The 12 Most Feared Video Game Athletes of All Time

We have all had it happen to us.

You sit down to play a video game with one of your buddies. You're choosing teams, and all of a sudden he chooses that team. The team with the best player in the game. A player so unstoppable and so feared that it's not even worth playing the game any more.

What kind of friend is he anyway? That's basically cheating. He knows it, too. Look at the smirk on his face when he chose that team. That little punk. I never liked him that much after all.

That is the kind of video game athlete I'm talking about here. The kind that can actually break up a friendship. The best of the best of the best. The 12 Most Feared Video Game Athletes of All Time.

12. Sunday Tiger Woods: Tiger Woods PGA Tour

Video games can make you believe that you are good at golf. Line some shots up, account for the wind, press a couple buttons, add backspin, and boom—you’re a couple of feet from the pin.

Sunday Tiger, however, could take away that confidence in a second. You hit a shot five feet from the hole, he knocks it in. You hit a shot into the rough because winds are blowing at 50 mph, Sunday Tiger puts his down the middle of the fairway.

That red shirt just made him superhuman somehow.

11. Randy Moss: NFL 2K3

Randy Moss inspired more cries of “Oh, come on!” than anyone I ever knew in video games. He was the great equalizer.

You could be a great video football game player, with strategy and a balanced run and pass game, but any schmuck that played with Randy Moss was automatically better than you.

You knew what was coming: a Hail Mary to Moss, but you were powerless to stop it. 75 percent of the time he would rise above everyone and come down with it. There was no skill involved—just letting the game's best player do what he did best.

10. Reggie Jackson: NES Pro Baseball

The original feared video game slugger. Reggie Jackson had power upon power. It seemed like his pop-ups just kept rising and didn’t start falling until they were on their way over the fence.

Facing Jackson (or the combination of shapes that was named Jackson), you either had to man up and face him, most likely regretting it, or wuss out and walk him.

I think most of the time I walked him.

9. The Great Puma: NES Pro Wrestling

Have you ever known the frustration of striving to succeed at something, finally defeating all obstacles on your way to the top, and then encountering the final obstacle and getting so destroyed that you don’t know if you will ever recover?

Anyone who has played NES Pro Wrestling has. It is a game where one loss can nullify hours of hard work.

And the final wrestler you have to beat, the Great Puma, has all of the strengths of everyone you fought so hard to beat before.

The Great Puma crushed more childhood dreams than finding out there is no Santa Claus.

8. QB Eagles: Tecmo Bowl

Otherwise known as Randall Cunningham. He was the most feared quarterback in the game.

Cunningham had the accuracy to nail a long pass down the field, but he was also quick enough to evade defenders behind the line of scrimmage. That was more than you could say for any lead-footed quarterback in the game.

The only reason he isn’t higher on the list is because QB Eagles had something else in common with Randall Cunningham: the tendency to get injured often.

Even more devastating than seeing him devastate your defense when you played against him was watching him get hurt when you were playing with him.

7. Ken Griffey Jr.: Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

When you have a game named after you, you are most likely going to be the best player in that game.

When you are the only player in the game with an actual name, then there is definitely going to be an unfair advantage.

Such was the case with KGJ presents Major League Baseball. Not only that, but it was almost impossible to make contact with Griffey and not get on base. Really.

His batting average was always somewhere in the .900s.

6. Lawrence Taylor: Tecmo Bowl

The Giants weren’t necessarily the greatest team on Tecmo Bowl, but they were dangerous for the sole reason of Lawrence Taylor.

Taylor could singlehandedly hold a team scoreless. He was all over the field. He would sack the quarterback, stop the running back behind the line of scrimmage, or intercept a pass downfield.

He was like the linebacker Michael Myers. No matter where you went, he was there.

5. Larry Bird: NBA 2K3

NBA 2K3 was when they introduced certain “Legends” that you could play with. Bird was one of the greatest NBA players ever, but even he would have to admit that his likeness in 2K3 was way better than he ever was.

Not only was he unstoppable from downtown (he really only missed when you took a shot like falling away from halfcourt), but he also had the ability to dunk on you.

And dunk on you he did. Bird seemed to be making up for all those years in reality that he didn’t play above the rim.

It got so bad that when you would play others on Xbox Live, they would start games with “No Bird,” just to make sure that things stayed fair.

4. Michael Vick: Madden 2004

Vick was another athlete who enjoyed far more video game success than he did in real life.

While actual Michael Vick was blazingly fast and elusive, video game Michael Vick was blazingly fast and elusive, could stop on a dime, and throw a strike across his body 50 yards downfield while running at full speed.

There was such an outcry because of Vick that Madden gave an overhaul to the game the next year to try and focus on defense, also adding passing cones to reward better passers and give players like Vick somewhat of a handicap.

3. Jeremy Roenick; NHL '93

Virtual Roenick was introduced to the mainstream when Vince Vaughn played with him in Swingers, but gamers had known of his prowess far before that.

Not only could he make other players’ heads bleed from hitting them, but he was quick, agile, and had a deadly shot.

Vince Vaughn said it perfectly:

“It’s not me. It’s Roenick. He’s good.”

2. Mike Tyson: Mike Tyson's Punch Out

Mike Tyson was like the Grand Puma, but scarier. After fighting your way through level after level, he was the final boxer you had to beat, and it was damn near impossible.

You could do everything right, but one slip-up would send you tumbling to the canvas. You were just Little Mac—he was Mike Tyson.

That toothless visage coming at you was enough to make you not want to furiously press A and B to get up.

If anyone you know claims to have beaten Mike Tyson, they are either lying to you or to themselves. You should go up to them and give them a hug.

Chances are they will break down crying in your arms.

1. Bo Jackson: Tecmo Bowl

Bo knows video games, and Bo knows them well.

Bo Jackson was quite simply the most amazing video game athlete of all time. Whenever you tried to tackle him, you knew just what you were getting—air.

More people talk about Bo in Tecmo Bowl than they do his actual career. And for good reason too. If you need any extra proof why Bo was the most feared video game athlete of all time, just watch the video below.