The 8 Best Countdowns in Video Games

4- Metal Gear Solid

After disabling Metal Gear Rex at the end of the first Metal Gear Solid game, your British-accented girlie-haired brother Liquid gets out of the damaged hulking mech and then sticks a device on the backside of Meryl that's synced up with a nuclear explosive. The bomb's timer is set to about two and a half minutes, but if Meryl dies the bomb will also go off. Snake then decides to handle the situation and save his girl from being deep fried via a nuclear blast by fistfighting his bro bare-chested!

3- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The entirety of Majora's Mask takes place under the imposing 72 hour (54 minutes in real time) countdown until the moon crashes into the mysterious world of Termina. Wth the ever-present clock slowly counting down and the moon drawing ever closer to obliterating the planet, every second of Link's second N64 quest was frought with fear. Do you press further in your quest in order to collect a mask or important item? Or do you play the Song of Time and head back to the beginning of the cycle? Time travel has never been this intense.

2- Super Mario Bros.

The quick three-second tune that plays when the timer reaches 100 in Super Mario Bros. has sent shivers down the spine of even the most adept gamer. With the many memorable Mario tunes playing in double time as the timer ticks down, most players entered panic mode, bypassing power-ups and avoiding enemies in order to hop on the flag or send Bowser plunging before the count hit triple zero.

1- Super Metroid

Just about every single Metroid title has an escape sequence (Super Metroid has two), but none can match the intensity of the final escape after the defeat of Mother Brain in Samus' SNES adventure. Having just been saved and given super strength by a martyring Metroid larva, Samus has only three minutes to escape Zebes before the planet explodes. For many, the first time this countdown was the ultimate nerve-wracking experience. Combine the surprise with the excellent escape tune and the look of a quickly destructing planet, and you've got the perfect ending to what many consider the perfect game.

Comments [22]

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shadowx187x

I remember in super mario when the timer reached 30 i just skipped and jumped over everything in the way...lol

DGeneral

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?

227364
ShortHairedOffender

You captured the Mario feeling perfectly. I remeber making mad rushes to get to that damn flag.

The12P

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.

phebo

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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