Top 6 somewhat natural disasters in gaming

A week ago, I was awakened at 3am in the morning by an earthquake. It was a 3.5 earthquake that made me hold onto my bed as if it was going to take off and fly into the night sky.

It was pretty scary. And I get nervous when I think my generation will probably have to experience “the big one,” the earthquake that will release all the pent up energy that hasn't been released from the tectonic plates underneath Los Angeles in maybe 30 years.

But I wonder, “How do video game characters, both major and minor, feel when such epic disasters happen?" Whether they're natural or supernatural?

Keep in mind that this list was only generated by myself. I wrestled over the definition of a disaster and skipped over things that could be construed as something along the lines of a terrorist attack or something such as Kefka's world ending doomsday and the nuclear detonation of Call of Duty 4.



The Great Flood – Wind Waker
This disaster is never actually displayed on screen but the reveal of how the world of Wind Waker is fascinating. It isn't entirely clear if the world of Wind Waker comes generations after the time of Ocarina of Time, but regardless, Ganondorf conquers Hyrule at some point without the Hero of Time to oppose him. In response to his conquest, the gods of Hyrule order their people to flee to the mountains while they flood the world with torrential rain.

Imagine yourself as a store owner or a cucco farmer living in Hyrule. Ganondorf's flunkies have just finished burning down your neighbor's house and everyone in the village is living in fear. Your gods decide to help you in their best way possible: scrap the world under a sea and start the world anew.

How much can you possibly pack for the big move? Mountain climbing is hard enough without worrying about luggage. So it's either get plundered by Ganondorf, drown in a massive flood, or fall off a mountain.

Unfortunately, the gods are pretty hands on, so atheism isn't going to solve anything.



Dark Aether Collapses – Metroid Prime: Echoes
It's probably not a great idea to live on a planet where the planetary energy that stabilizes the world is exposed and open to tampering or theft.

So when Samus crashed onto the planet Aether and encounters a race of humanoid moths battling against their interdimensional neighbors, the ing, Samus decides that as long as her ship can't fly, she might as well help these moth men by taking back the planetary energy the ing have stolen.

Every single member of the ing race probably thought, “There's no way the emperor will lose! He's the strongest guy in Dark Aether! He'll protect our planet's energy!”

Moments later, a warrior ing probably saw Samus running off with said energy and thought, “I never really wanted to be a warrior ing. I could've been baker ing or marine biologist ing.”



Dark Aether then collapses on itself, destroying all the evil ing along with their hopes and aspirations.

The sun and the moon fight – Kirby Superstar
On Earth, we have the luxury of our heavenly bodies moving around in predictable paths, making night and day consistent so we humans can play and sleep on schedule.



In Milky Way Wishes in Kirby Superstar however, the sun and moon get into an argument and don't care how it looks on the surface of Pop Star.

Would you like to live on a planet where the moon calls the sun a jerk, and suddenly the sun comes barreling towards the moon retorting with, “You bitch!”

Suddenly, day and night collide with each other within minutes and high noon can actually mean 10pm at night! Work schedules are thrown out of wack and midday naps are an impossible dream!

Luckily, all you need is a giant, planet sized, clockwork machine to barrel towards the world for the sun and moon to put aside their differences and work together.

Every legendary since Ruby and Sapphire – Pokemon
Back during the first and second generations, legendaries were only cool Pokemon with awesome elemental designs and great stat spread.

Nowadays, it's not a legendary unless it has the power to upset the delicate balance of nature.

It all started in Ruby and Sapphire where Groudon and Kyogre were introduced as having the power to raise the continental shelf and create new oceans respectively. When angered, they pour down a harsh sunlight that dries the land or a torrential downpour that floods everything depending on which version you have.



In Diamond and Pearl, not only do we get Pokemon with the ability to manipulate space and time, but we also have the god of all Pokemon. That means complete oblivion if they get a little bored.

It's one thing to live in a world with religion and real gods that use their power responsibly. It's another thing when a 10-year-old is capable of capturing god itself with a high-tech ball that guarantees a 100% capture rate. And he's coming to a Pokecenter near you.


Another reason to post this.

Everything – Disaster: Day of Crisis
Raymond Bryce was just an ordinary man who lived in an America created by Japanese developers. He was trained in rescue operations. But is he prepared for an earthquake-hurricane-mudslide-flood-volcanic eruption?

Admittedly, I don't know a lot about this game. Besides that it met with lukewarm reception on the Wii. But what I do know is that on top of terrorists (said in the same tone as Homeland Security scare tactics), Raymond Bryce has to deal with nearly every natural disaster happening at once for some odd reason.


Suddenly! Fire! Or maybe lava. I don't know!

Survive the earthquake? Good. Now here comes a tsunami for no reason at all! Not enough? That mountain? It's an erupting volcano now.

Now look over at that car. Now back to me. Look at the car now. It's submerged in 10 feet of water now. Now the whole city is on fire. I'm on a giraffe.

Come to think of it, I guess Disaster: Day of Crisis is like an Old Spice commercial that levels an entire city.

The reaper threat – Mass Effect
Does an invasion of hundreds or thousands of humongous, sentient battleship machines sound like a disaster to you? Well, according to Mass Effect lore, they've invaded and harvested all sentient life in the universe every thousand years or so since time immemorial perfectly, ensuring that nothing is left to know what happened and that it can happen again next time with the exception of one particularly scrappy Earth commander. So yeah, seems like a disaster of epic proportions to me.


Ok, thousands.

The collectors, your enemy in Mass Effect 2, are even repurposed slaves from the reaper's previous harvest. So it's not enough they were wiped out. Sometimes they become something that only furthers future harvests. What a kick in the dick.

Not only that, but this may be the single largest kind of disaster on the list. This isn't just something that affects your neighborhood, your country, or even your planet. This affects the entire known galaxy! The original plan, before Sheperd came into the picture, was to warp to the Citadel, the center of all civilized galactic politics, kill everyone important there, and lock down all communications there so that everyone else throughout the entire galaxy is none the wiser until you have a giant spaceship hovering over your city and hypnotizing you with its indoctrination.

So no, you can't move out of the neighborhood before it all goes down.

Do you have your own suggestions of disasters you'd hate to be caught up in? If you do, go ahead and share in the comments below!

- Show me your moves

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