Never Live It Down/Video Games

""John Romero is a talented guy who has contributed to and designed some really cool games, but Daikatana is such a colossal Mount Everest of failure that it tends to overshadow just about everything else.""
 * Just like the Jean Grey example itself, Zero from Mega Man X is known in the fandom for dying and resurrecting at the drop of a hat, which isn't exactly fair. He's only died canonically, what, 4/5 3 times? And he's not revived the last time. Scratch that, he came back as a biometal. In the words of Sigma: "ZELLO! JUZDIE!" Perhaps this is because Zero is The Obi-Wan and the writers thought he was too Badass to keep dead.
 * According to the creator, Zero was originally supposed to stay dead the first time. It didn't work out.
 * Fans also forget that X himself isn't much better. Zero was supposed to die in X5, but it was retconned to a near-death - and X himself also nearly died. Zero died later on when the Ragnarok Satellite fell, and by then X was already dead and even his 'cyber-elf' spirit had vanished from the physical world. And X was also brought back as a biometal same time as Zero. Discounting the retconned death, Zero has died twice, X once, and both have a close-call each.
 * Another example from the series: Guts Man of Mega Man 1, believed to be a Dumb Muscle mostly thanks to his portrayal in the animated series, and certainly not helped by his incarnation in Megaman Battle Network. Mega Man Powered Up tried to correct this, by explicitly showing that, while Guts Man really isn't a genius, he's not that dumb, either.
 * From Mega Man Star Force, we have Luna,
 * From Final Fantasy II: Poor, poor Firion. He was an orphaned kid who became one of the key fighters for the rebels, helped overthrow The Emperor, killed him when he came back to life after taking over the underworld, and in Dissidia is a hot-blooded, badass rebel who exhibits mastery of Final Fantasy II's entire battle system. But he gets seduced by one Lamia Queen, and no one--not even the staff who threw in two Mythology Gags in Dissidia for it--will let him forget it.
 * In addition, thanks to Dissidia Firion will forever be associated with the so-called "wild rose" and his dream of filling the world with roses.
 * From Final Fantasy IV Some people don't like Rosa much for the fact she's a Distressed Damsel, being sick with desert fever then getting kidnapped shortly after you cure her. Once you rescue her she stays by Cecil's side for the rest of the game, even when he tells her to stay behind because it's too dangerous.
 * Kain gets Brainwashed once, with a period between the Tower of Zot and Sealed Cave where Golbez loses the signal and has to retune it. Somehow that apparently translates into Heel Face Revolving Door even though he only leaves and rejoins twice.
 * In the sequel The After Years Kain is evil again and Rosa spends most of the plot on the sidelines after fleeing from Baron before Kain kidnaps her. The other characters even wonder "Has Kain been brainwashed again?" . Rosa, unfortunately for her, has no such redeeming plot point. Could also be seen as Pandering to The Base--the other female character of the original game, not counting Porom, is Rydia, who is much more popular with the fans than Rosa. While Rosa spends most of the game out of action, Rydia is promoted to main female lead.
 * Despite resolving the majority of his issues and becoming a confident leader by the end of the game, Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife will always be known as an angsty, navel-gazing introvert. Likewise, Aerith has been painted so heavily with The Messiah and Yamato Nadeshiko brushes that most people forget that she was a spunky, energetic young woman who fell in love with an Expy of her dead first boyfriend and frequently caused problems by running off on her own. Interestingly, this creates something of a Hype Backlash, in that Square Enix is often accused of pandering to the extreme version of this when in fact they still portray the characters faithfully. Some folks in fact seem to forget that Cloud did have unresolved issues at the end of FF7 and FF7 itself also puts Aerith in the role of a messianic figure at several key plot points.
 * Then again, the producers of Advent Children admitted that they characterized Cloud as very angsty because they thought fans would be "familiar" with this characterization.
 * If it's not the Wangst, then it's the cross-dressing mission to get in Don Corneo's mansion. Even though it's optional, Robot Chicken put Cloud under their gay game characters because he went in a hot tub with other men in speedos.
 * Though not as negative as some examples here, Zidane in Final Fantasy IX will always be famous for that one scene--"Ooh, soft!". As well-known among fans of the game as that scene is, groping Garnet really was an accident and he apologized afterwards. He may be a Chivalrous Pervert, but he's more the former than the latter.
