU
1991

I probably would have been tarred and feathered if I left this off the list. After all, it is the main hero’s ending in the first big fighting game. Ryu’s defeated his rival Sagat and the megalomaniacal M. Bison. He’s proven himself to be the best fighter in the world. How does he celebrate?

He simply doesn’t. He doesn’t care about the accolades. He leaves his spot on the 1st place step so that he can move on. There are more battles out there to find and he will seek them out.

I recall seeing this ending at an arcade when I was 10. I couldn’t grasp the idea of a video game with alternate endings by this point, so I imagined that everyone had this ending. There was probably a version where you see a sumo wrestler walking into the distance for the same reasons. Silly me.

26) Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix – DAN HIBIKI
1997

During the big influx of fighting games, Capcom turned their puzzle game Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo into a proper fighter. Using super deformed versions of Street Fighters, Darkstalkers and one character from Red Earth, the game played up the humor factor with cartoony attacks that included Akuma putting on a bathing suit and beating up his opponent via swimming.

When you’re talking about Street Fighter and comedy, Dan Hibiki can’t be too far behind. In fact, he’s one of the few characters whose story here could have been part of a Street Fighter game and nobody would have batted an eye because it totally fits. He’s looking to start up his Saikyo Dojo, but he needs a student. He scours the world for someone weak to beat up and train. He challenges Sakura with the bet that if he can defeat her, she’ll have to become his student. He wins and she is surprised he won with his stubby little arms and legs. She accepts his terms and calls him master.

I think this image best sums up the relationship between Dan and Sakura. After a couple days of training his new student, Dan finds a letter. He figures it to be a new applicant. Sadly, it’s a farewell letter from Sakura, whose smiling image appears in the sky behind him.

“I’ve already mastered everything you have to teach me. But I decided to disregard all I learned from you. All your moves look retarded in addition to being completely useless in a fight. See ya loser! Sakura.”

Tears are shown streaming down Dan’s face. Poor guy. Poor, worthless guy.

25) Street Fighter II – ZANGIEF
1991

Zangief has put down M. Bison, bringing glory to the USSR. Immediately after Zangief wins, a helicopter appears and Mikhail Gorbachev climbs down a rope ladder. That’s especially ballsy, considering they’re in the middle of a terrorist nest. Gorbachev congratulates Zangief for representing the Soviet Union, which is so strong that surely it will still be standing in a year’s time. Together, they will celebrate in the way of their people, giving us one of Street Fighter’s most iconic images.

A scarred-up bear wrestler, the President of the USSR and a bunch of commie secret service goons with Bart Simpsons haircuts doing the stereotypical Russian dance while the catchiest song plays. Such a beautiful sight. Zangief compliments Gorbachev’s dancing and the head-splotched leader humbly says that he does it all the time to keep in shape. Then he cheers for everyone to dance. I presume that includes M. Bison, who has likely regained consciousness by this point.

If anything, it proves that Rocky IV is bullshit. Those Ruskies know how to party.

24) Tekken 5/Tekken Tag Tournament 2 – YOSHIMITSU/BRYAN FURY
2005, 2012

I’m just going to lump these four together as one entry. Tekken 4 was pretty blatant about Bryan Fury being Roy Batty from Blade Runner to the point that he suffered from the same downfall. His cyborg body was failing on him and he only had a limited amount of time left. Yoshimitsu saved his life and Dr. Bosconovitch took him in. He would build him a new body that would debut a year later. That didn’t happen. Instead, Bosconovitch created a perpetual motion generator to power up Bryan for the time being. Bryan had no more need for Bosconovitch and proceeded to kill a whole bunch of Manji Clan members. Possibly the entire clan outside of Yoshimitsu.

As you can understand, Yoshimitsu is pretty violently pissed. That leads to endings in Tekken 5 and Tekken Tag 2 where they hunt each other down and kill each other to death. All of them rule.

– Round 1: Bryan in Tekken 5

Bryan walks around the forest while carrying a gattling gun in one hand. Despite Yoshimitsu’s ability to turn invisible, Bryan can still see him with his cybernetic eyes. He opens fire with his gigantic gun, but Yoshimitsu evades. Yoshimitsu tries for a sneak attack, but…

Bryan advances on the defenseless Yoshimitsu and finishes him off with a bullet to the head. Maybe he should have kept the bulletproof insect armor. Just saying.

– Round 2: Yoshimitsu in Tekken 5

This takes place in a destroyed cityscape. Again, Bryan fires at Yoshimitsu with his big-ass gattling gun, but Yoshimitsu’s able to outrun the assault. Yoshimitsu vanishes and Bryan looks around, wondering where he went. Yoshimitsu appears from a dust cloud and slices down at Bryan before he can react. After a bit of a delay, Bryan lets out a scream and…

“Retribution.”

– Round 3: Bryan in Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Bryan is in what appears to be his home, loading his gun. He picks up his prized knife and admires it until seeing Yoshimitsu’s reflection in the blade. He turns around and the two start fighting, sword vs. knife. Yoshimitsu turns invisible and takes a swing. He misses, cuts open a pipe of gas and Bryan gets a clear look at his silhouette. With an easy opening, Bryan sends him flying.

