Q&AmeCola: Favorite Fourth Wall Breakers In Gaming

Best bring your hard hats, cause we're breaking some fourth walls today! Which ones are on the chopping block? Find out what the staff voted in the return of the Q&AmeCola panel.

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Q&A Sep - Banner

This is why we can’t have nice things. There comes a time in every person’s life where something breaks on them, whether it be their computer, car, or even their mentality. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that this website bro—oh, hello readers. Can you update me on how long it’s been since GameCola was down? While you gather the finer details, I’ve gathered some answers for a very precarious question. Without further adieu, this month’s question is this: What is your favorite moment in a videogame that broke the fourth wall? (In case you were wondering, the fourth wall is a concept introduced in acting and live performances. The fourth wall is essentially the wall the audience sits behi…oh for crying out loud, just click here.)


Q&A Sep - Justin Nowosielski

My favorite moment in breaking the fourth wall has to be Disgaea. Yes, you read that correctly. The whole series in general is all incredibly fourth-wall-breaking. The different characters fully acknowledge their levels and stats within the game, villains will try to steal the coveted spot of main character, characters will directly address the player. Even one of the most popular characters in the series, Vyers, is actually known by most fans and acknowledged by many characters within the game as nothing more than Mid-Boss, the annoying character who shows up sometimes but is never incredibly difficult to defeat. It’s moments like these that really set Disgaea apart and keep me coming back for more.

QandA July 2016 - DisgaeaGiving the term “mid boss” style since 1392


Q&A - Mark Freedman

Metal Gear Solid 2 broke the fourth wall in an amazing way. When battling it out with the artificial intelligence GW, the “Colonel” (actually an impersonation from GW), starts going absolutely batshit crazy. He eventually tells Raiden to turn off the game console. He also talks about this being a role playing game.
I NEED scissors! 61!

Good advice for GamePepsi fans out there, am I right?


Q&A Sep - Jeff Nemeth

Is it my turn to spew petty nonsense yet? Awesome, my turn has finally arrived! Over the months spent away from GameCola, my experiences with games has expanded to the far reaches of the nether realm, and I found myself a fan of more games than I anticipated. A good handful do good at obliterating that one fourth wall, while others make it painfully un-bear-able to watch (puns anyone?). Still, if I were to pick one game that was my favorite in terms of fourth wall breaking, I’d have to toss Disgaea into a ditch and valiantly hold up the entire Hyperdimension Neptunia collection (I had to borrow some hands).

The beauty of Hyperdimension Neptunia, as a series, is that it combines a well-maintained game mechanic, along with cute characters, all the while shattering fourth walls everywhere and spitting satire at the console wars. The game series focuses on 4 main nations: Leanbox (Xbox), Lastation (PlayStation), Lowee (Wii), and Planeptune (???). Each nation is run by a CPU, and each CPU vies for shares, which represents how much the people of a specific nation believe in their CPU (console fans anyone?). The game pokes fun at various story events and gameplay mechanics, such as flag-inducing events, leveling system, and even what characters are doing off screen. If there is another game out there that has more fourth wall breaking than this one, I can only imagine the fifth wall is blocking my vision.

Q&A Sep - Hyperdimension

That makes wayyyy too much sense…


Q&A Sep - Robyn Tyrfing

Honestly, I’ve never had a favorite moment of fourth wall breaking. They’re usually poorly timed, or kill immersion. Perhaps Aerannis did it best, though, breaking the fourth wall during the tutorial with a series of silly puns by your robot friend? Otherwise, I feel they usually hurt a game’s atmosphere and narrative more than help.

Q&A Sep - Aerannis


Ready to grab your nearest sledgehammer? Eager for a trip to Home Depot? Let us know what your favorite fourth-wall-breaking moments are in gaming in the comments below! The best three answers will be featured at the end of the next Q&A! Got a question you would like to ask our staff? Tweet us @GameCola or use the hashtag #GameColaQA.

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Twitch/YouTube comedy entity, guitarist, game developer, Nightcore composer; has a horrible obsession with anime and Japanese culture.

5 Comments

  1. Probably Metal Gear Solid series in general. Favorite example that sticks out is in MGS4 during a random call to Otacon that he starts rambling about how great PS4 games are because they no longer have to swap discs because of BluRay. Snake responds with ‘Get it together!’ And like you guys stated above, the stuff with the ‘Col’ going bonkers in MGS2 is pretty awesome material too.

    I don’t know if this counts, but there is an excellent exchange in DLC Quest 2 between ‘shepherds’ that had me losing it, mostly because of some dumb inside Mass Effect Wrex jokes I have with some friends.

    I’m surprised none of the Phoenix Wright superfans here referenced the comicon fanboy character that appeared in a couple games and speaks in l33t for half of his dialogue. He is a little too overboard with it, but I loved his few appearances in the series and absolutely dug his cameo in one of the early cases in Ace Attorney Investigations. Last one I have is Deadpool ripping the lifebar off the screen in Ultimate MvC3 to beat up enemies.

  2. Wow, I totally do not remember getting an e-mail about this one. Off the top of my head, I’d say your dad calling you in EarthBound to encourage you not to play videogames for more than 2 hours is probably a top pick.

  3. I thought I sent mine in for this! Weird. Mine is definitely the bonus episodes of Professor Layton v. Phoenix Wright. The references to previous games in both series and to the player are amazing.

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