The Most Shocking Video Game Moments of All Time
I am the first to admit that I spend entirely too much time in front of a computer monitor. I am also the first to admit that the majority of the time in front of my computer is spent on video games. My obsession with video games is something that is beyond my control. I grew up in an age where beating Super Mario Bros. in under 20 minutes was something to be admired.
Many of my childhood memories, in some way, include video games. Over the last week I started putting together a list of my favorite video game moments. While I wasn’t directly involved in many of these video game moments, they certainly are worth remembering.
8. The first time playing through the original DOOM. The atmosphere was terrifying. The legions of monsters attacking you from all angles. The music drew you in. There were many moments in DOOM where I actually had to stop playing. The game was just too intense at times. This was the first game to actually give me nightmares.

7. The first time your entire family died in Oregon Trail. As a fifth grader; this game was the greatest. You basically take your family through the wilderness to get to the west during pioneer times in the United States. The shocking moment in this game was when your family died off due to some strange illness that a fifth grader couldn’t comprehend. Why the hell did my family just die from Dysentery? What the hell was Dysentery? These moments shocked me, and also made me quite angry when I was in fifth grade.

6. Mortal Kombat fatalities. Who can forget the first time that you ripped out Sub-Zero’s heart with Kano’s fatality? The fatality moves were extremely disturbing for a 13 year old kid. It was one of the first games that you could fight to the death, and then rip their beating heart out of their body. You were only given a few seconds to pull off the fatality move, and it was an excellent way to rub it in your friends face when you beat him.

5. Grand Theft Auto: Hot Coffee. This is one of those moments in video gaming history that probably won’t be forgotten. The Hot Coffee Mod didn’t shock gamers as much as it did society. It is something that any gamer recognizes, and most non-gamers as the mod that made Grand Theft Auto get pulled from shelves; while making parents shudder across the globe. The code was always in place for the nudity, but the developers didn’t intend to flip the switch to activate the nudity. The Hot Coffee mod basically flipped the switch, and caused an uproar in society.

4. The Unveiling of Samus Aran. By the time Nintendo released the original Metroid, I was already one of those Nintendo minions. I played any game that got even the tiniest bit of hype. I read every issue of Nintendo Power, and even ripped out the posters to hang on my wall. Keep in mind, I was very young here; not an 18 year old college freshman or anything. Metroid was another masterpiece by Nintendo that grabbed my attention, and forced me to put long and hard hours into it, until it was finished. Samus Aran, the protagonist, was the ultimate badass. He worked alone, and traveled through the unknown to beat each mission. In the finally, I was absolutely dumbfounded when Samus finally revealed…herself. Up until this point, women were only featured in games as objects that needed saving. This was a huge jolt to the normal video game gender roles. Samus Aran is still one of the greatest female video game characters of all time.
3. The End of Hyrule. I have always been a follower of the Zelda series. When Nintendo unveiled Wind Waker, I was a little taken back by the new design, and play style. Being the dedicated Zelda fan that I am, I gave it a try. The game was a nice change for the Zelda series, and I quickly learned to love the new game. While many will dispute that this isn’t one of the greatest shocking moments in gaming history, it really brought a huge piece of Zelda history to an end. In the beginning of Wind Waker, I was stunned to find out that the lands of Hyrule were flooded by the gods. Hyrule had appeared in every Zelda game until this point. I knew every nook and cranny of Hyrule from all of the Zelda games, and now it is gone. On a possitive note, at the end of Wind Waker, Zelda sails off to find another Golden Land. After all, Hyrule was beginning to feel a bit small.

2. Lord British Dies by Firewall. Probably my favorite game of all time is Ultima Online. To me, this is the game that started the MMORPG era. I had put more hours into UO than any other game to this day. There was so much to do in the world of Ultima Online. For me, it reigned king until the Trammel/Felucca expansion came out, and much of the fun of UO was lost. Way back in beta, Lord British (Richard Garriot) held a little meeting to talk about the game to whatever testers showed up. He was standing along side Lord Blackthorne in the game, and a group gathered accross a wall from him. One of the beta testers known as Rainz cast a firewall on Lord British, and due to a bug, killed him. He got so mad that he unleashed tons of Daemons on the crowd killing most of them. Rainz was later banned from the game for violating the beta tester terms and conditions. This is by far the greatest moment in the history of MMORPGs.

1. The Death of Aeris. There are three video game series that will never die. Zelda, Mario, and Final Fantasy. You can ask a person who despises video games (God forbid), and they will more than likely know about the Zelda, Mario, and Final Fantasy series. The reason for this is simple, these three series have popped out more quality video game titles than any other. One of the greatest gaming moments of all time happened in Final
Fantasy VII. One of the most memorable and beloved characters in the Final Fantasy series was Aeris Gainsborough (Aerith was her original name in Japan, but was changed to Aeris in America due to poor translation). At the end of Final Fantasy VII Aeris was killed by Sephiroth, and this moment is considered by many to be the most shocking moment in video game history. Rumors still emerge now and then that she will somehow be resurrected in future Final Fantasy titles.
Edit: I stand corrected. Aeris dies in the middle, thanks for the hundreds of reminders.
Sources:
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/stories9/beta.htm
http://www.mobygames.com
http://www.gamespot.com
http://ian-albert.com/misc/gamemaps.php



Rainz Killing Lord Brittish was awesome I would have to agree it is one of the greatest moments of all time