Female ninjas occupy a strange space in the realm of video games.

While their male ninja counterparts, like Strider Hiryu, dress like actual ninjas in full body garb that maybe, at most, reveals their beefy triceps, female ninjas dress in hyper-colorful, skin-bearing attire that seems to scream, "I'm here to step on you, you degenerate gamer." As if "degenerate" and "gamer" weren't interchangeable.

But which video game kunoichi has the best personality? LOL just joking; we're all gamers here! What I really want to know is which kunoichi could step on me the hardest? Let's descend into the gurgling swamp of degeneracy and find out once and for all.

10. Yuffie (Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)

Square Enix

Okay, so hear me out. In Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie is only 16, which means that her stepping on me might be kind of illegal, or at the very least, very creepy. But Dirge of Cerberus takes place two years later, meaning that Yuffie is 18, meaning that it's high time for her to get steppin'. Still, Yuffie is kind of immature, so it's hard to imagine her really putting her all into stomping her foot into my groin.

9. Ibuki (Street Fighter)

Capcom

Ibuki may be a highly trained ninja, but her attitude certainly doesn't show it. She even goes so far as to complain that her ninja clothes are unappealing. That's probably why she chose to cut holes in the butt area, because I'm having a hard time imagining what practicality butt cheek flaps would have for assassination. While I'm sure Ibuki could step hard if push came to shove, she probably wouldn't be first choice for a good stomping.

8. Kasumi (Dead or Alive)

Koei Tecmo

Kasumi is, all things considered, a compassionate and empathetic ninja. This means that her ball-busting abilities might be less than extraordinary. On the other hand, the entire bottom portion of her outfit is completely open, which makes absolutely zero sense for a Ninja what with all the flapping parts, but I digress.

7. Mai Shiranui (The King of Fighters)

SNK

Mai Shiranui may be too sexy for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but she's exactly sexy enough to dig her toed ninja socks into my nuts. Mai probably wouldn't be particularly vicious, but she's basically just wearing a thong, and I'd certainly forgive the lack of brutality if she slapped me around a bit with her fan.

6. Kunimitsu (Tekken)

Namco

Kunimitsu is a kunoichi of few words, hiding her face behind a fox mask and her genitals behind not much else. This suggests that she's very clever, as her foes might be able to identify her if they saw her face, but definitely not if they just saw the whole rest of her body. The best thing about a clever ninja lady like Kunimitsu is that she'd be able to identify the exact right spots to step on in order to make me hurt the best.

5. Ayane (Dead or Alive)

Tecmo Koei

Unlike her compassionate Dead or Alive compatriot Kasumi, Ayane is cold, frightening, and analytical. And while her top isn't as low cut, her short skirt and thigh-high stockings suggest an affinity for fashion and possibly for crunching dudes' junk. Ayane's heeled boots also seem promising, and I'd like to think that her expert aim translates to a capacity for stomping a well-placed heel point in just the wrong spot.

4. Psylocke (Marvel vs. Capcom 2)

Marvel

Maybe this is cheating a little bit, because Psylocke is, first and foremost, a comic book character. But she appears in the Marvel vs. Capcom games, and she's a sexy, psychic, scantily clad ninja lady, so I'm deeming her fair game to dig her heel into my pathetic gamer scrote. Psylocke is a powerful enough woman to recognize that a unitard that cuts off right around her nether regions is far more practical for an assassin than literally anything else, and that's the exact kind of woman I want to crush me.

3. Ayame (Tenchu)

FromSoftware

Ayame is an ice cold killer who perpetuates the butt cheek-cut ninja pants (is this seriously a trope?), but also sometimes a classy midriff shirt and short skirt combo. She also says cool lines like, "You've been a bad boy, it's payback time!" which makes her a perfect candidate to bruise me with her foot. When choosing a video game ninja girl to step on you, it's important to find one who might be willing to spit on you, too.

2. Taki (Soulcalibur)

Bandai Namco

Taki is an absolute badass. She may not have an open clothes plan like many of the ladies on this list, but her ninja suit is tight enough that you can see all 18 of her abs. This leads me to believe that not only is she strong, but Taki gets off sexually to ninja-ing (why else would she have perpetually hard nips other than her game designer being a perverted 14-year-old?).

1. Kitana (Mortal Kombat)

Midway

The only thing sexier than a 10,000-year-old ninja princess who looks like a 20-year-old woman is a 10,000-year-old ninja princess who looks like a 20-year-old woman and is also willing to stab you in the balls and then cut your face open. Kitana is as brutal as her costume is sexualized, which is to say: overwhelmingly. Kitana wouldn't just stomp on me; she would absolutely obliterate me and then probably cut my head off with her fan. Which honestly, after writing this article, I'm pretty sure I'd welcome.