 * If there's one thing Tidus and Yuna will always be remembered by, it will be the infamous "fake laugh" scene. What many fail to realize is that the laughter was supposed to sound forced. Even the other characters wonder what is wrong with them.
 * In Final Fantasy XII, Vaan asks Fran how old she is, which is insensitive and the entire party chews him out for it, but under the circumstances isn't a bad question (the scene just before implies Fran is over fifty years old). Then in Dissidia 012, his opening quote to Shantotto, Prishe and Ultimecia is to ask how old they are, and he asks the same about Cosmos in a storyline scene.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning punches Snow on two separate occasions - in extreme circumstances and while under an enormous amount of emotional stress. Probably due to the fact that it was a) heavily featured in the trailers, b) awesome, and c) what many players wanted to do at that point, fanfic features her decking Snow full-force at the drop of a hat. They also tend to forget that she defrosted a lot over the course of the story.
 * Hope will forever be known as the whiney Mamas Boy with a revenge complex. However, he gets out of this phase less than halfway through the game.
 * Although even if it's a quarter of the way through a Final Fantasy game that STILL means you have to put up with it for 5-10 HOURS. And it doesn't help that he wants revenge on the guy who tried to SAVE his mother while Hope himself cowered in safety.
 * Snow himself is hated for...wanting to save his girlfriend from an Eldritch Abomination. He gets far more CD than that (during chapter 7 it's revealed he has a bit of a guilt complex because he knows he can't save everyone) but according to some fan forums, all Snow can say is "Serah" "Hero" "Protect" and "STEELGUARD". Doubly weird since he actually let's Serah do her own thing in the sequel and repeatedly gets himself beaten in order to protect his crystalized friends...but nobody seems to care about that.
 * Kairi only gets properly kidnapped twice in the Kingdom Hearts series (both in II, and in the first instance she actually escapes on her own; the first game had her lifeless body held captive by Riku but her heart/essence safe with Sora), yet most of the fandom apparently will forever deem her a Damsel Scrappy who "always gets kidnapped" regardless.
 * Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, Tetsuya Nomura will absolutely never live down... I've got two words for ya: zippers. Nomura used lots of zippers when designing Kingdom Hearts; for the simple reason that it was a popular trend among children in Japan at the time. Nowadays, everything Nomura ever did or ever will do will be characterized for tons of zippers everywhere, from shoes to hats. You can point out all of his characters who have no zippers (even Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep features a generous amount of zipperless characters), but to no avail. And if it isn't zippers, then it's belts; but less mocked because belts are a more common trend.
 * In Fire Emblem 7, Erk makes a few small comments to Priscilla about the stress of being Serra's escort. Somehow, this equals him bashing Serra to everyone who will listen every time he opens his mouth.
 * Then again, Erk's very first appearance has him complaining about Serra to himself after she leaves, so it's not too far off.
 * Legault's flirtations with Heath in their supports result in a lot of fangirls forgetting the other, more plot-driven aspects of his character.
 * Mysterious Waif Ninian has only broken down in tears twice through the storyline. Fans treat her as if she cried every single time she opened her mouth, and use it to bash her for being "weak" or standing in between Eliwood and Lyn (who has also cried in canon, BTW).
 * Speaking of Eliwood, his declaration that he has no love for war led to at least half the fandom either bashing him as a "pansy-ass pussy" or painting him as a male Moe Moe who flails/cries/goes into cardiac arrest at the sight of blood.
 * Chivalrous Pervert Sain says "oh, beauteous one" exactly one time within the course of the game.
 * Half the fandom characterizes Shrinking Violet Florina entirely based on her fear of men.
 * Lucius has been mistaken for a woman exactly once, even though his feminine looks are commented on by several characters.
 * Even the second part of this is an example of this trope. Only one other character has actually pointed out his feminine looks (Priscilla), and it was meant to be a veiled aggressive comment. No one else has ever talked about his looks in a conversation.
 * Though this one might have something to do with how many players mistook him for a woman.
