39,327
edits
Everything Trying to Kill You: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 61:
** Not all that many games make players try to kill off their characters in every possible way, even fewer have them enjoy it. The latter include the farcical ''[[Space Quest]]'' and ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' series, where even the narrator is basically a [[Deadpan Snarker]]. [http://tmd.alienharmony.com/rw/index.htm A fan website] has cataloged 67 distinct ways to die in ''Space Quest V'' alone. In ''Space Quest III'', trying to pick up a simple piece of metal scrap one room away from the start of the game would result in Roger cutting himself, severing an artery, and dying of blood loss within seconds. Total play time to first death in that situation? About 20 seconds.
** Even the slot machine can kill you. Get three skull-n-crossbones, and it turns you into dust with its built-in [[Disintegrator Ray]]. The slot machine ''is'' named "Slots O' Death"... you could rig the machine in the remake to beat it quickly, but in the original, [[Luck-Based Mission|save often and hope for the best]].
*** The game even ''warns'' you by showing a little robot with a broom picking up the dust pile of the ''last'' loser and ditching it out the back of the bar. If you go behind the bar, there's a huge dust pile of all the people who lost recently.
** In one area of ''Space Quest II'' the more observant player could notice a square of outlined grass in the terrain. If you attempted the command "look at trap" the narrator would promptly berate you for your overly suspicious approach to the game. The noted area was, of course, a pit complete with spikes.
** ''Space Quest IV'' introduces the "Smell" and "Taste" icons to the game interface, which have no plot relevance whatsoever; not once in the entire game will you ever need to smell or taste anything in order to progress. Instead, they exist almost exclusively for the purpose of killing yourself in hilarious ways.
Line 117:
* While not exactly ''everything'' trying to kill you, all of the killable characters in the PC game ''Vivisector: Beast Inside'' -- whether they're humans or [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]] -- attack you the moment you first load up the game, even after you switch from the former's side to the latter. There's an attempt at [[Hand Wave|handwaving]], dealing with some flimsy excuse of the humans not authorizing your presence in the game's setting and the hybrids being programmed to see humans as the enemy, but really, it's just an attempt to bring in [[Fake Difficulty]] to the game.
** Similarly, ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' has both good and evil enemies, and they'll all attack Shadow regardless of his [[Karma Meter]] (except when they're busy fighting each other!)
** Another example of this sort of thing can be found in ''[[Far Cry]] 2''. Ostensibly you are a mercenary working for one side in a civil war in Africa. They try to [[Hand Wave]] it in game by claiming you're a disposable asset that nobody knows about. In reality even when working a mission for one side you will be attacked by both sides. Constantly.
* In ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'', when you stumble on a fight between zombies and Germans, both sides immediately forget each other and make a beeline for you. During [[WW 2]] the US Army and the Wehrmacht were not on the best possible terms, but they might make a temporary alliance against the undead.
* ''[[Halo]]'s'' physics engine lets '''anything''' kill you if it's big enough or traveling fast enough; from traffic cones to ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkKW4DCTGOU pieces of an exploded Banshee hurtling through the air.]''
Line 168:
* ''Jumping Flash 2'' has a reverse of this trope in both regular and Extra world 6-1, where you can actually safely stand on one of the many rotating spike balls in the level.
* While a relatively friendly game, the ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' series is jam-packed with all manner of inanimate objects that come to life, sprout cartoonish eyeballs, and try to kill you. The Freezeezy Peak level in ''Banjo-Kazooie'' features the Sir Slush enemies, giant, immobile laughing snowmen who are positioned all over the damn place and will endlessly barrage you with snowballs until you kill them, in addition to the Chinks, which are giant ice cubes with eyes that are near invisible before they spring to life and come spinning after you. Also annoying are the Boom Boxes in Rusty Bucket Bay, crates of TNT that chase you and explode, which are accompanied by bouncing life preservers. This is taken to even more ridiculous heights in the sequel, ''Banjo-Tooie'', where you're frequently pitted against bouncing shovels, coin-spitting slot machines, flowers, various nuts and bolts, oil drums that release suffocating gas (which also has eyes and chases you), more crates of TNT, and so on. This even spreads into some of the bosses, such as Old King Coal, a massive, animate lump of carbon; Mr. Patch, a skyscraper-sized, dinosaur-shaped inflatable toy that coughs up exploding beachballs; Weldar, an enormous welding torch; and Terry, a giant pterodactyl that spits out "Mucoids", which are giant blobs of green snot with eyes that try to kill you.
