PixlBit

An old 1up Blog till my Non-Review tomorrow

We all have those moments in gaming that once you watch or play it you think to yourself "wow" or makes you feel that sh!t just got real, emotional or otherwise every time you think of games these moments stay with you or you think about these the most whether it's the first time you stomped on a Gomba or when. Well, here's mine in no particular order.

 

I'll start with a heavy hitter

*SPOILERS* watch/read at you're own risk...

 

1. "Monster's... they looked like monsters to you?". Vincent - Silent Hill 3

Seriously this is the darkest and arguably most scary scene in any game and is linked to another of my picks, Silent Hill as you know are plagued by creatures manifested by your deepest fear or secret in order to essentially test your true nature because the Evil of the town is indifferent and will give you enough to save yourself but kill yourself too. So naturally if you see an insane monster you'd run or you'd kill dat bitch! (sorry) However in this sequel to the good ending in 1 leaves you with such a thought provoking revelation that if it weren't for the delivery or that fact it was never mentioned again would come off as pretentious or callous etc. 

This scene makes you question everything about Silent Hill, the fog the reason you rare see any real people yet the town seems habited or untouched excepted monsters then you realises "they look like monsters to you". In some/most Silent Hill games the protagonist has a dark secret or inner malice that by the end you fnd out just how horrible they are and that they are in fact the real monsters of the story but they either don't realise or don't want to admit so if they are the monsters then what, who! Have you been killing all ths time, People? And if that's the case and you are the Monster then everyone attacking you seems like a cruel (and clever) joke! It remind me of that scene in MGS where Liquid goes along the lines of "I saw your face as you gunned them down, you enjoyed killing them" when he reveals they're all close to being brothers.

Again, as cliché as this sounds "Who is the real monster"?

 

2. "Be gone foul beast!". Priest - Shadow of the Colossus

Truly a defining moment in any game a prequel to Ico this was in a way a story about Life in some respect, and it's a rare game where there is no real Antagonist or villain. "What, Dormin was a buy in this game?" Well, not really. Think about it, did he lie, did he agree right away, did or did he not keep his end of the bargin and did he do anything horrible, Nope. Some of you may recall the scene where Wander was possessed and he became Dormin but I ask you this did you make him attack those people? Exactly what ever Dormin did was up to you and you had the option to kill but what is implied throughout the game is that he is uninterested, if anything he was only defending himself after being attacked. Which leaves me to the scene above it was glorious.

Rarely game lets you play out events you have no control over, when the sword is dropped into the pool at the bottom of the entrance by a priest all the "black energy", Dormin and Wander are sucked in... However Wander doesn't give up, the game designers allowed the player to try and resit the force pulling you in a dramatic, tragic and truly heart wrenching scene of a young man grasping for life to be with the girl he tried to save, fighting the inevitable with all his might, something Dormin a great power couldn't do. After killing Colossi an act which the game hints may not have been worth it it essentially punishes the main character and turns him and Dormin into a Baby. It'll be up to one of his descendants, Ico to rectify his past mistakes.

 How this happened I can't explain but maybe Wanders will to live allowed him to be reincarnated? I haven't gone deeper into the mythology beyond the games but that's nice to believe but I found this little piece of game play very moving.

 

3. "Die One Thousand Deaths!". Akuma, Raging Demon - SuperStreet Fighter II Turbo

Imagine a move so fast and fiece that the shear force blights the light itself, Akuma the Raging Demon who killed and was the brother of Ryu and Kens master devised the ultimate technique to kill or completely immobilise. When this new character came out in one of the many re-released Capcom fighter, at first we all assumed it was a clone with very little difference but man where we wrong! He had the basic same moves but some completely new ones like air-firebals however if you wanted to be among the elite of Street Fighter 2 players you needed to master Raging Demon, the true mark of a badass.

I have only ever been able to uses this technique 4 separate times but whenever this attack is used to beat the opponent the crowd will always go...

As the Knji for Sky/heavens appears the ever classic sound effect overpowers the entire auditory senses. Gamers especially fighting game fans where amazed and treated to new heights in fighting games.

 

4. "See?... I'm real"/Mary's letter - Silent Hill 2

I know I'm cheating but I only want to do a game once and I'm already pushing 2 in a franchise so I'll just explain.

Because I found it hard to choose I just picked both in scenes however it's good to do that because both are with the same actress and both are used to convey completely different tones making a steep contrast

First the scene with James and Maria Locked up, I put this as one of the best cutscenes ever created for a game, yep, the direction the camera, the music etc. And yes, even the voice acting which to this day don't quite get the problem with it. I'll let you see it for yourself albiet without a bit of context. Done? Good. Tense, alluring, creepy, confusing, enigmatic. I really Like James' almost infantile dialogue or voice work almost like she turned him into mush and Maria being her sexy self, trying and succeeding in manipulating James and also confusing the players, it's at this point we know full well she's just an illusion but James guilt, sexual frustration and deep down. trustful nature won't allow him to see the obvious truth. It's all so very unsettling yet engaging.

