It's a Wonderful Failure: Difference between revisions

** However, if you died in the second half of the game, you were fully shown the horrible fate of your city...

** Which was nothing compared to the [[Nightmare Fuel]]-esque and creepy ending you would get if you were to let the darkness take over you...

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' gives us death by exploding train, likely by those Demon Trains.

{{quote|'''Zelda''': AAAAAH! LINK!}}

* The arcade version of ''[[Rainbow Islands]]'', a sequel to ''[[Bubble Bobble]]'': if the [[True Final Boss]] hits Bub/Bob with one of his bubbles, {{spoiler|he ends up [[Floating in A Bubble]] (an orange one, in fact) heading off above the screen, instantly [[Involuntary Transformation|transformed into a bubble dragon]]. If the player was on the last life and this criteria is met instead of touch-dying as usual, instead of the game over screen being blank, it shows the character float all the way up into and get locked into his rightful place in [[The Alcatraz]] with eleven other victims in small individual jail cells in eternal tragedy as a green bubble dragon.}}

** {{spoiler|The odd thing is, even if the 2nd player loses this way, the character is still revealed to be a green bubble dragon. And in other games, Bob ([[Color-Coded Multiplayer|the 2nd player's character]]) turns into a '''blue''' bubble dragon.}}

* ''[[Okami]]'': When Amaterasu dies, she doesn't just revert back to a statue, she freakin' shatters to pieces!

* In ''[[Bugdom]] 2'', if you run out of lives, it shows the game's antagonist flying off into the sunset over a landscape of flowers. Really gives the impression [[Tear Jerker|that someone died]].

* In ''[[Demons Crest|Demon's Crest]]'', you can go off the rails and fight the final boss early. See [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Video Games|Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] for the startling [[Bad End]] this triggers.

* In [[Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue|Hello Kitty Roller Rescue]], failing to stop the giant robot in the final mission results in a [[Downer Ending]] where Block-O succeeds and the Earth and all of its inhabitants are turned into a cube.

 

== [[Action Game]] ==

 

== [[Adventure Game]] ==

* [[Infocom]]'s ''Sorcerer'' (the second part of the text adventure ''Enchanter'' trilogy) has an example of this in the endgame. If you exorcise the demonic [[Big Bad]] from your mentor, but neglect to protect yourself from possession, the demon will not only take over your body, but show you a vision of the future. He shows you a world where the demon, in your body, has taken over the world and parents offer their children as sacrifices to him. And, worst of all, it is ''you'' who embodies the demon, your image that adorns the temples and sacrificial altars, and your visage that is associated with so much misery and death.

* In the SNES game ''[[SOS]]'', you're inside a sinking ship and must escape before the timer counts down (from an hour). Getting hurt (i.e., taking damage that would be lethal to an [[NPC]]) sets you back about five minutes, and to get the best ending(s) (or really, any ending at all), you have to rescue at ''least'' one person. This is especially bad if you're playing as Luke, the crewman, whose implicit task is to rescue as many passengers as possible, and he's also the only character who starts out with a map. If you reach the top of the ship without rescuing anyone as Luke, the shaming you get from his rescuers is enough to make you want to immediately start over and try again the right way. Another survivor (an old man) makes it to the top of the ship and gets outside, before ''dying on the hull'' due to fatigue. Another man's "ending" (if you could call it that) sees him getting to the top of the ship, but instead of exiting to the outside, he enters a room with a dead end and no other way out. He ends up futilely banging a pipe against a wall in order to summon help...

* ''[[The Punisher]]'' arcade game has a continue screen where Microchip (One of Frank's allies in the comics) is performing CPR on him whilst Nick Fury's continue screen has Alexander Pierce attempting to while Kathleen Neville looks on. Obviously, their success depends on your willingness to deposit another quarter.

* Dying in ''[[Comix Zone]]'' showed you a short [[Cutscene]] of [[Big Bad|Mortus]] either complaining that it wasn't fun enough (and giving you another chance) or using your death to make himself a body somehow and ominously looking down at the city.

** The Japanese version makes it worse by showing a picture of the city that was destroyed by the bombs. The U.S. version cuts the image out, reducing the impact of the failure.