 * The series itself is pretty well known for having lots of Brother-Sister Incest (And other kinds of incest). Except not really. There's ONE game with lots of incest (Genealogy of Holy War), and other than that, the GBA games have ONE incestuous pairing each, one is a girl that shows Big Brother Worship and another a girl with a Big Brother Attraction, but in both cases the brothers don't reciprocate. The third is Twincest Subtext, and this one is from both sides. But that's it. Sure, it's more than 95% of RPG series, but still not loads of it on every game as some seem to think.
 * Metal Gear Solid has this with Rosemary. A certain Codec call topped off with an argument with her emotionally distant boyfriend launched her status as one of The Scrappies of the series, with plenty of Die for Our Ship sentiments on the side.
 * Otacon pisses himself when being attacked by an insane Blood Knight Undead Cyborg Ninja who had just murdered a corridor full of armed soldiers and was trying to squeeze some information from Otacon that he genuinely didn't know. Fandom is mocking him for this to this day. Particularly weird when three other characters piss themselves in the series (Emma, Sokolov, and even Big Boss), without the reputation for incontinence sticking; then again, two of the three are dead before their game ends, and the third is goddamn Big Boss.
 * The entire genre of Text Adventures - or Interactive Fiction - will forever be remembered, unfairly or not, for You Can't Get Ye Flask.
 * Especially ridiculous because in the first game, you can (you'll just get killed), and in the third, obtaining the flask is THE OBJECTIVE!
 * "You are likely to be eaten by a grue." ("So it might be a good idea to obtain a light source, like, oh, that lantern over there, before entering the darkness. Seriously, what's so hard about this?")
 * "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." ("But if you think that's bad, wait until you get to the 'nondescript area of a cave', which is also a maze, we just don't bother to reveal it via an overly elaborate and easily memed description.")
 * Apparently, "I're stain mah hends with your bra!" and "You cannot escape flom dess!" are the only things Geese Howard ever says according to some fans. Those phrases originated from Capcom vs. SNK.
 * On a similar note, it appears that for anything in regards to SNK characters, the only artwork or voice samples they will ever use of them is from CvS1 or CvS2, invariably.
 * SNK itself. Disregard taunts, parries, super moves, super meter, background cameos and just about everything Street Fighter II didn't invent; SNK made Art of Fight ing, therefore they are FOREVER incapable of coming up with ANYTHING EVER.
 * Terry Bogard has also ended up on the recieving end of this thanks to his Buster Wolf DM as whenever they think of his rampant Engrish habits, they'll invariably go for his "ARE YOU OKAY?!" and "BUSTAH WORF!" line, and his Buster Wolf as being his most famous, ubiquitous move (Kind of like Vegeta's signature move being Galick Gun despite only using it once). Believe it or not Terry has NOT had that DM in every single game he's ever been in, having only been in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, both Capcom Vs SNK games (See above bullet point for that), KOF 2003, XI and XIII. But it seems like its all he can ever say and perform, according to most, thanks to the aforementioned question.
 * Cirno from the Touhou series is indeed The Ditz, but ever since she was labeled "(9) Baka" in the 9th game's instruction manual, her stupidity has become her defining trait in fandom. Her other claim to fame is her "Icicle Fall" spellcard on Easy, which has a safe spot directly in front of her. This has led some to believe she is an easy boss, only to find out that on Normal and harder, she still has some pretty nasty attacks, not to mention that "Icicle Fall" on Normal doesn't have that safe spot anymore.
 * An even worse case from the same series is Mystia Lorelei. After defeating her in the eighth game's second stage, Yuyuko Saigyouji, the final boss of the previous game and one of the characters you can play as in this game, made a joke about having eaten her: ever since then, fanon basically made her into the cast's emergency food ration (with Yuyuko being her most frequent predator), with plenty of eating and chicken (she's a bird girl) jokes at her expense. In short, a bird version of Mince.
 * Yuyuko herself would become known as a Big Eater because of this, as well as her comments about the game's events being a "wonderful midnight snack tour," with Flanderization taking her appetite to Extreme Omnivore levels.
 * Aki Eda turns Yuyuko's appetite into a Crowning Moment of Awesome when, at the end of the Batman Gambit within the Xanatos Gambit that is Silent Sinner in Blue, Yuyuko prioritizes stealing a simple jug of Lunarian sake over advanced Lunarian technology and weaponry. It's too trivial for retaliatory action and can be consumed in a single sitting so it can never be recovered, but it perfectly broadcasts "We win."
