Dio Brando/Games

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (SNES)
Dio appears as the final boss of the game. Unlike the manga, the player battles against Dio with everyone all at once (including Jotaro, Kakyoin and the then-meant-to-be-deceased Iggy and Abdul.) He primarily uses his Stand, The World and its time stop ability to deal major damage to the player characters. However, if the playe obtained a special cap item for Jotaro before the battle, Jotaro can use the "Idea!" option to use his own Time Stop and deal major damage to Dio.

Unlike in the manga, Kakyoin can survive this final fight with Dio, and Jotaro must wear a special school cap to haness the power of Star Platinum's time stop as opposed to it being an innate ability.

Dio also sporadically appears throughout the game to taunt the heroes.

Shadow Dio
Shadow Dio is the form Dio is in for most of Part 3 until after Vanilla Ice kills Avdol. In this form the merger between his head and Jonathan Joestar's body is incomplete and as such he isn't at full power and he's slowly regaining his strength while waiting for the merging to complete.

Even without an active Stand, he can deal a lot of damage with full offensive attacks. He also has a reversal move that helps this play style to be more effective, which can be used either for offense or defense.

Throw Knives, while not too fast for up-close attacks, can push enemies further back. The angle of the knives can be varied, and he can throw knives twice. The first knife throw has a large amount of hitstun and can be used to combo off of.

His eyebeam projectile can be charged to an incredibly powerful and un-blockable level.

His Stand attacks are good for surprises, and for juggling. Combined with his own attack, he deals a lot of damage in a short time, more so within The World, when he stops time.

His Super Combo, Punishment, deals heavy damage if it connects. However, it can't be incorporated into combos easily. His other Super Combo, called "Charisma", takes two levels of power, but the buds coming out of his hair are un-blockable and hone in on the enemy. The slow start-up animation of this move requires it to be a part of the combo, in order to be able to perform the move without being interrupted by the enemy's attacks.

Dio
This is the form Dio is seen in after taking Joseph Joestar's blood and completing the fusion of his head to Jonathan Joestar's body; causing him to regain his strength and become even stronger and act similar to how he was in Part 1.

In contrast to Jotaro, Dio is more effective with his Stand on. His Stand combos are effective at dealing a lot of damage to the enemy in a short time. As such, Dio specializes in quick disposal of an enemy.

His Blazing Strikes can be manipulated to hit low, where the enemy must guard low. This makes his attacks unpredictable, keeping opponents on their toes. His eyebeams, now with different commands, are now completely un-blockable, though the animation is notably slower.

His Road Roller, though weak in JoJo's Venture, now deals bigger damage in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. His Chi no Shoukan (Bloody Summoning) requires the enemy to be hit before he sucks their blood. The scene when he connects with the move is bloody, with a cutscreen of the enemy's face being punctured by Dio's fingers.

His main problem is that his super moves cannot be integrated into combos in such a way that they will chain together. However, his super moves have a degree of invincibility, which enables him to dominate in close-quarter battles, even though predictable. To be able to use him well, Dio players must have the reflexes to perform their super moves at the right moment.

His The World - Time Stop is deadly at 10 levels of power. He can deploy a lot of knives and perform Road Roller before the power gauge goes below level 1. If the enemy is big in size, the more the enemy will take damage from the knives. It is a gamble though to successfully perform The World against a human player, but the damage it inflicts is worth the effort.

Jump Super Stars
Dio appears as a playable character in Jump Super Stars. He can only be unlocked after clearing the game once. He has three potential "battle panel" formations: a 4-block, a 5-block and a 6-block. All three have his characteristic "MudaMuda!" stream of punches as one special attack. His other special attack varies depending on the formation: With the 4-block, it's "The World, Circle of Knives", with the 5-block it's "The World, Road Roller" and with the 6-block, it's "The World, Time Stop". He also features in two "support panels" - the 2-block "Eye-Crushing Kick" and the 3-block "WRYAAAAA!" - and one "help panel" which renders the player's battle character immune from damage for a short period of time.

In terms of playing style, he is best for long-range attacks and uses a combination of punches and kicks. The World gives him a longer range than most characters, but at the cost of his speed. Dio is able to drains an opponent's health in close quarters (via sticking his fingers in their neck) and transfers it to himself. He can use "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" as a regular attack, and has an aerial move which involves throwing knives.

Interestingly, he receives a power boost when his "battle panels" are placed beside those of Hao from Shaman King and/or Papillion from Busou Renkin. He is also able to perform a special tag-team attack with Sasuke from Naruto called "Sharingan World", whereby Dio's homing daggers and Sasuke's shuriken slice through all enemies on the screen.

Jump Ultimate Stars
Dio is a playable character Jump Super Starss sequel Jump Ultimate Stars. He retains all his previous playing styles. In Ultimate Stars, he receives a power boosts come from being beside panels for Giorno, Jonathan, Rohan, Gyro, Taizo from Taizo Mote King Saga and Frieza from Dragon Ball Z.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood (PS2 Game)
Dio appears in this game and has multiple different playable versions.

