As a cat family, Stray had me and my wife smiling from start to finish. So many “yep, that’s a cat thing” moments.
There were two in Control for me, both involving killer music: the ashtray maze and the altered movie camera. Absolutely grinning the entire time for both of those!
The first thing that comes to mind was my first play through of Yakuza 0. Majima spends so much time winning stuffed animals for a little girl that lost her dad. Part way through the quest line she starts calling him dad and it made him so happy. It warms the heart and I could not stop smiling.
Recently, Hi-Fi Rush made me smile (and laugh) more than once :)
Right at the beginning of Nier Automata when it shifts into a bullet hell game for a bit and the already amazing soundtrack changes styles to match I just knew I was in for an amazing experience.
2 of my favorite from Titanfall 2 are when:
1: During the home/neighborhood factory when you realize this is building the boss arena.
2: Using the time travel device to fight your way out of the facility in two different timelines.
The time travel sequence in Titanfall 2 is like the moment where the game clicked for me. I was hooked from then on. Such a good game, shame we’re not getting a third :(
Finally beating the asylum demon on my very first playthrough of dark souls.
Then i immediately realized i only just beat the tutorial.
Playing Dark Souls 1 for the first time has so many amazing moments like that - finally defeating the Bell Gargoyles, or surmounting Sens Fortress and pushing the Iron Golem off… But I don’t think anything will ever compare to the exhilaration I felt in beating Ornstein and Smough for the first time.
