Top 10 Video Game World Records

Everyone loves a bit of “I’m better than you” arguing. When it comes to video games, however, few can truly claim to be the best – that is except for those who have appeared in the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition. With the 2010 book now on shelves we thought we’d bring you ten of the most interesting. We combed through the hardback’s pages to find a mixture of the bizarre, incredible and humorous.

Youngest Pro Gamer: Lil Poison

Kids have always been interested in playing video games, but Lil Poison (Aka Victor De Leon III), has been playing games since the age of two. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise, then, than he’s the youngest pro gamer at just 11. We’re not sure about his gamer name, though; Lil Poison sounds a bit like a pre-teen rapper. Still, he’d certainly beat all of us in a game of Halo or Modern Warfare.

Best selling video game of all time: Wii Sports

Given the phenomenal success of the Wii, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find out that Wii Sports is the best selling video game of all time. Yes, before you email in to say “But, Wii sports comes bundled with every Wii sold in Europe, North America and Australia,” we know it’s cheating slightly. It doesn’t change the facts though. Over 45.7 million copies of the motion-controlled hit are in homes as you read this. That’s a crazily high number of people sitting on their sofa wiggling their Wii Remotes.

Largest Collection of video game memorabilia: Lisa Courtney (Pokemon)

Gamers like to collect things to do with their favourite game franchises and characters – that’s partly why collector’s editions have become so popular in recent years. Lisa Courtney from the UK has taken things a few stages further, though, with her Pokemon collection easily dwarfing most people’s game and memorabilia collections combined. Not content with a few Pokemon toys, over the last 13 years Lisa has amassed a collection of 12,113 items of Pokemon memorabilia. Just think about that for a second.

Highest Score on Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2: 869,927,375

Load up Geometry Wars 2 now. Go on. Now play for a few minutes and come back with your highest score. Hmm, we’re going to take a stab in the dark and guess you didn’t get very close to 869,927,375. That monumental figure was set by Matthew “Blewmeanie” Thompkins from the USA. Now, we can only assume that he didn’t cheat, seeing as the record has been officially confirmed, so there’s only one sensible explanation. Thompkins is in fact a robot, capable of reflexes and brain processes beyond that of a normal human being. Are you sure Mr Thompkins isn’t in fact D.A.R.Y.L. Guinness?

Most Swearing in a video game: House of the Dead: Overkill

There’s a time and a place for swear words (almost anywhere except in front of your mother really), and House of the Dead: Overkill from SEGA makes use of every one of them. The game features an impressive 189 uses of the “F” word, spread over a relatively brief three-hour run-time. That equates to around 3% of all the words spoken in the game and on average you’d hear the “F” word once per minute. Just to be clear, we’re not talking about “fudge”. This is the word that characters in Battlestar Galactica like to pronounce “frack”.

First American Presidential Candidate to use in-game campaign advertising: Barack Obama

In-game advertising. Boooo! It’ll ruin our games, cried people before they saw what it was really going to be like. Fair enough, it can at times be annoying, but in the right context it adds believability to game worlds. Making the most of the in-game ads in racing game Burnout Paradise, was American Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The billboard ad that appeared while you drove around Paradise City featured a picture of the man alongside the address of campaign website voteforchange.com.

Most Character Death Animations in a video game: Dead Space

We’re a bit of a morbid bunch really. We spend most of our time trying to keep our character alive in video games, but as soon as the poor sod comes a cropper to whatever evil is lying in wait for him, we want to see him suffer. No game does this better than EA and Visceral Games’ Dead Space. The 2008 Xbox 360, PS3 and PC outer space survival horror game has no fewer than 30 death animations for heroic miner Isaac Clark. Fair enough, he gets to blow plenty of limbs off the alien mutant monsters, but he dies in many gruesome ways. Poor guy.

Most Official real-life stand-ins for a video game character: Lara Croft

Some announcements get everyone in the office gathered around a monitor in excitement; others simply get a group of lecherous men making noises and drooling at their monitors. The announcement of a new Lara Croft model is sure to get such a reaction, perhaps because it happens with alarming frequency. During the life of the Tomb Raider franchise, which first hit stores in 1996, there have been 10 real-life models playing the part of Lara Croft. Highlights include actress Rhona Mitra, model Nell McAndrew and current Lara Alison Carroll.

First game to allow simultaneous four-player control: Gauntlet

It might be hard to imagine, but at a point not too long ago it wasn’t possible to play games with three of your mates. In an era where co-op and competitive gaming is commonplace, and the likes of Left 4 Dead are built around that mechanic, it’s impossible to think that games didn’t always allow this. The very first game to let up to four players take control of their own character during the same game was arcade classic Gauntlet. The Atari-developed title spawned numerous sequels and imitations, but nothing can beat the arcade original.

First RPG to receive an award for its ethical treatment of animals: Fable II

While Nintendogs on the Nintendo DS received the same Proggy award some years before Fable II arrived, Lionhead’s RPG is the first game in the RPG genre to be acknowledged by PETA for being animal friendly. The game encourages a vegan lifestyle by giving players stat bonuses for eating vegetables. Meat eaters become obese and evil, whereas vegetable eaters are thin and pure. We obviously promote a balanced diet that consists of both, but then we’re neither good nor evil.

Share your proudest video game achievements with us in the comments section below.