The Best Speeches from Video Games
In anticipation of the State of the Union speech tonight, Coopdojo is reflecting on the awesome speeches we’ve seen in video games in the last few years. They’re not always golden, but every now and then a hero (or non-player character) delivers a rousing speech to motivate us in to battle. Here are some of the best ones:
Conker is a pretty funny game all the way through, loaded with references to various movies (the Matrix, Aliens). Those of us who played through it, though, probably noticed the difficulty spike about the time the game enters into it’s Saving Private Ryan parody and Conker gets recruited to fight in an invasion of Normandy style battle against the Tediz (evil but cute Teddy Bear soldiers, not unlike Raze‘s enemies the Kelwetts). It’s a tough slog, but the writing, the humor, and the sense that anything can happen propels you through.
Psychonauts was one of the best games on the Xbox and PS2 and a great adventure title (though a little rough at the end – talk about difficulty spikes!). If you’ve never played it, it’s still worth your time today to experience this world and to float through the dreams of various characters, experiencing and conquering their subconscious fears and anxieties. Such a high concept game required a rousing speech to introduce players to the concept and move the plot along and Psychonauts delivered (and delivered it so well they even used in the commercials).
Mass Effect has a wealth of great speeches, probably due to the fact that you spend a lot of your time leading troops into battle. There’s the great Captain Kirrahe speech in Mass Effect 1 and Shepard’s final speech in Mass Effect 3, but the best – to us – is the first one you deliver once you arrive at the Harvesters’ home base in Mass Effect 2. The whole game has been leading to this suicide mission and you get to choose the words that echo in your soldiers ears as they head off to almost certain death (unless you did a whole lot of mining). These speeches are always well written but when you get to choose the words (and all of your choices are pretty great), the moment can be really powerful.
Sometimes speeches are best when they are simple, and Stubbs the Zombie knows how to cut to the essentials. Never one for flowery language when a more direct appeal to his followers’ needs is what’s required, Stubbs effectively rallies his zombie army late in the game for one last push to overthrow the futuristic 50’s style world that has hunted him since the game’s beginning (and I guess is somehow evil also). Making good use of “Patton” imagery, Stubbs-as-general reflects an interesting transition from solitary rebel zombie to leader of a zombie horde and – given that the horde is what you need to survive these last levels – the transition could not come at a better time.
That’s some of the ones that came to mind for us. What did we leave out? Tell us in the comments!
