History Main / VillainShoes

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}} 2'':

** In ''Siren: Blood Curse'' you play as Amana for one level.

* In ''[[VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan2005 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' for Nintendo DS, the first level is playable with Green Goblin.

* The game based on the first ''Film/SpiderMan1'' movie did this trope with a twist: after beating the game once, a NewGamePlus was unlocked where you played as the Green Goblin...which, in this case, was ''Harry'' Osborn trying to find out what happened to his father. You still played through exactly the same stages, with the Norman version of the Goblin having a [[EvilSoundsDeep distorted, deepened voice]].

* Beating every mission with an A rank in ''VideoGame/HalfLifeDecay'' rewards you with a bonus mission where you and your partner play as a pair of Vortigaunts trying to take back stolen Xen crystals from Black Mesa.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan'' for Nintendo DS, the first level is playable with Green Goblin.

* In ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'', players get to take a crack at [[spoiler:wielding Gongora's magic against his hapless apprentices.]] (Also a KickTheDog.)
** This scene also involves a decision that affects a future BossBattle. [[spoiler:Whichever apprentice you kill last will be KilledOffForReal and won't be present when the party eventually fights them]].

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', you don't ''control'' [[spoiler: Sephiroth]] during Cloud's flashbacks, but he is in your party, and it definitely fulfills the role of showing the player that he's ridiculously powerful.
** He also glares (or whatever ... means) at the ''player'' if you try to mess with his equipment.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'' puts you in control of [[spoiler: [[LiteralSplitPersonality Kain's evil side]]]] on his quest to destroy [[spoiler: [[MurderTheHypotenuse Cecil and have Rosa for himself]] ]].
** You also get a chance to play as Golbez in a flashback sequence: you basically take control of Golbez in a recreation of each of the fights with him from the original game.

* Like the ''FFVII'' example above, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' allows you to control [[spoiler:Seymour]] several hours before he's revealed to be a villain by anything other than [[spoiler:[[MusicalSpoiler suspiciously unnerving leitmotifs]] and being a non-hero {{Bishonen}}]] in a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game. It also, like [[spoiler:Sephiroth]] above, establishes [[spoiler:Seymour]]'s sheer power quite well and drives the point home by making his partner for that segment, Auron, seem totally ''useless'' in comparison.

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}} 2'' had a level playable as a Shibito.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' lets you [[spoiler: stomp around as the resurrected Dormin for a few moments before inevitably getting [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in a new can.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', the [[spoiler:final level, should you choose to play it as Oersted. As the newly christened King of Demons, Oersted takes control of the first seven main bosses in order to kill the previous protagonists. Success comes in either killing them all or getting to low enough health to initiate Armageddon]].

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', this happens not once but twice [[spoiler:with both of Dunban's allies in the Sword Valley battle]]. [[spoiler:Mumkhar]] was pretty obviously evil and [[spoiler:shows up as a willingly mechanized Face]], but then [[spoiler:Dickson]] turns out to be [[spoiler:the servant of sleeping, malevolent bastard god Zanza]]. Also two partial examples with [[spoiler:Alvis, since he's not really evil but he's definitely working with Zanza initially]] and arguably even [[spoiler:Shulk, before it's revealed that he's been dead fourteen years and a vessel for Zanza the entire time]]. Seeing as how it all draws heavily from Nietchzean philosophy, this is not really surprising at all.

* One level of ''[[VideoGame/{{Siren}} Siren: Blood Curse]]'' lets player control Amana who has about the same abilities as the protagonists.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesZeroNoKiseki Ao no Kiseki]]'' has Garcia Rossi who teams up with Lloyd in breaking out of prison for a short time and then leaves him. He was also TheDragon to the mafia in ''Zero No Kiseki'' and was antagonistic for the most part against the SSS, who are affiliated with the police. In the same game, Arios [=MacLaine=] starts out assisting Lloyd, Noel, and Dudley in the prologue of the game. He ends up being TheDragon who has to fight the SSS near the climax of the game.

* Lord or the Rings: The Third Age has Evil Mode, where you reenact key battles, but on the villains' side. Including getting to play as the Balrog, Grima, the Witch King, and Sauron himself!

A subversion of NoCampaignForTheWicked. Doesn't have to involve literal shoes, but it helps.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' has you play as the Joker briefly.

** ''[[VideoGame/ZeroNoKiseki Ao No Kiseki]]'' has Garcia Rossi who teams up with Lloyd in breaking out of prison for a short time and then leaves him. He was also TheDragon to the mafia in ''Zero No Kiseki'' and was antagonistic for the most part against the SSS, who are affiliated with the police. In the same game, Arios [=MacLaine=] starts out assisting Lloyd, Noel, and Dudley in the prologue of the game. He ends up being TheDragon who has to fight the SSS near the climax of the game.

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', after the heroes defeat Cia, HijackedByGanon kicks in. The kicker is that you get to control Ganondorf as he preforms his takeover, beginning with him dominating the monster tribes in the desert and ultimately ending in a NearVillainVictory where he has the entire Triforce. There's also a minor side story (Originally DLC but made baseline in the ''Legends'' rerelease) where you play as Cia and her army as she recruits her generals and leads her initial assault against Hyrule and ending after her VillainousBreakdown shortly before the final battle.