 * There's also Keine, the unfortunate were-hakutaku who will forever be known for all the CAVED people left in her wake.
 * John Romero. Daikatana. That is all.
 * Only because we're all confused as to whether or not we were ever actually made his bitches.
 * Best described in a 2003 Gamespy article detailing the 25 dumbest moments in video game history (a list in which Ion Storm appears three times):

""Well, I guess it'll be a date to die for.""
 * In-story of Mercenaries 2, your merc will be known throughout Venezuela as "the merc that Solano shot in the ass".
 * Francis has this in Left 4 Dead during the Crash Course campaign. Ever since Zoey shot the (infected) helicopter pilot that saved them from No Mercy hospital and they wound up crashing, Francis will take every moment he can get to remind Zoey of what she did.
 * The fans of Left 4 Dead will never let Valve forget their "promise" of giving the game constant updates and content like with Team Fortress 2 ever since they produced Left 4 Dead 2.
 * Has happened to many Backyard Sports characters. For example, Dmitri will forever be known as The Smart Guy, while Maria will forever be known as the girl with pigtails.
 * Shiro Emiya from Fate Stay Night is often branded Captain Obvious based on one moment that didn't really even happen: the infamous "People die when they are killed." line isn't even an accurate translation; what he said was more along the lines of, "Normal people are supposed to die from (these kinds of injuries)". He may be stupid in other ways, but pointing out the obvious isn't really one of them.
 * One of Shiro's ideals as The Messiah is that he doesn't want to see Saber (and, for the most part, Saber specifically) injured because of his own weakness. If you listened to the internet, you'd think his every other sentence is "Stay in The Kitchen!"
 * Gunpei Yokoi for a number of years was mainly known for the Virtual Boy and his tragic death, although he's recently remembered now for his positive legacy, such as Metroid and creating the Game & Watch and Game Boy.
 * Interestingly enough, Gunpei Yokoi is also the man that originally came up with the idea for Nintendo to adopt the policy of 'Lateral thinking with withered technology'.
 * Gunpei's protege, Yoshio Sakamoto, will never live down the fact that he was responsible for the highly divisive Metroid Other M, despite being the person behind the beloved Super Metroid, the Wario games and the Rhythm Heaven series. Nor will he live down his status as a Prima Donna Director to Team Ninja, who wears his Auteur License on his sleeve.
 * Drakengard will likely be remembered as the game where Despite its infamy, that's actually not the Canon ending.
 * However, that ending does lead into Nie R.
 * In-game example: The Jedi Exile in Knights of the Old Republic is there when the planet Peragus is destroyed (depending on the player's choices, s/he could also be responsible for it). Regardless of whether or not the Exile is actually responsible, it seems everyone and their Twi'lek dancer is reminding them about it. On one occasion where you're allowed to pick a line about how it wasn't the Exile's fault, the character's response is that of course it was, since the Exile chose to go to Peragus. Sadly, there is no option to comment on how the Exile was drugged and rendered unconscious by an assassin droid hired by that same character in the first place...
 * The Exile was also responsible for the destruction of Malachor V in the backstory: some characters seem to extrapolate this and Peragus and come to the conclusion that blowing up planets is some kind of regular habit for her.
 * Neverwinter Nights has an example in the fan-made continuation of the main campaign Aribeth's Redemption: everyone (even Aribeth) seems to forget about her years of invaluable contribution to the city of Neverwinter and the fact that she barely damaged the city's surrounding territories at all during the Luskan war, all because she was mind-controlled into leading an enemy army to attack the city. Then again, this might be justified.
 * In Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, widely considered the worst 3D Sonic game, there are hints of romantic feelings between the very human Princess Elise and the very non-human Sonic...but it's entirely on Elise's side. Not that this minimizes the Squick much...but if you have to blame someone for the romance, blame Elise.
 * Ever since Knuckles was fooled into thinking Sonic was the bad guy in Sonic 3 he has earned a reputation as a gullible idiot who will believe anything Eggman tells him. This has happened, to a far lesser degree in Sonic Adventure, itself over 10 years old, and again in Sonic Advance 2.
