Video Game Cruelty Potential/Video Games/Platform Game


 * Quite a lot of games allow you to beat up harmless animals and NPCs. For example, in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, you can beat up tortoises (who yell or make cranky reproaches) and rats (who giggle and say things like "Ooh, harder!" and "Don't hold back!").
 * In Psychonauts, you can set fire to squirrels and birds with your mind. And then eat them. You can also toss them against walls and stuff and they break apart into various pieces. You can't eat them afterward though. But you do get to hear Raz comment "Oops," "I meant to do that," and "I'll See You in Hell."
 * You can also try out your many psychic powers on your camp mates, who react differently to each and every different power used on them. Yes, you can even try to set them on fire. While they never actually catch flame, they do start to smoke a little bit.
 * In the Milkman Conspiracy, you can set the rainbow squirts on fire.
 * You can also enter into a trashcan's mind, then telekinetically throw them off the end of the world... while still being in their mind.
 * The best part is messing with their dysfunctions. If a girl constantly worries about setting something on fire using her pyrokinesis on her is several times as funny. And I dare you to stop trying to convince Chloe that the aliens have finally come to pick her up.
 * There's also a level in which you're (relatively) a titanic behemoth, allowing you to smash civilization and burn down puppy orphanages.
 * I always felt a fuzzy, warm feeling inside as I watched Raz squish tiny, scared lungfish. They flatten! And turn red!
 * Your Exposition Fairy, Ford, actually encourages you to be as creative as possible when fighting Censors. Since they're very weak Mooks who can be killed by almost anything, you can have a lot of fun with them.
 * Considering everything mentioned above, that's a hell of a Take That pun.
 * Tomb Raider features a variety of unique death animations for Lara Croft depending on how she dies. This can lead players to intentionally kill her to watch her writhe in agony or crash into rocks. In the commentary for Tomb Raider Anniversary, the creator comments that during the development time, it just wasn't a good day unless they impaled Lara on some spikes.
 * Ragdoll Physics took brutality to a new level in the otherwise sham-game Angel Of Darkness; videos exist on YouTube of players gleefully tossing the protagonist off a ledge to hear the scream and see the resulting death pose. While rag doll physics do exist in the later games, they are usually accompanied by a quick fadeout before the player reaches the bottom of the cliff, or the exact instant that contact is made, whereas the early games let you get a good look at post-mortem Lara for about eight seconds.
 * The second Jak and Daxter game gives you free roam. Because for most of the game you're a Phlebotinum Rebel with a thing for guns and a Super-Powered Evil Side that isn't actually much worse than your normal side, you can do whatever you want as long as it isn't actually outside the game physics. Knocking civilians into the water to drown? Check. Reducing vast numbers of cars to burning shrapnel with the Peace Maker? Check. Beating everyone within a significant area to death with your bare hands? Big ol' check. An especially entertaining one is to steal one of the sturdier vehicles and piss off the Krimzon Guard...then brake at the exact right time so that the Guard on a bike who's following you careens into the back of your car and dies. It's fun when your enemies are Too Dumb to Live.
 * Perhaps even crueler is the fact that if you're in a large ship, you can fly around the city at high speeds ramming into citizens on small ships causing an instant explosion of the craft and the driver. You can do this multiple times with one large ship. It's delightful!
 * In some of the Ratchet and Clank games, you can achieve rewards for shooting down enough cars. Not that bad? Try the stage in the second game where you have to take on a Thugs 4 Less boss as Giant Clank on a small, heavily urbanized moon. You can knock down every single friggin' building if you take your time, and even be rewarded for it with health and ammo. And you're supposed to be the good guy.
 * Killing Omochao in Sonic Adventure 2 is a pretty good example. Simply shoot him as Tails/Eggman (tricky to do, because you can only do it without the auto-aim), jump on him as Sonic/Shadow, or punch him as Knuckles/Rouge to knock him off a cliff (easier to do the later in the game you try this). He still shows up, but says things like, "I'm mad at you. I'm not going to help you out anymore!" Which, for most players, is a perk.
 * Best way to kill Omochao? Go to the Space level as Sonic, and destroy a window nearby him. He will get sucked out and regenerate-- right next to the window. Cue infinite deaths of Omochao. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
 * If you REALLY feel like kicking the dog, go into the Chao gardens and beat on any of the cute, harmless, innocent Chao you're raising there. Eventually, it'll start shivering in fear. Pick on it long enough and it'll eventually start hiccuping and rubbing its eyes. Carry on still further, and it will openly cry. After that, the Chao will run away from the character you abused it with, and if you pick it up, it will squirm and cry (in a manner that sounds a lot like "No, no, no!" and "Put me down!").