Notably in one variation on his final fight with Jonathan, Dio can instead briefly plant his head on the body of the drunken prist Styx before making his final move. The player can also win the boxing match between Jonathan and Dio, leading to a scene where Dio claims Jonathan cheated and hit him with a rock.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle (PS3 Game)
Dio appears in this game, in both his Phantom Blood incarnation and his famous Part 3 DIO version as well.

Part 1 Dio uses the Vampirism style, allowing him to drain the blood of his enemies and regain "silver health" which shows up when taking damage (This silver health will not appear if he is attacked by Ripple moves or certain Stands.) His moveset revolves around his vampiric abilities such as high jumping, increased strength and freezing his victim. His HHA move is Space Ripper Stingy Eyes. If this move is used to KO Jonathan, a special animation will play where Jonathan futilely tried to block the beams and whispes "Erina..." as he dies. Dio's GHA has him reach for the opponent to freeze them, mock them for their weakness and pummel them before uppercutting them into the air and smashing their frozen form to bits in the exact same way he did to Dire to reduce him to a head. His alternate costumes comprise of several outfits he wore during Part 1, notably including his cape and feathered shoulderpads outfit he wore during his first transformation.

Part 3 DIO retains his vampiric blood drain move but instead primarily uses the Stand style (In other words, The World.) His moveset makes use of The World to either pummel his victim or use brief time stops to mess with the opponent's mind, such as one move where he casually walks toward them and seemingly warps out of their reach if they hit him during this time. With enough power in the Heart Heat Gauge, DIO can stop time and thrash his opponent at his own leisure until the gauge runs out completely. He also possesses a throw move wherein he has The World punch through his victim's body in the same way he killed Kakyoin and tried to kill Jotaro. DIO's HHA is similar to Shadow DIO's "Checkmate" super from the Capcom game. DIO mockingly notes how pale his opponent has gotten and kicks them. If this hits, he stops time and surrounds them with countless knives, before resuming the flow of time with obvious results. If the special Time Stop move is active, the HHA will change to DIO launching an array of knives in one specific wave. DIO's GHA is his infamous "ROAD ROLLER DA!" move. If The World's opening punch strikes the victim, DIO stops time and brings the now memetic road roller down on his victim's head and elbows the vehicle repeatedly before jumping off and resuming time, thus allowing the vehicle to explode in his victim's face. When done against Jotaro, unlike most characters who are helpless when crushed by the roller, Jotaro summons Star Platinum to try to punch the roller away. If the Jotaro player inputs Jotaro's own Time Stop move during this time, a special animation will play where DIO is blindsided by Jotaro stopping time. While this doesn't negate the damage Jotaro receives, the damage is still significantly reduced.

In popular culture

 * Zephyr, one of the bosses in the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as well as Portrait of Ruin, pays homage to Dio Brando. Besides a habit of bending over backwards, he has the ability to throw knives, as well as freeze time with a shout of Toki yo Tomare!!! ("Stop, O time!", translated to "Time, be still!" in the English dub of Portrait of Ruin, where Zephyr appears as a bonus boss.). He also faces the protagonist in a clock tower, a reference to Dio Brando's fight with Joseph Joestar and Kakyoin in the first half of the Dio's World story arc.
 * Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou Project series is likely to be a homage to Dio. She is not a vampire, but the servant of Remilia Scarlet, who is a vampire. Her main power is manipulation of time - usually demonstrated by stopping it completely. She attacks by throwing knives as well. Some of her spell cards involve stopping time and making many knives appear around the player, and one of these cards is even named Illusion World "The World". In the fighting game spin-offs, she has many time stopping special moves, one of which is called "Sakuya's World", which acts in the same way as Dio's time stop move in the JoJo fighting game.
 * Ironically, Miyuki Sawashiro, who voiced Sakuya in the Koumajou Densetsu II fangame, voices Jolyne Cujoh along with seiyuu Ryou Hirohashi as Reimi Sugimoto and Eri Kitamura as Yasuho Hirose (who voiced in the same fangame Touhou characters Youmu Konpaku and Remilia Scarlet respectively) all in All Star Battle, with Youmu being a possible reference to Jean Pierre Polnareff.


 * The characters Robo-Ky and Justice (Guilty Gear) from the 2D fighter series Guilty Gear (series) both make references to Dio's 'The World'- Robo-Ky in the form of the "Muda" battlecry with a barrage of punches in an Overdrive attack, and Justice in the form of a "WRYYYYYYYYY"-like battlecry and pose in both her victory poses and her most powerful Overdrive attack, Gamma Ray.
 * Furthermore, Dio's current seiyuu, Takehito Koyasu, also voices Zato-1/Eddie in this game, a necessary change after the death of Eddie/Zato-1's orignal voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa.


