IGN's Top 100 Video Game Moments

J. Marston · 10-12-2011 4:10am #1

What are the moments that define your experience of a game, the ones that live on in the memory years later? What are the things that come to mind when you’re asked why you play video games in the first place? These are the questions we asked ourselves when we began to compile the Top 100 Gaming Moments. This list is the product of months of work, much deliberation, and thousands of hours of gaming experience over more than 30 years.

We’ve selected these moments based on a lot of things: their cultural relevance, their memorability, their significance to gaming, and - of course - how much fun they gave us. They come from multi-million selling successes, obscure Japanese oddities and everything inbetween and span just over three decades of gaming history. Some are from cast-iron classics, some from less famous and less accomplished titles.

Of course, some games have a bunch of memorable moments, so we’ve whittled it down to one per game. We’ve also tried to include as broad and varied a selection of experiences as possible to fairly represent gaming in all its wild diversity. Looking over this list, we hope you’ll be reminded why you love video games – just like we were whilst we were making it.

http://ie.ign.com/top/video-game-moments

The first one that popped into my head was (Spoiler for Red Dead Redemption)

John Marston's last stand

and I wondered if it made the list, it did, at number

32

. I thought it might have been a little higher but fair enough.

Kind of surprised that (Spoiler for MGS4)

the Metal Gear Ray vs Rex fight from MGS4 or Solid Snake's and Liquid Ocelot's final battle weren't included.

I can't think of any glaring omissions but it's late so maybe I'll remember a couple tomorrow.

krudler · 10-12-2011 4:21am

spoilers work better when you tell people what the spoiler is for :pac:

a few of mine would be (no spoilers)

the opening to Half Life.
Seeing Rapture for the first time.
the giant ladder in MGS3, its utterly ludirous but brilliant.
playing Mario 64 for the first time and feeling what true 3d controls were.
pretty much the entirety of the God of War trilogy, Pandoras temple, the Minotaur fight, the island of creation in GOW2, fighting Kronos in the 3rd game, epic in every sense of the word.
All Ghillied Up in COD4, best level in any COD game.
Still Alive :pac:

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 11:42am

J. Marston wrote: »

Kind of surprised that
the Metal Gear Ray vs Rex fight from MGS4 or Solid Snake's and Liquid Ocelot's final battle weren't included.

I'm not, they were terrible boss fights and just nostalgia pandering.

Potential-Monke · 10-12-2011 11:46am

I'm surprised that i've only played 48 of those games!

ShadowHearth · 10-12-2011 12:11pm

number 87

ending of "the darkness". some emotional stuff...

ShadowHearth · 10-12-2011 12:33pm

82 fallout 2 - New reno - agree, new vegas looks like pile of **** compared to New reno... they even steal your car, while you out doing drugs,woman and vodka...

76 - vice city - soooooo true.

and then i stoped watching it as all of them became spoilers for myself..

Skerries · 10-12-2011 12:41pm

55 for me as I didn't have consoles growing up only zx's and Amigas so I didn't get to play 70 million versions of Zelda

10-12-2011 1:18pm

I'm slowly making my way through this, but can anyone tell me if

Dom's Death from Gears of War 3

gets mentioned?

Huzzah! Insult Sword Fighting from Monkey Island is at #88!

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 1:28pm

Nope it doesn't get mentioned. DOn't think it should either. It was a bit melodramatic and I think Gears of War 2's big shock moment deserves a mention before it and even that didn't get it.

10-12-2011 1:34pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Nope it doesn't get mentioned. DOn't think it should either. It was a bit melodramatic and I think Gears of War 2's big shock moment deserves a mention before it and even that didn't get it.

Oh I completely agree, I guess what made it so impressive for me was that

it was like it was tying everything up, to an extent, with the music used in the very first trailer and then in the final game, it was a nice touch

. Admittedly, the rest of the game was a bit of a letdown afterwards. But yes, the shock moment from GoW2

I assume we're referring to Dom finding Maria?

was just gorgeous and so sad.

kellso81 · 10-12-2011 1:40pm

I only had 27, very nintendo heavy and I was a sega boy!

Snakeblood · 10-12-2011 2:54pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm slowly making my way through this, but can anyone tell me if
Dom's Death from Gears of War 3
gets mentioned?

Huzzah! Insult Sword Fighting from Monkey Island is at #88!

