Deus from Asura's Wrath, which makes him stand out in a world where most other characters are lighter-skinned and/or of Asian descent.
Father Rodin from Bayonetta. He beats up demons with his bare fists, steals their souls, and converts them into Bayonetta's weapons. Also, when given the "Platinum Ticket", he goes from scary black man to scary black celestial deity!.
Back Alley Brawler from City of Heroes... interestingly enough, he USED to be white, but was Retcon'd black when the designers realized that their NPC superhero lineup lacked a Token Minority. As was Birdie from Street Fighter; he does a Lampshade Hanging on it in a win quote from Alpha 3 ("Back then? Yeah, I was sick.").
Roland Walken from D4 takes the trope in a completely different direction, being an incredibly tall, gangly, slow-talking, and all-around unsettling character.
The chaingun-wielding Commando enemy type from Doom II and Final Doom appears to be black, and they're the toughest of the zombie soldiers-they can bring the player from full health to death's door in a second if you're not careful.
Dragon Age: Origins mixes it up a little with the Scary Large Ambiguously Brown Qunari Sten, who tends to speak very little and utilize a very big stick (the game lighting renders him a moderately-dark brown, though the texture maps for his skin are nearly black). If you talk to the guy who took Sten's sword with him in your party, you even get to refer to him as "my large, angry friend."
In The Elder Scrolls, the Redguards of Hammerfell, as a race, are viewed as this by the other races of Tamriel. Dark-skinned with wiry-hair and athletic builds, they are one of Tamriel's Proud Warrior Races with a particular cultural affinity to swords and swordsmanship. After their ancient homeland of Yokuda sunk beneath the sea, the survivors sailed to Tamriel and chose to settle in the deserts of Hammerfell, one of Tamriel's most inhospitable environments. After only a few brutal months, Hammerfell was cleansed of any Men, Mer (Elves), or beast to make it safe for settlement. This even included Orcs and giant goblins. It took being weakened during a brutal Civil War for Tiber Septim to claim Hammerfell for his Rising Empire, and a Redguard uprising was considered one of the greatest threats to the Septim Empire for centuries after. Later, in the 4th Era, as part of the White-Gold Concordat to end the Great War between the Vestigial Third Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion, the Empire ceded vast tracks of land in Hammerfell to the Dominion. The Redguards refused to abandon the land and declared independence from the Empire. Despite standing completely on their own, the Redguards of Hammerfell successfully repulsed the Dominion. Now, they are considered one of the only groups who could stand up to another full-blown Dominion assault.
To a lesser extent, the orcs also embody this trope. Since for obvious reasons they didn't want to make the Redguards seem brutish or unintelligent, they shifted many of the more unfortunate aspects of the scary black man to the Orsimer, also a proud warrior race but unlike the Redguards get penalties to intelligence and charisma and are discriminated against despite significant military contributions to the empire and a long tradition of craftsmanship and artistry. Racially they may be green-skinned, but culturally they are much closer to the popular image of black people than the Redguards, whose culture is much more Middle Eastern than African American.
Expert sees you fighting an International-based terrorist units where most of their members are Caucasian, until you meet several black terrorist insurgents armed with rocket launchers who can One-Hit Kill you. They're also among the few enemies who takes far more damage to kill, and oddly enough they're all clad in pink overalls.
X6-88 of Fallout 4 is an Institute Courser, and what happens when you combine the physical appearance of Blade with the cold ruthless personality of the Terminator, with a dash of Agent Smith's smug sociopathy. Yep, he's an immensely creepy guy.
Played with by Dennis Rogers in Far Cry 3. He's a Liberian who joined the Rakyat after experiencing racism in America, and physically is not that imposing, but we're first introduced to him standing over Jason tattooing his arm, and then pulling a machete on him when he reaches for his knife, to warn him "You have a right to take my life, but know I will also take yours." For the most part, he doesn't fight directly, just serving as a Magical Negro advising Jason on how to fit in with the Rakyat. But then we discover that he's actually encouraging Jason's Sanity Slippage, and if Jason ultimately rejects the Rakyat Blood Knight lifestyle by the end of the game, an enraged Dennis tries stabbing him where he stands... only for Citra to shield him at the cost of her life.