** And then there is ''[[
* The entire collection of bosses (and many enemies) in the ''[[Wario Land]]'' series. Last time you heard of a living cuckoo clock that tries to electrocute the character and use a grabbing claw, or a ghostly mouse riding an inflatable teddy bear being a boss and trying to kill you?
** The latest game takes it a bit further, with an evil race car driver, robo clown with flamethrower and frying pan riding duck chef as bosses.
Line 185:
* All ''[[Kid Niki]]'' games, especially the third one which had flying banana peels, flowers which shoot at you, statues shaking their private parts at you, hairy plant legs and so on.
* ''[[Back to the Future: The Game|Back to The Future]] II and III''. Enemies include giant snails, fish, mutant frogs, birds, bouncing balls, dinosaurs, bullet-shooting clouds, pipe monsters, ghosts, walking trashcans and in certain areas, books, test tubes, teddy bears, heart symbols, graduation hats and screwdrivers. The list goes on.
* The NES ''[[Hook]]'' game has obviously pirates. However, besides these, you also have [[Giant Spider|Giant Spiders]], [[Bedsheet Ghost|Bedsheet Ghosts]], levitating yogas, bees, giant acorns, penguins, dragons, innocent-looking fish, dynamite sticks on balloons, boulders out of nowhere and parrots for whatever reason.
* The SNES ''[[Home Improvement]]'' game had pretty interesting things attacking you ranging from ants and dinosaurs to mechs.
* In ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]'', the [[Minecart Madness]] levels are bad enough, and the [[Rocket Ride]] levels crank this right on [[Up to Eleven]].
Line 221:
== [[Roguelike]] ==
* ''[[Nethack]]'' and many other Roguelikes. Virtually anything in Nethack, animate or not, can either kill you outright or lead to your grisly death. Sinks and fountains can spew [[Goddamned Bats]], some magic items can strangle you when equipped, you can fall into a poison-spike pit with no warning, old food can rot and give you food poisoning, etc. Also, all the initially peaceful [[NPC|NPCs]] can become hostile.
** Alphaman has various typically-tame woodland critters as enemies and children's cartoon characters as major bosses. (Gumby will kick your ass.)
** And then there's ''Slash'EM'', a ''[[Nethack]]'' variant that's even ''more'' deadly and unforgiving. One of the better examples from Slash'EM is the poison {{spoiler|cloak}}. Nethack players are used to dealing with deadly items already, so they know to look out for stuff like stumbling boots and amulets of strangulation. There's not a single dangerous {{spoiler|cloak}} in regular Nethack, and it has a 1/3 chance of instant death. ''And'' it does so even if it's not cursed, meaning you can't look out for a cursed one. You're not gonna see it coming.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'': Everything, from the world-roaming dragon to the local carp, is out to rip your dwarves' lungs out. Depending upon degree of [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|personal sadism]], this may also include the player.
Line 235:
** Cavemen, street signs, seedlings, little [[Flying Saucers|UFOs]], mushrooms, zombies, and even a circus tent want to crush you.
** Also Features killer puddles of puke, gas pumps, mysterious tomato-looking things, drunk guys, old ladies, caterpillars, hieroglyphs, moles, nooses...
** And this is just one game, the others include MORE exploding trees, ghost amour, potato bugs, walking bushes, a doll, a LAMP, giant robots, more mushrooms, more zombies, men's room signs, and to top it off, a walking statue with an obscene amount of HP.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'', not referring to the various monsters, but rather the trainers who use them. While you're walking along, expect to be interrupted and thrust into battle with Engineers, Guitarists, Teachers, Burglars (who aren't trying to mug you), Scientists, Cosplayers, and more. Much, much more.
* The 16-bit game ''[[The Immortal]]'' had many, many ways to kill you, all of them creatively animated, sudden and well-hidden (some can be viewed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4a2LpbPbu4 here]). The most pathetic? ''Approaching a down ladder from the wrong side''.
Line 243:
* ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]]'' have enemies that are called Shadows. While that sounds reasonable, take into account that their appearances include tables, gloves, scales, castles, and even one boss that is a giant heart. The sad part is that these enemies are actually threats and can easily kill you if you are not prepared.
** A lot of these enemies are based on Tarot imagery, but yes, it's a bit disconcerting to realize that you just got the Game Over screen losing to some tables...
** Let's also take into account the 'shadows' (demons) of ''[[Persona 2]]''. In Persona 2, you could talk to them to get them not to rip your guts out. Now they just right out attack you.
* ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' features enemies like living handbells, bags of money, and, in the game's penultimate boss fight, a homicidal, sentient ''castle''.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VII]]'' had it even worse, with the aforementioned bags of money (a staple monster for the series), a giant rose bush, books, pots, wells, eggplants, anteaters, columns, clowns, a moose, clouds, Aladdin-style lamps, Easter Island heads, starfish, snails, [[Everything Is Better With Penguins|penguins]], and ''wine bottles''.
Line 266:
** In its sequel, it's possible to commit suicide by walking into a hanging pan the wrong way.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'': Gran Pulse is like some sort of hilariously over-the-top fantasy video game version of Australia, only with behemoths and adamantoises instead of sharks and killer spiders. Made about a million times funnier by the two Pulsian cast members having Australian accents in the English version of the game.
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'' is pretty reasonable with most of you enemies, but what did God have in mind when he created turret-like plants on Felucia that shoot spores at you like lasers and hurt you exactly as bad? How does this thing even function? Are its roots in a radius in the earth to report beings near it, so it can shoot them? Then, why does it shoot them, not eat them? And how does it shoot only the player human character, when there are like 20 Stormtroopers and Felucians even nearer at the plant?
* This is pretty much the premise of the RPG Maker game ''hfygs''. Talk to the chicken? You inexplicably turn into another character and get skewered by the "anti-transformation chicken". Look at the letterbox? You send a letter bomb to God, who immediately smites you to death. Talk to the kindly old man? He devours you. And to top it all off, the final boss is {{spoiler|The Almight Charset}}.
* In the [[Final Dungeon]] in ''[[Ultima III]]'', you can be attacked by the grass outside or the floors inside.
Line 290:
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' was all over this trope like [[Always Chaotic Evil|chaotic evil]] jam on toast that hungers for your brains. The old [http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm Monster] [http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article95.htm Manuals] are full of seemingly innocuous objects that are actually monsters waiting to eat you. Examples include the Roper (a stalagmite that sprouts a mouth and tentacles), the Piercer (a stalactite that falls on you in an attempt to stab you), the Cloaker (looks like an old cloak but is actually a levitating manta-ray-like thing), along with its undead equivalent the Sheet Ghoul, the Mimic (can look like ''any'' innocuous object but canonically resembles a treasure chest), the Green Slime (an corrosive amoeboid mass that looks like typical dungeon muck), the Crystal Ooze (a corrosive amoeboid blob that lurks invisibly in pools of water), the [[Cute but Cacophonic|Shrieker]] (a giant mushroom that screams when you approach it; it isn't trying to kill you but the curious monsters investigating the screaming might), the Bowler (sentient mobile boulder) the Galeb Duhr (sentient spellcasting boulder with legs), not to mention the ''three different monsters'' (Caryatid Column, Gargoyle, and Stone Golem) that can all be summed up as "stone statue that comes to life and tries to kill you."
** And let's not forget the [[Malevolent Architecture|Doomy Room]] [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Of Doom]]: the Lurker (looks like a cave ceiling), the Trapper (looks like a cave ''floor''), the Stunjelly (looks like the wall), and the Gelatinous Cube (perfectly square transparent [[The Blob|ooze]], so '''the space inside the room''' can kill you!)'
*** And the Greater Mimic, which can imitate larger objects, like a ''room''. The Lurker, Trapper, and Stunjelly in one.
*** ''And'' the great and mighty House Hunter Mimic, which is a house that reproduces by budding, with its offspring being sheds, outhouses, and of course, [http://www.dreadgazebo.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8 Dread Gazeboes].
** Later editions seem to have moved away from this trope, but most of the old monsters have become icons of the game, and continue to be reprinted from one edition to the next. Furthermore, in Third Edition ''D&D'', there are rules for animated objects as monsters, allowing for dungeon masters to easily turn anything within line-of-sight into something that will try to kill you. Furthermore, players noted [[Cats Are Mean|housecats]] could easily kill a 1st level [[Non-Player Character|commoner]] in a single turn.
Line 347:
== Web Comics ==
* In the faux-videogame [[Web Comic]] ''[[Kid Radd]]'', the eponymous hero sprite is damaged by apples and bazookas (and by touching [[The Goomba|Bogey]]). And he's damaged ''the same amount'' by each one. This is ''a major plot point''.
* Parodied (of course) in ''[[Adventurers!]]!''. The party encounters an [http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/0080.html Inanimate Chair] and somehow can't run away from it. An [http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/0343.html encounter] with [[Dancing Pants|evil pants]] is [http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/0344.html immediately followed] by one with a [[Rock Me, Asmodeus|demonic boombox]]. As Ardam says when [http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20030113.html facing down a killer coffin], "It really says something about our lives that this doesn't seem at all weird."
