10 Impossible Video Games That Shouldn't Exist

God of War's cutscenes are a technical miracle.

god of war
Sony Santa Monica

They say that the only limit to your creativity is your imagination but within the world of video games that's not strictly true. Sometimes your bright ideas might be all well and good but if they're too bold for the hardware you're designing them for then you're all out of luck.

Your huge world, your massive graphic demands and your huge asks from your team are all well and good but what if they're too much for the console to even handle? Game over, as they say.

Unless of course, you're a genius development team who can creatively get around the restrictions to create video games that, under any normal circumstance, seem impossible.

Whether its games that were launching for the very first time or being ported to other machines, these releases are all unique but come together under one unifying banner: "how the hell did you manage that?!"

Technical marvels that hacked the machines they were on or rereleases that were shrunk down for less powerful systems and lost almost nothing that made them great; this list will take a look at some seriously impressive video games that boggle the mind by merely existing.

10. Resident Evil 2 - Nintendo 64

god of war
Capcom

Capcom’s long-awaited sequel to their survival horror classic is often celebrated as one of the best games in the Resident Evil series and in the PlayStation’s library. It was so good that Nintendo wanted a piece of the undead pie and Capcom, never shy to consider any and all port options (just ask Resi 4), didn’t back down from the challenge.

On average, PlayStation discs hold around 700mb of data and Resident Evil 2 in particular used two of them. Admittedly, this was more to do with high fidelity audio and full-motion videos. Either way, the ask to bring this game to the Nintendo 64 was bold considering that the system’s cartridges had a maximum space of 500mb.

Capcom hired Angel Studios (now known as Rockstar San Diego) to see if it was even possible. Over the course of 18 months, the team managed to reduce the game down to fit all four campaign scenarios, plus the unlockable Hunk and Tofu modes, down to fit on a single Nintendo 64 cartridge.

That would be impressive enough but the game also featured the only official item randomiser in Resident Evil series history. Whilst the N64 version of the game is definitely a downgrade in audio and visual fidelity, for the console to be able to run one of the PlayStation’s heaviest hitters was no easy feat.

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The Red Mage of WhatCulture. The one with all the hair. She/they.