Also played with by Longinus in Far Cry 4. He is, for the most part, an Arms Dealer and Badass Preacher who is fond of shouting Biblical passages whilst pointing guns at Ajay in a very carefree manner, and he reveals that he used to be a warlord before surviving a bullet to the head that made him undergo a Heel–Faith Turn. But for the most part, he doesn't look that scary, and he's only ever helpful to Ajay to make up for the atrocities he carried out back in Africa.
Subverted by Tensay the shaman in Far Cry Primal. He's a dark-skinned man who wears creepy white paint that makes him look skeletal, along with a wolfskin hood adorned with antlers, and he's constantly making Takkar drink creepy blood potions, and he's voiced by Terrence C. Carson, better known for voicing Kratos, but he's ultimately a Creepy GoodCloudcuckoolander ally. Played straight and gender-flipped with Batari, the priestess in charge of the Izila tribe, with a massive god complex and a penchant for Human Sacrifice.
Grace Armstrong in Far Cry 5 is a heroic variant. For the most part, she's a friendly Gun for Hire, but when she gets to work shooting cultists, hoo boy...
Gender-flipped with Mickey and Lou, the Big Bad Duumvirate of Far Cry: New Dawn. They're twin sisters who run a gang of ruthless bandits. At one point, Lou stabs one of her own men to death with a shard of broken plate. Zig-zagged with Pastor Jerome Jeffries, the Badass Preacher turned Gun for Hire, who was one of the Resistance members in Far Cry 5. In combat, he's The Berserker, shouting explosively and shooting Highwaymen, but he's still Good Shepherd and an altruistic friend to the people of Prosperity.
Mr. T must have been popular in Japan because Final Fantasy VII's Barret is pretty much Mr. T with an Arm Cannon... which is very scary when you think about it. So much so that Videogame Recaps renamed him that in their Final Fantasy VII recaps.
Raubahn of Final Fantasy XIV easily is this. The Bull of Ala Mhigo, the man won 100 battles in the Ul'Dah Colosseum, earning him a place by Sultana Nanamo ul Namo's side and becoming leader of the country's army, the Eternal Flames. Even when he becomes a Handicapped Badass, he's still a frightening threat. Just don't piss him off, like insulting Nanamo while everyone around thinks she's dead. Ask Teledji Adeledji...
Played horrifically straight in regards to Medeus from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light: he is a gigantic and imposing dark-skinned man in his humanoid form, and is actually a powerful purple dragon. He is an incredibly cruel, hateful and vindictive dragon who despises humanity and has successfully managed to enslave them in the past as retribution for their abuse of dragons. Years of watching his kind degenerate to madness and non-sentience also played a big role into feeding his rage and hatred against humans.
Played with in regards to Benny in Fire Emblem Fates: he's a dark-skinned Mighty Glacier in black armor, has a personal ability that suggests that he strikes fear into the heart of enemies, and is kind of a Memetic Badass in-story thanks to tales about him being a One-Man Army... but in reality, he's a very soft-spoken and timid Gentle Giant off the battlefield, and he's very bothered by how few people can see through his Face of a Thug case.
Dr John of Gabriel Knight seems to be a subversion at first — he has the build to be a Scary Black Man, but not the personality. Until you discover he's in fact a Psycho for Hire
Gang Wars have scary-looking black mooks wearing shades and dressed up like Mr. T, who will pummel you if they have the chance.
Potemkin from Guilty Gear is black (or at least very, very dark-skinned), enormous, and hugely strong — he sketches in his spare time, but needs special supplies, as he breaks ordinary pencils just by trying to use them, applying several tons of pressure. He's also one of nicest guys in the entire series.
Venom from the same series is a subversion, however he's cold, calculating and ruthless.
Butch from Guilty Party is a subversion. He's by far the tallest and most muscular detective, and he's directly inspired by Shaft. However, he's actually a Gentle Giant with a high-pitched voice and gentle mannerisms, not to mention a huge romantic streak. He is reportedly a badass who fell in love with his wifeat first punch, but in-game, he's one of the nicest characters.
Emile from Halo: Reach. Although you never see his face and it's not directly stated that he's black, you can tell from his voice and concept art that he is black. He has difficulty properly dealing with people outside of the military and was planned to be replaced on missions against insurrectionists because the way he treated them would scare civilians. He also has a shotgun. And the big honkin' knife on his pauldron. And the skull he carved into his visor. Something has to be said that such a visor would be designed to withstand bullets and white-hot plasma, but he went ahead and knifed a pretty elaborate carving into it.
