Lampshade Hanging/Video Games

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Lampshades hung in video gaming.

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Examples that need to be sorted by type of video game

  • In Half-Life 2, Dr. Breen hangs a lampshade on Gordon Freeman himself, saying that he's just a theoretical physicist, just one normal human. ...Which makes sense, really. How the heck is this one ordinary guy not only an MIT educated theoretical physicist, but also a One-Man Army?
  • In Kingdom Hearts, at first, only Sora,(and Riku and The King later on) has the ability to wield a Keyblade. Later on, in Kingdom Hearts II, Roxas and Kairi can wield one (Hell, Roxas can wield TWO!). In that Game's secret ending and Birth by Sleep, it is also revealed that Terra, Ventus, Aqua, and Master Eraqus can wield them, as can Master Xehanort and Vanitas. There's even a world full of abandoned Keyblades at the end of the game, suggesting that at some point, there has been THOUSANDS of people able to wield the Keyblade. I think Braig summed it up best:

Braig: It seems like these days, everybody's got one of those...

    • Braig also comments on Terra-Xehanort's amnesia with "Boy, this is some cliché." It definitely starts sounding like a lampshade when one considers that convenient-for-the-plot memory loss seems to be a rather common ailment in the series.
  • In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, nearly all of the victory quotes lampshade plenty of things, from the character designs (Chun-Li wondering about her thighs after fighting another Chun-Li), gameplay (Batsu mistaking Ryu as a practitioner of his fighting style, etc.) or even meta stuff (Zero commenting that he wins by studying enemy moves). Here is the full list of victory quotes of the game.
  • In Fire Emblem, there is the support feature, which allows two characters standing close to each other to gain various bonuses. In one such support conversation, Kent and Farina are discussing the reason why they see each other so much lately. "What would anyone have to gain by making us fight together?" ends up being a Lampshade Hanging about the fact that fighting together does, in fact, make them stronger.
  • Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind featured both beds and a day-night time system but people do not go to bed or lock shops at night. This is lampshaded when you eventually get the dialogue response "People never seem to go to sleep, I wonder what drives them"
  • This Zelda spoof on Newgrounds centers around Link undergoing a Chain of Deals in order to deliver the mystical Lampshade of No Real Significance to a local temple. (Would it be fair to call this recursive lampshading?)
    • Speaking of Zelda, Spirit Tracks has Zelda informing Link that his going off into mortal peril while she waits for him to get back with her body is a family tradition. There's a lot more where that came from...
    • Also in Spirit Tracks, the mailman is all set to open your mail and read it to you....then he brings up that they used to do that but people complained, so now they just give you the mail to read yourself.
  • Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: at one point, when faced with a Locked Door, Kyle Katarn, who has been in this kind of game before, snidely comments to the Player Character, "They always lock the doors. You'd think they'd've learned by now." and later, "The console for opening the door is probably hidden in some room twelve floors up... how does that make sense?"
    • And let's not forget the dialogue at the beginning of the game:

Luke: I sense a disturbance in the Force...
Kyle: You always sense a disturbance in the Force.

Cortana: Got an escape plan?
Master Chief: Thought I'd try shooting my way out—mix things up a little.

