The Image: A cake. Who doesn't love cake? Enough said. Why It's Powerful: Admittedly, this one is pretty abstract on its own terms and needs a little explaining, aside from the fact that it's a delicious-looking cake we'd all love to devour. Within the context of Valve's magnificent Portal, the protagonist Chell is promised cake if she can complete all of the test chambers, while graffiti discovered during the game retorts that "the cake is a lie". At the end of the game, however, a pan through the test facility reveals a cake sat on a table, before a robotic arm puts out the candle and the credits roll. It may have become something of an obnoxious, over-stated Internet meme by now, but one cannot deny the far-reaching influence of Portal's cake, which along with the weighted companion cube (visible in the left side of the frame), has become a merchandising icon for the game: you can get shirts with the cake emblazoned on it, and of course, even download a recipe to make the cake yourself. It may not hit us in the feels in the same way that many entries on this list do, but to deny its power is to deny every quirky thing that's awesome about this brilliant game.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
