Most of us had an edgy phase. Admit it, this is a safe space for it. I am not ashamed to say it. I was very edgy as a child, happily shunning those around me to brood and play games that let me escape from this cruel world. It just didn't get me, you know?𓆏 I hope you do, because I really want you to be able to relate to this articl🌳e.

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The early 2000s was like free real-estate for the budding edgelord, and I was coddled in it. Trapped in a rural village, those around me just didn't understand how I felt. These games did though. They showed me it was not just OK but super cool and epic to be edgy. Video games weren't just for kids, they were mature. And these games were basical🏅𝄹ly my edge bible growing up.

9 Prototype

Nothing Edgier Than A Knife For An Arm

Alex Mercer stood among wreckage in Prototype 2.
mixcollage-24-dec-2024-10-32-pm-9686.jpg
Prototype
Action
Open-World
Systems
Released
June 9, 2009

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
m
Developer(s)
ജ Radical Entertainment ꦐ
Engine
Titanium
Franchise
Prototype
Platform(s)
PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
How Long To Beat
11 Hours

We're right on the cusp of the 2000s with this one, and to be honest I didꦡn't play it a lot, but it really left an impression. I mean, big brooding man in a hoodie (with the hood up, obviously) with the ability to just wreck whatever he wanted, because h🍸e wanted, and no one could stop him? It wouldn't unseat the games that already formed my edgy phase (which totally wasn't a phase), but it surely added to it.

I can't even remember what the story of Prototype was. To me, it was a big city to let loose, let all those normies know just how you felt about them in incr꧅edibly bloody, gory ways. As Alex Mercer, you were the coolest guy around. I mean his arm was a🍒 massive sword, you can't get better than that.

8 Tekken 5

Devil Jin Just Really Resonated With Me

Jin's first Devil transformation, in Tekken 3
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Tekken 5
Released
February 24, 2005

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

ESRB
t
Developer(s)
Namco
Publisher(s)
Namco
Engine
Proprietary Engine ♍ ꧙
Multiplayer
🐭 Local Multiplayer 🦹
Franchise
Tekken
Platform(s)
Arcade, PS2, PS3, PSP
How Long To Beat
2 Hours

Growing up, Mortal Kombat was more the norm, and Tekken felt like some far-flung fantasy. I never really got into the series, and truthfully never even played much of the game beyond a few matches at a friend's house. But💖 Devil Jin just really meant something to me. He was the pinnacle of what I could be. To let the demons that were inside come📖 outside, and have their own playtime.

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In hindsight, there's a bit of the 'do I want to be him or be with him' phenomenon going on, but at the time he was what I envisioned my inner turmoil as. Sick black wings, laser beams and imposing horns to scare everyone around me. Hell, I still look up to Devil Jin. Just, ahem, with a bit more awareness why now.

7 Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Throwing My Skateboard Really Helped Me Fight My Inner Demons

selecting a skate in tony hawks american wasteland
mixcollage-08-jan-2025-12-24-am-646.jpg
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Sports
Systems
Released
October 18, 2005
ESRB
T For Teen
Developer(s)
Neversoft

Engine
🐎 Unreal Engine
Multiplayer
💞 Local Multiplayer ꦕ
Franchise
Tony Hawk's
Number of Players
1-2
How Long To Beat
10.5 Hours 🅷

I was very much part of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the skateboarding generation, even if I was a bit crap at it. Really, I was mostly left to the ♛wayside when my friends do all their tricks. Their ollies and manuals and all of that. I had to get my fix in the Tony Hawk's games, and none of them stick in my mind like American Wasteland does.

I loved having the freedom to go anywhere, tag whatever I wanted, pick up something other tha꧋n a skateboard and let rip around the city. It was anti-establishment, and I was pretty anti-everything back then, so I🅷 felt right at home. Plus, getting the snap your skateboard in frustration saved me from ever flinging a controller at a wall.

6 Devil May Cry 3 And 4 ꦦ

While I Battled My Demons, Dante Literally Was One

mixcollage-10-dec-2024-12-26-pm-4487.jpg
Devil May Cry 4
Hack and Slash
Systems
Released
February 5, 2008

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
PHYSICAL

ESRB
🍒 M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence
Developer(s)
Capcom
Publisher(s)
Capcom
Engine
MT Framework ꧃
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
12 Hours
PS Plus Availability
Premium

Devil May Cry 1 was one of the earliest games I played in life, though it's not strictly what I wou꧙ld have called edgy. No, it's what came later that was really edgy. Devil May Cry 3 came a little later for me, shirtless Dante's blasé behaviour feeling like a panacea to the way the world treated me. I got to rock out and not give a single care in the world with him.

But my first Devil May Cry edge affair was with Nero in Devil May Cry 4. I remember fawning over him and his glowing, epic arm. The first time I saw the game was sealed away in a case in my local Tesco. He was trapped in ther♑e, and needed to be free. He was just like me. I needed my freedom too. So how did I free Nero? I asked my mother for an Xbox 360 for Christmas this year please and thank you. But it was all a ploy, trust me.

5 🍬 The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Link in Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess trailer at E3 2004.
mixcollage-25-dec-2024-12-00-pm-3864.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: The Le💛gend of Zelda: Twi♑light Princess
Action
Adventure
Systems
Released
November 19, 2006

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

ESRB
𒊎 T For Te🦋en due to Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence
Developer(s)
🅠 Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)
Nintendo
Engine
Proprietary Engine ꧑
Platform(s)
GameCube, Wii
How Long To Beat
38 Hours

The Legend of Zelda has gone through so many iterations, but it's no surprise which one I landed on as my favourite. Link in Twilight Princess is the pinnacle of what he can be, and the antidote to what came before. I can admit as an adult that yes, Toon Link is very cool and joyful. But I was an edgy child, and Toon Link was too colourful. He was childish. I needed a mature Zelda game.

