Anyway, here's a handful of the more memorable game deaths that came to mind in 15 minutes of spitballing around the office. And no, you will not find Aerith on this list. Also, it should probably go without saying that there's a big fat implicit "HEY! SPOILERS!" sign hanging on here.
Call of Duty 4 made us stop and think about what it might be like to get up close and personal with a nuclear weapon. Truly a chilling scene.
So you don't actually see the guy die. And he ended up coming back off and on in various Mortal Kombat games anyway. But DUDE. Johnny Cage! Dead! Unthinkable!
Certainly the most high-concept death we can think of in a video game. The man lived and died by his ideals... and a golf club.
Possibly the noblest death we can come up with, this leader of the Protoss in the original StarCraft sacrificed himself to defeat the Zerg and save his entire race from extinction.
Jenny From The Darkness
OK, so we had to exclude a bunch of female significant others from the list so it wouldn't look too weird, but man, a lot of ladies get offed in video games. (Mona Sax, anyone?) Jenny's is probably the most gut-wrenching, the way she's gunned down right in front of main character Jackie while he's completely powerless to save her. Painful.
Honorable Mention: Solid Snake. Because he should have died at the end of MGS4, damnit. He should have placed pistol to mouth and finished the job himself.
What are your favorite (or most painful) memories of gaming death scenes?
And before we go, Kotaku's Stephen Totilo has come up with another excellent list idea in light of Memorial Day, characters who wear white pants.