* Castle Heterodyne in ''[[Girl Genius]]'', which also counts as [[Malevolent Architecture]]. {{spoiler|Since it recognizes Agatha as its master, the central AI won't hurt her. Or people she explicitly and unambiguously ordered not to. Everything ''not'' under its control will still try to kill her, and [[Everything Trying to Kill You]] still applies to everybody ''else'' in the castle}}.
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has Annie [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=875 joking] about various entities trying to end her story.
Line 360:
== Western Animation ==
* The original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' series was filled with [[Vile Villain Saccharine Show|vile villains]], misplaced magical artifacts, and deadly wildlife.
** Mind you [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Friendship is Magic]] isn't slouching around in this department either; the Everfree Forest is filled with near Australia grade deadly wildlife and plants.
* ''[[Futurama]]'' loves this trope, what with being set in a [[Crap Saccharine World|Crapsaccharine]] future and all. "Ghost in the Machines" takes this to the logical extreme, with Bender possessing nearly every appliance that Fry interacts with.
{{quote|'''Fry:''' I was attacked in my bathroom, ''by'' my bathroom! }}
* In the first five seasons of ''[[South Park]]'', [[They Killed Kenny Again|everything is trying to kill Kenny]].
* [[Deadliest Catch]]: This show is loaded with lethal things. [[Giant Wall of Watery Doom|Ship crushing waves]], [[Kill It with Ice|icebergs and ice in the rigging]], [[Kill It with Water|falling overboard in near-freezing water]], boats have been [[Kill It with Fire|destroyed by fire]], and finally, most ironically, 1000 pound crab pots [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|swinging around like piñatas]]. ▼
==
▲* [[Deadliest Catch]]: This show is loaded with lethal things. [[Giant Wall of Watery Doom|Ship crushing waves]], [[Kill It with Ice|icebergs and ice in the rigging]], [[Kill It with Water|falling overboard in near-freezing water]], boats have been [[Kill It with Fire|destroyed by fire]], and finally, most ironically, 1000 pound crab pots [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|swinging around like piñatas]].
== Real Life -- Australia ==
* Yes, [[Australia (continent)|Australia]] has so much dangerous stuff we had to give it its own section. This quote is quite typical of most people's opinions on the place.
{{quote|"Every creature [in Australia] is bigger and angrier than anywhere else in the world. ...[[Insane Troll Logic|spiders and snakes and the like normally hide under rocks. The Earth is one big rock, Australia is at the bottom of the big rock, and so they're trying to hide under it.]]"<br />
Line 410:
** What antidote? There ''isn't'' an antidote for the blue-ringed octopus's venom. In no small part because the horrifying concoction is hard to formulate an antivenom for, being a mix of several different horrifically lethal chemical substances, tetradotoxin in primis, which causes total paralysis of everything, including involuntary muscle movement - like say, breathing. Or your heart beating. [[And I Must Scream|And you're conscious every second of it]] - assuming you are going to live much longer, which is debatable because you're paralyzed, look dead and, well... just pray your buddy (you DO have one with you, right...?) can recognize the effects of blue ringed octopus venom, otherwise say hi to a very unpleasant death!
* And let's not forget the Great Australian Bight. For non-locals, thats a region of South Australia where the ground beneath your feet is brittle and conceals deep abysses leading to underground caverns filled with seawater, which will happily drown you if the fall doesn't splat you first. That's right: in Australia, even the ''ground'' wants to kill you.
* Slightly more north is the Nullarbor Plain. Imagine the biggest desert you can think of. Now imagine it bigger. Now imagine ''red''. Now add the typical Australian NT climate heat of 48-50 degrees Celsius.<ref>118-122 degrees Fahrenheit</ref> Now imagine having gone out there [[Tempting Fate|looking for gold]] which is relatively easy to find beneath the sand. Yes, even the ''ground'' is trying to invite you over and kill you.
* To elucidate a little further, it's not just NT ground that can kill you (although honestly, living in Alice Springs is almost a death wish, and you only live in Darwin if you have a love affair with bipolar weather and cyclones), but nearly all ground ''everywhere'' that can kill you. Apart from some of the most perilous mountain ranges anywhere (with sharp drops, deceptive rock formations, crumbling earth, nexus of underground caves which you ''won't'' find your way out of without a very experienced guide, and narrow winding paths that you only can travel with immense preparation (and these are mountain ranges with absolutely ''tiny'' mountains compared to the rest of the world, just look up the Flinder's Ranges)), you have wide vast expanses of ridiculously dry desert in Western Australia that you ''will'' die in if you don't have someone who knows how to find the water hidden deep beneath the ground, a coastline with so many abrupt cliffs that if you're not careful you can drive right off, and marsh land and estuaries in NSW and Queensland that will either suck you into their swampy extremes, or leave you wandering lost for days in sand dunes. Even the ''bushes'' will try to poison you and paralyse you! ... Oh god, why do I live here again?