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And that was Twilight♈ Princess. Link was fearless, and had his own dark side to le😼t out as Wolf Link. Wolves are super cool, the alpha of the pack. And Ganondorf was so epic too. Nothing could kill him, not even a sword through the chest. Even if Nintendo will never go back to this Link, I know it's because it's scared. It is afraid of the new wave of edgelords they'd unleash with it.

4 God Of Wa꧙r ꦬ

He's Just Like Me, For Real

God of War 2 PS2
god-of-war-2005-video-game-cover-art-tag.jpg
God of War (2005)
Hack and Slash
Systems
Released
March 22, 2005

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

ESRB
m
Publisher(s)
🍷 𓄧 Sony Computer Entertainment
Engine
🍬 𝓡 Proprietary Engine
Platform(s)
PS2
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
9 Hours
PS Plus Availability
Premium (HD Version) 𒈔
Release
🐻 2005-03-22 ꦡ
Metascore
94

When it came to character-action games, Devil May Cry was still more my speed back then, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:there was no escaping God of War. I mean the game was called God of War. Of course, I, a highly impressionable, isolated and closeted child, felt incredibly empowered by the literal god of war that could beat up anything he didn't like and was excessively angry. Well, he wasn't excessively angry to me. He was justifiably angry. And that was cool.

K☂ratos' mantra became mine. Not in the literal kill-everybody-who-slightly-inconveniꦍeces-you kind of way, but in a significantly less violent but still related way. I didn't care, I was stronger than you. I threw more than a few 'friends' onto the ground in the school playground. Because I could.

I promise I am of🎃 sound mind and a socially-adjusted memeber of society at the moment of writing.

3 Prince Of 🐠Persia: Warrior Within

Somehow It Was Edgier Before The Dark Prince

The prince swings around a pole while attacking two enemies in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
mixcollage-24-nov-2024-01-08-am-8358.jpg
168🐠🧜澳洲幸运5开奖网: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Action-Adventure
Systems
Released
November 30, 2004
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
🐼 Ubisoft Montreal

The first Prince of Persia game I actually played was The Two Thrones. Or more specifically, the PSP version of The Two Thrones, Rival Swords. And I loved it. The regular Prince being all high and no🙈ble, proper ways of combat, only for the Dark Prince to emerge and literally strangle enemies to death with his chain. It was so cꦏool, so edgy. Kind of literally.

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So imagine my surprise when I went back and to play Warrior Within and found out that was the edgy one! I look back on 🦄it, and Prince of Persia as a whole, for having a hilariously villainous degree of sexism, but for me, it felt like this w🐽as natural. The young and lighthearted child becomes the cool adult who says little and speaks through actions, and gets the girl. Really, it's quite uncomfortable to look back on, but we can't control what we love as an edgy child.

2 Jak 2

I Wished I Could Have Unleashed My Dark Eco Form, Too

Dark Jak surrounded by purple lightning in front of Daxter.
mixcollage-30-nov-2024-02-45-pm-6703.jpg
Jak II
Action-Adventure
Third-Person Shooter
Systems
Released
October 14, 2003

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
t
Publisher(s)
Sony Computer Entertainment 🌺
Engine
Proprietary Engi🅺ne, Kinetica 🗹
Franchise
🧸 Jak and Da🐲xter
Platform(s)
PS2, PS3, PS4, PS Vita
How Long To Beat
18 Hours

Continuing my crusade of ignoring the first entry in a series, Jak 🦋2 was the first Jak game I played, and was maybe the first game I played where I heard swear words being said. It was like a dirty little secret as a child, hearing the main character saying all these adult words that were📖 off-limits to me. It was empowering, playing a game that no one around me really knew was about. Hell yeah.

Oh but it just kept getting better. Jak unleashed his Dark Eco powers and became my dream figure. Sharp quills, murderous claws, eyes black as the abyss. Lightning ab🌞ilities for some reason. It didn't matter if it didn't make sense. It was cool, it was edgy, and it was what guided me through my edgelord years.

1 Shadow The Hedgeho𓃲g

Or As I Like To Call Him, Shadow The Edgehog

Shadow cocking his gun in Shadow the Hedgehog.
mixcollage-27-dec-2024-10-20-am-4730.jpg
Shadow the Hedgehog
Platformer
Action-Adventure
Third-Person Shooter
Systems
Released
December 15, 2005

WHERE TO PLAY

PHYSICAL

ESRB
✨ E 10+ // Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
Developer(s)
Sega
Publisher(s)
Sega
Engine
RenderWare ♔
Multiplayer
Local Multiplayer 🐓 🍸
How Long To Beat
5 Hours
Developer
🍎 Sega Stud🍷io USA

It's a bit of a meme at this point to acknowledge Shadow the Hedgehog, not just the character but the 2005 game, as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:edgy to an overdone degree. And that is true, absolutely. But it also erases the very real childhood that formed themselves arouꦇnd the mythos of Shadow the Hedgehog. You can't possibly know what it felt like to gꦚrow up with the poppy colours of Sonic, and then realise that something so much darker was possible.

Shadow had a goddamn gun. He got to kill humans. Not because he was told to, but because he wanted to. Of course Shadow could kill the president of the United States. Yeah, he can kill Eggman too. He's the ultimate Lifeform, he can do whatever he wants. I can't overstate the ef﷽fect it had 🍷on me. I drew constant sketches of Shadow. Sonic felt boring in comparison. Shadow was the future. All hail Shadow. It brings me back to the DeviantArt days.

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