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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''{{smallcaps|Red Warrior is about to die!}}''
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{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* Hilariously spoofed in a TV commercial for Centraal Beheer, a.k.a. the ''Apeldoorn'' insurance company. A man who works in an ambulance is used to the beeping sound of the life support equipment, and responds to it by defibrillating the patient. Eventually, his team gets a brand new ambulance. During its first real pickup, they have to back out of a street... causing the car to emit a beeping sound ''because it is going in reverse''...
== Live
* Possible [[Trope Maker]], at least in Japanese media: The [[Toku]] series ''[[Ultraman]]'', with the titular hero's signature warning light with accompanying beep whenever he's running out of energy.
* In the Rome: Total War-based game show ''Time Commanders'', the team was warned of imminent victory or defeat by a blaring siren, flashing lights and a voice announcing "Victory Imminent" or "Defeat Imminent". This text would also appear flashing across the screen the team was using to direct the battle. Now, if the message was "Victory Imminent", this would be the show's [[Most Wonderful Sound]] - but having "Defeat Imminent" blasted all over their efforts turned more than one team into a catatonic mess.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Pokémon]]'': Low health. [[Sarcasm Mode|The best]] part about it is that, across the first four generations, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTJRLW6uRM the beeping] ''does not stop'' when you're in a screen-filling sub-menu or watching the switch animation, though [[Combat Exclusive Healing|you can hardly do a thing about it outside of battle]], barring health-restoring items. In earlier games, it even screwed up the cries of the monster you were sending out, since the channels overlapped. Said alarm got ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHItAqaW_EA integrated into a song]'' in the ''[[Pokémon Black and White|Black and White Versions]]''.
** Another extremely disconcerting sound was the alert that played if one of your Pokémon was poisoned and you were walking around in the overworld. It's not so much an alert as it is a weird, machine gun-like sound (alternatively, a sound as though the game were glitching out). It even gave a visual distortion every couple of steps. Thankfully, this stopped happening outside of battle in Generation 5, like the low health noise. Two for two!
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''
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** In the sequel, the sound is ten times more annoying, and even worse, it requires less damage to trigger.
* The 3D ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games. Whenever Mario's health is critical, he begins breathing heavily when idle. [[Super Mario Sunshine|Sunshine]] upped the ante by having him sound exhausted with half-hearted Woo's and Yeah's.
** Both ''[[
*** Strangely, for being an ape, Baby Donkey Kong in ''Yoshi's Island DS'' isn't that annoying at all. Baby Mario and Peach are still ''unbearable''.
*** At least in the first game, there's also a loud beeping if your timer (basically your health meter) dips under ten seconds and Baby Mario's still not on your back. The timer's number turns red and significantly larger until it refills back up to ten again.
** And in [[
** In the ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' series, there's a repetitive "Bla-la-la! Bla-la-la!" that sounds off if Mario (or, in Thousand-Year Door, the current partner) lets his HP drop below 5. The pitch increases if his HP is allowed to hit 1. Thankfully, in the first two, this noise only occurs in combat, letting the only indication that Mario's health needs improving be a relatively quiet gasping when you let him stand still. (Outside of combat, the partners don't make noise when they're low, but they show visible signs of exhaustion.)
*** In ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'', the first-level Critical Annoyance only starts when you're at or below 20% of your current max HP. So, at level 1 (10 HP), you have to drop to ''two freaking HP'' for it to happen. No matter your level or max HP, second-level Critical Annoyance still happens at 1 HP left.
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*** Especially in the first game, which jarringly switches from the relaxing music of Labyrinth Zone to the drowning music which is much louder in comparison.
* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]: Dark Alliance 2'' (a Diablo clone) made your controller vibrate ''at near-maximum intensity'' in heartbeat-like pulses when your health was critical. If you didn't have a health potion to stop the vibration, you were probably done for.
** This did have some useful...ahem...practical applications if used properly...
* ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]] 64'' plays this every time you're hit with your shields low; a similar siren in the Solar stage tells you the same thing but continuously, under the logic that it's so goddamn hot that your shields decrease over time.
