Kissing might be one of the best things in existence, but we've all experienced an awkward kiss or two in our lives. Uncomfortable kisses aren't just relegated to real life; they can also exist within the gaming world. Whether it's due to poor rendering, plot issues, or the fact that the smooch takes place between two different species, there are many ways to ruin a kiss (even a fictional one). You may consider all pixelated puckering to be cringe-inducing, but there are some examples that we can't quite seem to shake. Join us as we take a look at the most uncomfortable kisses in gaming history.
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00:00Kissing in real life might be pretty dang nice, but let's face it, swapping spit just
00:04doesn't have the best history in video games.
00:07These are some of the most awkward smooches in gaming.
00:10There might be plenty of reasons why an animated hedgehog might want to hook up with a human
00:14woman, but that doesn't make it any less awkward.
00:16In Sonic the Hedgehog 06, Sonic does just that.
00:20Even though the illicit kiss is difficult for fans and critics to swallow, it's happened
00:24and opened everyone's eyes to the world of interspecies romance.
00:27Sonic, if you leave here to go on another adventure, remember this place."
00:33Kotaku's Patrick Klepik voiced his shock about one of the more infamous moments in
00:37gaming history, stating that
00:39"...nothing compares to the moment Sonic was on the brink of death and forced to share
00:43a kiss with a human being."
00:45Klepik goes on to say that the plot of Sonic 06 is incomprehensible, so maybe it makes
00:49sense that Sonic kissed Princess Elise after all.
00:52In the infamous scene, Princess Elise leans over Sonic's body, pleading that he come back
00:56to life.
00:57The scene's awkwardness comes in part from the idea of a hedgehog kissing a human, but
01:01the confusing emotion is heightened by the entire cast of the game standing in the background
01:06silently.
01:07Just, God, someone put them out of their misery already!
01:19Tulip is a Japanese game about kissing, meaning there's a lot of kissing going on, obviously.
01:24However, the type of people the protagonist kisses makes the game a little awkward.
01:28These aren't romantic kisses, but kisses used to strengthen the boy's heart so he can ultimately
01:32win his love interest, a young girl in town.
01:35But to achieve his goal, the young protagonist needs to kiss a lot of people, and most of
01:39them are very strange, like the misfit underground residents.
01:42One look at these folks evokes serious Tim Burton meets Okage Shadow King vibes.
01:47They're not exactly the type to win any beauty contests, but hey, beauty is in the lips of
01:51the smoocher, right?
01:52Tulip is definitely very Japanese, and might remind players of quirky games like Katamari
01:57Damacy and the aforementioned Okage.
01:59The character design and premise of Tulip makes every kiss just as strange and awkward
02:04as the last.
02:05But, you know, at least you get to kiss a cute girl in the end.
02:07Hey, it's the small victories.
02:09When Cassidy and Sean hook up in Life is Strange 2, it's not awkward because of anything the
02:14characters have done.
02:15While Life is Strange asks players to make some difficult choices, Life is Strange 2
02:19makes players pick between two love interests, Finn and Cassidy.
02:23If players opt to romance Cassidy, the game's lovable folk-punk busker extraordinaire, they're
02:28treated to an incredibly awkward love scene complete with some oddly rendered kissing.
02:33The intimate moment between Sean and Cassidy has nothing to do with bad plot design or
02:36bad graphics, save for the weirdly animated smooching.
02:40Instead, the awkwardness comes from their inexperience as teenagers.
02:43The scene has been praised for being highly relatable, but that doesn't mean it's any
02:47less uncomfortable.
02:48Jean-Luc Cano, the lead writer for Life is Strange 2, explains that the team wanted the
02:52scene to feel realistic, and for players to walk away with the knowledge that intimacy
02:56is something that's more complicated than often depicted in movies.
03:00Sean doesn't know what he's doing, and the writing makes that palpable.
03:04Hey, listen, I…
03:06I think you should know that I'm…
03:08Uh…
03:09I know.
03:10Don't worry about it.
03:13The scene is sweet, relatable, and cringey all at once.
03:17It's also just a teensy bit NSFW, so if you go looking this one up on the GoodTube, maybe
03:22make sure Mommy and Papa Dukes are out of the room first.
03:25Chrono Trigger remains one of the most beloved games of all time, with fans having many reasons
03:29to sing its praise.
03:31However, there's one ending to the game that might leave fans slightly uncomfortable in
03:35its awkwardness.
03:36Chrono Trigger has 13 unique endings, but one of them features a wedding, complete with
03:40a kiss between a frog and human.
03:43Originally titled The Successor of Guardia, the wedding ending rewrites history and speculates
03:47what could happen if the aptly named frog felt confident enough to ask Queen Lean out.
03:52When gamers see the half-frog, half-human relatives of Marle, they'll know the answer.
04:03Players get to see the wedding between Frog and Lean, including the sloppy, fly-eating
04:07kiss that in other parts of the game might be mistaken as a combat move, though the context
04:11of the kiss might be sweet and optimistic, the kiss itself is gross, while this ending
04:16is supposed to be funny and still a little awkward.
04:19Super Mario RPG is one of the oddest games in the long-running franchise, but fans love
04:23it.
04:24However, it does include quite the awkward kiss.
04:26The kiss occurs at the aptly named Marimor Resort, where Mario follows Booster and Bowser
04:31in order to save Princess Toadstool.
04:34Mario must gather some of Peach's accessories before he can stop the sham wording between
04:37Peach and Booster and get the kiss he usually earns at the end of each Mario game.
04:42However, if players gather the items too slowly, Mario ends up getting a kiss from Bowser and
04:47Booster instead.
04:48The entire kiss is just a misunderstanding in the game, but it makes Peach angry nonetheless.
04:53Bowser and Booster, on the other hand, regret the kiss because Mario feels like sandpaper.
04:58The mistaken kiss is meant to be funny, but it makes for an awkward break in tradition
05:02for Mario, Peach, and the usual end-of-game kiss.
05:12While fans may never get a true sequel to Super Mario RPG, they can relish the time
05:16when Mario kissed Bowser and, just for a moment, brought the forces of good and evil together
05:21in peace through a big ol' smooch.