* Continuing on from even the ground trying to kill you, everyone growing up in Darwin knows not to dig during the wet season if you have any cuts or injuries. The bacteria, Melioidosis, more commonly known as Nightcliff Gardener's Disease lives deep in the soil, but comes to the surface when it rains. It's has a nearly 90% mortality rate when untreated and there's no known vaccine.
* Even the things that ''aren't native'' are happy to join the party. Just give them a little evolving time. [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/17/gang-cats-size-dogs-threatens-aussie-neighborhood/ This article], about felines that take [[Cats Are Mean]] [[Up to Eleven]], takes place in, you guessed it, [[Australia|Brisbane]].
** Yes, even things only introduced to the Australian environment 100 years ago can now kick the ass of its counterparts in Europe and America. And they tend to be more sadistic too.
*** [[Australian Rules Football|Especially the sports]].
** You also have to remember that pretty much any time Cracked mentions Australia, it must, and absolutely must, be restated that dingoes eat human babies.
Line 432:
** Octopuses are rarely dangerous, in spite of their infamous reputation for malevolence. First, while almost all octopuses venomous, very few will bite humans, with those few that will will do so only when provoked (i.e., being pulled out of their lair and or picked up). Second, the giant octopuses, the only ones capable of harming a human with sheer size, usually hide in caves deeper than human beings tend to dive, and are very shy. Third, in the very rare situation that an octopus ''is'' harming you, you can usually get it to let go by pinching the incredibly sensitive membrane between the arms. Fourthly, only one species, the Blue-Ringed, is the only octopus ever been documented as being able to kill humans.
** The [[wikipedia:Humboldt Squid|Humboldt Squid]], off the coast of South America. Know what it's Spanish name is? Diablo Rojo. This is a species of squid that actively attacks you and would be QUITE happy to kill you. And it can. One of them can do quite a bit of damage, even assuming it doesn't kill you and you have a buddy around to help you. You have to wear a suit of armour if you intend to go into waters anywhere people think there might POSSIBLY be one of these [[Demonic Spiders|evil, evil fuckers]].
*** The above has been shown to be more hype than fact. A documentary by researchers showed that the squid's infamous aggressive behavior is due to the traumatic situations in which they normally encounter humans (i.e. when being hooked and killed by fisherman, the blood, death and chaos understandably drives them a bit crazy). When encountered under more natural conditions they are peaceful and even curious toward human divers.
* Electric Eels live in the Amazon River. Which brings up another point... The Rainforest. No wonder they are called ''Green Hells''.
* Africa. The largest collection of large predators on a single continent, poisonous snakes like the Black Mamba? Even prey animals like the Cape Buffalo will seek out and kill you! Not to mention what the humans are up to what with the constant civil wars.
Line 455:
* And beyond all the nasty critters in the ocean or on land, we humans are susceptible to death from a wide assortment of microscopic organisms that happily multiply in the nice warm tissues of our bodies, or go right ahead and inject copies of themselves into our white blood cells, destroying them. And that's not even taking into account parasites, fungi, and prions that will also do a wonderful job of killing you in various creative ways.
** Not to mention cancer, which happens when ''your own cells'' get their [[Berserk Button]] pressed and try to kill you.
* Allergies. Sure, you might bite the dust because of a volcano or a platypus, [[Sarcasm Mode|but the world is a whole lot more fun]] when strawberries, milk, dust, cats, dogs, mold, chocolate, peanuts, flowers, medicines, seafood, eggs, wheat, certain scents, food dyes, and/or certain cleaning products are trying to kill you.
** Worse, because it's your OWN immune system overreacting to these things because it literally has got nothing else to do. Yep, that's right - your own immune system is killing you out of BOREDOM!
* Fuel-air bombs. When one goes off, it spreads a fine aerosol of fuel droplets into the air, this mixture then leaks into every crevice and confined space (incl bunkers, cavees etc). Then it is ignited into a consuming, blazing inferno. Thus the ''air'' itself kills you. (and when it fails to ignite, the fuel used can be so toxic that you die a horrible, slower death by chemical weapon instead)
| |||