Yoshimitsu sits up to notice a bomb planted on his chest. Bryan smirks, presses the detonator and walks away.

– Round 4: Yoshimitsu in Tekken Tag Tournament 2

This time, they’re in some kind of high tech facility. Bryan is checking out a giant laser cannon and sense Yoshimitsu’s nearby. He starts unloading the laser all over, unable to get a clear shot. Even when he does hit him, Yoshimitsu is able to deflect with his sword. Even a direct hit means nothing when Yoshimitsu runs straight towards Bryan with his blade cutting the beam into two. Bryan’s eyes go wide.

This time, Bryan meets his death with laughter instead of screaming.

“You reap what you sow!”

23) Tekken 2 – KAZUYA MISHIMA
1996

Kazuya, head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, is able to not only extract the Devil being from his body, but is able to defeat the creature in hand-to-hand combat. He leaves Devil for dead and moves on. Devil gets back to his feet and charges up a laser eye blast. Kazuya only realizes it too late and isn’t able to move away in time.

Out of nowhere, Heihachi appears in front of his son with arms stretched out, taking the laser blast to the chest. Despite decades of hatred and everything that’s happened between the two, Heihachi still has a soft spot for his own flesh and blood and won’t see him killed in such a way. Kazuya is taken aback by these actions… but he also knows a good advantage when he sees one. To Heihachi’s protest, Kazuya grabs his father from behind and makes a run at Devil, blocking every laser blast with his own human shield.

Kazuya throws Heihachi at Devil, who swipes him aside. That opens him up for Kazuya to finish him off with a rising uppercut. Both his enemies taken out, Kazuya delivers an evil smirk.

22) Red Earth – TESSA (Bad Ending)
1996

The witch Tessa is a sorcerologist. She not only uses magic, but she studies it like as if it was its own science. She fights the evil wizard Scion and saves the day, but then investigates his home. There, she finds a hideous, tiny creature living inside a tube. The thing is almost shapeless and you can just barely make out an eye and a mouth. Tessa doesn’t know if Scion created it or if it created Scion. She wonders what she should do with it.

You can choose to have her seal it away, which is the right thing to do, or you can have her bring it back to her lab to study it. When you do that, we see it again floating around in a tube, only this time with Tessa’s hand over the glass. She can tell that it isn’t from this world, but is taken by how cute it is.

Obviously, we know that this thing is bad news and Tessa is going to be corrupted. The question is, how do you show that? Go blatant and have her blow up a village? Take over where Scion left off? Maybe you could even do the cliché and show her eyes glowing red. That always works.

Nah.

How about Tessa is shown hugging the tube naked? Holy shit, that is creepy as hell!

21) Street Fighter III: Third Strike – ALEX
1999

The one thing the Street Fighter heroes have over the King of Fighters heroes is humility. Take Ryu for instance. He won the first game’s tournament, scarred up Sagat, is constantly chased down by people who want to fight him, admire him or capture him and the dude doesn’t believe his hype. He just shrugs it off and goes off to train some more so he can one day be a real master.

Alex is the hero of the Street Fighter III games, but he’s the antithesis of your usual fighting game hero. He’s trying to avenge his mentor’s defeat, only as his mentor Tom keeps trying to argue, there’s no drama. Gill beat him in a fair fight and Tom will recover. Alex refuses to let it go and has to take down Gill. You’d think that Alex would be the one man capable of saving the world from Gill’s plot of world domination/destruction, but despite appearances, Gill isn’t really up to anything. Sure, he has some prophecies of bad shit that’s on the horizon and his brother is up to some really shady business behind Gill’s back, but Gill’s just being worshipped by his cult and doesn’t have any giant death ray aimed at Washington unless Alex beats him two-out-of-three-rounds or anything like that.

Another big twist goes back to how the King of Fighters hero character system works. Terry and Ryo were the best in their respective games. Then King of Fighters started and Kyo was immediately thrust into being the best, making the other two obsolete. Then a few years later, they added K’ and made him the best, turning Kyo obsolete. Then Ash Crimson was introduced, turning K’ obsolete. Being the hero character means winning every tournament, saving the world and being automatically better than everyone else.

So Alex would presumably have a foot over Ryu, right? Check out his ending in Third Strike, which is the last game to come out in terms of Street Fighter canon (the Street Fighter IV games are prequels):

Ryu owns Alex. Alex can’t lay a hand on him. That’s his new path. Now that he’s washed his hands of Gill, Alex is obsessed with the world of street fighting, especially the legendary world warrior Ryu. He wants to get better and become stronger so that one day he can take Ryu down with his bare hands. He sends a letter to Tom informing him of such.

Ryu stands over Alex, asking if that’s all he’s got. Alex laughs it off, gets back up and prepares for another go. He’s just getting started.

Join me next time as we hit the top twenty.

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Posted in Lists, Top 200 Fighting Game Endings, Video Games by Gavok |