As any avid gamer knows, preserving a player’s health and preserving a character’s life is paramount to achieving the greatest success with any given playthrough. Over the years, video game designers have gotten quite creative with the in-game design of the health bars and life meters, with the most memorable reflecting the game’s themes and the visual aesthetics of the characters in organic ways.
In addition, the more interactive a video game health bar is, the more consciously a player will continue to replenish their reserves and ultimately have more success in the game. As such, it’s time to highlight the absolute best of the bunch.
10 Spinal health (dead space)
The popular survival horror game Empty space earned a reputation as a brutal gaming experience that required undivided attention to keep Isaac alive. Instead of keeping an eye on the top left corner where most of the health bars are located, the designers included a light that ran along the back of Isaac’s mining armor, which would darken as the character takes more damage.
At full strength, the health bar emits a neon blue color which, when depleted, begins to turn off, informing players when to extend their lifespan. For a highly immersive game with built-in action, the Spinal Health bar is a great way to keep players entertained all the time without compromise.
9 Lightsaber Bar (Star Wars: Masters Of The Teras Kasi)
While it may seem outdated now, the 1997-98 edition of Lucas Arts’ Star Wars: Masters of the Teras Kasi fighting game featured a badass health bar resembling an ornate lightsaber hidden in plain sight above the characters’ heads. Sadly, it’s arguably the one standout feature of the game that many find worst in Star Wars history.
Packed with a coiled handle, shiny rim, and glowing red color that fades as a player’s health deteriorates, the inspired idea of using a lightsaber to signify a character’s depleted health caused by the weapon itself is more meta than any others released at the time, proving once again how visionary LucasArts’ video games were at the turn of the century.
8 ECG (Resident Evil Series)
the beloved Resident Evil Survival horror game series from the 90s are all about apoplectic nightmares and blood-curdling playthroughs for players. As such, using an EKG monitor to display a character’s health bar is absolutely brilliant in the way it ties into the game’s themes and characters.
Imitated countless times since on various inferior games, the unique Resident Evil Electrocardiogram evolved over the series to include a green heart monitor that could potentially show a flat line if a player doesn’t survive. Other iterations include a tricolor green (fine), yellow (caution), and red (danger) EKG and even a cool smartwatch display in RE 7: Village, making the game feel as real and modern as can be.
7 Red Web (Spider-Man for Gameboy Advance)
While it may be forgotten in 2022, the Gameboy Advance release of Spider Man in 2002 came out with an awesome health bar that couldn’t be more relevant to the most eye-catching iconography of the revered superhero. In the lower left corner of the frame, a red spider web appears with sections cut off by the white lines of the web to indicate how much damage Spideyr-Man has been punished with.
In full health, the web remains red everywhere. The more damage Spider-Man takes, the more sections of the red web are removed to leave a vulnerable white space to indicate his depleted health. The health bar is such a perfect touch it’s a surprise it wasn’t adopted in every bar Spider Man game, because players feel the personal consequences of his actions.
6 Heart and Brain Bar (Primal Rage)
The mega popular fighting game primeval anger still has one of the coolest and most creative health bars ever. Set on a post-apocalyptic Urth, players control prehistoric beasts fighting for supremacy. In intricate detail, the characters’ health bars resemble a brain with a cerebral cortex protruding from the back and a huge blood-filled vein extending from a beating heart.
When the player’s health is reduced to zero, their heart instantly explodes, leaving a gory streak of blood across the screen as the player drops dead. Additionally, when the brain gauge is depleted, a power surge zaps the character’s brain and stuns them long enough for an enemy to take them out for good. Extremely creative and ahead of its time, primeval anger is more advanced than people think.
While the health bar’s visual aesthetic isn’t all that unique, the way Deadpool uses it in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds is more creative than arguably any other on the record. The health bar itself is usually in the top left corner and looks like any other in gaming history. However, during Deadpool’s deadly final move, he uses the health bar as a weapon to knock down his enemies.
During the hyper combo finishing move, Deadpool jumps up and grabs his own health bar, rips it out of the corner and goes on to slay his enemies with it like a baseball bat while challenging them with hilarious smack-talk. Not only is it one of the health bar’s most creative interactive uses, but it also perfectly reflects Deadpool’s playful, subversive personality.
4 Body/Facial Health Bar (Doom)
The mega-popular first-person shooting game mischief literally took a player’s health bar to deadly new heights. Instead of the rotten gauge in the left corner, the designers represented the space miner’s depleted health by making his face more bloodied, battered and bruised the more damage they do.
Although Software’s Wolfenstein 3D first introduced the facial health bar, the improvements made in mischief are much more detailed, giving characters much bigger facial cuts, bleeding nosebleeds and the like. This gives the gamers a visceral response to the physical punishments they literally face, making them think twice about the consequences of a bad playthrough.
3 Rock Meter (Guitar Hero)
Activision’s Guitar Hero earned a reputation for being a life-like musical simulation for music fans everywhere to play vicariously through and feel like a real rock star. One of the reasons why is the creative Rock Meter health bar, which resembles a real digital readout on an electrical amplifier.
The higher a player’s achievement, the rock meter stays in the green zone (left). However, the worse a player does, the gauge will begin to slide to yellow (center) and red (right), indicating that he needs to pick up the pace. If the needle on the dial points all the way to the right, a player loses. Simple, easy to read and extremely lifelike, the creativity of Guitar Hero‘s interactive health bar marries fashion and functions like few others.
2 Hearts (The Legend Of Zelda)
‘s iconic health meter The Legend of Zelda has remained intact for more than two decades worth of sequels, pointing to its flawless design that appropriately reflects the game’s themes and the character’s main motivations.
When the game starts, Link starts out with three hearts which, when faced with damage, will decrease in half measures. To replenish the half-hearts, Link must fortify them by drinking potions, collecting mini-hearts, and using fairy spells, all of which give Link extra power to keep finding his beloved Princess Zelda. Since love is the guiding force, the creative use of hearts to represent Link’s health is nothing short of brilliant.
1 Pie Chart (Pac-Man World)
PlayStation’s 1999 Pac-Man World is a popular platform video game with a simple yet effective health bar that doubles as a playful rebus. A yellow circular pie chart consisting of four segments is located in the upper-right corner of the frame. Each slice represents one damage Pac-Man can take in-game. When a single wedge is removed, the health bar literally resembles Pac-Man’s iconic facade.
The simplicity of the health bar perfectly reflects the simple, easy-to-use gameplay of Pac-Man itself, one of the most famous starter games for kids that almost every kid experiences while growing up. As such, it’s easy for anyone to understand to use a symmetrical shape as a metaphor for Pac-Man’s health.
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