Great Video Game Moments (1 Viewer)

What are some of your all time favorite moments from video games? Not necessarily full levels, much less the entire game, but specific sequences that stand out as truly exemplary?

I'd put in that list when you get the Master Sword in Zelda: Wind Waker. The trip through Hyrule Castle was absolutely incredible, especially with the black and white going to color after you got the sword followed by one mother of a battle. That was the best part of the entire game, and may well be the single greatest sequence I've ever played through.

First entering Tallon IV in Metroid Prime. Seeing Samus rendered perfectly in 3D, with a remixed Metroid theme playing, and then running into so many old friends from previous Metroid games was handled flawlessly.

First pulling the trigger on the BFG 9000 in the first Doom. You know you remember it.

Playing Civilization on the real world map as the Americans. Total isolation in North America, then discovering seafaring that let my ships cross the Atlantic and Pacific, and then finding the Germans and Japanese exactly where they're supposed to be.

Web slinging in Spider-man 2. Sure the game had serious flaws, but the real-world map combined with the perfect handling through the concrete canyons of NYC provided a freedom of movement that few other games have reached.

Marathon Infinity, while lacking in specific exact moments, had a number of places that tied the game together within itself as well as to the other two games in the series in a pitch-perfect fashion.

Letting Alric cut loose with the lightning sword in Myth II.

Exploring Hong Kong in Deus Ex. The most impressive part above all was how much they encouraged exploring. At one point there was a tavern off the main path for the level. If you worked your way through the kitchens, freezers, ventilation system, and eventually sewers of that tavern, you found a few pretty powerful upgrades. It let out right into the canals for the city as well, just like you'd expect. How many people found that tavern to begin with, much less explored just how completely it was all laid out?

In addition to the ones listed above (Ocarina, MGS2, Ico, Grim Fandango), beating gannon in the first legend of zelda, only to discover another quest!

The first moment that comes to mind is playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time and defeating Bowser in the fourth level, only to get this memorable message:

"Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle"

I was honestly surprised that I hadn't beaten the game. Up to that point, I had only played simple Atari 2600 games that either ended quickly or never ended at all. This showed me that this game was something more, an adventure much larger in scope than anything I had ever played.

Oh man, where to begin:

Playing Super Mario Bros. for the 1st time...Big game

The Breaking of the World in Final Fantasy VI (U.S. III)

Passing into the Dark World for the first time in Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past

Mario 64...A fully immersive 3-D video game WORLD! Truly a first.

Getting attacked by a pink gorilla, for the first time, in Doom. It must have been my natural good looks that got her to jump me in the dark!

Not really a great gameplay moment, but when I was playing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault on the PC, there are levels where its fairly quiet except for the sound of the wind and the snow blowing around the trees in the forest/woods/park. Thats when I would look outside and it happened to be snowing and blowing just like in the game. Stayed like that for the whole weekend and it just made the mood so perfect.

Going over to my friends house for the first time when he was the first in his neighborhood to own a NES. Going online for the first time ever to play a demo of Unreal Tournament....HOOKED!!

Finally knocking Mike Tyson OUT!!!!!!

Marathon. As soon as the game started.

Star Wars Arcade. 'Nuff said.

Ocarina of Time. Damn cool game, and I just started playing it again with my daughter.

Final Fantasy VII. Pretty much the whole game .

Final Fantasy X. Same.

Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic. Malak with his apparatus taken off. *shiver*.

Metroid. Helmet. No spoilers.

Sinistar. 'Nuff said there, too.

I'll probably come back and edit this soon.

Mike

Initiating cardiac arrest in Contra.

Storming the beach in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

The first appearance of the hunters in Resident Evil. Oh my God, what are these things!?

Taking down Galamoth in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Three-stories tall and looks like Mumra.

Driving around in the vast 3-D world of Grand Theft Auto III.

Getting the Cyberdemon and the Spider Mastermind to fight each other in level 20 of Doom II.

Reversing time in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Seeing the revamped mansion for the first time in the remake of Resident Evil.

