Greetings, gamer girls and boys! Does it shock you or cause your mind to blow when a guy who wrote this article is aware of it’s readers and interacts with them? No? Then what would you say if characters of the games you play started doing the same thing? Sounds more interesting? Yeah, I thought so. So sit down comfortably because now I’ll be presenting you with 10 great games that were made even cooler by breaking the fourth wall (in no particular order), meaning that a character in the game is aware that they’re in one, show signs of it and interact with the player in some way. I won’t include games that I haven’t had the chance to play personally. That’s why titles like Metal Gear Solid, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem or Batman: Arkam Asylum won’t appear on this list. There are also some major spoilers ahead so consider yourself warned. Now without further ado, let us begin…

Hey, you there! Yeah, I’m talking to you. Put some pants on for Mario’s sake, this website isn’t called Gamer Jerk Off or something like that. (I’m sorry for this, guys. He always does that… Such an embarrassment…)

1 – Deadpool

We will start this off with the king of over the top fourth wall breaking, the “Merc with a Mouth”, chimichanga loving Mr. Deadpool himself.

His own video game is arguably the guiltiest of this trope. It’s littered with moments when our protagonist rewrites the scrip of his game, talks to the players or even changes the game from hack and slash to a top down dungeon crawler or a side scrolling platformer. He also pokes fun at other more annoying gaming tropes in spite of being guilty of them as well, but the ever-present humor compensates everything. Anyway, I thank this game for introducing me to the character of Deadpool and it managed to do it with such style, elegance and neatness the he’s become my favorite superhero.

2 – Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

In a one of the best remakes of an old classic your character has the power to rewind time thanks to his handy dagger and the sand (as the subtitle indicates). This makes platforming failures a matter of the past… more like an alternative future, in fact.

However, if you find yourself to be unfortunate enough, run out of sand and fall, you’ll be rewarded with a ‘Game Over’ screen and the Prince saying something like: “Wait, this isn’t how it happen. Let me tell you this part of the story again” It’s a nice touch that immerses you into the game and makes you feel that how you play is actually how the prince narrates the story and it makes for a stronger connection between you.

3 – Lego Games by Travelled Tales

This is probably the most popular and beloved licensed video game series on the market. Well, what’s not to love about these cute characters that smash everything in their way like darn hooligans to fulfill their greedy needs? It is rather lovely to see how the biggest movie franchises translate to the Lego adaptations of themselves.

One moment they’re being all serious like the film they are based on but then – because they are characters from Lego and want to show they are aware of that – they start acting in a way you would never think of seeing in the source material and obey the laws of Lego physics. For instance, sometimes they fall apart to pieces when they die. Then there are Stan Lee and Deadpool cameos in the Marvel ones. There is also a cut scene in Indiana Jones where instead of the golden statue from the first movie, Indy pulls a head of C-3PO out of his bag. And don’t even get me started on Lego City: Undercover, Lego Dimensions or Lego Movie: Video Game.

4 – Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

In spite of playing as Harry Mason – the protagonist of the first game – this entry took quite a different direction from the previous ones. One of the things it does differently is that it collects data about you during your sessions with a psychiatrist and creates a profile about what kind of person you are.

Questions that play a role are for example: Have you ever cheated on your partner? Does it take a while for people to get to know you? What would be your perfect time table at school? Who is the guiltiest out of four characters in a story? Which of the people on the photographs before you are dead and which of them are just asleep? The answers are used by the game against you to deliver the eeriest experience possible and they also affect the ending majorly.

5 – Harry Potter 1-3 (PC versions), Legend of Zelda,… and many more

Have you ever found it weird that in-game characters tell you which specific buttons to press to perform a certain action? It raises many interesting questions: How would they know that? Are they actually aware of being video game characters? Are they OK with that? Does it not make them wanna go berserk? What is in area 51? Who shot J. F. Kennedy? Was the Moon landing fake? Are the Illuminates real? What’s for lunch today?

It’s one thing when you see it in games like Legend of Zelda where it’s just written in the speech bubbles but to hear somebody like Hermione saying: “Press the left mouse button to cast a spell” in one of the first three Harry Potter games on PC is rather unsettling. Just imagine how bizarre it would sound in a movie or a book.

6 – Stanley Parable

This creation could be described as a ‘choose your own adventure’ type of a game. It has multiple paths and multiple endings and will take you all sorts of places while being accompanied with the narrator with a sweet voice and a British accent.

The demo is also worth mentioning as it takes you on a virtual tour and shows you how game demos are actually made. It shows you emotion booths, the wall you can walk through (still in development), the compliment department, a device that tells you whether or not you are inside a video game demonstration inside a video game demonstration inside…, and most importantly, the button with 8 sign on it and it says “eight” when you press it. How cool is that!

As for the full game, it goes to the next level. In case you decide to ignore everything the narrator tells you to do, he realizes that you aren’t Stanley, but in fact a real person and react to it. It is also possible to end up in the world of Minecraft or the first level of Portal. This is just a little tease and I won’t spoil more then it’s necessary because in my opinion you should really experience this wonderful game on your own.