* ''[[Splatterhouse 3]]'' kills off your wife or child, if you take too long to rescue one or both of them. The endings reflect these failures ("Daddy, where's mommy?" "Where's David? No... NO!!" or just plain old "your family is dead").

** On another disturbing note, the aforementioned victory screen shows the Earth blazing red before it is destroyed. If that isn't creepy in itself, sometimes, while fighting the final boss, should the player take too long, the planet (which is seen in the background) will start to turn red by itself. This reddened Earth is still visible if the character wins, though, the ending sequence progresses as if the planet had been saved quickly. Seeing the Earth decay before you even lose is just plain [[Defanged Horrors|creepy.]]

* Losing in the Genesis version of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' treats the player to a shot of the five (or six) Rangers looking helpless in front of a blazing fire and the only way to save the Rangers is to continue.

** Most bad endings play this way, and usually have [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Zig Zagged because, afterwards, you get [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|"Help Me, Professer Kokonoe"]].

 

** ''Metroid'': ''[[Other M]]'' has Samus's Power suit phasing out as she collapses and yells, with Adam asking you what's wrong, only to be cut off by the radio going out. {{spoiler|When Adam loses communication with Samus, all that's left is the suit phasing out}}.

* In ''[[Bionic Commando]]: Rearmed'', after beating the final boss, you need to escape from the final level, which is sinking into the ocean. Whether you actually escape or run out of time, you end up watching the same lengthy cutscene of the base sinking into the ocean. You don't find out until the end of the scene whether you escaped or went down with the base.

** That's actually the standard game over. The player can be just [[Too Dumb to Live]] by siding with him.

* In ''[[Terramex]]'', if you die, you get to see the meteor hit the Earth.

* In ''[[Knuckles Chaotix]]'', they don't recieve a death per se, but if you fail to collect all of the Chaos Rings, you will have the bad ending in which the [[Nightmare Fuel|upgraded]] [[Make My Monster Grow|Metal]] [[Evil Counterpart|Sonic]] hovers over the burning remains of a city. Probably one of the darkest endings to a Sonic game to be made so far.

** For that matter, ''[[Sonic CD]]'', but only in the US version. Yes, it is nothing but a game over screen, but it's the Nightmare Fuel [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM8qx-HdY5c inducing music combined with Robotnik's laughter] that makes this so disturbing. Especially considering the fact that if you don't touch the controller for three minutes, Sonic will actually give up and run away.

** Believe me, this is nothing, NOTHING!, compared to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1HMvw2oUQ&feature=related Game Boy Color version].

* Another example is on the 16-bit games of [[Beavis and Butthead]], after dying in the SNES game Beavis and Butthead complain about their new status in hell until a camera flash goes off, while on the Genesis game they go to hell after dying and Beavis is seen saying "I think we're dead or something" while Butthead says "This sucks dude!"

* In ''[[Kirby]]'' ''[[Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards|64: The Crystal Shards]]'', dying on the [[Boss Rush]] game mode yields [[media:itshopeless 7587.jpg|this]] game over screen.

* Conversely, it's much more [[Tear Jerker|tragic]] in the SNES and Genesis games of ''[[The Lion King (Video Game)|The Lion King]]''. Die as a cub and sad music plays while Simba struggles to stand only to then collapse, while as an adult Simba falls over on his side motionless. Running out of lives and/or continues has a black "Game Over" screen while Rafiki looks disappointed; his mood will lift only if you continue.

** On the Game Gear game though, the more limited audio means the loss of a life doesn't seem as sad, but it gets [[Nightmare Fuel|highly nightmare inducing]] if you run out of lives (and there's no way to gain continues); the final shot is a silent still pic of a menacing looking Scar—it's enough to make you want to either succeed every time or turn the power off if this happens.

* Losing to a boss on your last life in ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]'' results in the boss getting a monologue depending on your actions up to that point before humiliating you with a reference to a classic game. Here's a complete list of said monologues below:

{{quote|'''Freu''': (in Opening stage) Rest in peace, Tia...

{{spoiler|'''Iris'''}}: (Final Stage Second phase) [[A God Am I|Now do you understand the power of a God?]] }}

** Alternately, in the side-game ''Grollschwert'':

'''Liebea''': ...We're all doomed...

'''Schwer''': ...This place is the best.

