15 Most PHENOMENAL Video Game Moments Of 2023

12. Ganondorf's Health Bar Goes Off The Screen - The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

It is hyper rare that Nintendo take direct influence from another entity, but the amount of Dark Souls in Tears of the Kingdom's new version of Ganondorf is a perfect fit.

Everything from his menacing transformation seen in the game's various flashbacks, to the underground swordfight he and Link partake in is dripping with that level of raw melee intensity FromSoftware reminded people they love. However it's when the Demon King truly starts needing to emerge victorious, that he summons a handful of clones and his own health bar grows so large, it flies outside his own name tag, straight to the edges of the screen.

A great Hideo Kojima-esque visual acknowledgement of how powerful this near-final version of Ganondorf is, you still had a good chunk of game left before you put him down, but this fight was immediately iconic.