Endless Game: Difference between revisions

 

Note that this trope applies to most [[The Golden Age of Video Games|golden age]] arcade games because of the need for the game to be over in order for other people to play. However, specific examples follow:

{{examples}}

=== [[Action Adventure]] ===

* ''[[Critical Mass 1995 (video game)|Critical Mass]]''. The four factions are locked in an unwinnable war, so your character keeps doing missions until he is killed.

 

=== [[Beat'Em Up]] ===

* While the arcade version of ''Renegade'' plays this straight, the NES version averts it. Oddly enough, the arcade version actually has something resembling an ending, with Mr. K reuniting with his girlfriend after the fourth stage, while the NES version simply skips to the end credits (the Japanese version of both games had endings).

 

* ''[[Tutankham]]'' loops after 16 stages, most of which are [[Hard Mode Filler]].

 

* Most MMORPGs could be said to fall into the trope, but especially the greatest MMO of all time, ''[[Progress Quest]]''!

 

=== [[Platform Game]] ===

* ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', for the most part, though it's notable as being the first game with a true storyline with an ending, even if viewing it doesn't end the game. There appears to be an ending when you manage to save Pauline from the titular ape, but when that's done the game just restarts at a higher difficulty level (and in the American arcade version, with extra levels) so that you can further increase your score until you run out of lives. At iteration 22 (which very very few people have reached), an overflow occurs which causes the time bonus, which is also a [[Timed Mission|death timer]], to start at a mere 400,<ref>that's its effective value; its displayed value is just all over the place</ref> which is far from enough to complete the level. This is the so-called "kill screen".

* ''[[Canabalt]]''.

 

=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===

 

=== [[Roguelike]] ===

*** but a continent wide genocide might be attempted.

 

* ''[[Shadowkeep]]'' for the PC was an interesting variation: you ''could'' win the game and defeat the Shadow King. HOWEVER, once you did, the game wouldn't end. You had to actually ''quit the game'' to end it—and get chided for being a coward and a knave.

 

** Even moreso if you count shooters that loop back to the first stage with increased difficulty, such as the ''[[Gradius]]'' series.

* The arcade version of ''[[Commando (film)|Commando]]'', while having more unique levels than the NES version, infinitely repeats after level eight, while the NES version, with only 4 unique stages, ends after the fourth loop, with a [[Blind Idiot Translation]] [[A Winner Is You]] screen.

* ''[[Space Invaders]]''.

* ''[[Xevious]]''. Absurdly, the tagline for this game (at least in Nintendo's VC description) is, "Are you devious enough to beat Xevious?" Later Xevious games, such as ''Xevious: Fardraut Saga'', ''Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu'', ''Xevious Arrangement'', ''Solvalou'', ''Xevious 3D/G'', ''Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo'', and ''Xevious Ressurection'', do have endings.

* ''[[Twin Cobra]]'' arcade version: After level 10 (which is nearly impossible to get to without credit-feeding, and levels 6-10 are mainly [[Hard Mode Filler]]), the game loops back to level 1 with faster bullets and enemies. Averted with the NES and Genesis versions.

* ''[[Tyrian]]'' has two examples:

** The remake also has multiplayer modes Arms Race and War Party, the first of which gives each player three lives, while War Party gives you infinite lives and a respawn timer- the game ends when there are no surviving players on the screen.

* ''[[Bosconian]]''

 

=== [[Simulation Game]]s ===

* There are two schools of thought about ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' series. One side thinks ''AC'' is a typical [[Wide Open Sandbox]] example: the player can never win but can't lose either. The other side claims aversion, citing hints from the shopkeeper in the opening cut scenes that the player "wins" with a fully paid-off mortgage and a perfect town, and the rest of the game is a [[Playable Epilogue]].

* Will Wright's ''SimFoo'' games.

** [[Urban Legend of Zelda]] has it that once you reach the year 1,000,000 in SC2K, the sun goes nova and burns up everything, [[The End]].

*** However, experimental mode is endless, but also has no objective.

*** Realistically there was a period of 5ish years where all the various Sim games (and there were an unbelievable amount) had win conditions. Games before and after were all sandboxes though.

**** In ''[[Sim City 2000]]'' at least, accomplishing the "win condition" only mean that you don't get thrown out of office and can continue playing indefintely. You don't even get [[A Winner Is You]].

** ''[[Sim Isle]]'' had numerous victory conditions, even in the sandbox maps, though figuring out how to achieve them was a headache.

** ''[[The Sims]]: Bustin' Out'' (at least the GBA version) actually had an ending sequence if you completed all the missions the game gave you.

** ''[[The Sims Medieval]]'' has Kingdom Ambitions, but once you beat them you can keep playing in the kingdom, and a free-play mode opens up once you beat the first ambition. It does a better job of pretending ''not'' to be an Endless Game than [[The Sims]] original, though.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in the [[Intellivision]] game ''Space Spartans'', in which it's actually part of the plot: "In 480 B.C. a small Spartan force held off Xerxes and the entire Persian army, in the famous Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans chose to die defending the pass into Greece, to give their allies time to prepare for attack. SPACE SPARTANS reenacts this battle in space, in a heroic adventure that pits you against overwhelming alien odds. You are the elite force. Stop the first alien onslaught and a new alien force appears. Hold the aliens back as long as you can and give your home galaxy time to prepare for attack!"

* A certain mission in ''[[Trauma Center]]: Under The Knife 2'' goes on forever unless you use a special move to end it. Otherwise, you're just racking up points until the patient dies.

** All the missions in ''Trauma Center'' are timed. The ones that aren't don't have patients that die.

* A staple of the ''[[Anno Domini]]'' games. There are also scenarios and a campaign.

 

=== [[Sports Game]]s ===

* The ''[[Punch-Out!!]]'' remake for Wii. It doesn't matter how good you are at the game; you WILL lose eventually, resulting in the game's [[Downer Ending]]. It's possible to beat "Mac's Last Stand"; but after that, it goes into "Champion" mode, in which any fighter (including Glass Joe) can knock you down with just one punch (a reference to the NES game's "Dream Fight" mode where you fight Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream). It keeps going this way until you mess up. There is no "good" ending. To add injury to insult, the file you were using is listed as "retired" afterwards. You can still access it, but you can only play the game's exhibition mode. The game's career mode can never be played again with that file. You have several save slots, but still.

* ''[[Football Manager]]'': The player character manager will never die. So you can play until you get bored or you die in real life.

** Minecraft has an End! As of the official release, it has a new area known as "The End," home of the Enderman and the Enderdragon. If you manage to [[Nintendo Hard|defeat the]] [[That One Boss|Enderdragon]], then you get [[The End]] credits! You still get to keep playing after that, but it is the canon ending at this point.

 

* The [[Ur Example]] may be the pre-electronic arcade game pinball. You keep going till you run out of balls (lives) and the only reward for playing well is [[Bragging Rights Reward|bragging rights]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]