 * Neo Dio a character from World Heroes, another 2D fighting game series, can shout out "MUDA MUDA MUDA!" as a taunt. His visual design also pays heavy homage to Baoh, and his arm blades could also be seen as tribute to both Baoh and Kars as well.
 * In the online game, Erepublik, Dio Brando is God.
 * In the popular pixal avatar site Gaia online, there are obtainable item series known as the "RIO Star" series. These items show resemblances to Dio's outfit in Stardust Crusaders. There are also "Back/Tails" accessories that are called "K.O. Star (Za Warudo)" and "K.O. Star (Time Stop)" which is obviously a reference to Dio's stand, The World (Za Warudo).
 * Cheria Barnes from Tales of Graces has a fighting style based off of Part 3 DIO's abilities. She attacks using throwing knives as well as stopping Time. However her main focus is to heal the rest of the party, in the story this is done by touching the effected area, much like how Dio healed Pucci's disfigured foot.
 * Peacock, a playable character from Skullgirls, is able to make a steamroller fall on his opponents like Dio in fighting games. If the hit connects, the little fellow Avery has the same behavior and pummels the steamroller until it explodes as seen in this video. Valentine, another playable character, throws scalpels like Dio throws knifes. By setting up Valentine's scalpel throw as an assist move, and with good timing and luck getting the steam roller, it's possible to re-create the Road-roller combo from HttF since time freezes during the roller drop.

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
The war cry of "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" (ウリイイイイイイ, Uriiiiiii pronounced ree) is a shriek given off by the vampires throughout JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. While all vampires in the series are prone to doing so, this noise is most commonly associated with Dio Brando.

A resurgence of popular interest in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure occurred when "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" began making the rounds as an Internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel imageboards. Sparked by a Flash movie called "Mudah.swf" which features stick figures performing the signature attacks of five different characters from Parts 3 and 5 of the series (This was due to the fact that only series 3 and 5 had games at the time). Dio Brando's clip features his use of The World (often pronounced intentionally as "Za Wārudo", to mimic how Dio pronounces it in Japanese) to freeze time, throwing a barrage of knives, and finishing his dying opponent off by dropping a steamroller on him, atop which he leans back and exclaims "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!". This proved hilariously random to those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Another phrase popularized by the animation is "Muda!" (which translates to "useless" or "futile" in Japanese) which is Dio's (not to mention The World's) battle cry.

The recent English publication of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (which begins at the start of the third arc) uses the spelling "WREEEEEEEEEE!", which reinforces the proper pronunciation (at the cost of obscuring the connection to the Internet fad, however given the rather offensive nature of 4chan, where the meme was most popular, it is possible that it was a deliberate act of distancing itself from the fad and 4chan).

As Giorno, Dio's son, uses "WRYYYYYY!" during one of his fights, it is possible that the battle cry may be hereditary, since Giorno is not a vampire. Another instance which supports this idea is when Dio's Steel Ball Run counterpart Diego also uses the WRYYYYYY battle cry, during his battle against Valentine.

The World and Time Stop
As evidenced above, Dio's enunciation of his Stand and its power has also reached significant popularity, the full line in question being: "THE WORLD, Time, stop! (ザ・ワールド 時よ止まれ - ZA WARUDO Toki yo tomare). However it is a common misconception that the original Japanese of the line is "Toki wo Tomare" (時をよ止まれ) which is grammatically awkward as it would translate as "to stop time." The original line gives the impression that Dio is commanding time to stop.

The line is later followed by: "And now, time resumes." (そして,時は動き出す, Soshite, toki wa ugokidasu)

Major Battles

 * Dio vs Will A. Zeppeli
 * Dio vs Jonathan Joestar
 * Dio vs Noriaki Kakyoin
 * Dio vs Joseph Joestar
 * Dio vs Jotaro Kujo

Trivia

 * In Dio's first appearance of part 1, he can be seen holding a book titled Gorgeous Irene, a reference to Araki's earlier work of the same name.
 * Araki stated that Dio in Part I references the musician Ronnie James Dio, whereas DIO in Part III is named after Ronnie James Dio's band, DIO. Subsequently, in Part III his name is almost always written "DIO", in English.
 * Araki also mentions Dio's name originally being based off the word "God" in Italian, strengthening his megalomaniac personality and his project to create a new world for him and his subordinates, as implied in Stone Ocean.
 * Similar to their nemesis, Dio and his SBR counterpart, Diego, have some resemblance, both of their defeats include decapication: Dio beheads himself to prevent the Ripple from destroying his body whereas Diego's head was later used to defeat the second Diego.
 * In Heritage for the Future, when hit with Alessi's stand, he turns to Nukesaku, and as Shadow Dio, he turns to Wang Chan (who carries Dio's head in a glass jar).
 * Dio's underwater slumber could possibly be a reference to the lyrics of Holy Diver. "Holy Diver, You been down too long in the midnight sea."
 * In the Capcom fighting game, Dio is voiced by Isshin Chiba, who also voiced Jedah Dohma in "Vampire Savior", a previous Capcom game. Chiba is also commonly known as the voice of Jin Kazama in Namco's "Tekken" series.
 * In the Phantom Blood movie, Dio is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, who also voiced Soma Cruz, a main character from Castlevania, another vampire-related franchise. Soma is revealed to be a reincarnated Dracula, making him a vampire of sorts as well.
 * In Araki's top Ten Favourite Characters in 2000, Dio ranked as 10th, being third main villain in countdown.