The 8 Best Countdowns in Video Games
- January 08, 2009 16:05 PM PST
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As you're counting down the seconds to midnight, remember these 8 games with great countdowns!
At 11:59:50 tonight, most of the world's population will take place in the most traditional countdown known to man. The New Year's countdown is one that's often filled with joy and hope, but gamers know countdowns in a completely different context. Filled with fear and suspense, the following eight video game countdowns mean the difference between life and death.
8- Final Fantasy VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall and company have less than 30 minutes to escape the robotic clutches of X-ATM092, a mechanical spider five times the size of Robocop's Ed-209. This scene was particularly memorable because of how intense it was-you had the run away from your metal aggressor, down mountainsides and across bridges, fighting the thing off you and your gang whenever it managed to catch up. The following clip is what's shown after you successfully flee X-ATM092.
7- Prince of Persia
A decade and a half before the Prince entered the third-dimension in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the royal adventurer was faced with a countdown of great consequence in the olive-green hued original game for the Apple II. At the beginning of the game, an hour glass is turned upside down, giving the Prince only 60 minutes to escape a dungeon riddled with deadly booby-traps and save the Princess from Jaffar who plans to murder her if she does not agree to marry him after the hour is up.
6- Portal
There's lots of gaming elements that are completely new in Portal--the gravity-based puzzles, the unique narrator/antagonist--that we'll forgive the game for busting out the cliche "final boss countdown clock." Unlike most countdown clocks, however, this one will probably take a couple of times to defeat the enemy within. As long as we're going to hear some more of GLaDOS' crazy meltdown speak, this is a countdown we don't mind expiring a few times.
5- Dead Space
Some of the coolest moments of the gruesome sci-fi horror game Dead Space are when you find yourself outside the ship where there is no gravity. Once you're in space, a timer pops up, counting down how much oxygen you have left in your suit before zero gravity crushes your insides like a thousand-pound mallet. Everything, from the grunts of pain you make as your lungs are getting squeezed by the lack of air to the distortion of all sounds, make this one of the best depictions of space in a video game.
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I remember in super mario when the timer reached 30 i just skipped and jumped over everything in the way...lol
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What no Sonic (2?) countdown for when you're in that water level and then that music pops up urging you to get out to water for more oxygen then the timer starts before sonics last gasp of breath?
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You captured the Mario feeling perfectly. I remeber making mad rushes to get to that damn flag.
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How can you have a Best Countdown list for video games without adding the last level of Halo? For shame gamepro. And I would have also thrown in the Park Mission from the first Syphon Filter and the Water Dam level from TMNT on Nes.
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ShortHairedOffender wrote:
You captured the Mario feeling perfectly. I remeber making mad rushes to get to that damn flag.
me to its been so long
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