Obtaining the lightsaber in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast.

Performing the trench run in X-Wing.

The first usage of beam cannons in Freespace 2.

Destroying the Guardian in Master of Orion.

Meeting the Nemesis for the first time in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

The destruction of the Lucifer in Freespace: The Great War.

Fighting the Minotaur in Hero's Quest.

Encountering the Sathanas in Freespace 2.

The Dyson Sphere battle in the finale of Freelancer.

Killing my first hopper and camper in a multiplayer game of Call of Duty.

The first occurence of inexplicable darkness in Silent Hill.

Dispatching the mutated Mr. X in Resident Evil 2.

Witnessing Wesker's enhanced abilities in Resident Evil: Code Veronica (X).

Performing a fatality in Mortal Kombat.

Turning up the turbo option in Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition. Looks like you fighters just drank a bunch of 2-liter bottles of Jolt.

Blasting an insolent fool with an Ur-Quan Dreadnought or hiding behind a planet with an Arilou Skiff in Star Control.

And finally...

Kicking my brother's a** again and again in Soul Calibur and then in Soul Calibur II.

I have some old school moments that may seem primitive today but were fantastic in their time...
Alien Trilogy for the PS1, the environments and music were really atmospheric and the first time I got to the nest and the Queen...after it was over I had to extract my underwear from my cheeks!

Silent Hill, still one of the creepiest games I have ever played, more frightening that most of hollywood's output for decades. At the very beginning of the game when you walk down the alleyway into the "other" Silent Hill with the dead children attacking you with butcher knifes....brrr.
The sound in this game is a triumph of unnerving mood.

Kings Field, the first time I had ever played in an entirely 3D polygon environment...crude even then but still fun...the games in the series have always had great music as well.

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, on a Commodore 64....text adventure was new then and I was absolutely hooked...took me friggin hours just to get out of bed!!

Adventure, Atari 2600....anyone old enough to remember knows why this game was ground-breaking in it's time.
The moment I got "the dot" and found Warren Robinette's hidden signature...who else spent hours looking all over that damn game for anything else that might have been hidden?

Great thread.

For starters, pretty much anything in Ocarina of Time.

I loved going to Hyrule for the first time in Wind Waker.

The ending on Mario Bros. for SNES was pretty great for me, as it was one of the first games I ever beat.

Good call on getting the lightsaber in Dark Forces II, great moment.

I'm drawing a blank now, but I'm sure there will be more to come.

My personal favorite moments in video games are the following...

The fight with Miguel in Chrono Cross. While the game will never top Chrono Trigger, it does have a great moment when you fight Miguel, the nice keeper of the Dead Sea who is also your girlfriend's long believed dead father. Just the music and all makes it a great scene.

Fighting Kefka in his tower (Final Fantasy VI). After so much build up, it finally time to end this mad jester's dream of destroying the world. Besides, you get the classic "You sound like something from a self help book" line from the main villain.

Fighting Gorduo in Suikoden 2. After the scene where he fatally wounds Namani
, the hero and his former best friend, turned king join forces one last time to fight their "sister" killer. The music that pounds on that scene adds to the emotion. (I know there is a ending that changes this scene, but that not the point of this topic )

Fighting the Disney villains in Kingdom Hearts. You have to admit, the disney villains are the best things in the movies...and fighting them in 3D in a epic battle is great. Especially the likes of Jafar, Maleficent, and Calbogen (devil from Fantasia) are just very great moments.

Oh man, how did I ever forget X-wing's trench run? On its own, it's a great level, but within the context of it being straight out of freakin' Star Wars, truly iconic, doubly so when you finally pull that bugger off and blow the thing.

