Happy Three Years of Strange Gaming!

Wow, how the time flies by.  Three years ago today I created Strange Moments in Gaming in order to talk about all of the weird things I've encountered in videogames throughout my life.  I have certainly experienced many cringe/shudder-worthy moments in games (and I'm sure you all have as well), so I figured I might as well share the pain with everyone!

The evolution of the beloved (at least to me) site logo.

To celebrate the three years of this blog's existence, let's go for the totally not gimmicky approach of summarizing three of the strangest game character articles I've posted on this site.  If you're interested in reading the original articles in addition to the summaries, just click the title header of each section.

#3 - The Sligs of the Oddworld Games

Every good platforming game has to have its signature baddie, and Oddworld is no exception.  But whereas enemies such as the Goombas of the Super Mario series or the pig soldiers in Rocket Knight Adventures are somewhat goofy, the Sligs in the Oddworld games are downright horrifying.

Mario would probably soil himself if he ever came across one of these tentacle-mouthed lizard creatures, which Oddworld protagonist Abe encounters on a daily basis.

#2 - The Little Sisters of Bioshock

There isn't much about the Little Sisters that isn't creepy.  Their glowing pupil-less eyes and otherworldly voices provide plenty of nightmare material to gamers who venture into the halls of the city of Rapture.

As if that description isn't bad enough, hang in there because it gets much worse.  The sole purpose of Little Sisters is to extract and drink the blood of corpses scattered throughout the city (dead bodies are quite abundant thanks to Rapture's civil war).  The blood is then processed by slugs which are implanted inside the Sisters.  All of this horror exists just so a batch of the superpower-inducing substance called ADAM can be produced by the slugs.

#1 - Ooccoo from Zelda: The Twilight Princess

This monstrosity happened to be the very first strange thing I wrote about in this blog, and easily earns the top spot on this list.  Half-human, half-chicken, all terror is a good way to describe Ooccoo.

Did they really have to add nipples too?

Despite being somewhat useful to gamers by allowing us to save our location in a dungeon when a break is needed, you can't help but wonder why the game developers had to make this creature so darn scary-looking.  Even Link himself has a look of shock on his face the first time he encounters Ooccoo in a dungeon.  But then again I guess we shouldn't be too surprised; these are the game developers who brought us Tingle after all.


Speaking of Tingle, I bet you're wondering why he isn't on this list, he is one of the most talked about characters in this blog after all.  Well to address your concerns, I figured everyone was probably Tingled-out by now, thanks to his multiple appearances in Strange Moments in Gaming, including a starring role in this blog's lengthy 100th post.

I hope you've enjoyed this three year anniversary post, many thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting over the years!

Wow, how the time flies by.  Three years ago today I created Strange Moments in Gaming in order to talk about all of the weird things I've encountered in videogames throughout my life.  I have certainly experienced many cringe/shudder-worthy moments in games (and I'm sure you all have as well), so I figured I might as well share the pain with everyone!

The evolution of the beloved (at least to me) site logo.

To celebrate the three years of this blog's existence, let's go for the totally not gimmicky approach of summarizing three of the strangest game character articles I've posted on this site.  If you're interested in reading the original articles in addition to the summaries, just click the title header of each section.

#3 - The Sligs of the Oddworld Games

Every good platforming game has to have its signature baddie, and Oddworld is no exception.  But whereas enemies such as the Goombas of the Super Mario series or the pig soldiers in Rocket Knight Adventures are somewhat goofy, the Sligs in the Oddworld games are downright horrifying.

Mario would probably soil himself if he ever came across one of these tentacle-mouthed lizard creatures, which Oddworld protagonist Abe encounters on a daily basis.

#2 - The Little Sisters of Bioshock

There isn't much about the Little Sisters that isn't creepy.  Their glowing pupil-less eyes and otherworldly voices provide plenty of nightmare material to gamers who venture into the halls of the city of Rapture.

As if that description isn't bad enough, hang in there because it gets much worse.  The sole purpose of Little Sisters is to extract and drink the blood of corpses scattered throughout the city (dead bodies are quite abundant thanks to Rapture's civil war).  The blood is then processed by slugs which are implanted inside the Sisters.  All of this horror exists just so a batch of the superpower-inducing substance called ADAM can be produced by the slugs.