 * Sonic Heroes forever cursed Shadow with a reputation as an amnesiac constantly Wangsting about being uncertain of his true identity, even though he almost immediately got his own game which resolved all that.
 * Shadow even had a decidedly un-angsty line, giving off a riff Sonic would've been proud of. To Sonic himself.


 * On a related case to Sonic, Dimps. This development studio made some nice 2D platformers for the series, and some other well-received games. But the only thing they'll ever be remembered for is "ruining Sonic 4".
 * Zelda is known for being kidnapped constantly, and apparently every game is based on this concept. This is not the case. Admittedly, Zelda has been rescued in several games, she is often depicted as being able to take care of herself. The most famous Zelda game is arguably The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, and you actually discover late in the game that Zelda HAS been kidnapped, enchanted, turned to stone and whatnot for half of the game, but the other half was spent kicking butt.
 * She also surrendered her entire kingdom to Zant without a fight, which left some fans less than impressed with her, even though the reasoning behind this was because Zant had all her soldiers at gunpoint (so to speak) and made it clear that his power could destroy her kingdom if she didn't hand it over. She was basically doing the logical thing, and even if you think that's bad, she more than makes up for it later by
 * If one happens to run across a page that makes an example of The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker and isn't joking at Link's expense, then it'll be gushing about him
 * Fi. Most fans loathe her for effectively taking the Stop Helping Me! factor Up to Eleven, even rivaling fellow Exposition Fairy Navi. While she can get rather annoying, by the way some people talk about her, she constantly interrupts gameplay every five seconds and always reports information shown right in front of your face, and made the game near unplayable. The fact that Tatl, the King of Red Lions, and Midna were fan-favorites didn't help, and Fi's comparatively cold and sometimes creepy disposition only made it worse.
 * Veigue of Tales of Rebirth is only remembered by the fandom as "that guy who screams his girlfriend's name a lot.
 * Way Forward Technologies is better known for their oft-maligned launch period Nintendo DS messenger app release Ping Pals and mediocre cartoon tie-in than their more applauded work, notably the rare and underappreciated Game Boy Color game Shantae, and as such, has infuriatingly been referenced instead in features and reviews on their work in Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS.
 * This probably doesn't qualify as a Never Live It Down example anymore, since Contra 4's was pretty well received and Wayforward managed to build up its reputation with good games such as the Wii remake of A Boy and His Blob, LIT and Shantae: Risky's Revenge, among their usual licensed work.
 * Donkey Kong Country was, unfortunately, hyped just a little too much on its release, leading to key figures in the gaming industry slamming it, to the effect that even now it seems to be remembered as little more than a poor Mario imitator. As anyone who grew up playing it at the time can attest, this is quite wrong - it was a beautifully designed, addictive platformer with one of the best soundtracks to grace any game of any time period. And its first sequel was even better in all regards.
 * Unfortunately, game music composer Grant Kirkhope has run into this with the infamous "DK Rap," which served as the Theme Tune Rap for Donkey Kong 64. However, Kirkhope has stated that, contrary to popular belief, the DK Rap was supposed to be cheesy and silly, and not a serious attempt at a rap song about cartoony talking apes.
 * During the peak of Donkey Kong Country's popularity, Shigeru Miyamoto famously complained that "players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good." What he actually meant was that he was angry at his Nintendo bosses for interfering with his development of Yoshis Island by insisting that it mimic Donkey Kong Country's visual style. Many took this to mean that Miyamoto believed the game itself was nothing more than eye-candy, and to this day you'll often hear people declare that Miyamoto hated Donkey Kong Country.
 * Nintendo will ALWAYS be considered the gaming patron saint of Bowdlerization. Never mind they have gotten past the Never Say Die point long ago, and how in fact they're the more LENIENT company nowadays, with games released on multiple systems having less censorship on Nintendo systems (or at least the same, but not MORE). Sure, they still censor some stuff every now and then, but no more than the others. Ironically, the most censor-happy company right now is Sony. The same Sony who supposedly is Darker and Edgier than Nintendo.
 * Of note: Several of the entries for the Cluster F-Bomb Video Games page are on the Wii, including No More Heroes, Mad World, and House of the Dead: OVERKILL, which had a Guinness World Record for the number of F-bombs dropped during the game. One might think Nintendo is going out of its way to break their "Kid Friendly" image.
