IC Forum Archive

inmatarian · Posts: 338

I feel sorry for players that never get to see the game over screen.

I know what you're thinking. Inny, you're drunk, go back to sleep. Sorry, not tonight. What I mean is that I'm sick of people that never lose, and sick of people that cry when they do. That's the game. Don't play it if you can't handle it.

Yeah, life experience forcing me to rant, where's my bottle of Wild Irish Rose? $2.50 for crappy alcohol, how can you go wrong?

Broco · Posts: 546

That's because most games nowadays are meant to be a linear experience and dying is only an aberration, a punishment, a necessary evil. People hate it because the games are designed to make them hate it.

Actually, lately I've been realizing that many of the games I enjoy the most are those where, by design, you are supposed to die over and over until you master the game enough to move forward. Rhythm games, bullet-hell shooters, Metroid 1, and Shiren, for instance. Paradoxically when you die all the damn time it quickly stops being frustrating. And you're driven forward by a desire for self-improvement, not a sense of obligation to make it to the end of the plot.

Wilkes · Posts: 1603

so is this a thread about losing or a thread about lost content?

because I wonder about all the dialogue in Metal Gear Solid(s) I've missed and how much nuance of the story I might be ignorant of because of it.

Ionustron · Posts: 47

You know, I've been wanting to talk about game over for a while now. It's one of those things that I think should play into the game well. I understand that they can be frustrating, but many times, I will just kill my charecter off at the end of a game session just to see if anything funny or unexpected happens...I think I'll talk abuot some of my favorites..

Always laughed at the melodramatic ones, like FF8, what with the broken gunblade and random feathers.

SoTN had a lovely one, complete with a demon saying GAME OVER and laughing, with an odd saying at the bottom. I forget what it was. Fallout was like this too. "Not even the carrion eaters are interested in your radiated corpse."

Cave Story is another funny one, just for all the creative ways you can kill yourslf in that game (what with jumping off the edge of the known land - "You were never seen again!" or the instant death trap...It was funny enough just for the BWMMMOOOOOOOoOoOoOoOo o o o noise....

[yet another Metroid refrence] You know, the first game's death was kinda ...well, violent! For it's time - I mean, you get this triangle wave scream and Samus gets blown into little spining chunks or peices![/yet]

What I remember about Warhawk was it's silly FMV, and so. many. freaking. epilogs. I think there was a code that would play all of them, and lasted like, 15 minutes of scrolling text. Some of it was pretty funny too, what wish shooting off all the plane's warheads and nuking the world and such.

Jumping flash had a hilarious one - unless you were pissed. Had a damn studio audience laugh track and all.

I remember first death in Resident Evil, and with the blood dripping off the graphic, I thought it said, "You Pied."

Some games just had funny Ditties. Again, Cave Story's song always felt so...farty, or just fat and honking. Kid Icaris and that little dissonant "I'M FINISHED!" theme is ingrained in my head from just falling off the screen so freaking much. Same for Rygar, Castlevania, and Ninja Gaiden, where the screen would turn into a rave party when you lost all your lives...

I also feel dissapointed when gameovers are non-existant, like in Beyond Good and Evil. I do think it's great when you have a quick option to skip them, but I kinda feel it's was sloppy when you'd get booted back to the title screen immediatly, or worse yet, when the enemies would run around your corpse batting at the air (like that damned Full Metal Alchemist game I saw a friend play once...then again, the whole game felt sloppy though.) RPG losses tend to feel kinda flat though, which is sad...

...Except when you get bad endings! Like when you lose to Lavos. Those are the best!

Broco · Posts: 546

Ionustron wrote:

SoTN had a lovely one, complete with a demon saying GAME OVER and laughing, with an odd saying at the bottom.

Mmm... evillicious.

Aria of Sorrow had a memorable bad ending along the same lines:

[Context: Julius had promised earlier on that if Soma let himself be devoured by the spirit of Dracula in his heart, Julius would kill him.]

Max Cola · Posts: 22

Funny that this thread was created today, as mere hours ago I was playing Heart of Darkness just to see how many different ways you could die. I still think it's weird how the creators broke that unspoken rule of never killing of a little kid (especially not by eating, crushing or incinerating him!) and yet no one really made a big fuss about it. Probably because it's such a little-known game.

