The 6 worst endings in video game history

I believe I can defend in a TED talk why the ending of Super Mario Bros is genuinely one of the best endings in video game history: it brings the plot to a close, leaves no doubts or cliffhangers, and is simple yet satisfying. However, over the years, it has not been so common to feel completely satisfied after spending dozens of hours just to see a more or less inspired cutscene. Are you ready to remember some of the most frustrating gaming moments of your life? Let’s review the 7 worst endings ever made.

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6-New Super Mario Bros Wii

You might be thinking “Wait a minute, how can you say that Super Mario Bros is a perfect ending and New Super Mario Bros Wii one of the worst? How does that work?” Well, there’s an explanation: try playing with Luigi. For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of Luigi. And the thing is, when you complete the game with the green-clad brother and reach the end, defeating Bowser and saving Princess Peach, who shows up to join her in a hot air balloon and return to the Mushroom Kingdom? Exactly: Mario. Luigi is left on the ground watching them drift away, with a smile on his face that conveys genuine sadness, loneliness, and pain. Nintendo, don’t do this to those of us who always choose the poor loser Luigi.

5-El Testigo

Once you have solved as many puzzles as you can, up to a total of 650, The Witness comes to its end. And what could be the ending of such an abstract game? Well, upon reaching the mountain in the center, we see a first-person video set in the real world where Jonathan Blow, the creator of the game, gets out of bed, walks through an office filled with computers where you can see in the background maps, puzzles from the game, a bottle filled with what looks like urine, a Christmas tree… We see him go to the bathroom, sit on a bench and… Well, that’s it. Fortunately, there are several more endings, but if you reach this one without knowing, you will probably be left wondering if the water you are drinking has, unknowingly, psychotropic substances.

4-Jurassic Park (SNES)

The game is decent, and also a great insight into what could be done back then with Super Nintendo in a very short development time, but after several hours of gameplay, it seems that Ocean Software forgot that they had to provide a conclusion in some way. What did they come up with at the last minute? To repeat the same animation from the beginning of the game, where the helicopter descended to the ground… but in reverse. And then, the phrase “Congratulations, you have escaped from Jurassic Park“. As you came, you leave. That’s it, there’s nothing more to see here.

3-Mass Effect 3

For three games of Mass Effect, we were promised that our decisions mattered. That they would have a brutal importance in the end of the saga, beyond who we would end up with. However, when the moment of the final choice arrived, it didn’t matter at all: three versions of the same ending, where everything was somewhat the same. Is this what we invested hundreds of hours for, so that no one has a minimal difference in their final cinematic and, moreover, leaves several plot holes open? Later on, Bioware tried to fix it, and more or less succeeded, but it opened a very significant wound in the hearts of the fans that has not yet healed.

2-Dragon’s Lair (NES)

Transitioning from the incredible arcade game with stunning graphics, almost taken from a cartoon movie, to the NES pixel feels almost like a suicide mission. In the original game, the final screen is amazing: you escape from a dragon, get the magic sword, recover the key, and rescue your beloved. Extremely difficult but spectacular, especially for the time. Even now, there is no other game like Dragon’s Lair. However, on NES, everything was, let’s say, more… shabby. On a crude 2D screen, you faced a dragon, threw several swords at it, and at the end, a mere image popped up with the text “Congratulations! Our hero has triumphed! Daphne has been saved from the evil domains of Singe. Perhaps you can live happily ever after?”. Perhaps not.

1-Ghost’n’goblins

Okay, yes, you might be losing your mind, but let me explain: Ghost’n’Goblins is one of the hardest video games in history. Defeating the enemies, beating the final boss, and completing all its levels is a mission that very few are destined to achieve. And yet, when you reach the end and defeat Satan, you discover that it’s a trap and you have to start over from the beginning, but this time at a higher level. You will only find the real ending by completing the adventure again. If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve never seen this ending I’m talking about, there’s a reason: almost no one has managed to even reach the false one, let alone the real one!

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