Pikmin

If there's one thing Big Bird, Elmo and that weird-ass thing that lives in a bin have taught us, it's that you can never judge a book by its cover. Take the following cute-looking game worlds, for instance. If they were pieces of literature they'd have bunnies and sunflowers on the cover... and then the pages of Mein Kampf inside. Yup, these virtual universes may look serene and adorable, but in reality, they'd be hell to live in.

Japan has a well-earned reputation for daft, brilliant and disturbingly odd TV game commercials, but it took a long (sometimes painful) evolution along a course signposted by geeky TV celebs in bad jumpers during the 1980s and PlayStation-sophistication in the 1990s, for that rep to be won and maintained.

Back at the end of the 1970s, Japanese gamecorps started trying to convince their public that games were not something to be afraid

You may be familiar with Andy Riley's superb book The Bunny Suicides. We liked it so much, we thought we'd create an homage to it, using everyone's favourite flower-headed people.

These Pikmin burned too bright for this world. Rest in pieces

Just a few weeks ago we celebrated the very best of 2008 with our Platinum Chalice Awards.Today though, we must temper our merriment with disdain and head-sagging shame, for these are the moments that truly made our stomachs turn.

We've killed billions of bad guys since taking up videogames. But we did actually feel bad about some of them, honest. Here they are.

Sept 25, 2007 Microsoft and Sony declare blitzkrieg on your soul; Nintendo gives you a shoulder to cry on. With wetted eye we return to our most emotional Nintendo moments… A matter of life and bemani Ouendan's Over the Distance sequence is a mature ode to the recently deceased. Mullered in a motorcycle crash, young Ishida barters three more hours to make peace with his peeved girlfriend Ryouko - prompted by a mad cacophony of drums and cymbals, natch. If you don't cry to these

20. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Silicon Knights | Konami | 2004 A slick remake of the revolutionary spy drama that's still considered by many to be the best entry in the Metal Gear saga What made it so great? Take the single greatest game of the PSone generation, inject a fresh graphical update and all the cool new gameplay features from its PS2 sequel, and you've got an instant classic. Developed by Canadian developer Silicon Knights and filled with new cutscenes by Japanese film