1. Beating the Axe Knight in Dragon warrior. To this day I can still find myself Humming the Dragon Warrior Tune.

2. Legacy Of Kain. I guess this was the first game I played where you are clearly evil.

3. Grand Turismo. Its like what every driving game wants to be

4. KOTOR holy shit I'm Darth Revan. In retrospect it was a little obvious but I guess I wasnt paying attention.

5. Baldurs Gate, just the different moments of interaction with your NPC group.

6. Resident Evil any time something jumped out at you.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Metal Gear Solid 1 on PS1 yet. To me this game is perfection itself, and this comes from someone who is not a real fan of the genre. I pretty much played through this game in two sittings straight. The views on MGS2 are definitely up for debate, but there's nothing to consider about the first one. Should get serious consideration for best video game released on the PS.

Some of my favorite moments include...

Getting a bomb threat in Simtower.

Playing Starfox for the first time on the SNES.

The whole experience of Yoshi's Island.

Booting up Super Mario 64, then playing the waterworld.

The sheer scope of Grand Theft Auto 3.

Winning an XBox at a graduation party, and playing Halo's multiplayer. Its been almost 3 years, and my friends still get together to play that game. Crazy.

Im sure there's more, but thats all for now

PS1
Metal Gear Solid- Finally beating Raven, he kicked my ass for hours.(that is the best game on PS1)

Syphon Filter- Realising, after hours and hours, that I need to shoot the last boss into the gotdamn airplane propeller, then only taking 6 seconds to do that.

Legacy of Kain - I loved this game just being a vampire and killing and sucking blood appealed to me. I love vampires, so, I guess that helps.

Sega Dreamcast-
NFL 2k The dawn of a new age in video game graphics. The sheer wonder of seeing the beauty of this game, how it fooled my eye the first time I saw it, I thought it was a real football game. That will never be replicated.

Rush 2050- Playing battle cars with my friends having a blast, then out of no where it says "you've unlocked a new level", we went crazy!!

PS2
Onimishua(sp?) Being the first game I played on my PS2, it looked great and was fun.

Metal Gear Solid 2- So excited to play this, that graphics were great, game play was great, then they rape my heart and put this punk ass feminine character in to replace Snake, I was devastated. If I had not paid for it I would not have played it through.

Grand Theft Auto3-Killing at will, stealling at will and the music was authentic, it was an experiance the first time around. But when I found out how to make the car with hydraulics dance, I went nuts.

Xbox
HALO- I mean...what can be said bought it the first week it came out, me and my friend played co-op from Fri.5pm to Sat6am, slept, started again at 1pm finished game around 3am. Was also the first game I played online, it was awesome.

DOA3- Playing this game 480p, it was gorgeous, I realized PS2 didn't do this, I never played it again.*

Xbox LIVE Playing online, and being able to speak to the player, what a day that was.

*With my xbox came the purchase of my first big screen hdtv and HTF membership, all of this made me not play PS2 anymore, just didn't look good on my tv or have 5.1 sound.

Especially when Celes wakes up afterwords and you can catch fish or not, and it matters...

Playing Super Mario Bros for the first time. Ditto for SM World.

And the opera scene in FFVI - less impressive now, in this era of CD-music. At the time it was awesome, though.


Dragon Warrior IV - When Alena and party returns to her castle in chapter III, and everybody has vanished...spooky. DWIV had a lot more storytelling than most RPGs of the era and it made an impact.

Chrono Trigger - several parts. Esp when you see the end of the world and the characters swear to stop it. (I'm a sucker for apocolypse).

FFVII - Aeris. Ballsy move from the storytelling team.

Gauntlet on NES - realizing that there is no end to the game, ever, after trying to beat it for hours


First time seeing Mortal Kombat in the arcade. What a shocker.


Oh yeah, first time playing Civilization 1. Thus started the addiction to strategy games.

And the first time I played multiplayer Quake 2. Never liked FPS until I played multiplayer LAN. Talk about addiction.

First time watching/playing "Wolfenstein 3d" being played on my friends PC.

First time watching/playing "Doom II".

Spitting contest in "Monkey Island 2" on my Amiga 500. Man, there were some serious disc-swapping there (no HD).

Playing the "Quake 2" demo online against my friends in school. :p

The tram-ride in Half-Life, and it actually worked quite well on my PC back then.

The ending of "The Dig".