10 Video Games That Should Have Ended 10 Minutes Earlier
Of course Hideo Kojima made the list.
It's fair to say that video games are more concerned than ever these days with giving players as much bang for their buck as possible, because in the age of Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now, it's becoming tougher than ever to justify a full retail purchase.
This often results in games being bloated out with collect-a-thon busy-work, but elsewhere, there are games which, in an effort to deliver a memorably bombastic finale, over-egged the pudding at the final hurdle.
These 10 games, though all entertaining in their own right and perhaps even quite brilliant, stumbled slightly at the home stretch with an indulgent, unnecessarily protracted ending which left fans feeling tired and ready to do basically anything else.
Whether overplaying their hand with an excessive ending which didn't know when to stop, or delivering a horrendous final boss fight nobody actually asked for, these games were a mere 10 minutes away from ending on just the right note.
Instead, we all collectively sighed, checked out watches, and begrudgingly forged on ahead...
10. Prince Of Persia (2008)
2008's controversial Prince of Persia reboot touts an ending so unbelievably contentious among the fanbase that, honestly, Ubisoft were better off just sticking to the more concrete conclusion that came and went 10 minutes prior.
Basically, the game appears to wrap up with Princess Elika sacrificing herself to defeat the final antagonist Ahriman. It's a fittingly tragic note on which to end things, and the credits even roll as the player carries Elika away.
But that's not the real end of the game. Players who keep carrying Elika will find themselves able to resurrect her a few minutes later, ending the game on a bizarre bummer as The Prince effectively rejects Elika's sacrifice, instead cutting down the Tree of Life and using its powers to bring her back to life.
Unsurprisingly, Elika isn't too happy about this, considering that it also results in Ahriman's revival, closing the game out with an admirably ballsy ending which nevertheless left a good portion of the fanbase totally miffed.
The fan outcry was significant enough that Ubisoft released an Epilogue DLC a few months later, in which The Prince and Elika re-team to defeat Ahriman again, this time without Elika's demise.
Clearly, the simpler original ending was the right one here, and the mess of contradictory extra endings we ended up with just weren't worth the hassle.