7 – No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Much like Deadpool, this underrated and overlooked Wii gem puts you in the shoes of a badass, joke cracking dude with a sword (only now it’s a light saber and his name is Travis Touchdown), this time with a whit of anime flavor to it. There are more subtle fourth wall breaks throughout the game but the most notable one awaits you at the beginning.

After you encounter your first boss, kick his ass and cut off his head, Travis’ love interest Sylvia arrives in a helicopter and a conversation between then starts:

Travis: Sylvia? Is that it? You gotta be kidding. I haven’t seen you in three years and that’s the welcome I get? How about you fill us in on everything that’s happened since the last game? We’re not gonna be satisfied until you do. Right? You owe us some explanation. (Looks at the screen and nods.)

Sylvia: (In a cute accent.) Oh, give me a break. There are people starting from this sequel who don’t care about continuity, you know.  (Looks at the screen and nods.) Besides, it would take forever if I recapped every detail of your fall from greatness. Players would skip it. It’s so boring.

Travis: Well, guess you got a point there. (Looks at the screen.)

Sylvia: Sometimes, you have to look at things from different angles.

8 – Family Guy Video Game: Too Hot for TV

Playing this game was a very pleasant surprise. Not only is it a good licensed game and a decent game in general but on top of all that, it actually surpasses the source material in some regards and I consider it one of the best Family Guy episodes I’ve ever seen which I really didn’t expect. What makes it even cooler is… Yeah you guessed it!

There are constant fourth breaks as the characters refer to you as a player and tell you how to play the damn game. Then there are the occasional funny mini-games where you have to perform a certain action because developers promised the character power ups for doing so and in one of them they just tell you the developers ran out of money to create another so… you just have to press a button… any button, that’s it.

The most memorable one for me, though, was in a level where you play as Peter. When you’re walking down the street you encounter a mime acting like he’s behind glass. If you walk up to him, you’ll find out that you actually can’t walk through the imaginary glass to which Peter says: “Oh, I hate invisible walls.”

9 – The Simpsons Game

Sticking with cartoons, this is the most Meta thing I’ve ever seen in a video game. It starts out pretty normal like a typical episode of The Simpsons with Homer sleeping on a sofa and dreaming about a chocolate wonderland. In the next level, Bart finds a game manual of his own game on the street that has just fallen from the sky which grants him and his family some interesting superpowers. They then use those powers to reach their personal goal in Springfield. The next thing they know is that the planet has been invaded by aliens. This right here is some standard Simpsons’ stuff, but things that follow are a bit more mind-blowing.

After trying to save their town, our yellow family gets sucked into a computer by an accident where they defeat the creator of The Sims and find an area with a big golden gate. In order to unlock it, you’ll need four key cards you obtain by completing four levels. Each of these levels are basically parodies of other games (Medal of Honor, Grand Theft Auto, Japanese and western RPGs). Behind the gate lies a mansion of the Simpsons’ creator himself, Matt Groening. The Simpsons manage to kick his ass in a boss fight for some reason, but fortunately for him, he escapes in a helicopter. Then the family escapes out of the virtual world and the aliens are still invading the planet so they decide to build a stairway to Heaven to seek help from God. After beating dead Shakespeare in front of the gates of Heaven, they proceed to meet God face to face. You then have to defeat him in a dance duel while listening to the sweet tune Rock You Like a Hurricane by Scorpion.

The last cut scene is when the most interesting things happen. God reveals to the Simpsons they are in fact video game characters (which they already figured out) and that The Simpsons game is just a mini-game inside his Earth game. He accidentally through the game manual from the beginning out of his window which, in the end result, messed up his whole system. (He also plays Oblivion) Then Lisa asks him a question: “God, do you ever wonder if you’re a character in a video game?” He replies saying that it’s dumb and she’d better snap out of it. After which the scene zooms out and shows Ralph playing The Simpsons game and staring at the screen with awe. In the end, he walks up to the screen, knocks on it all confused and shouts: “Daddy, someone’s looking at me!” THE END…Pretty thought provoking, huh? This leads me to number 10.

10 – Your life (maybe)

In this final entry of the list we’ll get a bit philosophical. With the massive spread of the virtual reality in the gaming industry one simply cannot help him or herself to stop and wonder: What if we are part of a simulation and this world is just a very well constructed illusion? Are you actually a person who’s inside a VR machine put into this world or just a program like in a game of The Sims or a Tron movie? This theory can’t be proven right, neither it’s impossible to prove it wrong.

Well, if this is indeed just a simulation and you realize it; congrats, you’ve now broken the fourth wall! But can we be sure that we are even real? To answer this question I’ll use a quote of a very wise and one of the best-known philosopher in history – that enables me to sleep at night – René Descartes: “Cogito, ergo sum.” (Translation: “I think, therefore I am.”) To me it means that the fact we are actually living in a virtual reality isn’t all that important. As long as we are aware of ourselves the most important thing remains whether or not the life we live is a happy and fulfilling one, no matter where.