 * Even still, with Sony having titles like God of War it's pretty understandable how they got this image of being Darker and Edgier even with many kid-friendly titles like Little Big Planet.
 * EVERY new Nintendo console game is a Mario game.
 * Speaking of Nintendo, their official magazine in Spain, Nintendo Accion will always be considered to be extremely biased towards Pokémon. During the height of the Pokémon craze they had Pokécovers nearly every month, but that's more Wolverine Publicity than actual bias. Same for having an extra mini-magazine focused on Pokémon. Nowadays they don't cover them much more they cover Mario or Zelda games. In fact, if anything they have a Zelda bias, with all Zelda games getting huge scores without exception (and The Wind Waker getting the only perfect score so far), talking about the sagas as if it was super-popular everywhere (even on Japan, where, while not unpopular, is not THAT big compared to its Western fandom) and claim Link is the best character on all three Super Smash Bros games (in the first and third, he's currently at the lowest tier of the Tier List. On Melee he's mid-tier), yet nobody accuses them of favoring the Zelda series.
 * In-universe example; in Persona 4, Yukiko's Enemy Without hosts a dating gameshow and mentions "scoring a hot stud". Teddie has no idea what it means, but that doesn't stop him from bringing it up at almost every opportunity, even citing "scoring with girls" as one of his reasons for . Even Yukiko asks him to let it go after a while. And back to the fan's attitudes, you could come away from them with the impression that Kanji is the gayest gay to ever gayly gay, despite the overdone mannerisms coming from his Shadow (and even he admits that he's not entirely adverse to girls, just afraid of rejection).
 * Genji series aren't known for its gameplay mechanics (other than the real time weapon change) and story due to having giant crabs in them.
 * Guilty Gear is always going to be known as: "That game that gave us Bridget." Bridget was only one unique character out of many, and he wasn't introduced until the second sequel, but he's easily the most well known.
 * Also, Unsettling Gender Reveals involving Bridget aren't nearly as common in canon as people think. Sure it did happen during Johnny's ending, giving the page image for that trope, but that's really the only notable example. The series itself doesn't try to hide the fact that Bridget is a guy at all, in fact it's the first thing mentioned in most of his bios and in canon Bridget is usually surprised when people actually mistake him for a girl.
 * Blaz Blue has some of the more colorful cast there is. However, some of them have been suffering cases of Never Live It Down which may fling into Alternate Character Interpretation
 * The Hero Ragna The Bloodedge is squarely a Jerk With a Heart of Gold. However, due to his past history of destroying several NOL bases and leaving no survivors, something he hasn't done as of late (or at least shown in the game), some people makes it clear and never let the fandom forget that he was a mass murderer... and always will be.
 * Jin Kisaragi started out as a psychopath Yandere of the brother-complex variety who only had his sights of Ragna. As the story progresses, we learned his relationship with Tsubaki Yayoi and he tremendously cared about her. In fact, post-CS, he made it his mission to save Tsubaki, making him look heroic. Fandom reaction? He's still and always will be the brother-crazed psycho Yandere.
 * This impression is reinforced by the characterization Continuum Shift gives him. While it's in non-canon gag storylines, it's in at least three gag storylines. Not to mention in Teach Me Miss Litchi, too. So, not entirely the fans' faults Arc Systems are milking this Running Gag for all it's worth.
 * Litchi Faye-Ling is quite probably the most egregious one. She is all nice and caring to everyone she comes across, provided they're not evil and she does try her best to save Arakune. But one moment she unwillingly joined NOL as the situation practically forced her to if she wants a shot in saving Arakune, fans practically considered 'obsession' to be her whole personality, forgetting all the good things she did before (and thought they were just to facilitate her obsession) and mere association with NOL dooms her to be a Heel in many fans' eyes.
 * Bang Shishigami also got a minor one going. Yes he once used to hate Jin Kisaragi. But in CS, he's shown to have unconditionally helped Jin and despite knowing that he killed his master, he knew Jin wasn't truly to blame and the true enemy is the system within NOL. So... how does fandom answer when asked on who the heck is Bang's Arch Enemy? Always will be Jin Kisaragi.
