Before I start I like to give a special shoutout and thanks to @LadyTerror and her last awesome Mytake for inspiring me with the idea to write this one. anyways here are my favorite...
10. Ryu Hayabusa and Yaiba Kamikaze
Hero Ninja vs Dark Ninja!
Ryu Hayabusa was arguably the only popular video game character to not have a rival up until the release of Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z in 2014. like many traditional ninjas Ryu is very calm, brave, heroic and very tactical during his quests. Also just like many ninjas Ryu honors death and he never minds risking his own life to complete whatever quests gets thrown at him. Yaiba in the other hand opposes most typical traditional ninjas. He is very impulsive, short tempered and very violent in his quests. unlike most typical traditional ninjas Yaiba disdain death and believes that only the weak ninjas die during their quest. coming to the conclusion the rivalry of these two is remarkable.
9. Ryu and Ken
MMA brothers from Japan and America
These two are really sidekicks but they have turned on each other and locked horns a few times during the Street Fighter story line. nevertheless nothing has permanently destroy the bond these two have. Ryu is from Japan while Ken is from the United States. both met for the first time during their early childhood days while attending numerous of mix martial arts tournaments across the world. since then they continued to travel across the world together winning tons mix martial arts tournaments.
8. Scorpion and Sub Zero
Fire vs ice, doesn't get any better!
Scorpion is a ninja from Japan who died at the hands of a sorcerer name Quan Chi before the events of Mortal Kombat takes place. Quan Chi killed him after setting his whole dojo on fire with him and his clan in it. Scorpion somehow returns to life and becomes thirsty for revenge though he was unable to remember who was responsible for the death of him and his clan. while on his quest for revenge Scorpion runs into Quan Chi once again but does not remember that it was him who previously killed him. Quan Chi takes advantage of this and tells Scorpion that it was a ninja from China name Sub Zero and his clan who did it thus initiating their rivalry throughout the original events of Mortal Kombat.
7. Mega Man and Zero
2 cyborgs saving humanity in world filled with chaotic technology
word in the street has always been that Zero was created by Dr Wily during the original events of Mega Man first series, he is a lot more stronger and advanced than Mega Man himself. nevertheless he made his first appearance during the Mega Man X saga which takes place hundreds of years after the original saga. he appeared as both a sidekick and a mentor to Mega Man as throughout the game he would come to his rescue whenever Mega Man gets overwhelmed during battle and would encourage Mega Man to learn from his mistakes continue fighting so that one day he can become as strong as he is. eventually Zero becomes a rival/nemesis for Mega Man during the series after the main antagonist kidnaps him and tampers with his functionality. eventually during their battle he Mega Man was able to defeat him and reboot him back to his original self.
6. Luigi and Waluigi
Sidekicks have rivals too!
lots of people thought it was silly that Luigi got a counterpart like Mario did with Wario especially for the fact that both their names don't coincide but this obviously because a lot of folks thing the concept of Wario originated from taking Mario's name and turning the M outside down into a W, but this was not the case. you see in Japanese bad is "Warui" so Wario is a short pun for "Warui Mario." so Waluigi follows this same concept as it is a short pun for "Warui Luigi."
5. Travis Touchdown and Henry Cooldown
Otaku vs Preppy Snob aiming to be the best assassins in town.
Travis Touchdown is the main protagonist of that hack and slash game No More Heroes. he is part of an underground assassin tournament where he must defeat as much assassins as possible to become number one. he runs into Henry a couple times throughout his quest and then surprisingly finds out Henry is actually his twin brother right at the end of the game. not gonna say any more about two as this may spoil the game for those who are interested in playing it.
4. Solid Snake and Liquid Snake
The Twin Snakes!
