The Family: Robots // The Patriarch: Dr. Light
Dr. Light's family is what you might call "non-traditional." He doesn't have any children of his own; instead, he opted to build a host of mechanical "children." He even has a robot dog.
Creepy as that might sound, the public was willing to give him a free pass when they came together to put a halt to Dr. Wily's evil schemes. As it turns out, people are willing to forgive a lot when you're saving the world, no matter how eccentric you might be.
In the end though, Light's attempt to create a robot with free will and no moral inhibitors -- a robot, in other words, that was effectively human -- would prove disastrous. His "grandchild" X was used to create an entirely new race of robots known as Reploids, who promptly rebelled and attempted to destroy the world.
In the end, X was able to put a stop to the rebellion, but the damage was done. And it was all because one lonely inventor wanted to create the perfect family.
The Family: The Koopas // The Patriarch: Bowser
The story of Bowser and his family is one of the strangest sagas in videogame history.
In the time between Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3, King Koopa somehow found time to father a family. The brood -- all of whom bear a suspicious resemblance to certain celebrities from our world -- took after their dad easily enough. When they weren't turning defenseless monarchs into dogs and spiders, they were terrorizing the skies in custom-build airships.
At some point though, it seems that Bowser lost custody of his children to their heretofore unseen mother. He quickly remarried and produced another child though; this one a nasty little brute named Bowser Jr. Bowser would eventually owe Junior his life, as his son was able to revive him Voldemort-style following an untimely plunge into a lava pit.
More recently, Bowser has been reunited with his original brood, and they've managed to give Mario his share of trouble with the help of Bowser Jr. We may never know the strange saga of Bowser's love life though, or how he ended up with so many kids. And it's probably better that we don't.
The Family: The Snakes // The Patriarch: Big Boss
If Big Boss had his way, he wouldn't have any kids. But it happened anyway, thanks to the so-called "Les Enfants Terribles" that resulted in three clones -- Solid Snake, Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. And that family would end up being incredibly screwed up.
Of the three, Solidus was the only one who didn't seem to have a grudge against Big Boss, but that's probably because he was created to actually impersonate him. Liquid Snake, on the other hands, was angry about being the supposedly "inferior" expression of his father; while Solid Snake just wanted his old dad to stop trying to kill him all the time.
The conflict finally came to an end despite the use of copious amounts of nano-machines, leaving Solid Snake as the last one standing. The convoluted saga is a testament to why cloning the greatest soldier in the world is probably a bad idea.
The Family: The Belmonts // The Patriarch: Leon Belmont
Imagine finding out that your great-great grandfather vowed that his bloodline would always be there to battle the greatest evil the world has ever known with nothing but a whip and some holy water.
Given that Leon Belmont did exactly that--in the process cursing his family to roughly a thousand years of trudging through the same cursed castle--you would think the Belmont clan would be a little more bitter. Particularly poor Sonia, whose adventures aren't even considered canon (Why? Because she's a girl, of course). Not all of them are actually named Belmont--some like John Morris are indirect descendants of the famed clan--but they all must take up the whip at some point and venture into Dracula's Castle. Of them all, Simon Belmont probably had it the worst. Apart from not being particularly athletic, he had to suffer the indignity of actually having to resurrect Dracula in order to throw off a particularly nasty curse.
The Belmonts' grudge against Dracula stretches all the way into 1999, which marks what seems like their final victory over the bloodsucker. Even so, Dracula nearly managed to make a grand comeback in the person of Soma Cruz, but ended up being stopped short by Soma and Julius. Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park though, Dracula always finds a way.
Note: The recent Castlevania: Lords of Shadow introduces Gabriel Belmont; but being a reboot, it takes place in a different timeline. Thus, Gabriel doesn't seem to have any relationship to Simon, Richter and the rest, which is probably a good thing given what ends up happening to him.
The Family: The Kongs // The Patriarch: Cranky Kong
Despite his busy career kidnapping damsels and tormenting Mario, Donkey Kong was able to find time to get married and have a son. Donkey Kong Jr. quickly took after his dad, even rescuing him from the plumber's clutches after an untimely capture.
Donkey Kong eventually retired to his own island and took on the name Cranky Kong. There he was the patriarch of an entire family of hangers-on, all of them with names that fit their personalities. You need not even be a gorilla to fit in the Kong family; any monkey will do. Hence, Diddy Kong the chimp and Lanky Kong the orangutan have been welcomed with open arms into the clan (along with Swanky, Funky, Chunky, Tiny, Candy and who knows how many others).
Of all the families listed here, the Kongs are easily the most stable. They go on adventures together; they aren't cursed, and they definitely aren't robots (just monkeys). Such is the world of videogames.
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