** To clarify, the Solar alarm is of a lower pitch, volume, and speed than the "damaged while critical" alarm. This softer alarm will also continuously play anywhere your shields are low and you're ''not'' being shot to trigger the more frantic one.
** The Solar alarm was actually very useful, as it grew louder and faster the closer you got to the ground, which corresponded with a faster shield
* ''[[Twisted Metal]]: Head On'' has a truly annoying siren that constantly loops when you're low on health. ...BooEEEP... "[[Captain Obvious|Health is low]]" ...BooEEEEP...
* ''[[Call of Duty]]'' and later ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' games feature [[Heartbeat Soundtrack|loud heart thumping]] and color filters over the whole screen (sometimes a red hue, sometimes black-and-white). If you find them annoying, it might have been intentional, as it somewhat averts [[Critical Existence Failure]].
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** The second Carmageddon does the same thing with its police cruiser and (even more annoyingly) the boomcar. And it changed pitch depending on your speed. ''Bum... Bum... boom boom boom BA BA BA BA BA BA BRRRRRRRRAAAAA''.
* ''[[Front Mission]]: Gun Hazard'' is a lucky example - lucky in that you have an option to turn the thing off.
* "Don't get caught! / Keep going! ''x'' meters till goal / till rival crosses finish" and the accompanying alarm from ''Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune''. Particularly embarassing is if you're trailing so far behind that "Keep going!" doesn't even
* ''Planet [[Puzzle League]]'' lets you choose from several different warning beeps.
* The original ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' has this annoying, screechy sound that plays when you walk around with a poisoned character.
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* [[Gaia Online]]'s MMO ''zOMG!'' has two types. If your health runs low, your heart starts beating loudly. If your stamina runs low, your character starts panting heavily and gasping for breath. Not too bad, provided you can find a safe place (or helpful players) to rest and recover. However, it ''[[Most Annoying Sound|doesn't stop if you're dazed and waiting to be revived]]''.
** Now they do cease while dazed. But what hasn't changed is that even if you lower/mute the sound effects from the in-game options, it doesn't affect these two.
* ''[[
** Thankfully, this noise only plays if you're near a checkpoint with no lives left in it.
* ''Thunder Force V'' and ''VI'' flash "DANGER" signs to alert you of otherwise-unpredictable hazards. Some players complain that it makes the game [[It's Easy, So It Sucks|suckingly easy]].
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** In seeming contradiction of the above, however, many addons ''add'' sound effects to the game to warn players of critical situations, including low health or mana and when they are about to be hit by a dangerous boss attack, among other things.
*** Such mods typically use a single alert sound when you drop below a certain threshold of mana or health, telling you to moderate your usage or use some form of recovery skill. The "I can't do that" sounds play only when you can't perform the action, but by that time it's often too late to do anything about it.
*** Some addons then fall right back into this trope when they spam a "Need Heal" message into the group channel. Many healers will intentionally not heal a group member who does that since it is so annoying tends to scroll actually useful messages off the chat window.
* ''[[
* ''[[Overlord]]'' had a loud heartbeat sound when Overlord reaches its last piece of health. It is quite annoying when there is no imminent danger and you're just waiting for health to regenerate.
* ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]''. When his health is low there is an annoying heartbeat sound, and whenever you press the A button Luigi cries out in agony.
* ''[[Abuse_(video_game)|Abuse]]'': health low results in a constantly faster and louder heartbeat.
* ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'' had an annoying beeping sound once you lost your shield and were at risk of dying.
* ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]]'' annoyed you with a continuous heart-beat noise, along with all other sounds almost muted and a red screen to tell you that you had low health.
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* In ''Persona 3'', Fuuka goes ape-shit whenever a character is low on health or has a status ailment. Ditto Rise in Persona 4.
** Ditto Teddie: "YOSUKE'S IN DANGER! CHIE-CHAN'S IN DANGER! YUKI-CHAN'S IN DANGER!!!"
* From ''[[Ray Crisis]]'': ENCROACHMENT OVER 90%.
