It's always fun when a video game's ending surprises you, but it's even more fun when you get a choice to just say "Heck with it. I'm done being the protagonist!" Here are Kris's top 5 heel turn endings.

Footage credits: 

World of Longplays: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

V.E.D. videogame endings database: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

Aldebaran GoldSaint: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

iamtfc: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

Boss Fight Database: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

KimchiTekken: https://www.youtube.com/recordedamigagames

Transcript of the video:

#5. Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage for Sega Genesis is a classic. Beat em up royalty. Axel, Blaze and Adam are legends of the genre and the very picture of upstanding citizens who like to go out and beat up bad guys on the mean streets of, well, rage.

However, at the end of the game, if you’re playing 2 player, you’re presented with an option to join up with Mr. X. If you both answer differently, you have to beat the snot out of one another and the winner gets to turn into a crime lord. You even get your own special chair! Who says crime doesn’t pay?

#4. Contra: Hard Corps

Sticking with the Genesis, we have the Sega Genesis’s exclusive entry in the venerable Contra series. Now, I’ve never been particularly fond of this game, I’m more of a Contra III guy, but even I have to admit that the bad ending option here is hilarious. When you get to the last boss, he asks you point blank if instead of fighting, would you like to join forces and rule the world, and if you say yes, you’re treated to a unique ending where that does, in fact, happen. Each player has their own version with unique artwork as well. Now that’s what I call hard core!

#3. Cuphead

Cuphead is such an awesome game, especially because of its incredible art design. Every character in the game looks spectacular, and the games protagonists Cuphead and Mugman are brilliantly designed as mischievous good guys, very much in the same vein as classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. The story of the game has Cuphead and Mugman accidentally working for the Devil to gather the souls for him. At the end of the game though, you have a choice to actually fulfill your contact and just give the devil all the souls. If you do, you’re treated to this crazy cool bit where Cuphead and Mugman become evil and stick with the devil. All they’re missing is little goatees.

#2. Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros, Visions of Power

This game is ridiculously difficult to get through. You only have three lives, no continues, no map, and Kuros’s usual borderline hilarious lack of offensive capabilities, especially for a knight. If you finally make it all the way to Malkil’s chamber, he presents you with an offer to join him. After all, who could stop the combination of Kuros and Malkil? What’s particularly awesome about this one though is if you say yes, things do not go well for Kuros.

Malkil immediately betrays him, chains him up, and enslaves the world. He even has you chained up by his throne where he sits and laughs at you. Brutal.

#1. Infernax

All the games on this list have involved a choice at the final boss, but this one’s a little different. This is a choice you can make at just about any point in the game. Through the world of Infernax, there are inns where you can sleep, just like in lots of other video games. The thing is, if you decide to keep sleeping at the same inn over and over with no breaks in between, the innkeeper starts to get concerned that you aren’t completing your quest. In effect, you can choose to just ignore the plot of the game entirely and sleep in instead.

If you do this enough times, the game just ends, but it does so in style! You’re treated to this delightful homage to Super Mario Bros. 2’s ending, except there’s a window next to your bed that shows you the demons basically destroying the world while you rest comfortably. Now that’s a great way to turn heel.