10 Emotionally Intense Video Game Moments You Weren't Ready For

7. The Microwave Tunnel - Metal Gear Solid 4

Emotional doesn't have to mean sad - it can be arduous, worry-inducing and eventually, euphorically celebratory.

MGS 4 took us all on such a gauntlet with its microwave corridor - a chunk of the level where gameplay is reduced to mashing X so Solid Snake can infiltrate the memory banks of a nefarious A.I., but the sequence happens in split-screen with every other character's situation riding on your success.

You're not just mashing a button to get through the corridor, but to save the freakin' world.

Once on the other side, Snake collapses, before throwing up and forcing himself to keep going. Never before has a game funnelled so much of its budget into one exemplary, gruelling sequence, but this worked a treat.