Honourable Mention
0. Its Dangerous To Go Alone Take This - The Legend Of Zelda
Nintendo Of course, compressing the finest moments of one the largest mediums in the world could never be that easy. A swift honourable mention must go to the place many of us found what adventure meant in this day and age. Alexander The Great wept tears of salt, for there were no more lands to conquer. An entire generation wept, as they realised that they would never be the first to cross an ocean. Not even the first to visit the moon. They could not cross to the New World, nor search in vain for the Orient. Adventure had left the human race, but her spirit burnt on in our hearts. That was when a simple, old man in a cave, gave us a dire warning. "It is dangerous to go alone. Take this." With those simple words, he lay a sword at our feet and we realised that adventure had never left, she had simply adapted. Adventure now lay in our bedrooms, behind a humming television screen and that old man, who first gave Link his sword in the original Legend Of Zelda was our shepherd. With that sword in hand, we wandered a world created as if just for us, and the urge to adventure, that noble spirit that made Man the first to visit every continent, to cross every ocean, to tread the black eternity of nothingness between worlds, to leave our planet and stop for a spot of golf on a nearby moon. That very spirit rose again, and we became gamers. That is a moment worth living, or even reliving. Whether it is the gift, or the burden of a sword, or the realisation that freedom is out there, hiding away from the land of jobs and bills, or being shown that the downtrodden and insignificant of the world can make a difference, or that sibling rivalry is important, or that watching grandma swear is hilarious, or that saving the princess is an admirable goal. All of these reasons make gaming fantastic, but it is the ones you experience that really change your life. Play more games.
If you think we've missed any of the best moments of gaming, or that our sheen of nostalgia is just to putrid for words - let us know in the comments section and tell us what should be on this list instead!