On to my favorite, though: I always dreaded dying in Little Big Adventure 2 (Twinsen's Odyssey, an excellent game) as a kid, because after a certain pivotal moment in the story, the simple GAME OVER that flashes over Twinsen's prone form is replaced by a cutscene of the moon colliding with his home planet, and a massive tidal wave flooding his hometown.

What really gets me about that cutscene is this: in most games, you're trying to save the day, right? And if you fuck up, everybody goes down with you. Well, I don't think any "game over" in all the games I've ever played has hammered home that point as well as LBA did.

Actually, the original Banjo-Kazooie came close to that. I kind of liked how simply quitting the game would show the game over sequence; if you're really trying to save the planet or something, you can't just quit and come back to it later, the planet's gonna fucking explode whether your nancy ass is tired or not. I think Rare wanted to make that point.

Diplocephalus · Posts: 863

Max Cola wrote:

after a certain pivotal moment in the story, the simple GAME OVER that flashes over Twinsen's prone form is replaced by a cutscene of the moon colliding with his home planet, and a massive tidal wave flooding his hometown.

ohshi

Max Cola · Posts: 22

Wanna know something weird? I never saw the moon falling cutscene in Majora's Mask. Is it cool?

Man, I really need to get a copy of Majora's Mask. And an expansion pak, I guess.

chosun · Posts: 288

James · Posts: 1735

GAME OVER YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

antitype · Posts: 1148

The Game Over screen for SMT: Nocturne is fucking gorgeous. One of the most sublime parts of the game, even.

I still wish I could find a good screencap or two of it.

chompers po pable · Posts: 325

the game over screen in the NES version of Athena is shocking.

the random Valtiel scene in SH3 is cool.

edited for posterity

chosun · Posts: 288

antitype wrote:

The Game Over screen for SMT: Nocturne is fucking gorgeous. One of the most sublime parts of the game, even.

I still wish I could find a good screencap or two of it.

here everyone! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cZX00grie0

unless you mean like a big high res screenshot for wallpaper. that'd be great.

antitype · Posts: 1148

This is actually even better! The music is a big part of it, and seeing that camera-sweep following the circling angels upward...

Sub · Posts: 696

James wrote:

GAME OVER YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

late to post this in this thread

Levi · Posts: 41

The SFC Shin Megami Tensei's have a similar idea behind their game over screens (same music,) but with the character's soul travelling to the river styx and crossing over. 2 Had Charon greet you, which was nice. Game over is the only time you can see green grass in a SMT game.

Anyway...

No game over shoutout thread can go without mentioning the rock eulogy of Ocean's Batman game. Sometimes I just sit there and listen to it... it's Jesus-Fire Magic, people. It's also a good representative of my favorite variety of game over screen, the Continue/Quit challenge. You can never quit one of those games without feeling that you've left a piece of yourself behind.

L · Posts: 145

Pop Quiz: What disarming phrase appears below Ikaruga's game over message?

P.S: Banjo-Kazooie Game Over cutscene, stat!

Takashi · Posts: 820

stotelheim · Posts: 414

"Hey! I can still..."

Bangai-oh has the best game over screen in human history.

Kazu · Posts: 894

The second one is nice as well, if you get to see it, that is.

Red_venom · Posts: 338

Does anyone think the way games are made now(As linear, singular experiences) is better than the old arcade type of way way? I was driving home drunk at 6am just a few hours ago thinking about this.

Its like back in the day the console experience was always trying to emulate the cutting edge arcade style. But now... I dont know. It just hurts because at the core I really just like simple-ish skill games. Arcade titles if you will.

inmatarian · Posts: 338

Wilkes wrote:

so is this a thread about losing

Yes.

Wilkes wrote:

or a thread about lost content?

And yes.

See, you take a game like Resident Evil 4. I'd think you'd want to see every way that Leon Kennedy could die possible. I know that seeing someone lose dramatically in The Mercenaries is freaking great.

Although, this isn't what provoked my original post. The provocation was that I know someone who recently played against Ed Boon in Mortal Kombat and lost badly, and isn't taking it well.

Belthegor · Posts: 154

Levi wrote:

No game over shoutout thread can go without mentioning the rock eulogy of Ocean's Batman game.

What Ocean Batman game?

Clueless Gamer · Posts: 19

Takashi wrote:

I've seen this sooo many times. I even doubt that there is a "congratulations, you have beaten the game" screen.

