The Most Bizarre Records In Gaming History

Gamers are a passionate bunch. Every gamer has a title they've invested a significant amount of time into, or a character they keep close to their heart. This adoration manifests as they spend months mastering mechanics or learning about the setting of their chosen fandom. There are some players, however, that take their love of the medium to a whole new level and achieve things the community never thought possible.

This unparalleled dedication has led some fans to break world records. While high scores and speedruns tend to dominate headlines, other milestones will make you stop in your tracks and question how someone determined to attempt such a feat, let alone master it. From pig rides to out of this world special editions, take a look the most bizarre records in gaming history.

The pigs in Minecraft are among the most lovable creatures you can encounter in the game. Streamers like PewDiePie have put a lot of time into raising their pigs, complete with elaborate, long term schemes for their utilization. Some gamers have taken to figuring out what other uses the pigs can have, even slapping saddles on their backs and riding them like wild steeds across the blocky plains.

One players holds the peculiar honor of riding a pig the farthest distance in Minecraft. As explained by Stephen Daultrey, the editor of the Guinness World Records 2016 Gamer's Edition, "LJ Pegross travelled 667km (414 miles) on the back of a pig in his own procedurally generated world. I mean, why would you not?" That's a great point. Minecraft gives its players some unique opportunities for creating their own reality within the game, so, it's not too surprising that people would look for hilariously specific records to break.

While some people get worn out just at the thought of playing dance games for an extended period of time, there are gamers out there that have turned this into a powerful force for good. For example, California-based teacher Carrie Swidecki broke the world record for the longest video game marathon ever when she played Just Dance 4 for a staggering 138 hours.

Swidecki set the record during a marathon that raised money for children's charities. She livestreamed her Just Dance marathon on Periscope and social media pages and managed to raise $7,000 for the Children's Miracle Network.

According to Arcade Sushi, Swidecki has made a habit of breaking dance game records, including, "longest overall dance marathon ever, the longest marathon in a dance game and the most high scores set in a 24 hour period (and she has set dozens more)." She reportedly hosts Just Dance music events at schools throughout California, and plays the game for 50+ hours a week.

Katie Fleming started her Tomb Raider fan site back in 2000 on Angelfire. She has spent decades sharing high quality screenshots from the various installments in the franchise and has developed a close professional relationship with the various developers of the Tomb Raider series. This dedication eventually culminated in her being recognized with a Guinness World Record for "Largest Collection of Tomb Raider Screenshots" in 2013.

"I wanted to create a site that showcased the incredible graphics from the games, and be the go-to source for screenshots," Fleming explained. In addition to her collection of screenshots, she received recognition for her years of authoring quality Tomb Raider fan fiction. Her research-focused work has garnered several accolades, and eventually helped secure her a job in the gaming industry as a community manager. This is super-fandom at its finest.

Jason Camberis earned the Guinness World Record for owning the world's largest arcade machine. What's even more impressive than that record is the fact that he built the unit himself. Over the course of two years, Camberis assembled the 14.47' tall machine, which plays titles like Rising Spirit on a screen so big players need a ladder to reach it.

In an interview with Metro, Camberis explained the thought process behind building the Arcade Deluxe was simple: he was tired of seeing so much negativity in the world and wanted to make something fun. Building the cabinet to such an oversized scale like this was also done "to recreate the feeling you had when you were a kid walking into an arcade from the '80s." 

In other words, Camberis wanted adults standing in front of the Arcade Deluxe to feel like they were a child again, peering at a Galaga or Pac-Man machine for the first time.

Some people get their kicks playing one of their favorite games with a different controller than they're used to, but then there are those gamers that go for something a little more daring. Gaming journalist Jesse Moerkerk set a very special and rad-sounding record back in 2011. He went to an indoor skydiving tunnel with an express purpose: to play Super Mario Galaxy 2 while simulating freefall. 

The previous record for gaming while in freefall was 15 minutes, but Moerkerk managed to beat that. His Super Mario Galaxy 2 session clocked in at 18 minutes, 52 seconds. You may be thinking that's not a terribly long time, but just imagine how much gaming you'd want to do if you felt like you were plummeting out of an airplane for nearly the length of an episode of Friends. Heck, even Mario himself can't fly for that long before he needs to sit down.

The Tomb Raider series has received some backlash over the years for how many different gruesome ways Lara Croft can meet her end. However, there's one game that features more unique fail state animations than any other. Though the gun-toting witch known as Bayonetta has become an icon in the gaming world, her first outing took home a Guinness World Record for "Most hero death animations in a game." In other words, when Bayonetta fails, she fails big, and there are an absurd number of ways to do so.

According to the Guinness World Records 2017 Gamer's Edition, 2009's Bayonetta "has 48 different post-death animations for for defeated gamers to savour, the most dramatic of all being 'Armageddon,' in which Earth itself explodes into pieces." Honestly, the planet never got blown apart whenever Lara Croft got shot by pirates, so let's just go ahead and let Bayonetta have this one, as morbid as it may be.

Video game special editions can cost a pretty penny, particularly when they come packed with all kinds of goodies tailor-made for superfans. However, there have been a few special editions that have gone beyond the realm of common sense when it comes to their price points. One of the most egregious examples was the "Super Dangerous Wad Wad Edition" of Saints Row 4, which cost a million dollars and allegedly came with a replica gun, a plastic surgery appointment, and a tourist flight to space.

However, the honor of "most absurdly pricey special edition in history" has to go to the "Spotlight Edition" of Dying Light: The Following. This package included the game along with a plethora of insane bonuses, like acting lessons from voice actor Roger Craig Smith and a supporting role in a planned film adaptation of Dying Light. Only one of these was offered for sale and it cost a cool $10 million.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a wild game, with Niko Bellic acting as one of the more level-headed protagonists in the series. It always feels a little weird to guide the character completely off the rails, but the game occasionally calls upon you to do just that. And, of course, breaking the law in a GTA game always results in a Wanted Level, which increases the amount of law enforcement officers that chase you. 

In Grand Theft Auto 4, the Wanted Level goes up to 6 stars, at which point the police are joined by the National Guard in their efforts to take Niko down. In other words, reaching 6 stars is basically a death sentence.

One fan holds the Guinness World Record for surviving at a full 6-star Wanted Level for over 16 minutes. How Henrik Lindholm managed to evade every piece of artillery that Liberty City could throw at him for that long is unclear, but it's very impressive. Most of players just ramp their motorcycles into the subway and wait for the heat to die down.

The previous record for the largest number of Lara Croft cosplayers in one place was set in 2016 in Paris with a total number of 315 Laras. That record was broken two years later by 316 Laras at a promotional event for the Tomb Raider reboot film.

However, this record hasn't come without a bit of controversy. Some believe this was less of a gathering of hardcore Tomb Raider fans and more of a publicity stunt on the part of Warner Brothers. It certainly seems likely, considering all the Laras are wearing the exact same outfit (which is from the movie, not the game). Also, the number of cosplayers present was exactly the number needed to beat the previous record. It all adds up to an odd little conspiracy theory.

"If it was a solely promotion event for the new Tomb Raider movie, I personally think it was a neat idea (although I would argue about the outfits)," tweeted the co-webmaster of fan-site Tomb Raider China. "But if it was set up to just beat the records that was held in Paris ... I think it was a terrible idea."

Back in 2002, keeping your mobile phone turned on during a flight was considered much more of a risk than it is now. That's why a fellow named Faiz Chopdat drew the ire of authorities when he refused to switch his phone off after repeated warnings from the flight crew. Apparently, Chopdat was way too invested in a game of Tetris to comply with their orders. 

When the plane landed, Chopdat was arrested and sentenced to four months in jail for the disruption. At the time, this was seen as a way for authorities to make an example of him and show people that the rules surrounding mobile device usage were taken very seriously. The incident was immortalized as a Guinness World Record for the "Longest prison sentence for playing a video game." More than anything else, you have to wonder what this conversation with Guinness was like. How did it even come to be recognized as a record someone could hold?