The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Even after telling a 12-hour long tale of two midgets traveling countless miles on foot to a place called Mount Doom and overcoming untold evils to save the entire world, Peter Jackson was hard-pressed to craft an ending as all-encompassing and rewarding as A Link to the Past’s. Within mere minutes, Nintendo provides closure to every loose end from throughout the truly epic 16-bit adventure–no matter how big or small–ending with Link leaving behind the Master Sword in its resting place as the soundtrack swells to its zenith.

The BioWare version: After defeating Ganon, you’re allowed to choose a single fragment of the Triforce: Courage, Wisdom, or Power. Depending on your decision, Link will spontaneously combust into one of three various colors. If you bought an Online Pass and played enough Four Swords mode, the pile of Link dust will be shown gasping after the credits.

Braid

Some gamers might suggest that if you haven’t played Braid to completion, then you haven’t played Braid. The game’s final moments repurpose the signature rewind feature to reveal to the player that he is not — as inherently expected — the hero of this story, but rather, the lead antagonist. It’s a lightning-in-a-bottle moment that even Braid creator Jonathan Blow never expects to be able to duplicate, and easily ranks among classic Hollywood twists such as those in David Fincher’s The Game, M. Night Shaymalan’s The Sixth Sense, and Christopher Nolan’s Memento.

The BioWare version: The rewind mechanic — the established pillar of Braid’s gameplay since the very beginning — is completely discarded during the climax. You ride a beam of light into the sky and meet Star-Yoshi, a bullshit version of the dinosaur you encountered during the first level of the game. Also, you were indoctrinated this whole time. Except for the sex scene with Garrus. That really happened.

Assassin’s Creed II

Few games have as rich and complex a narrative as the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Because it is rooted so deeply in our own history, it’s even more of a shock when Ezio encounters a hologram of an ancient being calling herself Minerva. But when she stares into the camera and breaks the fourth wall by directly addressing Desmond–and, subtly, the player–there’s this unavoidable moment of surreal interaction with a video game. She’s talking to me, you can’t help but think to yourself. I’d like to see Roger Ebert name any movie that’s ever done that, and especially one that’s done it so well. It’s an extremely ballsy move on the developer’s part, and an ending that will be recorded as one of the most memorable moments in video game history.

The BioWare version: Minerva explains that every 50,000 years a race of beings created by The First Civilization awakens from their slumber to wipe out all known organic life to prevent all known organic life from being wiped out. Shortly after the game’s release, Geoff Keighley releases The Final Hours of Assassin’s Creed II app where the makers discuss wanting to include a “less retarded” ending, but that they ran out of time and money. “*cough* DLC! *cough*” can be heard off-camera from an executive at the game’s publisher.

While the GamesBeat team agrees these six are some of the best, they are by no means alone. System Shock 2? Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor? Portal? Red Dead Redemption? Feel free to discuss your own personal favorites in the comments.

Image via Virtual Shackles