And the next scene... oh boy this is a love hate relationship I have with this bloody scene it's so powerful that I have only ever been able to hear it once and I couldn't take listening to it ever since, I just skip it it's that emotional. With that said it is one of the best delivered lines in a game which I don't find insulting to call it Oscar bait (hyperbole, anyone?) the music doesn't help either. It's a deep honesty that almost sounds far too real if that makes any sense? Whenever the art, as movies debate comes up it's always key to remember it really doesn't matter if it strikes a cord with you deeper than entertainment it's all good 

 

5. "You've Met with a Terrible Fate, Haven't You". Happy Mask Salesman - Majora's Mask

Back then and even now it's rare to see exactly what happens when you fail in a game, when happens after Mario falls off the sceen after dying, does Bowser dance on his grave with peach in leather and a ball gag? What would Robotnik do to Sonic corpse, stuff him? Probably, we'll never know but in the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask you see exactly what happens when not if, when you fail, you know exactly what is at stake and what fate will befall you and the world of Termina and you have the power of time to change that fate.

It's a brilliant concept to a brilliant game, it's a great way to motivate the player and it drives home that the game has stakes it doesn't tell you it doesn't even show you, the brilliance of it is it actually happens!

Skull Kid brings down the moon, the world ends, Link Fails (again). PERIOD. Up till then I had never experienced something like that.

 

6. Chapter 1: The Outset. The Underworld - Terranigma

This game I've never finished but everyone needs to play, not perfect but stands as a classic RPG released near the end of the SNES which wasn't released state side. But you should there are many things in this game that warrant a mension but the moment that stuck with me will always be this. when you leave your village you learn something strange you are in "Hell" they call it the underworld but essentially you are in Hell and the sky above you is a destroyed vacant Earth from its prequel Soul Blazer there's some stuff you do before you can leave the village, the Main character Ark has touched accidentally frozen his the people and the only way to save them is to bring them to Earth (and destroy 5 towers). 

It's just refreshing that a game just pull the rug from under you like that, the village looks normal but as soon as you leave BAM!! you've been in Hell all this time, how jarring is that?!  

The Overworld music is lovely too and a stark contrast.

 

7. "I am the very Model of a Scientist Salarian". Mordin - Mass Effect 2

We all know Mordin was Awesome but this just cemented it, especially for me. I like opera, I like Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, put that in a game and I'm in heaven. It was so random, so unexpected and rarely talked about till 3 that for me stands as a brief moment of Brilliance and and voice work. whoever decided to put that in there deserves a raise 

Games should be fun whatever the game by any standard, this scene that in no way drives the plot and barely contributes to the games progression was sheer joy.

 

8. "Do You Feel Like a Hero yet?". Konrad - Spec Ops; The Line

This is the heaviest scenes in any shooter delivered by who we assume is the bad guy "cleverly" named after the original author of the story this game is adapted from. He reveals that the main character has killed 47 people to get to him (innocent or not) which a represented by his painting (SYMBOLISM!!!) he confronts you with the brutal truth of your actions while playing the game like any standard shooter "to feel like something you're not, a hero" games like Modern Warfare and Black Ops always had very questionable stories that glorifies war but they always felt a little dirty because of it. 

The game never told you the option of doing the right thing but it was able to be achieve, many times you didn't have to kill anyone but if you play it as a standard shooter you did and in the most Meta way summed up modern shooters. Deep man, Deep.

The closets that came to this scene was the ending to Bioshock if i had played it it would probably had taken its place or shared it but with no context I can't talk about It. Although watching that whole scene and striking Ryan was very powerful, "A man chooses, a slave obeys" and considering what he'd done (you know kill all those people) makes the argument moral obedience. both scenes are a departure and have an emphasis on mindless shooters.

 

9. Intro + opening scene - Final Fantasy VI 

When the Title screen feels epic, it's done it's job

My favourite FF game and my favourite intro to any game, it gets me every time, man. All the drama, the build-up the music the lightning in the back ground and that organ and Terra in her Mech walking in the snow... I played this game first on the GBA (played the others since) and despite what other may say it didn't lose its effectiveness. I'm a minimalist when it comes to design or "show don't tell" and in an age where previews of the game are overpowered with spectacle and grandeur and in game footage FF6 reveals almost nothing but the mood and tone of the story and properly grounds you, it left me with a great impression to a fantastic game.

 

10. Bionis Leg - Xenoblade

Just think about this for a moment what is essentially a field, spanning the leg of a giant robot in which animals and humans live on... There is no amount of drugs capable of making such a thing up. In the first few sections of the game you traverse a decent sized level but I must be honest I wasn't prepared for what Bionis leg was going to show me. it was almost the scale of the entire level of Shadow of the Colossus what it achieved for me was a sense of scale I haven't felt before in a game but unlike Shadow of the Colossus it was teaming with life and the music felt natural to the entire scene. running through the intricately designed game after seeing that first real glimpes was personally inspiring and i don't think any other environment in a game has left me in that kind of awe.

 

Well there you have it my 10 most memorable moments in gaming (so far), here are my honourable mentions.

My first Fatality - MK2

The Scarecrow flashback - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Finding out seven years had past - TLoZ: Ocarina of Time

The Apparent Death of Shadow - Sonic Adventure 2

X-men Origins: Wolverine being a damn good game! 

Grey Fox slicing through soldiers in the corridor to Otacon - Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes

Animated cut scenes - Sonic CD  

 

So what are your most memorable moments in games? 

 

This is V saying "What's in a moment?"