Sometimes everyone has to be a bit of a jerk in life. Even if you have a gruff exterior you surely try to avoid it as much as possible, but sometimes someone just pushes all your buttons in the right ways to really get you mad. The thing is, video games are no different, and sometimes you have to be a real jerk to beat the game.
Being a jerk can come in a lot of forms in video games, and you may think that most instances of forced 'jerkery' would be relegated to more comedic games, but surprisingly that isn’t the case. Some of the most famous games and characters have had to get a bit mean from time to time.
10 Killing Sif - Dark Souls
Anyone who’s played Dark Souls probably knows about the tragic backstory of Sif, and because of that, you also probably know how much of a jerk you had to be to kill the poor wolf. It’s fearsome at first, but once it starts limping, everyone’s heart starts to hurt.
It’s a moment in which you are acutely aware that you are being a bit of a jerk, but you have to do what you have to do. Animal lovers likely had an even tougher time with the fight especially since it’s not exactly one of the tougher boss fights in Dark Souls.
9 Killing The Colossi - Shadow Of The Colossus
Shadow Of The Colossus is crafted so expertly that you aren’t even entirely aware of the fact that you’re being a total jerk the entire game. Most people simply see a uniquely-designed big creature and know that they, as the hero, are tasked with slaying them.
Some never stop to ask why, though. After you’ve killed all the Colossi, beings that don’t really attack you without proper provocation, things take a seriously dark turn anyway. Everyone had to be a jerk to slay all of those majestic creatures, and some might not even say it was worth it in the end.
8 Terrorizing The Village - Twilight Princess
In fairness to Link and Midna, you are kind of an inadvertent jerk in Twilight Princess. When you return to your home village in wolf form, they obviously aren’t thrilled to see another scary creature. Thanks to that, you have to implement some unique ideas to get around.
Scaring the entire village into a frenzy, you not only terrify those that you love, but you also end up stealing from them as well. It’s something most people overlook because it’s for the greater good, but still, Link is kind of a jerk.
7 All Of It - Untitled Goose Game
Maybe it’s a bit of a cheat since the entire purpose of the Untitled Goose Game is to be mean and screw with the various unwitting people that stand in your path, but that just makes the point even stronger. You have to be a jerk throughout the entire game.
Yes, you have checklists to fulfill and your own personal mission of chaos to carry out, but the innocent villagers never asked for an irate goose to mess them up. Luckily, the game is hilarious so much of the jerkish nature of the goose is played for laughs.
6 Shaming - Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War
You are a one-man, two-spirit killing machine in Shadow Of War, so it’s almost hilarious that the devs decided to add a mechanic to the game where you shame your enemies. The point is to demoralize them, and oh boy does it ever work.
Skilled players can walk into the toughest strongholds filled with some of the toughest enemies in the game, and handle it all with ease, often making shaming an unwitting enemy an insult to injury. Most people who don’t like being jerks probably avoided shaming enemies when they didn’t have to, but it can be so tempting and almost necessary to truly conquer these opposing forces.
5 Cutie The Elephant - It Takes Two
The situation in It Takes Two is an imaginative one that implements a lot of unique ideas to tell a seriously heartfelt story. One of the darker chapters in the game involves the hair-brained idea to destroy Cutie The Elephant.
It’s already kind of dark that the two parents decide they need to make their own child cry, but the way they choose to go about it is even darker. Destroying her favorite toy for a plan that doesn’t even end up working is just a serious jerk moment.
4 Just About Everything - God Of War
Outside of Kratos’ new God Of War adventures as a dad, he was kind of a jerk for the majority of his god-killing life. Sure, you get to act like the good guy since you play as Kratos, but when you really think about it, he’s on a horrific and violent path of vengeance.
Kratos tosses countless innocent people to their deaths, rips beings clean in half, decapitates gods, and all manner of other horrible things. He’s not even all that kind to the people who actually do help him on his journey.
3 The Yoshi Jump - Super Mario World
It should be said that you don’t actually need to ever execute a Yoshi jump to proceed through Super Mario World for the SNES, but if everyone was honest, they’d probably admit to doing it at least once. The jump is where you leave Yoshi in mid-air to get extra height on a tough jump.
The issue here is that Yoshi then falls into a pit of nothingness. Too many people are willing to sacrifice their majestic Yoshi for that little bit of height on their jump. Sure, it may save Mario, but the nobler thing would be to go down together.
2 Burning The Companion Cube - Portal
Who doesn’t love Portal’s Companion Cube? It’s a weird little cube that pretty much everyone found themselves getting attached to as you trudged through various chambers with it in tow. The issue is, eventually, you have to destroy it.
To your credit, and to the credit of everyone who’s had to destroy a Companion Cube, Glados forces you to destroy it in order to continue progressing. There’s no legitimate way to not do it, so it’s kind of a forced moment of cruelness that no one wanted to go through.
1 The Surgeons - The Last Of Us
One of the big final moments from The Last Of Us is also one of the most significant in the series now. When it comes time to save Ellie in the final moments of the game, you are met with a group of mostly unarmed surgeons.
Some people might have assumed there’d be a way to save Ellie without further bloodshed, but you are forced to take out at least a few of the surgeons. It’s framed as a heroic moment as Joel saves his new surrogate daughter in order to remain an iconic duo, but it’s a moment that would also ultimately be his downfall.