It'd really help if you mention what game you are spoiling before you put the spoilers on.:mad:

FortuneChip · 10-12-2011 3:04pm

I don't know if it appeared between 100-51, I only read top 50, but I didn't see Madison's first scene from Heavy Rain, which I thought was super intense and genuinely scary.

Yuna's first sending in FFX was pretty spectacular as well

10-12-2011 3:37pm

FortuneChip wrote: »

I don't know if it appeared between 100-51, I only read top 50, but I didn't see Madison's first scene from Heavy Rain, which I thought was super intense and genuinely scary.

Yuna's first sending in FFX was pretty spectacular as well

I haven't played Heavy Rain, but I do remember that

the section where you have to cut off your own finger

does pop up in it.

Just finished it there, somewhat surprised that the Zero G segments from Dead Space 1/2 didn't crop up in it.

Harps · 10-12-2011 3:50pm

Also only read the top 50 but no 'Would you kindly'?

10-12-2011 3:55pm

Harps wrote: »

Also only read the top 50 but no 'Would you kindly'?

I think the moment when

you first see Rapture

from Bioshock is at #10, which was more deserving I think.

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 3:57pm

FortuneChip wrote: »

I don't know if it appeared between 100-51, I only read top 50, but I didn't see Madison's first scene from Heavy Rain, which I thought was super intense and genuinely scary.

It was also retarded since it had nothing to do with the plot and was an excuse for boobies.

scum01 · 10-12-2011 4:08pm

pretty disappointed Halo: Reach's ending wasnt in there! I nearly cried playing it!

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 4:20pm

I was still face palming from all the retconning at the end of Reach.

If there's one moment I'd like included it was the fifth stage boss in Rocket Knight Adventures. If anyone has played that on the megadrive they'd understand.

Burgo · 10-12-2011 4:39pm

Harps wrote: »

Also only read the top 50 but no 'Would you kindly'?

They went with the shodan reveal and gave a mention to bioshock

Asmodean · 10-12-2011 5:57pm

Deadly premonition is there! Fantastic.

MitchKoobski · 10-12-2011 6:08pm

Probably the first time I've agreed with their #1 pick in a list.

noodler · 10-12-2011 6:17pm

Afraid to read the list in case theres moments from games I haven't played.

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 6:42pm

noodler wrote: »

Afraid to read the list in case theres moments from games I haven't played.

There are some spoilers so be careful. It would have been better if they had the name of the game in bigger writing so you would know to avoid them.

Sl!mCharles · 10-12-2011 7:50pm

krudler nice choices, I forgot that excellent MGS3 ladder part! So many memorable scenes in that game/movie

As for RDR, I'd rate

entering mexico

higher than

that climactic death

.

A great moment for me is the start of Morrowind, hopping off the boat after Jiub there scowling in your face to a sunny seaside little hamlet, crazy flying jellyfish yokes floating around, and the silt strider in the distance.

FortuneChip · 10-12-2011 8:21pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It was also retarded since it had nothing to do with the plot and was an excuse for boobies.

In Retr0spect only, at the time we didn't know how pointless it was!

silvine · 10-12-2011 9:21pm

IGN ♥ Nintendo.

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 9:26pm

You'll find a big nintendo bias in America. While we were messing with tapes decks on our C64 or Speccie the yanks were obsessed with nintendo which wasn't a big thing at all here.

corcaigh07 · 10-12-2011 9:32pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I was still face palming from all the retconning at the end of Reach.

If there's one moment I'd like included it was the fifth stage boss in Rocket Knight Adventures. If anyone has played that on the megadrive they'd understand.

many class moments in RKA, i had an idea what you were on about and was proven right thanks to Youtube,(its been a long time!) pretty cool. did gunstar heroes make the list, especially Seven Force...

Retr0gamer · 10-12-2011 11:13pm

corcaigh07 wrote: »

did gunstar heroes make the list, especially Seven Force...

It didn't, it's criminal!

corcaigh07 · 10-12-2011 11:26pm

ah come on, one of the best moments from the 16-bit era doesnt make it and multiple Nintndo and in particular, Zelda. I checked out 1-60, a lot of the higher up moments are fairly dead-on. However, I do feel that Shadow Of The Colossus had better moments than the first colossi, mostly towards the end, wont ruin anything. Ico's ending could be up there.

Also, the GTA4 3 leaf clover mission shouldnt even be in the top 100, much better GTA moments than that and lots of them

IGN's Top 100 Video Game Moments

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