Best Video Game Moments is a series about memorable moments and mechanics in video games.
Spoiler alert: This post may contain spoilers for the video games it references.“I am Kane.” …For Command & Conquer
Year: 1995
Kane takes centre stage in Command & Conquer.
At a time when full motion video had become a lamentable gimmick in certain circles of video gaming, Westwood Studios were still forging ahead with such presentation and overachieving every step of the way. Case in point: the introduction of Command & Conquer’s most iconic villain (Kane) played with chilling precision by actor and Westwood Studios employee at the time, Joe Kucan.
Kucan’s winning performance would keep him in the role of Kane for many years, with arguably his most important moment being his introduction — a famous scene prefacing Mission 8 of the NOD campaign where Kane puts a cap in his bumbling lieutenant and takes centre stage to address the player directly for the first time. Part of the genius in this shocking twist is in how underexposed Kane is up until then. Players must earn his attention by completing several missions before they can bear witness to the Messiah himself, which makes the character feel vital before he’s even said a word or occupied a single second of screen time.
From here Kucan revels in the Shakespearian glory from one wonderful monologue to the next, never losing that calmly sinister edge that would cement him as one of video gaming’s most memorable baddies.
“Oh, and congratulations on your promotion.”
Taking cover …For Rolling Thunder II
Year: 1991
Leila takes cover in Rolling Thunder II.
Playing the Sega Mega Drive version of Rolling Thunder II was the first time I saw cover mechanics in a video game. Your trigger-happy spies in this lesser known Namco platformer can hide in alcoves and doorways to avoid bullets, which is both handy and cool as hell.
I remember my childhood friend immediately geeking out upon seeing this feature. I also remember him liking the Mega Drive edition of The Terminator simply because players needed to “whip out” Kyle Reese’s shotgun before firing it.
Sometimes the little details make the biggest difference!
Crescent Island …For Skies of Arcadia
Year: 2000
Vyse shipwrecks on Crescent Island in Skies of Arcadia.
Sega Dreamcast RPGs didn’t get much better than Skies of Arcadia, and it’s unforgettable moments like this that help you understand why.
After battling and exploring their way through a good chunk of the story, main characters Vyse and Aika become separated following a bitter defeat in battle. Vyse becomes stranded on the tiny Crescent Island with no ship, no crew, and no hope of escape. Classic stuff!
As he explores the barren rock, Vyse finds the skeletal remains of a pirate called Gonzales who inspires him to keep searching for a way home. The game downplays its swashbuckling systems during this time, as players focus on basic survival tasks like gathering food and firewood.
Crescent Island sees Skies of Arcadia in a quieter and more introspective mode, and gives the wider narrative a poignant interval players won’t soon forget.
Earning your cape …For City of Heroes
Year: 2004
Level 20 toons with their hard-earned capes in City of Heroes.
This now defunct superhero MMORPG launched with one of the most comprehensive character creation systems seen in all of video gaming. It allowed players to create almost any type of hero they could imagine, as long as they didn’t wear a cape. What gives?
The writers framed the missing capes as intentional because it represented every player character paying their respects to Hero 1 — a fallen figure in City of Heroes lore who sacrificed themselves to ensure the safety of Paragon City. This speaks to the game’s quality writing because the real reason for the absent capes was apparently because Cryptic Studios needed more time to refine the complex physics of rendering cloth across such a wide range of possible character builds.
When capes were introduced shortly after launch, they became an important milestone as players had to earn their cape by completing a mission only level 20 heroes could access. In this time before wikis were the go-to place for information, actually finding this mission was an achievement in of itself, but that moment you could proudly display your cape to everyone outside Atlas Park City Hall was very sweet indeed.
All things Libra …For Elden Ring Nightreign
Year: 2025
Libra, Creature of Night
I tried to pin this entry down to just one singular moment, but the topic is such an appropriately hectic mix of fun bits and pieces, I’ve decided to just induct all of them in one messy entry befitting the Equilibrious Beast himself!
Libra, Creature of Night is one of the signature Nightlord bosses in Elden Ring Nightreign. A humanoid monster shooting flaming incantations and laser beams of pure madness is fairly on brand for the franchise, but there are so many individual elements here which help Libra loveable, detestable, and just plain aggravating in all the best ways.
Aside from just being a tough foe, Libra fully embraces the eldritch theme of insanity. He’s vulnerable to the same Madness status effect that players are, his music is a furious medley of unnerving sounds, and every encounter with him starts with players making a deal. Whether they meet him in the adventure field under his “demon merchant” guise, or in the boss arena itself, a temporarily passive Libra offers each player a random set of deals imparting various gameplay bonuses and maluses that players will either smartly exploit, or foolishly regret taking!
Survey public opinion on Libra to any length and you’ll find a suitably polarising divide between players who either adore or abhor his design. But instead of rebalancing anything to smooth this perception over, FromSoftware only stoked the controversy even more by giving his post-release expert variant (Everdark Sovereign Libra) a completely new twist by adding randomised NPC summons and demoralising battlefield modifiers to raise the spectacle and difficulty of his fight to all new levels of unbalanced absurdity.
Love him or hate him, Libra is such a fun character, and while it’s tough to know what his impact on gaming culture will be now ongoing support for Elden Ring Nightreign appears to have stopped, you can tell the developers at Mega Crit are fans judging by one of their own boss designs for Slay the Spire II (currently in early access) — a familiar-looking Knowledge Demon who inflicts horrible curses on players while uttering a catchphrase everyone whose met Libra will know intimately, painfully well.
“The die is cast.”
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