28. An Emotional, Very Snowy Return
What's the best way to tug at the heartstrings of gamers who've stuck with a character for over a decade? Simple - return to the area where most of us encountered him for the first time. An expert exercise in nostalgia, MGS4's return to Shadow Moses, where we first played as Snake in Metal Gear Solid, was poignant, emotional and extremely satisfying. Seeing the old locales rendered in HD, the effects of years of abandonment clearly apparent and an excellently put together storyline made the return to Shadow Moses one of the games' many memorable moments. Who can forget staring up at the wreckage of Metal Gear Rex for the first time? I've got chills my friends.
27. Game Breaking Hallucinogenics
Games sometimes love to mess with our minds. Look at Metal Gear Solid 2 - I still remember freaking out when the Colonel called me and asked me to switch off the game. That kinda fourth-wall breaking stuff where they seem to be inside your house rather than a game is just plain freaky. Another such example from this gen is contained within the excellent Batman Arkham Asylum. Around halfway through, after coughing slightly, the game seems to glitch out completely, freezes, and then seemingly restarts the entire adventure. What had happened? I panicked, thinking that the game had broken. Turns out I needn't worry at all - this was all part of developer Rocksteady's clever plans to mess with our minds. It was all part of the Scarecrow's fear gas hallucinations, forcing Batman to relive the start of the game but with him as the prisoner and the Joker as his captor.
26. Where We're Going, We Don't Need Gravity...
If there's one thing that's impressive about Mario, it's his staying power. He's been in so many games it's impossible to keep track now, but every single one of the core games - those wonderful 3D experiences - holds up as an absolutely exceptional gaming adventure. Perhaps the Wii's greatest triumph was Super Mario Galaxy, a game that stuck to the guns of the original Mario formula while simultaneously mixing it up with gravity puzzles, little planetoids to explore, a fantastic soundtrack and a great game all the way through. Its sequel, Mario Galaxy 2, only improved further upon this formula. Once you saw Mario blasting off across the stars or hanging upside down from a planet, you knew you were in for something special here.