Gorgons are terrifying humanoid creatures that are often depicted as being covered with scales, a snake tail instead of legs, and snakes instead of hair. They are also known for their gaze, which can turn a person into stone. The most famous Gorgon is perhaps Medusa, who was beheaded by the hero Perseus.
When a monster is that interesting, they're obviously going to be put into a lot of video games. While most of them are renditions of Medusa, there are plenty of interesting and unique interpretations that really stand out. So avert your gaze from the Gorgon's eyes and look at this list instead.
10 Sorceress' Beast Within - Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Gauntlet is a great series of hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers filled with high-fantasy characters, locations, and enemies. It arguably reached its peak with Gauntlet: Dark Legacy in the early 2000s due to its multitude of playable characters.
Each character you can choose has a 'beast within' to unlock representing a different monstrous creature from different myths and fables. For example, the Warrior is the Minotaur, the Dwarf is an Ogre, and most important here, the Sorceress is Medusa. It's a great way to motivate the players to collect every coin in the game.
9 Medusa - Disney's Hercules Action Game
Remember the part in Disney's Hercules when The Muses sang Zero To Hero and Herc defeated a ton of monsters in a montage? Well, for some reason one of those monsters was Medusa, even though it was actually Perseus who slew her. Despite these inconsistencies, audiences never got to experience what it would be like to fight her. Then the video game came along.
In Disney's Hercules Action Game, Medusa is actually one of the boss fights — and it isn't really much to write home about. Just hide behind pillars when she tries to stop you with her petrifying gaze. That being said, it is still cool that people got to see this character for more than a few seconds.
8 Gorgon Sisters - God Of War
God Of War is easily the biggest video game series to take place in Ancient Greece. Every Greek monster is represented in some way or another. Medusa was an obvious inclusion, but the developers decided to take it one step further.
Medusa's sisters Euryale and Stheno also make appearances in the series. Medusa appears as a boss fight in the first game and looks like most other versions of the character. Euryale appears in God Of War 2 and looks much more frightening, while Stheno has the strangest appearance of all three, only appearing in a multiplayer level of God Of War: Ascension. No matter which one you encounter, it's cool that they're all represented.
7 Medusa The Imperious - Immortals Fenyx Rising
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a pretty good game if you want to play Breath Of The Wild, but in a more 'historical' setting. It tells the story of a girl named Fenyx and her journey to save her brother from Hades.
Medusa is one of the four mythical bosses in the game and is incredibly intimidating with her gigantic stature. She's also much more brightly colored than other forms of Medusa, being red and a bluish-turquoise. It's kind of how certain snakes will tell you that they're dangerous by their own brightly colored skin. Nice touch.
6 Medusa - The Kid Icarus Series
One of the earliest forms of Medusa in video games comes from Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Referred to as the Goddess Of Darkness instead of a Gorgon, Medusa kidnaps the goddess Palutena and it's up to Pit to defeat her. Once you reach her for the final battle, she transforms into a giant face on the wall with one eye. A unique and memorable take.
The Kid Icarus series would lie dormant for years, but returned in 2012 with Kid Icarus: Uprising. Taking place 25 years after the original, Medusa is mysteriously resurrected and Pit needs to defeat her again. However, she is only a puppet of the real villain of the game: Zeus. In this version, she is more obviously a woman, even in her monstrous final form where she is once again a cyclops.
5 Cala Maria - Cuphead
Cuphead is a gorgeous game that is almost entirely made of boss battles. One of the most memorable battles in the game is against Cala Maria who is a unique take on the gorgon by combining it with the traits of a mermaid.
Cala Maria has an octopus on top of her head whose tentacles turn into electric eels, much like the traditional snakes. She can also turn you to stone with her gaze. But the icing on the cake is in the third stage of her battle, where she just becomes a flying head with the deceased form of said eels, carrying on the video game tradition of flying Medusa heads.
4 Every Form Of Medusa - The Castlevania Series
...and this is where all of that started! The monsters in the Castlevania series come from around the world, so it would make sense that Medusa would be one of them. You'd first encounter her in the original game as a head that would float through stages and was a massive pain to dodge.
She'd be seen throughout the series both as a head and a full-bodied Gorgon, but Medusa's peak was in Castlevania: Lament Of Innocence where she was a boss fight — this time changing things up by being a giant floating head. No matter which Castlevania you encounter Medusa in, you know it's going to be memorable.
3 Medusa - Smite
Smite has a vast selection of gods and creatures from all different kinds of mythologies, so it was always a matter of time before Medusa was added to the roster. And like most characters, there are tons of different and creative skins, including the robotic iMedusa, Chibi Medusa, and Gummy Worm Medusa.
She also stands out as a great Hunter, with good mobility and powerful attacks — to the point where players wanted her nerfed as soon as she was released. But even if you don't know anything about Smite, you can enjoy the incredible art that comes with the different skins.
2 Dusa - Hades
It's easy to make a snake person monstrous or evil. It takes real skill to make them lovable. And Dusa from Hades is one of the most lovable characters in video games.
Much like Medusa in Castlevania, Dusa is just the head of a Gorgon. But she doesn't let that stop her from cleaning every inch of Tartarus. She's incredibly talkative, but gets shy and flustered as soon as you talk to her. Next to Cerberus, she is one of the best friends you can have in Hades, which is proven in her romance arc. Dusa may be more of a minor character, but her charm and kindness really make her stand out from every other entry on this list.
1 Ligeia - Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
The Assassin's Creed games bring various time periods to life with epic stories and intense action and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is arguably the best of the bunch. Taking place in ancient Greece, it was only a matter of time before the lead character takes on a gorgon, referred to as the Writhing Dead.
In this quest, you help Bryce search for her lover, Ligeia, in the ruins of the Petrified Valley. It turns out that Bryce was late to a meeting at their hideout and Ligeia hid in the ruins to hide from mercenaries. She was turned into one of the Writhing Dead after touching an ancient artifact left behind by one of the defeated monsters. Now a monster herself, Ligeia kills her lover and you have to defeat her in return.
The story of Ligeia and Bryce is a sad tale of two women in love who just weren't meant to be together, giving depth to what is normally a very cut-and-dry tale.