10 Hated Video Game Moments You're Totally Wrong About

10. Mario & Princess Beach - Death Stranding

Death Stranding might well be Hideo Kojima's weirdest game to date, and he really tested the bounds of his fanbase's appetite for goofiness in the climax, when Sam meets up with his sister Amelie and sarcastically says, "So I'm Mario and you're Princess Peach?"

Amelie retorts by suggesting they run home together across the Beach "like Mario and Princess Beach," followed by an utterly ridiculous slow-motion sequence as the pair frolic along the shore.

Even for some who've stomached, even championed Kojima's silly eccentricity for decades, this was crossing the line - the combination of breaking the fourth wall and sheer corniness of the slow-mo run proved too much.

But most players have missed a crucial piece of context - the slow-motion run is actually a direct reference to The Bionic Woman, the 1970s TV show which starred Lindsay Wagner, the very actress who provides the likeness for Amelie in Death Stranding.

In the show, Wagner's protagonist Jaime Sommers would often be seen running in slow-mo to imply she's running at high speed, and this is very clearly a playful reference to that.

Sure it's still fundamentally absurd, but at least there's more thought and intent put into it than some might well think. Kojima isn't being random just for the sake of random.