History MadScientist / VideoGames

** Clarke, who not only worked on Nova 6, but gave CrazyPrepared [[UpToEleven a whole new meaning]].

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
** [[HateSink Hojo]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is truly an archetypal Mad Scientist, right down to his outfit and sociopathic habit of sacrificing a great deal for the sake of scientific discovery (which, in his case, underlies his utter insanity). When you get down to it, Hojo may very well be responsible for nearly everything that’s happened, [[TheHeavy considering that most of the conflict in the game is indirectly his fault]].
*** Most infamously there was his [[SarcasmMode brilliant]] plan to breed [[WhiteMagicianGirl Aerith]] and [[IntellectualAnimal Red XIII]] together.
** Dr. Odine from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' is undeniably brilliant and perhaps the expert on the power of witches in the world. He's the one who actually explains Time Compression to the party. He's also completely amoral -- part of why [[spoiler: Laguna]] continues in the position he has is due to needing to keep Odine's research directed towards productive means that won't cause the destruction of humanity.
** Cid, one of the trademark characters of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, is sometimes portrayed in this light. Examples are in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', where, despite working for TheEmpire, he is a sympathetic character and performs a HeelFaceTurn.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' subverts this with its own Cid. He works for the Archadians to manufacture their Nethicite, lurks in the forbidden and dangerous Draklor Laboratory doing no-one-wants-to-know manner of experiments with {{Magitek}} and his first scene shows him walking down a hall talking to himself with a MotorMouth before apparently noticing Vayne out of nowhere and having a normal conversation with him. However, he's perfectly sane and is exactly aware of what he's doing. The things he studies are just particularly fascinating and important fields to research, he just enjoys being a LargeHam for the fun of it, and he's not actually talking to himself, he's [[spoiler:talking to Venat, the ManBehindTheMan that for most of the game is invisible to all but Cid.]] As a whole, like the rest of ''XII's'' villains he's revealed as a WellIntentionedExtremist AntiVillain once the details of his backstory and personality become clear.
** Kefka Palazzo may qualify as one from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', seeing how it was heavily implied that Kefka's the one who invented Terra's Slave Crown.

* Dr. X from ''VideoGame/AVirusNamedTom''. He says it best himself in the intro movie:
-->''"I even cured walking...Then, I invented Globotron, [[DisproportionateRetribution which would destroy anyone FOUND walking]]."''

* Jon Irenicus from ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' is actually an EvilSorcerer, but you'd be forgiven if you think you are dealing with a mad scientist when you see his dungeon full of people he experimented on, indefinitely kept alive in glass jars powered by magical batteries, his attempts to clone the woman he once loved, and [[spoiler:the soul-sucking machine he uses on the hero and Imoen]].
* Klungo from the ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' games. He's responsible for Gruntilda's Beauty-Stealing Machine, and in {{Interquel}} ''Grunty's Revenge'', it is hinted that he also created Grunty's monster army. Unique in the fact he also happens to be TheIgor.

* Dr. Suchong from ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' is the sinister and detached version, the warped genius behind much ADAM research, including several plasmids, the [[CreepyChild Little Sisters]], and the Big Daddies. He was the linchpin behind virtually everything that went wrong in Rapture, including [[spoiler:the protagonist himself]] -- but, at least, he [[spoiler:died an [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ironic death]]...]]

* Busuzima from ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar'' went so far as to freakishly mutate his co-worker Stun to steal his research. Starting as a child who wanted to create a creature that would never die, he's fallen to become a {{Jerkass}} who would sacrifice anybody for money and power. He can also turn into a chameleon and [[IKnowKarate fight quite well]], but (unusually for his occupation) that's a natural part of him.

* Dr. Neurosis in ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'', who plays out every Mad Scientist trope in the book.

* [[MadDoctor The Doctor]] from ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' shows traits of this trope as well, using the [[PsychoSerum Red Flowers]] to turn [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter the Mimingas]] into his personal monster army.

* Professor Von Kriplespac (More commonly known simply as "The Professor") from ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' qualifies. He created anti-gravity chocolate and an army of evil teddy bears, and thought that a squirrel would be a good table leg replacement.

* Seath the Scaleless from ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' is a ''dragon'' that combines this with EvilSorceror. He is described as the grandfather of sorcery and the creator of various magical creatures like the Moonlight Butterfly. He went insane trying to decipher the one mystery that eluded him his whole life: why he was the only dragon born without the scales of immortality that ''every other dragon'' had.

