Stories in video games have improved dramatically over the last 20 years, but there are still a few things game developers haven't quite got right. One of these elements is the romantic subplot.

Nick Winter has compiled a list to highlight some of the more grating and emabarrasing moments of video game romance for your enjoyment.

Read full article by Nick Winter

You haven't seen Sonic The Hedgehog "THE MOVIE" have you? there's an awesome scene where Tails falls on Princess Sarah (a human) his hands land on her chest- she looks down at him like "WTF are you doing" and then he looks up and quickly jumps off "aaerrrrrr.. Sorry your majesty.. *blushes*". I actually think that scene was pretty funny.. in fact throughout the entire film there's always very strange minor sexual jokes (like Sarah sticking her ass in Robotniks face, and him falling out of the ship almost because he got wood )

I think that's what they were trying to do here, but it was just executed terribly in that it came off romantic.. Sonic the Movie was a comedy.. that's why it worked.. it was sooo terrible and crap that its actually funny- this game however is just crap- and by treating this sort of thing seriously it makes the game just really corny and lame- it only worked for SatAM IMO and that's only because of the nature of the show (ie. Dark and very oppressive).

I still think Sonic should have stuck with Sally.. (Amy is a stupid fangirl.. Sonic always hated her.)

I couldn't really get into FFX, I preffered X-2

you missed the kiss at the end of goldeneye between bond & natalya. SO AWKWARD AND LONG....just moving hands up and down.....natalya was just a tease!!

what about the awkward kiss from Bastila from KOTOR1- its pretty much nonexistant aside from the "oh.. that was odd" afterwards.

Mass Effect did it way better me thinks.

Haha, it's nice to have an article like this as a change from all the other controversy we've had lately.

Yep it was a welcome change. Much appreciated writers.

Was Larry Laffer excluded from this article though? I would've imagined that he'd have made a clean sweep otherwise =D

In agreement with the others here. Nice write up

What about MGS4, with Johnny (I think it was, only watched it on youtube) and Myrl kiss and propose to each other... while they are low on ammo trying to hold off endless waves of mechanically and biologically enhanced soldiers. Looked like the only part of the game where Johnny didn't have diahrea

I don't think it makes sense for a team leader and the annoying nobody to fall in love just because he explains to her that the reason why he was not in sync with the team and put all their lives at risk was because he was too afraid of needles...

But yes, that end to Karateka is a classic

Yeah.. Sonic started to get a bit fsck up some time around SA2.. ROLLING AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND! GOT PLACES TO GO, GOTTA FOLLOW MY RAINBOW!

*plays SA2*

Sonic was ruined the moment they decided they wouldn't follow up Sonic 3 with Sonic 4.

ooh i feel old now, i remmember that ending playing karateka on my c64

lol, the karateka ending was so brutal. Imagine playing the game for days and you just get owned right at the very end, all that effort for nothing.

It wasn't really that long a game, there were only 4 levels (and the faster you progressed through the game, the less enemies you ahd to fight).

Was still hilarious the first time it happened.

There were a few other bits in the game like that, ie. bits you had to learn what to do or you ended up insta-dead.

What about the Double Dragon ending... the two brothers had to fight to the death and the winner got the girl. How f**ked up was that?

And how about Ken's ending in Street Fighter 3... you know, the one where he gets it in the nuts. No actually, all of Ken's SF ends are cheesey romantic subplots.

And +1 to the Karateka ending.