These two are the son of Big Boss known as the greatest soldier to ever exist in the Metal Gear universe. Sometimes before the events of the Metal Gear Franchise Big Boss won the title as the best soldier to ever exist do to his effort as a veteran in the Vietnam war. After this he forms his own group of mercenaries called Fox Hound. Fox Hound’s main objective was to hunt down terrorist organizations across the world but unfortunately Big Boss during the events of Metal Gear turns his back against the world and thus Fox Hound eventually becomes a terrorist organization themselves. Fortunately, Solid Snake was able to defeat Big Boss in Metal Gear 2 but Fox Hound remained active.
time goes by and the events of Metal Gear Solid take place. Fox Hound is now led by Liquid Snake who happens to be Solid Snake’s illegitimate twin brother hijack a nuclear facility located in the outskirts of Alaska where the government’s secret weapon Metal Gear is kept. Liquid Snake’s plan is to use this weapon to attack those who try to oppose or get on Fox Hound’s way and to get revenge on Solid Snake for murdering Big Boss.
3. Dante and Vergil
The Sons of Sparda!
These two are somewhat like Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. They are the twin half demon half human sons of Sparda who was the strongest demon in hell and the right-hand man of Mundus (the Satan of the franchise’s universe.) sometimes before the event of the game Sparda revels against Mundus and turn his back against hell. He then escapes to the world and decides to protect humanity against future attacks. Along the way he meets and falls in love with a woman name Eva who he later has Dante and Vergil with.
Shortly after the birth of Dante and Vergil Mundus decides to unleash his full force against the world, he invades it with his army of demons and ends up killing both Sparda and Eva causing both Dante and Vergil to separate. Dante ends up raised by humans and learns to love humanity thus deciding to keep up Sparda’s tradition as the savior of humanity and protect them from future attacks. Vergil in the other hand ends up being raised by demons so he ends being evil, his main ambition in life is to become as powerful as Sparda was before becoming good and replace him as Mundus strongest warrior.
2. Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog
The battle of the hedgehogs
As you may already Sonic the Hedgehog had numerous of rivals throughout his time around. In the Genesis era, it was Metal Sonic who was a robot clone of himself created by Dr. Robotnik to assist him in his menace. During this time, Knuckles came along but he ended up befriending Sonic after he finds out he was tricked by Dr. Robotnik all along into believing Sonic was evil and was after the Chaos Emerald, the one thing he is willing to guard and protect with all his life.
In the Dreamcast era, it was Shadow the Hedgehog. I believe he will always be the greatest and most memorable rival that Sonic has ever had. I really liked his background story on how he was created by Dr. Robotnik’s eccentric grandfather named Gerald Robotnik who when insane sometimes before the game’s plot and tried to distant himself from humanity in a space fortress he builds. Gerald created Shadow for the main purpose of taking over the world and harm humanity. Shadow eventually ends up between the rock and the hard place after he builds a bond with Gerald Robonik’s young, sweet and innocent daughter Maria who tells him that he is good and he will be a hero to humanity one day. Not long after this the president finds out about Gerald Robotnik’s plot to take over the world so he orders a troop to invade Gerald Robotnik’s space fortress. The troops main objective was to find and detain Gerald Robotnik and kill Shadow at all cost. As soon as the troop breeches the space fortress they arrest Gerald Robotnik and right before they find Shadow Maria persuades him to scape inside an emergency space capsule that she sets up for him. moments before the space capsule ejects the fortress the troops break in and open fire hoping to kill Shadow before he escapes but they accidentally end up shooting Maria as she says her final Goodbye to Shadow. The Space capsule then ejects moments later as Shadow witnesses this major tragedy causing him to build an intense hatred for humanity and their cold-hearted nature, which is when his quest to conquer the world begins and his rivalry with sonic is initiated.
Sonic The Hedgehog eventually got yet another rival in the PS3/X360 era name Silver the Hedgehog but in my honest opinion I think this was the worst move made by Sega since I believe he is shit compare to Shadow.
1. Super Mario and Wario
The godfathers of video game rivalry!
Obviously, I can’t say they are the fathers of video game rivalry as I’m pretty sure they weren’t the first rivals to ever exist in the world of video games, but they sure did made rivalry a very noticeable thing the world of gaming since 1992 and subsequently paves the way for many other rivals within. As I mentioned earlier a lot of folks still believe that the concept of Wario came from taking Mario’s name and turning the M into a W but this was never the case, this was all just a coincidence. You see Wario is basically shorten for “Warui Mario” which means “Evil Mario” in Japan.
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