* Bob Page from ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' certainly fits this trope. The man has built multi-national conglomerates dedicated to such "grey area" pursuits as transgenics, bioweapons, espionage, nanotechnology, and cybernetics; all an EvilPlan to rule the world.

* At least three ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' villains have been scientists researching, experimenting on and trying to create demons -- Arius in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2'', Agnus in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' and Chen from the second novel. It's debatable as to how "scientific" this line of work is, though, so we could call them Mad Pseudoscientists or something.

* [[BigBad King K. Rool]] from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' takes on a persona based on this trope in ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble Dixie Kong's Double Trouble]]'', under the name Baron K. Roolenstein.

* Dr. Paul and Dr. Miranda from ''VideoGame/EscapeFromStMarys'' disguise their time machine as a coffin so that it's "inconspicuous." Their invention threatens to destroy the universe; they seem mostly unmoved by this.
* Kala Kapur of ''Videogame/{{Evolve}}'' is described as 'between what science can do and what science should do'. WordOfGod is that she isn't evil outright, but she feels she doesn't have the luxury of inaction because she has the capability to solve the problem despite the cost.

* Mara from ''VideoGame/{{Ghostrunner}}'' is an engineer who killed her mentor and slaughtered his security force with her self-made CombatTentacles. Now, she rules over the world of the game with her army of cybernetic minions while also kidnapping people to be made victims of her deadly experiments.

* The first six members of Organization XIII in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' were originally assistants to Ansem the Wise and his research on the Heartless. Vexen keeps up his research.

* Moira from ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' is a scientist willing to do anything to "improve" humanity through genetic engineering, and since joining Talon, isn't impeded by the need to experiment ethically.

* [[BigBad Lysandre]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' was a brilliant scientist whose earlier attempts to fix the world legitimately, through the inventions and profits of Lysandre Labs, didn't have the effect he was looking for -- where he expected the needy to be sated, they instead yearned for still more. [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy His two main conclusions]]: (1) World aggregate happiness is effectively finite; after a certain amount of beings, happiness and survival can only be attained by taking it from/denying it to another. (2) [[MisanthropeSupreme The vast majority of humans]] (and maybe even Pokémon, if his musings about Mega Evolution are anything to go by) are irredeemable, incapable of anything beyond the most narrow selfishness. [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Therefore]], the only way the world will ''ever'' know beauty and hope everlasting is to [[FinalSolution expunge all those imperfect creatures]] who ought never have existed, who can only ever ''be'' plagues on existence. As his report in Lysandre Labs puts it, "[[OverpopulationCrisis either everything is lost, or only a handful are saved]]". After being defeated he has a VillainousBreakdown, screaming that the player's "condemned the world to a future of misery and death" and attempts a TakingYouWithMe.

* Doctor Cranium from ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' is out to reanimate dead tissue and all, but he really doesn't think he's a Mad Scientist. A bit perturbed about the world situation and how he gets so little respect, sure, but not mad.

* The Bio Research Lab in ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' consists of multiple scientists who have performed all sorts of bizarre experiments [[ProfessorGuineaPig on themselves]], resulting in them transforming into hideous monsters when provoked. The Remastered version also has them [[spoiler:using kidnapped Mystics as test subjects]].

* Plague Knight from ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' looks like a PlagueDoctor, but is far more interested in using alchemy to create bigger and bigger explosions. When you fight him, he jumps around erratically, throwing flasks full of explosives everywhere. Mona, his partner-in-crime, is also enthusiastic about explosive alchemy, but is not as confrontational as him...at least until she was made playable herself in ''Shovel Knight Showdown''.

* Andross in ''VideoGame/StarFox'', who employed several bio-weapons (as in, lifeforms created as weapons) in VideoGame/StarFox ''64'' and ''Command''. The later however somewhat redeems his actions by revealing that [[spoiler: he had been working on a device that would terraform the aptly named planet Venom into a more inhabitable one. Which just happens to be the perfect counter to the new threat, which come from the acidic oceans of the planet]]. However, the same game also hints that he was the one who created the new threat in the first place in the Good Bye Fox scenario.