And some of the better jokes in old Sierra adventures were in the "Game Over" messages. I guess this made diying less frustrating.

Takashi · Posts: 820

Clueless Gamer wrote:

Takashi wrote:

I've seen this sooo many times. I even doubt that there is a "congratulations, you have beaten the game" screen.

There is. However, there is an impossible level in the original release that renders the game uncompletable unless you patch it. Truly, Spectrum games were years ahead of the competition.

vision · Posts: 472

Not quite as scary without the sound of laughter, or the flashing silhouette/background of falling into such as lava, but still the stuff of nightmares.

Ging · Posts: 841

I believe toups made a game that was entirely about dying, and how utterly inevitable it is.

Levi · Posts: 41

TOLLMASTER · Posts: 1977

I can't believe chosun posted the two things I was going to post about!

He did a better job, admittedly.

In some of Nippon Ichi's games, losing certain battles gives you a cutscene and an ending, and sometimes even lets you start over, as if that Game Over screen was a "real" ending. It's become a habit to lose dramatic battles on purpose the first time around for me, just to see if anything happens. Usually, yeah, something does! Like a character with the name "Midboss" taking over the world, or the ultimate evil ruling the cosmos with an army of penguins for 100 billion years.

Unfortunately, I don't have any nice pictures to show you, but some of them get pretty screwed up. Stuff like this happens when you win.

Monthenor · Posts: 455

Max Cola wrote:

Actually, the original Banjo-Kazooie came close to that. I kind of liked how simply quitting the game would show the game over sequence; if you're really trying to save the planet or something, you can't just quit and come back to it later, the planet's gonna fucking explode whether your nancy ass is tired or not. I think Rare wanted to make that point.

And then Rare went a step further and put Bad Fur Day's "bad" ending after the last boss. Can't say much for the Game Over screen in that one, though.

NGKrush · Posts: 10

fahrenheit/indigo prophecy had a lot of game over screens. every time it would tell how the story would end because you had died. Many times it made me feel guilty about dying because of the suffering i would put on the other characters. it was never visualised though, and kind of cheesy at many points so after a while it lost it's effect for me.

Rucio · Posts: 169

Monthenor wrote:

Max Cola wrote:

Actually, the original Banjo-Kazooie came close to that. I kind of liked how simply quitting the game would show the game over sequence; if you're really trying to save the planet or something, you can't just quit and come back to it later, the planet's gonna fucking explode whether your nancy ass is tired or not. I think Rare wanted to make that point.

And then Rare went a step further and put Bad Fur Day's "bad" ending after the last boss. Can't say much for the Game Over screen in that one, though.

What are you talking about? That Game Over thing was awesome, what with they would use whatever was left of you for the table and all.

King's Quest 6 was cool, because when you died, it showed you walking into the gates of hell afterward, and later in the game, you actually could go to the underworld and see those gates. And the witty commentary on the death softened the blow of dying.

chevluh · Posts: 183

Max Cola wrote:

Funny that this thread was created today, as mere hours ago I was playing Heart of Darkness just to see how many different ways you could die. I still think it's weird how the creators broke that unspoken rule of never killing of a little kid (especially not by eating, crushing or incinerating him!) and yet no one really made a big fuss about it. Probably because it's such a little-known game.

The thing is, that "unspoken rule" probably didn't exist back when they started working on HoD. Games, especially ones that didn't originate on consoles (since on consoles, for example Nintendo's, the rule against killing kids was very much "spoken" and officially enforced by NoA), tended to be more brutal to the player avatar.

Reminds me of the Space Quest games, which made the frequent deaths in Sierra games more enjoyable by mercilessly mocking the player when their character died. I remember in particular SQ5, that had mutilated variations of Roger's title pose for eath screens, and the SQ1 remake, in which the developers commented one particularly gruesome death like a sports match and replayed it in slow motion. And, well, HoD, Another World, Fade to Black had quite a few death sequences too. Flashback didn't though, apart from when you could let that nuclear plant blow up IIRC.

I also liked the optional fake game overs in the first two monkey island games, which tended to be rather silly.