 * And you can do this with every single character. One after the other. And isolate your target chao in the Dark Garden, which is basically Fire and Brimstone Hell. So the poor chao has been beaten up systematically by six people -- Even Tails -- and abandoned in Hell next to a blood lake. You Bastard.
 * There is a pool in Sonic Adventure- in the hotel. It's shallow and mostly just there for decoration... except if you stand there long enough, it's one of maybe three places in the entire freaking game Sonic can drown. Seriously, there's no reason to do it, yet almost nobody can resist, it seems.
 * Worse off of the things in Sonic Adventure you can do, you could actually kill your Chao by attacking it seven times. Again, you can kill an infant creature by attacking it several times while it cries each hit. You can imagine why you can't do so in the sequel.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog also offers you a chance to abuse more Chao. One of the stages has a room full of little Chao running around and you can beat each one up and they cry and cry and cry.
 * In The Simpsons Game, you can hurt any NPC, which makes them run away from you.
 * Likewise, in Hit and Run, you can kick NPCs until they fall over. You can then kick them into the road, and run them over in a car... repeatedly. Unfortunately, all this does fill up your Hit and Run meter, and can fill it up quite quickly...
 * In other words, Homer Simpson beating the ever-loving hell out of Ralph Wiggum.
 * In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you can really screw over your fellow players. The down side is that they can dick you over just as much.
 * Really, combining the tighter jumps in the game along with the physics in multiplayer is more like Video Game Cruelty Provocation.
 * Also, there are those Toad rescue missions. You can throw them into an enemy, lava, or poison water. Or, you can bring them to the end, which gives you some 1-ups and a Mushroom House.
 * In the "Space Junk Galaxy" level of Super Mario Galaxy, before fighting Tarantox, you can actually kill the Toad Tarantox captured in his web before your battle with him by pulling the Sling Pod said Toad is tied to away from Tarantox's web-strewn planet and sending him flying into space. He does survive later on, however.
 * How big of an asshole can you be in Iji? Seriously, point, shoot, and you can hit Omnicidal Maniac in minutes. Alternatively, you can actually pull off being an Actual Pacifist if you work for it. so much easier to be cruel.
 * Thing is, though, the story will change if you go around blowing everybody to pieces, leading one boss to laugh at you for attempting to shoot your way to peace.
 * It's still fun, though.
 * Dynamite Headdy has a reward system of secret bonus points that you can root out and achieve through various means, the most common of which involves destroying odd looking enemies or certain stage props. One recurring bonus point provider is a large headed character named Bino, who seems to be something of a stage hand or extra, and every time you kill him (while he's doing nothing but minding his own business), he makes a pitiful little crying noise.
 * Several of the Harry Potter games allow you to throw things like boulders and exploding cauldrons at Ron and Hermione. Their complaints are hysterical. Adding to the hilarity, occasionally Harry will respond with a very insincere-sounding apology. Even better when they accidentally hit themselves with these things. You can also push them into spiky plants.
 * In the Cool, Cool Mountain world in Super Mario 64, you can throw the baby penguins off the cliff. Yes, even while momma penguin is watching.
 * And in Wario Land, you're rewarded if you throw a smaller Mook underneath a Thwomp or a lightning bolt, you are REWARDED with 10 coins rather than the usual 1.
 * In a mild case, in Super Mario Sunshine you can spray water at the Piantas, though it seems to only briefly annoy them.
 * How about the fact that one of the bosses is a squid that gets "disarmed" as Mario rips off its tentacles one by one?
 * In the Spyro the Dragon games, you can have Spyro breathe fire at NPCs, or attack them by ramming them with his horns, which causes them to jump or yelp in protest.
 * Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity:
 * Eddie can be killed. Just use the Recycle Inhaler and he turns into an Energy Splitter.
 * There is an Up'n'Down with a scuba mask in Dive Man's stage. Shoot at him to destroy said scuba mask and watch him drown.
 * In the third Crash Bandicoot game you can kill chickens with the wumpa bazooka.
 * And, in the second game, bouncing off of Polar's head in the warp room enough times will net you some extra lives.
 * In A Hat in Time, Hat Kid’s spaceship has a cute little robot vacuum cleaner that continually cleans the carpets. It’s almost too much of a temptation to have her hop on top of it and ride it, an action that causes the poor little robot to strain and sputter under her weight. Do it long enough, and you are given the achievement “Vacuum Vandal”.