Gaming runs on rivalries. And I don't mean the console war comment-section kind, I mean the actual in-game kind: two characters locked in something personal, spread over decades of sequels, remasters and reboots. A list compiled for MSN ranks the 10 best rivalries in video game history, and it's the kind of list that starts arguments in every Discord server I'm in. In the best way, obviously.

Some picks are obvious in the good way. Mario and Bowser is the load-bearing rivalry of the entire medium, a princess-napping grudge that's somehow stayed charming for roughly four decades. Bowser keeps losing and keeps showing up, and at this point he's less a villain and more a stubborn guildmate who refuses to read the strategy. I'll defend this forever too: Bowser works because Nintendo let him become funny. Rivalries that take themselves too seriously age badly.

Street Fighter earns its spot. Ryu and Sagat is the original esports storyline, the chest scar that launched an entire genre's worth of lore. Before we had bracket narratives and hype videos, we had one angry Muay Thai king and one wandering fighter who scarred him. If the live-action Street Fighter movie ever wants to win over the FGC, that's the dynamic it has to nail.

Then there's Final Fantasy, and I have thoughts. Sephiroth and Cloud is the rivalry everyone cites, and sure, the Masamune-through-Aerith moment still stings decades later. But longtime readers know my heart lives in the seams of this series. Give me Zidane and Kuja, or even Cecil wrestling with his own dark half, over the standard pick sometimes. TJ and I have an ongoing friendly war about where Final Fantasy's soul lives, and the rivalry question is part of it. He'll say Sephiroth is the peak; I'll point out that the best FF rivalries are the ones where the two characters are mirrors of each other, not just hero and monster.

The fighting game genre dominates any rivalry conversation, and honestly it makes sense. Fighting games NEED opposition with personality, because two characters on a stage with nothing but health bars requires you to care about both of them. That's why the FGC has always told stories better than almost any other corner of gaming. The rivalry is the whole reason to watch.

What I appreciate about lists like this is that they're really about memory. Every entry is a proxy for the moment you first encountered it. My first real rivalry memory is dying to the same EverQuest mob for a week straight, and I know that's a different kind of rivalry, player versus boss, but the emotional shape is the same. Frustration, obsession, and then finally the win. You never forget it.

Rivalries also do something that doesn't get talked about enough: they keep communities alive. People still argue Ryu versus Ken versus Sagat. People still write essays about whether Sephiroth is actually the villain of his own story. A great rivalry is an engine for conversation that never runs out of fuel, and in a community-gaming sense, that might be their most important job.

And a ranking like this is never finished, which is the fun of it. New games ship every year and who knows what fresh grudges they'll cook up. My raid group alone contains at least three active personal rivalries over damage numbers that I'd stack against any of the classics.

So who's your pick? Which rivalry actually defined gaming for you, and which one got snubbed? Drop it in the comments, because I genuinely want to know. I'm building my own counter-list.