Mad Jack from Heavy Rain. He's so scary, he has a skull in his acid bath..
The Thug enemy in Hotline Miami is a Scary Black Man: they are one of the only enemies that doesn't use a weapon, can sponge up more shots than regular mooks, is a little bit faster than other enemies, and will seriously mess you up if you're stupid enough to even pick a melee fight (with or without a melee weapon) with him. And he happens to be scary, black, and big.
Killer7 has Garcian Smith, the "cleaner" that acts as the team's medic and liaison.
The King of Fighters gives us two subversions. Personality-wise, Heavy D is quite amiable off-battlefield and has a cute pet cat, while Seth is also pretty calm and very firmly on the side of good.
Kung Fu's"fat black man"/Strongman. Spartn X2 also introduces burly sailor-slash-drug dealer Billy Beiry.
Averted with Valve's zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, in which the only black character is the least assuming of the lot, being a soft-spoken, white-collar whose only notable character trait is a fanon-basedlove for pills... at least prior to the Sacrifice Comic, where he killed an Infected that assaulted him in the loo using a toilet paper holder. The others are, for comparison, a tall and burly Badass Biker thug, an old man who is a Retired Badass on account of being a War vet, and a female college student who has the advantage of being Genre Savvy. Left 4 Dead 2 plays it straight with Coach, the fat black guy who's often seen in artwork with a chainsaw, even though his disposition is very level-headed and kind.
Ganondorf, from The Legend of Zelda, is a terrifying black man. Though he's more Ambiguously Brown than anything, he certainly counts, up until he goes One-Winged Angel.note As if to address any accusations of Unfortunate Implications, though, his fellow Gerudos aren't nearly as horrid as him. He's also kind of green, which mitigates it further.
Lincoln Clay, the main character of Mafia III, is an outlaw with a grudge against the New Bordeaux Mafia, who wiped out his surrogate brothers in the Black Mob. He's also a Vietnam vet with the skills to match and is willing to turn an entire city upside down just to spite the people he hates the most.
Joker in Mega Man Star Force — particularly notable since he seems to be the only character in the series to outright kill someone... albeit temporarily.
Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes have Vulcan Raven, a member of FOXHOUND. Despite being of Inuit descent, he is ambiguously brown/black (especially with the fuzzy graphics of the orignal). He is extremely musclebound and carries a M61A1 20mm multi-barreled "Vulcan" auto-cannon, ripped from a downed F-16 as well as a refrigerator-sized ammo pack on his back.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Portable Ops Plus feature Cunningham, an ex-Quarterback FOX interrogation specialist that wields heavy weapons such as a Davy Crockett and a giant laser.
The James Bond game, NightFire, has Armitage Rook, one of the Big Bad's Dragons. You can meet him at one point in the first level, to which he replies 'Not. Now.' or 'I'm busy.' Later he flies a helicopter and tries to kill you, and then ends up with a scar on his face.
Meyer from The Orion Conspiracy is very much this. He is the engineer of the space station, but do not be fooled! He will cuss and insult you most of the time. He has a problem respecting authority. He also tells Devlin that he was a soldier in the Corporation War, and even as an engineer, he can take care of himself and kick a lot of ass.
Hailing from Nigeria, Overwatch's Doomfist, despite being a stoic man of a few words, comes equipped with a huge gauntlet capable of punching someone across the room while also being a member of Talon's inner council.
Chains in PAYDAY: The Heist may have his face hidden behind a mask most of the time, but when he says "GET DOWN, MOTHER FUCKER!" you know civilians will listen damn quick.
Punch-Out!!: Mr. Sandman, especially in his Wii rendition, which has been compared to The Incredible Hulk. He levels up in scariness in Title Defense mode where he gets pissed off at Little Mac for basking in the glory of his fans and the camera zooms in on Sandman's face. Also occurs in the in between round segments where he says something like "Did you brush your teeth, Little Mac? It's bed time!" and having a close-up of his scary face. Finally, in the cinematic before his Title Defense Fight, he punches down a gym to the ground just because there was a poster of Little Mac on the side wall. He punches a building once with his bare fists, and it falls to the ground.
Quite a few of the gangsters in Saints Row are black, and they can be scary when they put their minds to it. Notable examples include:
Julius Little, the Boss/Playa's mentor in gang life. Voiced by none other than Keith David. That said, he's not as scary as...