* In the ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' games, there's a somewhat irritating siren every time you have less than 30 seconds left. It's not like you can increase your time, so rather than telling you to refill your meter or something, it just lets you know the level is about to end, even after the King let you know 30 seconds earlier, covering up the entire screen. The proximity alarm that goes off whenever you're near a moving object can also wear thin.
* Most of the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' games have an obnoxiously loud Eject warning that appears when the game calculates that the next hit is likely to destroy your fighter. This cannot be turned off, although fortunately it goes away after your [[Deflector Shields]] have regenerated a bit... assuming your shield [[Subsystem Damage|subsystem]] isn't too badly damaged, that is.
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* In the Lamakan Desert in ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Broken Seal'', you have a dehydration meter you have to watch. If the meter fills up, you get sunstroke and suffer massive damage. This wouldn't be so bad, if your party members would just '''shut up''' about being hot every few steps.
* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' has a near death alarm. The character also flashes red, and their HP count turns red as well.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', the screen flashes red when a character is low in health.
** That changes once players get to the point in the game where every enemy can put party members in the red with one hit.
* ''[[Steel Battalion]]'' has a few little alerts when you take damage, along with screen-shake and all that. When you start getting really low, more and more lights and alarms will start going off, and when you're about to go boom EVERYTHING is flashing, klaxons are screeching, panels are exploding, etc. All of this is horrible to play through, especially when you just know you're one good shot away from taking out the last enemy mech... It's also VITAL, because you'll know just when to hit the big old eject button. Otherwise you die, ''and the game erases your save.''
* ''[[
* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' don't have this in the traditional sense; rather, when your head is crippled, your vision will go fuzzy, accompanied by a loud ringing noise. It's meant to simulate a concussion, and while it's no big deal in 3 or New Vegas' Casual Mode, on NV's Hardcore Mode, it can rapidly become incredibly aggravating if you're in the wastes and poorly supplied.
** They also have the loud heartbeat when health is low.
* ''[[
* ''[[Rift]]'' has an [[Interface Screw]] with a [[Heartbeat Soundtrack]].
* ''[[Rise of the Triad]]'' has an audio alert, which decreases in volume after the first alarm.
* The ''[[Syphon Filter]]'' series has the interface flash red and the words HEAD SHOT appear when a sniper is [[One-Hit Kill|targeting your head]].
* The Russian sci-fi flight simulation game ''[[Echelon]]'' intro has a plane being badly damaged and crashing. It tells the pilot about [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ-qxw6liF8 every little problem] before he dies.
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== Microsoft Windows ==
* Windows XP loves this with its stupid little speech boxes. "Unused icons? On my desktop?" "Low disk space? On my C: drive?"
** A piece of spyware that advertised a spyware removal program did the silly speech box thingy as well, except it came up every 30 seconds and had a flashing icon that kept changing between a question mark and a red x.
* Automatic Updates. If you have them enabled, the system keeps bugging you to restart in order to finish installing them. If you have them disabled, the system keeps bugging you to enable them.
** Windows 7 at least allows you to choose how long you want to postpone the restart before the next reminder pops up, but the most you're allowed is 4 hours. The only way to make it leave you alone is to choose nothing, grab the reminder window by the upper left corner, and move it mostly off the screen.
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** And when you're due for an oil change - regardless of what maintenance schedule the manufacturer actually recommends. Cars haven't needed a change every 3 months/3,000 miles for years, but tell that to the alarm programmers.
** Also, the horn. Might seem mundane, but go to Mexico City, ''and try listening to ten thousand car horns honking at the same time... BECAUSE SOMEONE STOPPED AT A RED LIGHT INSTEAD OF SKIPPING IT''.
** Some Chrysler models from [[The Eighties]] take
** The VW Passat has an audible alert for low windshield washer fluid. This is supposed to only sound once per journey, but the sensor is overly sensitive to sloshing inside the reservoir. If it's much less than half full you can expect to hear the alert every time you go around a corner.
** All of these are turned [[Up to Eleven]] when the warning systems are malfunctioning, causing warning chimes to go off every fifteen seconds, with no way to make them stop. This has driven people to sell otherwise perfectly working luxury cars.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Interface Elements]]
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