  • At one point in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden asks Solid Snake why he never seems to run out of ammunition. In answer, Snake simply touches his bandanna and says "Infinite ammo." In the game, the bandanna is a secret item which does indeed grant infinite ammunition. While Snake is most likely referring to his mind, the joke is not lost on the player. (It also implicitly said that the "good" ending of Metal Gear Solid was canonical, which was later confirmed in 4.) The Metal Gear Solid series is famous for repeatedly breaking the fourth wall.
    • In the original Metal Gear Solid, a lengthy description by Snake's mentor about how to walk without making noise ends with Snake frustratedly saying "I... can't do it!" referencing the fact that even though the game was designed for use with the Playstation's analog joystick-equipped Dual Shock controller, it's not possible to walk slowly in the game. In the Gamecube remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, it was possible to walk slowly and thus Snake's response to the instruction is changed accordingly.
    • MGS3 perhaps features the most breakages of the fourth wall and lampshading, exemplified by a conversation with Sigint regarding Snake's possession of The Boss's unique Patriot gun (acquired by starting a New Game+, and which logically should still be with The Boss), which Snake brushes off as "worrying about details," seen here.
      • In an earlier optional radio conversation with The Boss, she tells Snake that he will have to rely on all his senses, and not to underestimate his sense of smell to stay aware. Snake replies to her that he cannot smell at all. The Boss then says, "Oh...well, you'll just have to rely on your instincts as a gamer then."
      • One of the best Lampshade Hanging moments occurs when Snake finds a Russian Glowcap mushroom and gives Mission Control a call asking whether or not eating glowing mushrooms will recharge the batteries on his equipment - which it does, and upon calling back about this discovery, his Mission Control personnel figure that Snake's just being delusional, but eating the mushrooms is essentially harmless, so they tell Snake to keep eating them.
      • When the Big Bad of Metal Gear Solid 3 Colonel Volgin dies via lightning strike, Snake comments on the death of the villain he had been struggling with for so long by saying, "Killed by a bolt of lightning... a fitting end."
    • MGS4 has Snake dismiss the idea of Vamp's power as being supernatural. Turns out that he's half-right in Vamp's case (his Healing Factor is enhanced by nanomachines and thus negated with the Syringe.), but then Snake says, "This is the real world, not some fantasy video game..." Turns out that he's wrong about the lack of fantasy elements too. (Cue Psycho Mantis' and The Sorrow's reappearances.)
  • In the Lupino showdown stage of Max Payne, the titular character finds out that Jack Lupino believes himself to be the herald of the end of the world, and this sets him to musing on clichés, both concerning the end of the world and his own persona as "a brooding underdog avenger alone against an empire of evil, out to right a grave injustice." He ends with a musing on how "nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you."
    • Later on in the game, as he heads into an abandoned military bunker, Max muses on how he has taken on the role of the "Mythic Detective," with everything that taking on that role entails: "to unravel all the mysteries; following a path of clues to that Final Revelation, even if it would take me down to the cold, cavernous depths of a grave."
    • There's also the hallucinatory dream sequence where Max's wife leaves him notes telling him that he's in a graphic novel (which, for the uninitiated, is how the cutscenes in the game are presented) and in a video game.
    • In the second game, Max shoots his way through several mooks and exits the garage under a police station, only to have his friend Vlad pull up. He notes that it's one unlikely coincidence. It's not a coincidence.
    • The televisions in Max Payne 2 feature a Blaxploitation parody of the original Max Payne called "Dick Justice", where many of the flaws of the first game are lampshaded, such as "having a constipated grimace" and speaking in metaphor.
  • In the The Bard's Tale games, the character is featured repeatedly speaking to the narrator in debate of what he says, or simply because he feels it not necessary, commenting at various points on subjects like why wolves were carrying valuable items, or the ethics of looting other people's belongings.
    • The tutorial section is done from the mouth of a character and when told seemingly obvious things like how to jump, the bard mocks him for his ignorance and questions what the x button, etc. are.
    • Don't forget the obligatory mention of a PC version of the game:

Bard: This other bloke kept talking about mice I couldn't see.

Saddler: Oh, I think you know. The "American prevailing" is a cliché that only happens in your Hollywood movies.

    • Resident Evil 5 lampshades many of the recurring themes of the series. An exasperated Chris Redfield complains about how he feels like he's trapped in a monster movie and that there always seems to be a guy with a chainsaw trying to kill him. And when Wesker goes into one of his monologues or explains his Evil Plan, Chris grumbles about more crazy talk and responds to the latter with:

Chris: Do you get all your ideas from comic book supervillains?

  • Zork: Grand Inquisitor lampshaded the Hyperspace Arsenal. When the player puts a large vacuum on a vending machine, Dalboz comments "Just where were you keeping that?"
  • In Gabriel Knight 3, the Hyperspace Arsenal is lampshaded when a jacket Gabriel has squeezed into his jeans forms a suspicious-looking bulge.
  • In Doom III, the rationale for the player being able to acquire a chainsaw is a series of background logs detailing a shipment of chainsaws that were accidentally sent to Mars. The characters writing the logs draw attention to the fact that no one would ever use a chainsaw on the planet.
    • Specifically; they misplaced their request for jackhammers, and sent chainsaws instead. As they say in the game "What the hell are we gonna do with them? Cut down the great forests of Mars??"
  • In Unreal Tournament III, the "flag" of CTF is replaced by the "FLaG" - Field-Lattice Generator. They look exactly the same, and one character says something to the effect of "it looks like a flag, it sounds like a flag, and it waves like a flag. It's a flag."
  • In Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Being predominately a platform-based game, it pokes fun at the idea that the answers to platform puzzles are rarely in the game itself, which is radically different from RPGs and point-and-click adventure games. During this scene, the princess you are traveling with is trying to read the books in the library while you are hopelessly trying to jump around the walls and move mirrors to direct light. Your character gets so annoyed with her that he asks, "Why don't you just look up the answer to this puzzle?" and she replies "This isn't that kind of game."
    • The "This isn't that kind of game" line is probably referring to the budding relationship between Farah and the Prince, rather than a lampshade hang -- though it could pretty easily be both.
    • From the previews, the new Prince is actively Genre Savvy. He's noted that he tends to move "toward" the monsters, and when his cohort points out that it "seems quiet", he advises her not to say that.

