Over the past few decades, video games have become one of the 🐈most unique forms of storytelling available in modern media. Even though video games got their start as nothing more than games, they have evolved radically over the years, not only changing the way we play games but the way that we enjoy a story as well. Long gone are the days of simply racking up a high score or saving a damsel in distress. The stakes have been r🎃aised and now we enter worlds on par with some of the greatest stories or movie blockbusters ever told.

While story telling in video games isn’t incredibly new, it has become more prominent since the days of the 🏅original 🐭Nintendo. As storytelling in games became more intricate over the years, so did the plots and characters that went along with it. Yet with some of the best video game plots out there also come the best plot twists.

Not all plot twists are created equal, however. While some will have us with our jaw on the floor screaming “I can’t believe that just happened!” others will have us claiming that a terrible plot twist ruined a completely good game. While many plot twists have been controversial over the years, many 🐻of them have stayed with us well after the end credits while others we wish would just go away. With that said, here are some of the best and worst plot twists ever seen in video games. And the obvious warning, spoilers will be involved.

30 ๊ Worst: Scott Shelby Is The Origami Villain (Heavy Rain)

David Cage games have always been narratively driven based off of the player’s choices throughout the game impacting the story leading to some varied s💎tory structure.

Unfortunately, Heavy Rain’s plot twist should have been left outside.

In Heavy Rain, you find out tha🐻t one of the pla𓃲yable characters, Scott Shelby, is the Origami villain that you have been searching for the whole time. Unfortunately, this revelation not only opens up a few plot holes in the game, it made a likeable player that we’ve played as through the majority of the game a complete monster.

29 Best: Sa🍰mus Is A Woman (Metroid)

Plenty of video games today have strong, female protagonists and it’s weird to think that this was once uncommon. Yet back in the 80s, it was rare to see a female lead in a game unless she was si🤡mply a copycat of her male counterpart with a bow (looking at you Ms. Pac-Man).

Metroid delivered a nice twist at the end of the game revealing that the space bounty hunter you’ve been playing as the whole game was actually💝 a girl, despite the origin𝄹al manual calling Samus a guy, thus making Samus Aran one of the founding video game heroines.

28 Worst: Jill Is The Masked W🏅oman (Resident Evil 5)

In Resident Evil 5, Chris Redꦇfield encounters a mysterious masked woman throughout the earlier chapters of the game and it’s hard to believe that Capcom wanted us to actuall🌞y question who it was.

The reveal that it was Jill Valentine was obvious the first time we saw her.

If Jill had passed in a previous game, maybe this reveal would have been more shocking. But showing flashbacks of Jill’s supposed death and then creating a mysterious antagonist just made it obvious that it was Jill from the get go. Literally, any other character from Resident Evil’s past would be better.

27 Be🍌st: The Flood Is The True Enemy (Halo: Combat Evolved)𓃲

Listen, I hated fighting the Halo series’ parasit🔯ic aliens just as much as anyone else, but you have to face the truth.

The Flood’s introduction in the original game was a nice twist in this space opera.

Thinking that the Covenant is your main enemy the entire game, it was an interesting twist to find out the two f﷽actions had a similar enemy. The bigger twist came with finding out that the Halo’s purpose was to destroy the flood… but only by destroying all life along with it, cutting off their food source.

26 ꦦ Worst: It Was Just A Dream (Super Mario Bros. 2)

Most people would probably agree that any story ending with saying it was just a dream is lazy storytelling. And even though Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn’t the apex of storytelling in the Mushroom Kingdom, saying that Mario’s adventures in this sequel was just a crazy dream feels forced. Then again, the Western version wasn’t originally a Mario game at all but a reskinned version of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic so that explains why we never got to♏ see th🐎e likes of Wart and his minions again. Hey, at least we got to keep Birdo.

25 𓆉 ♐ Best: The End Of Aerith (Final Fantasy VII)

Possibly one of the most well-known plot twists in gaming (and one of the saddest) was the death of the beloved flower girl, Aeris toward the end of the first half of Final Fantasy VII. Ending off main party members in the Final Fantasy series has never been uncommon, but something about losing Aeris really pulled at t♋he heartstrings, 𒈔especially with her being part of the party from early on in the game. Too bad this plot twist was ruined by advertising of the game where many commercials featured Cloud dropping her in the lake to rest.

24 Worst: Guardian Forces Give Amnesia (Final F👍antasy VIII)

Not all Final Fantasy plot twists are equal. While Final Fantasy VIII had some tough steps to follow, it mostly sꩲucceeded, even if it didn’t♊ have the emotional pull of its predecessor.

Sadly, Final Fantasy VIII’s plot twist left many gamers just feeling disappointed.

Basically, your lead characters learned that the Guardian F🅠orces their military academy have them fight wit🐼h also cause amnesia, leading them all to forget that they… lived in an orphanage together? And coincidentally ended up at the same military academy? It’s a plot twist we wish a Guardian Force could help us forget.

23 Bestꦜ: Tim Is Actually Creepy (Braid)

Braid wasn’t necessarily an indie game heavy in plot, but that’s all the more reason to appreciate it giving us the interesting plot twist at the end of the game. With the powers to reverse time, we know little about our hero Tim other than he is out to save a princess. In an excit🌱ing climax, we see Tim helping a damsel in distress escape from a bad knight… only to learn that what we played was actually the scene in reverse and that the princess was trying to escape from Tim in order to be with her actual hero.

22 Worst: Mechanical Arm Is Your Wife (Bionic Commando) ꧑

2009’s reboot of the classic Bionic Commando series was a pretty entertaining romp with Nathan Spencer’s unique abilities. Though just because a game is fun doesn’t mean the plot is all that great. In one of the most bizarre plotꦅ twists in gaming as well as the most corny, we learn that Spencer’s mechanical arm is actually his wife who passed, but in machine form... for in order for it to work properly, it must have a strong enough bond𓄧 with its host. Maybe the game should just leave the storytelling on the side.

21 🌼 Best: Joel Sort Of Becomes The Villain (The Last Of Us)

The Last of Us managed to do something many games don’t; question our own morality and what we wou🥃ld do in extreme circumstances for our own survival.

The game puts characters in many questionable scenarios, but the game’s climax was one of the best.

Upon escorting a yo🌼ung teenage Ellie to the Fireflies, Joel learns that the group plans on ending her in order to find a vaccine from becoming infected. In a procedure that could save millions, Joel takes out the Fireflies and saves Ellie due to the bond that formed between them, despite the fate of the world.