Monsieur Eek · Posts: 4

I like how when the prince dies in Sands of Time he insists that that's not what happened and offers to start over again on the Continue/Quit screen keeping with the whole idea that the game is a story he is telling you. It was integrated, like most things in that game, very elegantly.

chevluh · Posts: 183

Monsieur Eek wrote:

I like how when the prince dies in Sands of Time he insists that that's not what happened and offers to start over again on the Continue/Quit screen keeping with the whole idea that the game is a story he is telling you. It was integrated, like most things in that game, very elegantly.

I wonder which was the first game ever to think of that, because Monkey Island 2 did it too, back in '91, and I'm pretty sure others must've used such an interesting idea too (Sacrifice comes to mind).

Rucio · Posts: 169

chevluh wrote:

Monsieur Eek wrote:

I like how when the prince dies in Sands of Time he insists that that's not what happened and offers to start over again on the Continue/Quit screen keeping with the whole idea that the game is a story he is telling you. It was integrated, like most things in that game, very elegantly.

I wonder which was the first game ever to think of that, because Monkey Island 2 did it too, back in '91, and I'm pretty sure others must've used such an interesting idea too (Sacrifice comes to mind).

I liked that aspect of Sands of Time.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

Ging wrote:

I believe myfanwy ashmore made a game that was entirely about dying, and how utterly inevitable it is.

FortNinety · Posts: 4591

I still think about the game over dialouge in the first MGS a lot.

shnozlak · Posts: 704

Karoshi · Posts: 968

Someone 'splain this to me then: what is the significance of being dragged away in Silent Hill 3's Game Over screen?

inmatarian · Posts: 338

chevluh wrote:

Reminds me of the Space Quest games, which made the frequent deaths in Sierra games more enjoyable by mercilessly mocking the player when their character died. I remember in particular SQ5, that had mutilated variations of Roger's title pose for eath screens, and the SQ1 remake, in which the developers commented one particularly gruesome death like a sports match and replayed it in slow motion.

I freaking heart the deaths in the Space Quest series. I use to deliberately die the first time in every puzzle just to see what it'd look like. Roger getting crushed into a basketball, blown to pieces, disolving. The best part too was getting the narrator to call me a Pantload.

chosun · Posts: 288

loved Space Quest deaths!

I know we've had a billion Dragon Quarter threads but I don't remember anyone mentioning this:

run up the D-Counter to 100%, then choose The End instead of SOL restart. you get a rather painful-looking scene, which also ties in to part of the ending.

also the general idea of getting Game Over in that game being crazy to begin with. such as getting new story scenes depending on how many times you complete or restart your file.

chompers po pable · Posts: 325

Karoshi wrote:

Someone 'splain this to me then: what is the significance of being dragged away in Silent Hill 3's Game Over screen?

it's an easter egg. just something cool that randomly happens when (if) you die.

Pijaibros · Posts: 968

You know I've always been very fond of the older beat em ups Game Over screens.

The easiest ones to remember are the ones from Final Fight (with the third one being particularly awesome since it has a spike press) and arcade Ninja Gaiden. In the first Final Fight, you are tied to a chair while futily trying to blow out the stick of dynamite. While Damnd is laughing in the background.

Ninja Gaiden Arcade probably is the most vivid continue screen I can think of since it features you tied up while a saw is lowered onto your torso while the clock ticks down and you desperately try to wqiggle free. It doesn't help that there are demons wathcing you maniacally during those 10 seconds.

I always felt like shit for not continuing as the saw cuts into you and the screen becomes red.

More games need that sense of emergency.

boojiboy7 · Posts: 1104

My favorite game over screen is actually dynasty warriors 4, just for the cock rock guitar riff, to which a friend and I always end up singing "Oh my god dude you fucking suuuuuuuck...".

Karoshi · Posts: 968

I always felt there was some thematic connection between Final Fight's timebomb and Street Fighter's continue time bomb.

And why hasn't anyone mentioned Dragon's Lair up in here?

Levi · Posts: 41

Karoshi wrote:

Someone 'splain this to me then: what is the significance of being dragged away in Silent Hill 3's Game Over screen?

Valtiel is like Lord British...

Karoshi · Posts: 968

Levi wrote:

Karoshi wrote:

Someone 'splain this to me then: what is the significance of being dragged away in Silent Hill 3's Game Over screen?

Valtiel is like Lord British...

I dig it.
That's . . . really significant considering the end boss fight, and it's apperances throughout the game.

ReroRero · Posts: 2148

Levi · Posts: 41

That's a win, gentlemen.