 * The "Green Eyes" complaint from YouTube user AKnotholeResident is currently not being lived down by the broken Sonic fanbase. In fact, they use it as an excuse to trivialize the real complaints of the current games, especially Sonic 4.
 * Not that the side that considers everyone who doesn't think that every modern Sonic game is crap to be either a kid or a Shadow fangirl is any better.
 * A sizable majority of the Mass Effect fan base will never let Ashley or Kaidan live down what happened on Horizon in the sequel.
 * Ash gets a whole lot of online flack for being the "racist" of the group. In reality, all she does is ask if letting non-Alliance personnel walk around their fleet's prototype ship is a good idea; individually, she treats her non-human teammates the same way she does everyone else. Compare Garrus's interactions with Wrex and Tali, or Tali's assertion that her people were perfectly justified in firing the first shot of their Robot War.
 * And Mass Effect 3 didn't help either, since Ashley and Kaidan spend about half the game still doubting Shepard's motivations and loyalty at any chance they get.  The fact one of them now has a higher rank than Shepard, and the other has the same, doesn't help either.
 * Although in fairness, Shepard was resurrected from the dead by a terrorist organisation, which they then proceeded to work for. Then shortly after severing ties with Cerberus, went and blew up an entire solar system. From Ashley/Kaidan's point of view, distrusting Shepard actually is perfectly reasonable at this point.
 * Of course, there every other Alliance person you ask will support Shepard's motivations and actions, will understand the necessity of siding with Cerberus against the Collectors and will believe that Shepard is no longer with them as of the third game, even if they didn't know Shepard nearly as well. And by that point in the franchise, it's pretty much gotten to the point where 'Shepard has said this or done that, that it's probably a good idea to listen to him/her.'
 * "I could do it too. In theory, any biotic could."
 * Try the series in general. You put in a couple of short (~20 seconds) and entirely optional sex scenes in the first game, and suddenly it's the focus of the whole series, or so Fox News insisted. It's very rare where an article or discussion about Mass Effect or Bioware doesn't make reference to sex.
 * It doesn't help that the romances are the main area of concern for the active part of the fanbase. Bioware's just giving gamers what they want.
 * In universe, spoken nearly word-for-word by Garrus regarding the turian Primarch in Mass Effect 3, after it's discovered his son screws up a very important mission..
 * James Sunderland has done many impressive things, like fight Pyramid Head and win, but the one thing he is most remembered for is jumping into a large, dark abyss with no prompting towards the end of the game. From then on, any time a Silent Hill protagonist encounters a hole, players ask "What would James do?"
 * Bethesda will never live down the Horse Armour debacle. Even Todd Howard lampshaded it at E3 2011.
 * Sony Online Entertainment will never live down the "New Game Enhancements" to Star Wars Galaxies in Nov. 2005, which caused the hemorrhaging of subscriptions and saw the beginning of the six-year slippery slope to the game's cancellation in late 2011.
 * Simiarlly, the Playstation Network will never be looked at the same way again thanks to Sony not handling the hacking incidents on its networks more swiftly, which caused the PSN to be down for almost a month.
 * Yoshi is often thought of as a mindless monster who eats people, gets ridden on all the time, and speaks like a Pokémon. However, many video games have shown that he is kind, intelligent, and perfectly capable of speech, and ever since the Gamecube era, he has stood in a pose that makes him practically impossible to ride.
 * Bianca Whitaker from Dragon Quest V, DS remake, is remembered for having a habit of reminding you how she and the hero went on a ghost hunting when they were kids. She only talks about ghost hunting a few time after she and her childhood friend reunion, and will only talk about it more along with other things when you're revisiting her places of memory in a party chat. Of course, some fans ignore this, resulting Bianca being a lot less dateable.
 * If one were to mention the name CAVE, the ONLY image that will pop into most gamers' minds is that of their infamous True Final Bosses, never mind the other 98% of the games they appear in.
 * The only thing ever mentioned when Doom 3 is brought up is that the game is really dark. Nobody ever mentions how scary that makes the overall experience, of course.
 * Not to forget Zero Wing. "All your base are belong to us!"
 * In-universe in Solatorobo, protagonist Red finds out that Tagalong Kid Elh is scared of bugs. It becomes a Running Gag in the game. Elh even says "I'm never going to live this down, am I?" the first time the fact is discovered.