"You had to pick this religion? You couldn't pick one where the embodiment of evil was a really angry sheep or something?"

  • During one of the missions in Free Space 2, a pilot mutters about how useless their technology had been during the Great War, thirty years before, lampshading the fact that, while in Freespace 2, capital ships will fire all sorts of very large and deadly cannons and lasers, in Freespace 1, during which the Great War takes place, capital ships were for the most part fairly unimpressive moving targets.
  • The Simpsons Game has you collecting these for One Hundred Percent Completion.
    • Specifically, you find video game cliches such as invisible walls, passages hidden behind bookcases, etc. , and get a sarcastic discussions of the cliche in question by Comic Book Guy.
  • Anachronox has its TACOs, small boxes with radar dishes, that you collect and get various powerups. TACO is explained in-game as being a Totally Arbitrary Collectible Object.
  • In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, one mission begins with Sam Fisher saying "Don't tell me... Three alarms and the mission is over." to which his superior, Lambert, replies "Of course not. This is no video game, Fisher." This is taking a jab at the previous games in which missions would frequently end after 3 alarms.
  • Sonic Generations. In the ending, Classic Tails asks Modern Tails where Sonic puts all of his Rings. Modern Tails says he always forgets asking.
    • Also, Classic Tails shouts "Dr. Robotnik!" when Classic Eggman shows up. His response? "Nobody calls me that anymore!"
  • In Crysis: Warhead, a Marine remarks about the alarming number of VTOLs (Sci-fi helicopter things) that get shot down over the course of both games.
  • In Secret of Evermore, you run into a raving lunatic who shouts about how everyone is under the control of "button-pushing overlords". You (the player, not the character) then get the option of punishing him by turning him into a chicken, goat, or gigantic basket.
    • If you choose not to do any of the above to him he thanks you (the player) and rewards you with a decent piece of armor.
  • There's one at the first settlement most players will come across in Fallout 3, Megaton. Above the gate is a guy with a hunting rifle named Stockholm. The player can either reach him using console commands or exploit the physics engine, and one of the things he says to the player is asking "How the hell did you get up here..."
  • World of Warcraft has a huge one with a quest where you are aided by another version of yourself from the future. After completing the objective, the other version disappears with these words: "...try not to die and get better equipment!". If you played the game, you'll know that's essentially the entire game in a nutshell. It's also lampshading that the game can only mirror what you currently have, despite being you 'from the future'.
    • In a later question you are that future self, and are going back to help your past self that last time... yeah. You get a similar sort of snarky remark after that one, too.
    • The third part of the quest chain The Rise of the Machines, an NPC instructs you to collect quest drops, but doesn't specify how many. In the quest summary, it states exactly how many you need, followed by, "You know this because you are psychic."
    • A series of books can be found in various undead instances written by a low-ranking servant of TheScourge critiquing the convoluted and insane methods of the dungeon's bosses. From On Scholomance,

Today a troupe of brigands broke into the school and began slashing their way through to the crypts. As they cut down a study group in the foyer, the nearby students continued their practices, oblivious! The forces within that hall would overwhelm a small army, yet they yielded piece-meal.

    • One of the employees in a tavern in Outlands laments to his employer that he feels as though he's caught in an unending loop of performing the same meaningless task over and over again.
    • Speaking of World of Warcraft, My Sims hangs a lampshade when you move in Arcade Game Owner Vic Vector. When you complete tasks for him, the "flavor text" of each new blueprint reads "This blueprint is soulbound, so try to get rid of it!" "An epic blueprint. Take it, my class can't use it." And for the final task completed... "Vic gives you a rocket wall decorative for your house! An epic mount! Sweet!"
    • In Warcraft III, if you poke too much Shandris Feathermoon, the night elf archer in steroids, one of the things she says is why she never runs out of arrows.
  • In Gears of War, whenever you find a door too thick for your Powered Armor-clad steroids-overdosed hero to kick down, you have to call a stealthed bot called Jack to cut it. Then you get a tough encounter while the bot is at his business. Every. Single. Time. At one of these points, it gets to the exchange.

Marcus: I'll call JACK.
Baird: Well, you know what THAT means...
Marcus: (sigh) Yeah...
Then Baird gets into a defensive position... and you probably should as well.

  • Good old J.R. calls it with the Professional Wrestling page quote, word for word, in the Smackdown vs. Raw series.
  • What about First Encounter Assault Recon? One of the lines in the intro is "You got to be fucking kidding me. This is why nobody takes us seriously. Military clones?"
    • Also on the Redshirt Army treatment of the SFOD-D. F.E.A.R.'s credits include the line "No Delta Force Operatives were harmed in the making of this game.")
    • Learning that Fettel has a tracking device embedded in his head, