game is over screens are becoming a thing of the past. Of course, some games still have a screen that appears when a player dies or makes a mistake. But a ‘restart from checkpoint’ option doesn’t have the same bite as a disappointed Sonic, a dazed and dejected Mario, or Mike Haggar 10 seconds away from being blown up by dynamite.
Still, there are some games, both past and present, that like to grind the player on the face if he failed. They didn’t immediately re-display them, offer an easy mode or a level jump. She just mocked them for not being good enough to take the challengeor just taunted them in general. Here are some of the more infamous examples.
9 Battletoads in Battlemaniacs and Battletoads-Double Dragon
Rare is no stranger to hard games. They enjoyed difficulties when they were called Ultimate and made games for the ZX Spectrum. So, Battletoads it’s no surprise that it’s so notoriously hard to beat. It’s also not bullying. In the SNES Battletoads in Battlemaniacs If the player chose not to continue, the Dark Queen would mock Professor T.Bird for collecting such weaklings, and he would beg the Toads to “go crazy, bad and crazy”.
Through Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, he has lost patience and faith. Whether they played as the Toads or the Lee Brothers, T.Bird will despise them anyway. “Do you call yourself the ultimate team? Do not make me laugh!”. It’s not easy being green.
8 Katamari Damacy
It is often said that the only thing worse than making your parents angry is disappointing them. The Katamari Damacy series has offered a few crushing failure screens, such as the bullet hell-inspired in We love katamari where the king zaps the prince because he bores their fan and thus makes the series feel like a mistake.
But the heaviest is in the original Katamari Damacy. Give him the tiniest, tiniest katamari and the screen goes dark and stormy as he monologues about the player’s failure for a minute. All the prince can do is sob when his father expresses his disappointment, saying that he should have asked the prince’s cousins to do it, and say that the fault is actually his own… because he really believed that his son could have produced a decent Katamari.
7 Total Distortion
Total Distortion is a weird PC game from Pop Rocket where the player has to create music videos to earn fame and money. That sounds like a typical sim game, but there are point-and-click elements, battles with the ‘Guitar Warriors’ within the ‘Distortion Dimension’ and failure states. Lots of failures.
There are many ways to die, most of them by falling for the Guitar Warriors. A text will appear stating “You Blew It!”. Then it plays a song mocking them for being dead. If the on-screen lyrics and catchy chorus of “You Are Dead!” didn’t skip the message, the full text would (“Hope you improve your bad score!”). The game is painfully 90s, but the number is ever green in its disdain for lackluster play.
6 Zone Of The Enders
Hey it’s that mech shooting game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demonstration! Hideo Kojima didn’t come up with it Zone of the Enders (that would be director Noriaki Okamura), but he was the producer. He liked the project enough to refer to it almost as often as his other works snatcher and Boktai: The sun is in your hands.
It’s up to Leo Stenbuck and his Jehuty Frame to save the human colonies from Viola and BAHRAM’s army. Unless the player falters against the bosses. Aside from Leo exploding every time Jehuty (who can blame him?), every boss has a snappy, sharp comment about his loss (“Stupid boy. Why do you want to die so badly?”). The voice acting is moreResident Evil then metal gearso every quip feels so much more annoying every time it comes on.
5 Sierra Entertainment Point & Click Games
Almost any point & click game could count towards this list. They are notorious for their lunar logic puzzles, allowing players to wander for eternity or die in various ways. Sierra Entertainment’s games are the most infamous in this case, due to their text origins in the original King’s Questto the more sophisticated Quest for Glory series.
Players learned about saving games the hard way if they weren’t watching what they were doing. Enter the Conclave without entering the Snake Tattoo Gabriel Knight and the title character is pinched to death. Ruin the cryochamber in Space mission 5 and roast Beatrice to “a toasty golden brown. Good job”. Bed a certain lady in Leisure suit Larry and get an STD. Get slimed by snails in Freddy Pharkas. All with the usual damning quote about doing better next time.
4 Batman: Arkham Series
It’s hard to imagine how the Arkham games can be surpassed by making the player feel like they are Batman. Beat up criminals! Throw Batarangs! Solve crimes! Be vulnerable to bullets! Yes, Batman can die if the player messes up too much, and his villain’s gallery will be there. In all four major console games, the villains look down on the player and make a comment.
InArkham Asylum, the Joker offers a greeting, a raspberry and giggles until he falls. not in Arkham City would comment on his superiority and mock the player directly. Black Mask expresses his disappointment in Arkham Origins (“What an anti-climactic ending!”). Arkham Knight offers some sympathetic voices from Alfred and Robin, but the Knight himself and the others still provide the glee.
3 Scarface: The world is yours
Everyone made a Grand Theft Auto clone back in the early 2000s. Some even had movie licenses like the godfatherand others became their own deal like Saints Row. Ever since GTA3 and GTA Vice City referred to the 1983 Scarface so much film, it was only natural that it would get the game treatment.
Created by Radical Entertainment, the game brought Tony Montana back to life for another adventure that was basically redundant. to confuse GTA gave the player a ‘Wasted’ or ‘Busted’ screen. Saints Row told them they were ‘smoked’. Scarface became more personal and direct when the player died, telling them “You Fucked Up” clearly and concisely. The world would be theirs, but instead all they own is their mess.
2 Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line was a bit special back on release. It seemed like a standard ‘oo-rah’ shooter, and it is. In terms of gameplay anyway. Narrative, it commented on the morality of war and military duty as Captain Martin Walker leads his men to a grim fate in search of Lieutenant Colonel John Konrad. He makes the hard decisions in gameplay and cutscenes, and the game will make him and the player pay for it.
Tampering gives the player the required loading screen. Usually there is some questionably relevant gameplay tip to help them out. In Spec Ops: The Line, they’ll be mixed with some mocking phrase about expecting a terrorist murder sim (“If you were a better person, you wouldn’t be here”). It’s pretty easy today, but it stood out then Duty and other shooters were at their peak.
1 Mech Warrior 3050
The NES Friday the 13th game has infamous screen that clearly tells the player “You and your friends are dead”. But Mech Warrior 3050 on the SNES is more cutting. Originally released on the Genesis as battletechthe game was essentially a ground-based mech version of the Strike series as the player achieves goals on the field to help his clan succeed.
Unless they screw it up. Then they get a screen of their destroyed mech and their commander telling them the bad news. Not only did their failure seal the fate of their clan, “for generations your name will be remembered with shame”. In the world of Mechwarrior, the player will be an eternal disappointment. Until they try the level again.
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