Call a Hit Point a Smeerp: Difference between revisions
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As we all know, there are many conventions of video games, like [[Hit Points]], [[Video Game Lives|extra lives]], [[Scoring Points|high scores]], [[Global Currency|money systems]], [[Mana|Energy Points]], respawning, loot collection, and so on, which are almost universal.
Some games, however, try to avoid some of these conventions because they don't fit in with the genre. For example, [[
One way to handle the issue is to keep the errant mechanic, but offer a simple (or not-so-simple) "fluff" explanation. Superheroes might collect "flashbacks" or "trophies" from defeated supervillains that act like standard loot; realistic characters might have "Fatigue" or "Vitality" that represents near-misses or luck; and [[Non-Lethal KO|death can be smoothed over as "unconsciousness,"]] with resurrected characters brought back to their feet by slightly more realistic restoratives.
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== Action-Adventure ==
* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' has "synchronization" instead of health, as part of the game's framing
** Which implies that [[Memetic Badass|Altair]] has never been hit.
*** Fairly likely, considering how deadly even a flesh wound can be without proper treatment, especially if it gets infected.
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* In ''[[Psychonauts]]'', as most of the gameplay takes place in the form of astrally projecting yourself into the unconscious minds of those around you, mental health is used as HP, "astral projection layers" are extra lives, and mental aggression is ammunition. Strangely, though, these still work like this in the ''real world'', so you lose "mental health" after being slaughtered by a very real cougar or the damned [[Goddamned Bats|kamikaze rats]].
* As ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'' takes places inside Alice's mind, it has sanity and will for Health and Mana respectively. Main source of them are the enemies: killing makes her more sane.
** Makes a bit more sense when you realize the enemies are [[Anthropomorphic Personification
* In ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'s'' sequel, ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'', Alice's health is represented by roses. When wearing the DLC Hattress dress, her hitpoints are turned to the game's "currency", which is Teeth.
* ''[[Ōkami|Okami]]'' and its sequel, ''[[Ōkamiden|Okamiden]]'', use Solar Discs for hit points, Ink for mana and praise for skill points.
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* The ''[[Mother]]''//''[[Earthbound]]'' series has PP rather than MP, since the characters are using psychic powers rather than magic spells.
* The ''[[Golden Sun]]'' series uses Psynergy in the place of Magic and thus replaces Mana Points (MP) with Psynergy Points (PP).
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]]'' uses macca as its in-game currency, much like in the other games. However, its implication is nothing short of genius. Macca is a form of energy used by demons which is compatible with the batteries on the Mobile Base. Because the protagonists are on a sensitive mission deep in another world, the player is charged macca to make up the difference in using the ship's energy to treat injuries or synthesize new equipment. They can also use [[Organ Drops|forma harvested from demons]] to synthesize new equipment and break down old items into energy to gain more macca. In
** The health stations on the world map don't get an explicit reason why they need macca to run, but a bit of thought points out that they aren't hooked up to anything, so you'd have to charge them yourself - and since you already know that macca can run your ship's batteries...
* [[Mario & Luigi]] games have called Mana different names: Superstar Saga used Bros Points (BP), Partners in Time didn't use mana, and Bowser's Inside Story used SP for Special Points.
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* ''Trespasser'' has no explicit hitpoints. Instead your character has a heart-shaped tattoo on her breast, which you can see by looking down. The heart's condition reflects your remaining Smeerps.
* The ''[[Golgo 13]]'' light-gun arcade games reward/punish for accuracy instead of whether you (playing as Golgo) get hit. You start the game with 100% "reliability". Do well on a typical mission and you will gain 30% reliability, up to the 100% maximum but no further. Miss the mark and your reliability goes down 80%. When your reliability goes down to 0%, you can't get a job because you're, well, not reliable, and you'll have to continue or accept a game over. All in all, it's a reasonably clever take on Calling A Hit Point A Smeerp while avoiding the [[Hostage Spirit Link]] problem: you won't take damage for hitting the wrong people, but nobody will trust you enough to hire you as a hitman.
* ''Dungeons of Daggorath'' measures player health with a beating heart at the top center of the command/status area. When enemies hit you, your heartbeat gets faster. One of the game's few healing flasks slows your heartbeat. A poison flask speeds your heartbeat, sometimes fatally. Physical exertion, including swinging weapons and moving, especially moving with lots of backpack items, also speeds your heartbeat. Your heartbeat slows with time and rest. Let your heartbeat increase too much and you will "faint"
* ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'' doesn't have a health bar. Instead, Duke's well-being is represented by his massive EGO: getting hit reduces it, doing something awesome (like killing things) restores it, and doing something ''really'' awesome (like bench-pressing 600
** Which leads to [[Unfortunate Implications]] because Ego, not unlike health in various modern shooters, is also replenished by going out of the harm's way. In other words, Duke regains his Ego also by behaving cowardly. Escapist Magazine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8949-Duke-Nukem-Forever-Review called him on that].
*** An alternate way of looking it that Duke was telling himself how awesome he was to work his ego back up.
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*** Which makes sense, given the "morale" conceit. As does the Captain's words of courage and rallying cries. As does the Runekeeper's pet rocks... wait, what?
** In addition, parties are known as "fellowships", as per Tolkien tradition. The guild version of this is the "kinship".
** ''[[Toontown Online]]'' has a similar approach to hit points. Rather
* ''[[The Matrix]] Online'' uses "information" for currency
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' uses "meat" for currency, because the creator didn't have a picture of gold, whereas he did have a picture of a steak. And because of the oft-parodied thing about [[Money Spider|giant monsters randomly having currency]]...
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