10 Most Painful Video Game Cliffhangers EVER

And so, we come to the games whose stories will never be completed, the cliffhangers forever unresolved that give us all of the suspense and none of the release. In the world of fiction, there's truly no greater pain.

Ecco the Dolphin may not be as widely remembered as Alex Kidd or Sonic the Hedgehog, but its first two instalments were among Sega's most acclaimed Mega Drive games, praised for their unique underwater gameplay and impressive visuals.

You'd think, then, that this success would have ensured a continuing franchise that didn't have to rely on spin-offs to keep going. But no.

The 1994 sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, is much the same as its predecessor, barring one thing: its woefully unfortunate cliffhanger.

Endgame text explains that the Vortex Queen time-travelled back to prehistoric times, where her kind gradually integrated with life on Earth. Ecco, meanwhile, uses the time machine after her, but "disappears into the tides of time".

Though this seemed to be setting up a third game, it was not to be, and Ecco's story thus ends on quite a dark and depressing note. Where might he be now, I wonder...