* In ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'', four of the villains actually count as the [[OneHundredAndEight 108 Stars of Destiny]]. Collecting the other 104 before gaining access to the FinalDungeon, followed by beating the final battle, unlocks their leader's [[PointOfView POV]] on the Trinity Sight System, allowing the player to go back and see bits and pieces of the story from their perspective.

** UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 version of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' has challenge levels where one can play as SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel IV'' has numerous characters who are villains or at least enemies for most of the Erebonia arc before they finally become playable [[spoiler:and can be taken to the TrueFinalBoss fight]]. Including the list are: [[spoiler:Crow[[note]]who was the BigBad of the first game then becomes TheDragon in the second game till he briefly becomes playable at the climax of the main story, antagonistic in the third, and does fight Rean in a Divine Knight fight in the fourth game before he becomes permanently playable[[/note]], Duvalie, Ines, Ennea, Vita, George, Leonidas, Xeno, and Victor who was brainwashed in serving the bad guys in the fourth game.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', after the heroes defeat Cia, HijackedByGanon kicks in. The kicker is that you get to control Ganondorf as he preforms his takeover, beginning with him dominating the monster tribes in the desert and ultimately ending in a NearVillainVictory where he has the entire triforce. There's also a minor side story (Originally DLC but made baseline in the ''Legends'' rerelease) where you play as Cia and her army as she recruits her generals and leads her initial assault against Hyrule and ending after her VillainousBreakdown shortly before the final battle.

[[folder: First Person Shooter]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game]]

* The Bowser segments in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor''. These are particularly awesome segments because they're reconstructed versions of levels from the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''. All those enemies and obstacles Mario had to carefully maneuver around all those years ago? Yeah, Bowser just smashes and burns his way through, no big.
** In the event that you manage to fail those levels, Bowser just gets to try again because, unlike Mario, Bowser has ''infinite'' lives.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', this happens not once but twice [[spoiler:with both of Dunban's allies in the Sword Valley battle]]. [[spoiler:Mumkhar]] was pretty obviously evil and [[spoiler:shows up as a willingly mechanized Face]], but then [[spoiler:Dickson]] turns out to be [[spoiler:the servant of sleeping, malevolent bastard god Zanza]]. Also two partial examples with [[spoiler:Alvis, since he's not really evil but he's definitely working with Zanza initially]] and arguably even [[spoiler:Shulk, before it's revealed that he's been dead fourteen years and a vessel for Zanza the entire time]]. Seeing as how it all draws heavily from Nietchzean philosophy, this is not really surprising at all.

[[folder: Stealth Based Game]]

[[folder: Third Person Shooter]]

* The first historical stage of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' has you playing [[TheDragon Pious Augustus]], and it's your choice as to which EldritchAbomination BigBad he devotes himself to. Unusually, while highly competent in melee combat, Pious is possibly the overall weakest character in the game as he doesn't have any access to the Tome's magic and lacks any ranged weapons. Of course, this takes place before he becomes TheDragon of the game and is just a normal guy with a sword.
** Yet, he has very high health and stamina, and unlike any other character he has unlimited sanity because he's that dedicated to the mission. He'd be pretty fun to play with in a level that didn't last five minutes.
* The Ryder White DLC of ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'' is a campaign where you play from the perspective of Colonel Ryder White, the game's BigBad. He's got better stats than any of the 4 regular hero characters, since he's designed to fight solo instead of as part of a 4-player co-op team. [[spoiler: his campaign also reveals that he was a good guy all along, and that the main heroes were actually the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of the story's ''real'' BigBad.]]

* ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'' has hidden minigames where you play as some of the killer animatronics that gun for you in normal gameplay. [[Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 The third game]] also has these minigames, but Freddy and friends are long gone by the time the events of the regular game occur.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', there are multiple opportunities to play as a villain:

** Videogame/BatmanArkhamOrigins has you play as the Joker briefly.

** A bonus level from the 2nd ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' game had the player assume the role of Vader during the Death Star attack of the 1st movie.

* ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' has you play as the Arbiter for quite some time. The Arbiter is a Covenant Elite, with a very specific grudge against the Master Chief for destroying one of the Halo rings, and for being the whole reason he's an Arbiter in the first place. The two never directly fight, but the thought was definitely there.

* Not really villains, but Part III of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' has the player alternately controlling two forces fighting each other. And for a straight example, the BlackKnight is one of the main villains and is controllable in a couple of maps.
* In the ''Birthright'' campaign of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the time spent with the Nohrian army in Chapters 1-5 count as this. Nohr acts as the antagonist in this mode, although they are the protagonists of the ''Conquest'' campaign.

* In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyTactics'', the player begins the game with [[CrutchCharacter Fell Knight Gaffgarion]] in their party during the intro sequence, whose strength completely outclasses the foes you face. After the intro, the character [[ATasteofPower flashes back to a few months prior]], but upon returning to the present time later on in the game, it is revealed some time later that Gaffgarion was really a gold-hungry mercenary secretly working for the true villains the whole time, and betrays the player, leading them into a fairly tough fight against him and a large unit of opponents.

If an installment of a larger series has you play the villain in the entire story, its a VillainEpisode. If your current PlayerCharacter turns out to be the villain in the sequel, this is RogueProtagonist, which may or may not involve with DuelingPlayerCharacters.