Benjamin King (or Benjamin "Muthafuckin'" King, in his own words), the boss of the Vice Kings gang, nearly all of whom are black. Bonus points for being voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan (and later, Terry Crews)! That said, he's Affably Evil and the most level-headed of his gang. Benjamin King, who's a Genius Bruiser with a baritone and is the man who (as he said himself) effectively turned a group of practically ineffectual bangers into one of the most powerful gangs in Stillwater. True, WarrenWilliams and AnthonyGreen are intimidating in their own right, but it's Ben King that's got both of them beat.
Pierce Washington, the Boss' Lancer subverts this, because he's the local Butt-Monkey, and there are more intimidating members who the Boss can recruit as homies, such as Oleg Kirrlov.
Balrog (Mike Bison in Japan) and Birdie from Street Fighter play this straight. Dudley, on the other hand, is a subversion. To emphasize this, both Balrog and Birdie are willing to hit Ibuki unprovoked while Dudley defends Elena and rebukes the robot attacking her for raising his hand to a lady.
Torque from The Suffering and its sequel The Suffering: The Ties That Bind is the very epitome of this trope. He is most certainly African-American (with some white mixed in). He practically never talks...except to those that he is particularly close to. Both games show that he can use weapons just fine... not to mention turn into a Homage of the Incredible Hulk and tear apart anything with his bare hands! He also suffers from some form of dementia.
Barbatos Goetia (the "No items ever", boss) from Tales of Destiny 2. Brown-skinned, large, and such a nasty guy that historians opted to remove him from recorded history; something he seeks to rectify when he gets revived. It's hard not to like him despite his evilness, though, largely thanks to who he's voiced by.
Among the darker-furred characters are Eugene Gallardo, who looks big and strong enough to tear your face off without trying... and is actually the nicest and most considerateTeam Dad you're ever going to meet, to the point that he even tries to comfort the girl who believes he murdered her father.
The second example is Tohma, who is very much an Evil GeniusManipulative Bastard who likes to fuck with people's heads for no other reason than because their despair makes him laugh. He forms a particularly horrible duo with his partner, the pasty-faced Saleh. Their interactions are pretty much the two of them trying to out-do each other in Moral Event Horizon crossing.
Jiao from Tales of Xillia. He's massive compared to everyone else in the cast and wields a similarly gigantic hammer in battle. He's not really a bad guy, though (At least not anymore), and is easily the most calm and level-headed out of the Chimeriad members.
In Tales of Xillia 2, an alternate version of him really emphasizes the "scary" part.
Kold from Tomb Raider: Anniversary. He's an extremely large, extremely strong black man (the chief henchman of the main villain), he speaks in a gravelly, threatening voice, and he likes to stab people with his extremely large knife.
Nadine Ross of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a Scary Black Woman. The leader of the Private Military Contractors Shoreline — most of whom are also South Africans — Nadine is the Black Boss Lady and formidable in combat. How formidable is she? Nate's first confrontation with her is a Hopeless Boss Fight that ends with her throwing him out of a window, and the second match doesn't go any better. Nate can only actually hit her by jumping on top of her from a great height. And she's a Karma Houdini by the end of the game. In the sequel, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Nadine's still formidable, but she's a lot more friendly now, and allied with new protagonist Chloe Frazer. It helps that, being a mercenary, Nadine's only a Punch-Clock Villain.
Lee usually isn't by default, since he's soft-spoken and empathetic, but he can be scary when he wants.
Mike is initially presented as a big, grumpy black guy, so Clementine is a bit hesitant to approach him. Later, he's revealed to be one of the nicest characters, though he can be intimidating, similar to what Lee was like.
A female example: Dorian is gruff in personality and cruel in action as well as being a large-statured black woman.
Warcraft: Garrosh Hellscream, though an orc, fits the Warcraft universe's standard of this (being 'other' and considered scary). He is belligerent, quite tall and bulky, wields a massive battle-axe, and is voiced by none other than Patrick Seitz.
Watch_Dogs: The Black Viceroys in the first game. Even though they may look like your typical Gangbangers, they're in fact a group of well-trained military veterans who are in cahoots with the Chicago South Club.
◊ who seems to be a slightly browner version of grey, so perhaps kossith simply run the gamut of bronze to silver. Either way, though, they tend to be The Stoic and also the biggest guy in the room by a large margin, which makes them pretty scary no matter what color their skin is.
