Seven Of The Worst Twists In Gaming

From the golden era of 8-bit gaming to our modern, cinematic blockbusters, the road of video game storytelling has been packed with twists. Some plot curveballs are visible from a mile away, while others pop up out of nowhere with a pleasant surprise. Some, however, are like opening up a pudding cup and discovering that it’s expired, isn’t chocolate, and is possibly bad story twist-flavored. This is a collection of the most groan-inducing, frustrating, and cheesy twists in video games. Obviously, spoilers lie ahead.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007)
Before Uncharted 2 wowed everyone with its clever storytelling, Naughty Dog delivered one of the most baffling narrative bends. The tale of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune plays out like a Indiana Jones story meets Tomb Raider for the majority of the game. Chasms are leapt across, enemies are shot, puzzles are solved, and witty lines are delivered. All that lighthearted, summer blockbuster action is tossed to the wayside when Nate discovers an ancient statue that mutates the dead into rampaging zombie freaks. Uncharted’s plot not only changes dramatically, but also the game’s genre. Suddenly you’re no longer spelunking and are forced into a horror game blasting Nazi zombies. Considering the game’s climax consists of shooting some pirates on a boat, this plot twist is a worse fit than Robocop in The Sound of Music.


Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1985)
Capcom’s side-scrolling platformer is packed with aggressive monsters that whittle down Sir Arthur’s meager hit points in no time. Imagine trudging through one of the toughest games ever, fighting what you thought was the last boss, and being told that – surprise! – you didn’t actually win! In a sick twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan wretch, gamers were asked to play through the entire grueling title all over again in order to experience the “real” ending. What if you graduated high school and were told you had to start over? You’d be inconsolably irate! And that’s just school we’re talking about; messing with peoples’ video games is serious stuff. I commend any who survived this vile twist without their mind or controller breaking.


Indigo Prophecy (2005)
Before he made Heavy Rain, a game with dubious yet fun plot twists, David Cage thought up Indigo Prophecy. It contains so many perplexing forks in the story that it’s hard just to name one; snow threatens the world, a homicidal Mayan priest needs a little girl to help destroy the world, the protagonist dodges bullets, and he’s also eventually killed and resurrected by the Purple Clan.  The real kicker is that the Purple Clan comes from the internet, which turns out to be a sentient being. We understand that when the game released in 2005 that the internet was a relatively new and mesmerizing thing, but even with that in mind we have to wonder how this plot twist made it out of the gate.


Mega Man 3 (1990), Mega Man 4 (1991), Mega Man 5 (1992), Mega Man V (1994), Mega Man 6 (1994), Mega Man & Bass (2003), Mega Man 9 (2008), Mega Man 10 (2010)
Every classic gaming hero has their villain; Mario has Bowser, Sonic has Dr. Robotnik, and Link has Ganon. Few of the previously mentioned franchises have tried so hard to continually fool players into thinking a new threat has arisen than Mega Man. After Dr. Wily was falsely revealed to be an alien at the end of Mega Man 2, Capcom tried everything they could to pull a fast one. Since Mega Man 3, Dr. Wily has teamed up with Dr. Light twice, framed him once, and been replaced by a decoy antagonist five times. Watching Capcom attempt to surprise avid Mega Man fans with predictable twists has entertained us for years, but in the same way we enjoy watching handicap ramps outside nursing homes on an icy December morning.


Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
Hideo Kojima was just begging to make top plot twists lists when he had Solid Snake apparently killed and replaced with the androgynous she-boy, Raiden. However, he probably didn’t think they’d be bad lists. Snake is one of the coolest, grittiest, gargles-with-acid protagonists around, so when he was replaced with a blonde, government newb, fans were bound to be upset. Sure, MGS2 was a great game, but the experience was initially tainted by an emo JRPG character prancing around in a wet suit and crying to his girlfriend. Fortunately this lame twist has dulled with time, but it took turning Raiden into an invincible cybernetic ninja with feet-swords and milk-blood to make fans forget.


Super Mario Bros. (1986)
What is many gamers’ first memory of a video game twist is also one of the most underhanded. Nintendo dangles Princess Toadstool in front of gamers throughout World 1, rewarding their courageous thwarting of King Koopa with a stocky little man with a mushroom on his head and a stupid red vest. This twist occurs six more times until the Princess is finally rescued at the end of World 8. After you’ve got a few worlds beat, this twist becomes more predictable than a fight between my controller and the TV.


Bionic Commando (2009)
Some heroes discover their power is derived from demons, gods, genetic alteration, or just plain old magic. In the case of Nathan “Rad” Spencer, it turned out that his wife truly was his better half. Towards the end of the game, a superior informs Spencer that his wife never truly left, but became his left… arm. In order for the bionics to work, Spencer’s arm had to be manufactured using his spouse because love is what makes the science happen. Spencer’s weird arm-o-wife-sausages made us laugh and cry simultaneously, and for that reason it is number one on the list. That, and the fact that it made us wonder if Nathan’s wife would’ve sacrificed him for a bionic boob job if she knew how much of a whiny punk he’d become.