#1 - Ooccoo from Zelda: The Twilight Princess

This monstrosity happened to be the very first strange thing I wrote about in this blog, and easily earns the top spot on this list.  Half-human, half-chicken, all terror is a good way to describe Ooccoo.

Did they really have to add nipples too?

Despite being somewhat useful to gamers by allowing us to save our location in a dungeon when a break is needed, you can't help but wonder why the game developers had to make this creature so darn scary-looking.  Even Link himself has a look of shock on his face the first time he encounters Ooccoo in a dungeon.  But then again I guess we shouldn't be too surprised; these are the game developers who brought us Tingle after all.


Speaking of Tingle, I bet you're wondering why he isn't on this list, he is one of the most talked about characters in this blog after all.  Well to address your concerns, I figured everyone was probably Tingled-out by now, thanks to his multiple appearances in Strange Moments in Gaming, including a starring role in this blog's lengthy 100th post.

I hope you've enjoyed this three year anniversary post, many thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting over the years!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The Freaks of Bioshock, Part 3 Finale: The Big Daddies

What do you get when you brainwash The Incredible Hulk and send him on a deep sea diving expedition? A Big Daddy of course!

Captain Nemo better be thankful he never came across Rapture.

Well not exactly, but it's as close an analogy as any.  Big Daddies are essentially the face of Bioshock, and for most gamers they are the first thing that comes to mind when this game is mentioned.

In-game, the purpose of the Big Daddies is to protect the Little Sisters while the girls cheerfully extract ADAM from the many Splicer corpses littered throughout Rapture.  Initially Little Sisters went about this task on their own.  But as you can imagine, with such model citizens as the psychopathic, ADAM-addicted Splicers, gathering ADAM was not a walk in the park (or a walk in Arcadia).  After suffering numerous Little Sister casualties, Dr. Suchong proposed to create protectors for the brainwashed girls, beginning the era of Big Daddies in Rapture.

A Big Daddy is essentially a Rapture citizen who is spliced to the extreme, giving him extreme muscle mass and agility.  The cost is a loss of humanity due to the mind control splices that are part of the conversion process.  For reasons not explained, the vocal chords of a Big Daddy are modified to give him a super deep voice which can only make moaning and growling sounds.  Lastly, the skin of the subject is removed and the subject is attached directly to a deep sea diving suit, so that the suit essentially becomes his new skin.  Due to this being a splicing process that is obviously not very desirable, volunteers were non-existent, leading to forced Big Daddy conversions.

The two types of Big Daddies encountered in Bioshock are the iconic, drill-equipped Bouncers and the rivet gun-equipped Rosies.

The Bouncer

The Rosie

As you can see from the following video, these protectors of Little Sisters do their job fairly well; any hostility towards a Little Sister is met with total brutality:



These hulking monstrosities are the most difficult enemies in the game to take down.  However, unlike the other enemies in the game, they will not attack you unless provoked, which gives you time to prepare and strategize.  Once you initiate a battle (and you must battle at least some of these guys, because you need ADAM from the accompanying Little Sisters), prepare for a thrilling experience as these gigantic tanks try to cut you in half!

This concludes our look at the many freaks of Bioshock, now get out there and mow down some Splicers!

What do you get when you brainwash The Incredible Hulk and send him on a deep sea diving expedition? A Big Daddy of course!

Captain Nemo better be thankful he never came across Rapture.

Well not exactly, but it's as close an analogy as any.  Big Daddies are essentially the face of Bioshock, and for most gamers they are the first thing that comes to mind when this game is mentioned.

In-game, the purpose of the Big Daddies is to protect the Little Sisters while the girls cheerfully extract ADAM from the many Splicer corpses littered throughout Rapture.  Initially Little Sisters went about this task on their own.  But as you can imagine, with such model citizens as the psychopathic, ADAM-addicted Splicers, gathering ADAM was not a walk in the park (or a walk in Arcadia).  After suffering numerous Little Sister casualties, Dr. Suchong proposed to create protectors for the brainwashed girls, beginning the era of Big Daddies in Rapture.