* TheMedic and The Engineer of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. The Medic, a [[HerrDoktor German]] DeadlyDoctor, is an eloquent, musically inclined follower of Nietzchean Ideals, using his tech to make him and his Team nigh-invincible... all the better for them to dole out the maximum amount of pain and suffering possible. The Engineer is a [[SouthernFriedGenius genial, gentlemanly Texan good ol boy]] whose normally serene nature masks a burning passion [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist For ]] [[GadgeteerGenius Sci]][[ForScience ence]], and a deep seated contempt for and willingness to kill anyone who would dare disrespect him.
** TheMedic now shows further mad science in this video [[http://youtu.be/36lSzUMBJnc]].

** ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'': [[spoiler: Professor Klaus/[[BigBad Zanza]] destroyed the previous universe in an experiment gone wrong, and created a new one in his own image. ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' fleshes him out a bit more, showing that he was genuinely trying to save humanity with his experiment, and that Zanza is actually his [[LiteralSplitPersonality evil split personality]], with his good half remaining in his home universe.]]

* Dr. Takuto Maruki in ''VideoGame/Persona5'' ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]''. A psychologist and cognitive scientist who [[spoiler: was also an AntiVillain and WellIntentionedExtremist, seeking to use his knowledge as well as his RealityWarper abilities to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans make reality into a utopia]]. Problem is, he wanted to free mankind from TheEvilsOfFreeWill and prioritized people's happiness over their own personal ambitions, [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul rewriting their personalities when the two end up clashing]]. While he truly means well, he's not the most emotionally stable and in the NonStandardGameOver for failing to complete his Palace in time he [[EmptyShell robs Joker of his will to live, leaving him bedridden]] while operating under the delusion that such a fate is preferable to a stressful life. His Palace theme is titled "Gentle Madman" to drive the point home even further.]]

* Daniel Dankovski, Bachelor of Medicine from ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' is a subversion -- he has reputation of one for his revolutionary and unethical hypothesis and experiments(and also due to having personal enemies in academical circles), but he is a genuinely decent and reasonable man, and, as one of the game's protagonists, fearlessly fights ThePlague.

* ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' gives us Dr. Victor. Prone to MilkingTheGiantCow, gleefully invoking LivingForeverIsAwesome, and not a drop of evil in sight. He's ''way'' madder than most and a [[LargeHam massive ham to boot]], but that only makes him even more CrazyAwesome. '''''[[CatchPhrase KUZUNOHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!]]'''''

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'': All main villains are either mad scientists or a hideously mutated anthropomorphic animal created by said mad scientists. The scientists all have specific fields the specialize in, combined with a first name starting with the letter N that lends itself to PunnyName when combined with their last. Dr. Neo Cortex, the main villain, specializes in neuroscience and especially in creating {{Uplifted Animal}}s; Dr. N. Gin is a mad engineer who works mainly with rockets and robots; Dr. N. Brio is a chuckling Frankenstein-like midget who dabbles in biology, chemistry and mutagens; and Dr. N. Tropy's field of choice is quantum mechanics.

** Xehanort from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' is also one. [[spoiler:He tries to restart a war that destroyed all worlds. FOR SCIENCE!!!!]]
** The same can be said of [[spoiler:the Master of Masters]] from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'' for the same reason. His inventions, including [[spoiler:Chirithy and the first known keyblades]] along with his deliberate manipulations directly lead to the original Keyblade War.

* Every single villain in the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' franchise is either a mad scientist (usually with a first name starting with the letter N, which lends itself to {{Punny Name}}s such as Neo Cortex (the usual megalomaniac BigBad), N. Gin (the YesMan and more recently, TheIgor) and Nitrus Brio (a chuckling Frankenstein-like midget)) or a hideously mutated anthropomorphic animal created by said mad scientists.

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** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', Dagna is a light-hearted and decidedly heroic example. She works for the Inquisition as an arcanist - a magical scholar whose field of expertise is so exclusive (and widely encompassing) that she is literally the only one. She is able to craft runes, gadgets and weapons even better than the local blacksmith and at least one war table mission its said she was able to fend off Tevinter assassins with by herself, leaving only their [[KillItWithFire silhouettes]] behind. She also has the most adorable EvilLaugh ever.

** The Templars have their own mad genius in the form of [[EruditeStoner Iain Tibet Gladstone]], an anthropologist and archaeologist with a lifetime of experience of delving into the world's mysteries on a firsthand basis - often via [[BoldExplorer travelling to improbably remote locations]], [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs taking powerful psychoactive drugs]], or both. However, Gladstone really became infamous for attempting to study the formation of cults by starting one of his own, and actually had over ''a hundred thousand people ready to commit mass suicide at his command'' before he ended the experiment. As a result, the Mad Social Scientist has been placed under house arrest at the [[GildedCage Temple Club]], where he spends his days cultivating hallucinogenic molds in the books and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny meditating skyclad]].

** [[HateSink Hojo]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is truly an archetypal Mad Scientist, right down to his outfit and sociopathic habit of sacrificing a great deal for the sake of scientific discovery (which, in his case, underlies his utter insanity). When you get down to it, Hojo may very well be responsible for nearly everything that’s happened, [[GreaterScopeVillain considering that most of the conflict in the game is indirectly his fault]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' series gives us Aperture Laboratories, a company full of mad scientists. Driven by their grandiosely insane founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, they got started in TheFifties by recruiting the best of the best of humankind and employing them as human lab rats in a vast array of MadScience experiments. Said experiments involved such things as BodyHorror transmutations, [[LoveNuclearPower irradiation]], [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke DNA injections]], and their signature ThinkingUpPortals device, one result of which was the Handheld Portal Device that forms a core part of the gameplay. Their crowning achievement was ArtificialIntelligence, but even here they only succeeded in creating an AI as madly deranged as they were. [=GLaDOS=] proceeded to [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters take over the research program]]... by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murdering all the scientists]] with a deadly neurotoxin. It is then up to the protagonist to enter this maze of insanity and [[EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace find a way to escape]]. The closing song to the first game (sung by [=GLaDOS=]) makes all this starkly clear.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'', Mad Scientist is actually the top career rank for the Science career. Also, Loki Beaker from Strangetown is obviously supposed to be one, according to his bio. He also has 0 nice points, which makes him an EvilGenius as well. He and his wife Circe have Nervous Subject in their house and according to the family bio, they are torturing him.

** [[HateSink Hojo]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is truly an archetypal Mad Scientist, right down to his outfit and sociopathic habit of sacrificing a great deal for the sake of scientific discovery (which, in his case, underlies his utter insanity). When you get down to it, Hojo may very well be responsible for nearly everything that’s happened, [[OverarchingVillain considering that most of the conflict in the game is indirectly his fault]].

* In ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', the Mad Hatter has become one, emphasis on the "mad" part. In addition to creating numerous {{Clockwork Creature}}s, he's converted the Jabberwok and himself into ClockPunk automations, and has tried to do the same to the March Hare and Doormouse, unsuccessfully; the two have become delirious and babbling from the constant experiments they've been subjected to.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' series gives us Aperture Laboratories, a company full of mad scientists. Driven by their grandiosely insane founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, they got started in TheFifties by recruiting the best of the best of humankind and employing them as human lab rats in a vast array of MadScience experiments. Said experiments involved such things as BodyHorror transmutations, {{i|LoveNuclearPower}}rradiation, [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke DNA injections]], and their signature ThinkingUpPortals device, one result of which was the Handheld Portal Device that forms a core part of the gameplay. Their crowning achievement was ArtificialIntelligence, but even here they only succeeded in creating an AI as madly deranged as they were. [=GLaDOS=] proceeded to [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters take over the research program]]... by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murdering all the scientists]] with a deadly neurotoxin. It is then up to the protagonist to enter this maze of insanity and [[EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace find a way to escape]]. The closing song to the first game (sung by [=GLaDOS=]) makes all this starkly clear.

** More than likely, Cave's overzealous drive to experiment and try anything, even going so far as to fire anyone who questioned the safety of these activities, weeded out any ''sane'' scientists and encouraged the eccentric thinking of remaining staff. In the end, Aperture Science was operating off the grid, paranoid of any government oversight, in effect walling themselves in to one giant, death-trap lab.

* Doctor Cranium from ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' is out to reanimate dead tissue and all, but he really doesn't think he's a Mad Scientist. A bit perturbed about the world situation and how he get so little respect, sure, but not mad.

** [[HateSink Hojo]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is truly an archetypal Mad Scientist, right down to his outfit and sociopathic habit of sacrificing a great deal for the sake of scientific discovery (which, in his case, underlies his utter insanity). When you get down to it, Hojo may very well be the leading villain in the game, [[GreaterScopeVillain considering that most of the conflict in the game is indirectly his fault]].

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', there's a heroic example in [[CatGirl Profe]][[{{Jerkass}} ssor]] [[BunnyEarsLawyer Koko]][[GoodIsNotNice noe]] and a villainous one in one of the [[BigBadDuumvirate main villains]], [[MarionetteMaster Relius]] [[AbusiveParents Clover]].