Double trouble.
It's anyone's guess as to when the concept of "evil twins" first appeared in fiction, but it's become a mainstay trope. It's easy to see the potential narrative significance; take your existing good-guy protagonist and twist his image, either exemplifying his worst traits or even reverse his traits entirely.
Despite the word "twin," an evil twin isn't necessarily a blood relative (though that definitely happens). They can be a magical doppelganger, a scientific clone, or just some jerk copying your fashion sense. Let's count down the top evil twins and find out who is the best of the worst.
While Sonic and Shadow have no particular relationship to one another, their roles as high-speed hedgehogs made them natural enemies when they first met. Especially since, in his first appearance, Shadow was ready to bring about the end of humanity.
Shadow's distorted memories of his dear friend Maria Robotnik led him to believe that she wanted revenge on humanity for the incident that claimed her life, though thankfully he remembered the truth at the last minute. Shadow has since mellowed out, and more often than not will willingly cooperate with Sonic in the interest of the greater good.
Originally introduced in the Super Mario Land series, Wario was designed as a sort of exaggerated caricature of Mario. The precise details of their rivalry has never been elaborated on, but it's easy to see why they aren't big fans of each other.
Where Mario is helpful, cheerful, and generally heroic, Wario is greedy, rude, and generally disgusting. Wario and his occasional collaborator Waluigi enjoy making trouble for Mario and Luigi, be it for profit or laughs, though he's dialed back the outright malice a bit at least.
When Pit gazed into Pandora's Mirror of Truth, his repressed darkness took shape as a black-garbed doppleganger, dubbed on the spot as Dark Pit (or "Pittoo," as Pit likes to call him).
In contrast to Pit's generally subservient nature, Dark Pit is fiercely independent, bowing to no master and serving no cause but his own. While not an outright enemy to Pit, he and Dark Pit have been forced by circumstance to cross swords on multiple occasions. Over time, Dark Pit became more willing to work with Pit and keep him out of trouble, though less out of any kind of familial feeling and more due to the fact that their lives are directly linked to one another.
When Captain Falcon was hospitalized after a racing accident, some of his blood was swiped by the followers of Black Shadow. This DNA was used to create Blood Falcon, a near-perfect physical clone of the good Captain.
Blood Falcon exists for precisely two purposes: to do Black Shadow's bidding, and to kill Captain Falcon. Being a clone has given him a bit of a complex, which is why he believes that killing Captain Falcon will ensure he's the only "true" Falcon left in the galaxy. Fun fact, his F-Zero machine, the Blood Hawk, is so different from the Blue Falcon because Black Shadow's engineers knew that nobody could drive the Blue Falcon as well as Captain Falcon, even a clone.
During Mother 3's initial arc, Lucas' brother Claus went missing, having fallen from a high cliff. As it turns out, he was discovered by the Pig Mask Army, just beginning their invasion of the Nowhere Islands. When they realized he had the power to pull the Needles, they went right to work modifying him for their own needs.
As the army's masked commander, Claus is capable of all the same psychic feats as Lucas, but his modifications have completely wiped his emotions and personality. Claus doesn't even know his own name; his entire existence has been reduced to that of a subservient puppet, and being forced to fight him is utterly heartbreaking for Lucas.
In an effort to create the fabled X-Blade, Xehanort forcefully ripped the darkness from Ventus' heart, seeking to create two beings of pure light and darkness. That darkness took shape as Vanitas, and his existence as Ventus' cast-off shadow has tormented him for his entire life.
Vanitas longs for completion, to be reunited with Ventus. His very existence has so much negative energy swirling within it, it took on a life of its own as the Unversed. He doesn't especially care about the X-Blade or Xehanort's plans, he's just sick of being half a person, and he'll hurt whoever he has to if it'll bring his pain to an end.
From the very moment he was born, the boy who would come to be known as Liquid Snake knew he had drawn the short straw in life. He and his twin brother Solid Snake were cloned from the genes of Big Boss, the greatest soldier in the world, but where Solid got Boss's dominant genes and his combat prowess with them, Liquid got his recessive traits, prompting his handlers to deem him a failure.
It was at this point that Liquid decided he would surpass Solid Snake and Big Boss, and he would raze the entire world in the name of claiming his perceived genetic birthright.
After the death of their mother at the hands of Mundus' demonic hordes, Vergil took a very different path in life from his brother, Dante. Where Dante was content to live life at his own pace among humanity, seeing his mother cut down taught Vergil that might makes right, so if you want to be right, you need to have might.
Vergil renounced his humanity and sought the hidden power of his late father, Sparda, to ensure that nobody would ever be able to take anything from him ever again. Unfortunately, these pursuits of power often come at the cost of innocent lives, which places him at odds with Dante.
When Samus fought Metroid Prime clad in a suit covered in liquid Phazon, the beast ripped the Phazon right off of her, taking a pinch of her DNA in the process. After a bit of cooking in Metroid Prime's remains, Dark Samus emerged, with a singular purpose in mind: spread the corruption of Phazon, using its powers to mimic Samus' own weaponry.
While her hunger is nearly all-encompassing, Dark Samus isn't a dumb beast like the Metroid she once was. Thanks to Samus' DNA giving her human form, Dark Samus can think, plan, and above all else, torment.
Over the course of his personal training journey, Ryu has been forced multiple times to confront the temptation of the Satsui no Hado, nearly succumbing several times. When he successfully purged that darkness from his being, Ryu became stronger for it, but that cast-off energy took on life of its own as Kage.
Kage is the threat of Evil Ryu, a hypothetical character from previous Street Fighter games, made all too real. Kage considers himself an embodiment of ultimate power, and the one thing he wants is to prove to Ryu that he's nothing without that power, both for his own satisfaction and to ensure his continued existence.
Bi-Han, the original Sub-Zero and brother to the current Sub-Zero, Kuai Liang, was a rather unpleasant person even before Scorpion tore his head off. He was a ruthless assassin whose feelings had long gone numb after years of killing. After his death at Scorpion's hands, Quan Chi revived him in the depths of the Netherrealm, unshackling his soul from the few shreds of human morality he still had. It was at this moment that Bi-Han truly died, and Noob Saibot was born.
Noob is evil incarnate, with his only desires being to conquer the Netherrealm, then conquer Earthrealm while he's at it. With Quan Chi's death in Mortal Kombat 11, Noob is now free to pursue his dark agenda.
Peter Parker’s adventure into the metaverse could have been so much more.
Having played a litany of video games since childhood, Daniel is an old school gaming fiend. He first got into the sphere in the age of the Nintendo 64, and has amassed a respectable personal library over the years, with his Steam library alone currently numbering over 600 games. Daniel enjoys researching his favorite games extensively, from their developmental histories to their narratives and characters. Recently, Daniel has been a regular game guide writer for Gamer Journalist, as writing gives him a chance to gab at length about his favorite topic.