{{spoiler|'''Iris'''}}: (Final Stage Second phase) [[A God Am I|This is what happens to those who defy a god.]] }}

 

** In ''Red Alert 2'', during the Allied mission to recapture St. Louis, if the timer runs out and Tanya is mind-controlled, there is a special cutscene that shows Tanya having been taken over and quite enthusiastically favoring the Soviets now.

* In addition to Olimar's notes of hopelessness, you also get to see the ship crashing and the Pikmin turning Olimar's (presumably dead) body into one of them if you fail to get the 25 required parts by the end of the first ''[[Pikmin]]''.

 

 

== [[Rhythm Game]] ==

* ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' has alternate endings for failing a mission in which the story resolves badly. Particularly cruel is A Christmas Wish, in which {{spoiler|the girl goes into her teenage years continuing to cling on to false hope that her dead father will return one day.}}

* If you fail a song in the ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' or ''[[Rock Band]]'' games, you get booed off the stage.

* ''pop'n music 16'': Normally, if you fail a song, the announcer comments, "Uh-oh!" or "Too bad!" Fail a song with exactly one block of life short of clearing the song, and she cries out, "Oh my God..."

 

 

* If you receive a game over in ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', you'll also get a cheerful message that you've managed to erase Serge from existence altogether.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' had one too—fail against [[Final Boss|Lavos]], and you get to see exactly what happened on [[The End of the World as We Know It|the day he erupted from the earth]].

* In ''[[Mother 3]]'', normally, a [[Game Over]] screen is preceded by your party running out of HP, with the messages "[last surviving member] got hurt and collapsed... / The party was defeated..." But this isn't the only way. {{spoiler|There's an enemy called the Ultimate Chimera, which appears in two sequences, that is outright impossible to battle; getting tagged by it causes the screen to turn sepia, which is then followed by a CHOMP! sound, implying [[Nightmare Fuel|a gruesome fate]], followed by a [[Game Over]].}}

** Also, in Osohe Castle, you progress through one area by knocking into a statue, forcing the ball on top to fall off, falling through the floor. If you knock into it from the side, it falls, though... SPLAT, [[Game Over]].

* Die in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]]'', and you're treated to a cutscene where the [[Negative Space Wedgie|Schwarzwelt]] covers the entire globe, followed by the message "Mission Failed".

* In ''[[Live a Live]]'', losing against a normal enemy leads to a short scene of someone reacting to your death and failure. In some scenarios, you get presented with another ending if you lose to one of the final bosses. A special mention goes to the final chapter, where {{spoiler|losing to Odio means you get to see something similar to the alternate [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Armaggedon ending]], but from the other characters' point of view. Playing AS Odio is [[Failure Is the Only Option|two variations of this]]: Triggering the mentioned Armaggedon (from a ''menu command''), or Oersted left to wander alone in an abandoned Lucretia forever.}}

* ''[[R-Type]] Final'' gives a nightmarish Game Over music if you die with no more chance to continue, implying the ultimate doom for Earth.

*** The R-Type series from Delta onward featured freakish failiure music.

* In ''[[Novastorm]]'', running out of lives shows a cutscene which progressively get longer depending on how far you are in the game, starting with your fighters being shot down, continuing with the destruction of your headquarters, and finishing with your home planet being [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blown up by a laser]].

* The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis shooter "Death Duel's" Game Over screen had images of your mech's rusting remains lying in a scrapyard lorded over by some vaguely [[The Grim Reaper|Death-like ominous figure]]. It then goes on to describe how "The Federation slowly collapsed" and "your rotting flesh shall serve as a reminder of the price of failure".

* ''[[Star Wars]] Rebellion'' ended either with your forces destroying the enemy flag ship, or with a hostile fleet appearing next to your ship and shoting it to pieces.

* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' occasionally does this when you're on a level which would be the conclusion of a series with a [[Downer Ending]] like Baldios, Ideon, etc. They usually have some method to their madness, such as the Baldios ending being a re-enactment of the final scene in the series with a Tsunami wiping out all life on the planet.

{{quote|'''Micaiah:''' I can't... Not when our goal...is still......so...far...... Sothe...

'''Sothe:''' Micaiah... Don't leave me here alone... Micaiah!! Don't die! }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:Index Failure]]