A Big Daddy is essentially a Rapture citizen who is spliced to the extreme, giving him extreme muscle mass and agility.  The cost is a loss of humanity due to the mind control splices that are part of the conversion process.  For reasons not explained, the vocal chords of a Big Daddy are modified to give him a super deep voice which can only make moaning and growling sounds.  Lastly, the skin of the subject is removed and the subject is attached directly to a deep sea diving suit, so that the suit essentially becomes his new skin.  Due to this being a splicing process that is obviously not very desirable, volunteers were non-existent, leading to forced Big Daddy conversions.

The two types of Big Daddies encountered in Bioshock are the iconic, drill-equipped Bouncers and the rivet gun-equipped Rosies.

The Bouncer

The Rosie

As you can see from the following video, these protectors of Little Sisters do their job fairly well; any hostility towards a Little Sister is met with total brutality:



These hulking monstrosities are the most difficult enemies in the game to take down.  However, unlike the other enemies in the game, they will not attack you unless provoked, which gives you time to prepare and strategize.  Once you initiate a battle (and you must battle at least some of these guys, because you need ADAM from the accompanying Little Sisters), prepare for a thrilling experience as these gigantic tanks try to cut you in half!

This concludes our look at the many freaks of Bioshock, now get out there and mow down some Splicers!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The Freaks of Bioshock, Part 2: Little Sisters

Last time we covered the freakiest of the Bioshock characters, the Splicers.  In part 2 of this series we will look at everyone's favorite creepy brainwashed children: the Little Sisters.

If the glowing eyes don't make you run for your life, maybe the bloody syringe will.

Little Sisters were "created" in order to produce ADAM, the substance discussed in part 1.  They are girls who have been implanted with a certain sea slug, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two beings.  Using the girl as a host, the slug generates massive amounts of ADAM, which can be harvested by causing the Little Sister to vomit.  Pretty disgusting so far right?  It gets worse.


As the civil war in Rapture continued on, it was discovered that ADAM could be recycled from the blood of Splicers who had been killed in battle.  In order to perform the recycling, Little Sisters were required to extract and drink the blood of Splicer corpses.  It makes you wonder what is going on in the heads of the game developers at 2K Games.  Anyway, the Little Sisters were brainwashed into seeing corpses as "angels," which means they have no problem jamming syringes into dead bodies to withdraw and drink their blood.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

As a result of the implanted slug, the brainwashing treatment, or both, Little Sisters speak in a creepy voice worthy of a demon possession.  They cheerfully dance around the halls of Rapture, singing in their freaky voices or talking to their companions, the Big Daddies (more info to come!).

If you decide to panic and gun down every Little Sister in sight, you are out of luck.  They are immortal as long as the slug lives inside them.  However, if you play through Bioshock as an evil bastard, you can "harvest" the slugs from the Little Sisters, effectively killing them, and bringing you closer to the dark ending of the game.

Last time we covered the freakiest of the Bioshock characters, the Splicers.  In part 2 of this series we will look at everyone's favorite creepy brainwashed children: the Little Sisters.

If the glowing eyes don't make you run for your life, maybe the bloody syringe will.

Little Sisters were "created" in order to produce ADAM, the substance discussed in part 1.  They are girls who have been implanted with a certain sea slug, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two beings.  Using the girl as a host, the slug generates massive amounts of ADAM, which can be harvested by causing the Little Sister to vomit.  Pretty disgusting so far right?  It gets worse.


As the civil war in Rapture continued on, it was discovered that ADAM could be recycled from the blood of Splicers who had been killed in battle.  In order to perform the recycling, Little Sisters were required to extract and drink the blood of Splicer corpses.  It makes you wonder what is going on in the heads of the game developers at 2K Games.  Anyway, the Little Sisters were brainwashed into seeing corpses as "angels," which means they have no problem jamming syringes into dead bodies to withdraw and drink their blood.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

As a result of the implanted slug, the brainwashing treatment, or both, Little Sisters speak in a creepy voice worthy of a demon possession.  They cheerfully dance around the halls of Rapture, singing in their freaky voices or talking to their companions, the Big Daddies (more info to come!).

If you decide to panic and gun down every Little Sister in sight, you are out of luck.  They are immortal as long as the slug lives inside them.  However, if you play through Bioshock as an evil bastard, you can "harvest" the slugs from the Little Sisters, effectively killing them, and bringing you closer to the dark ending of the game.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad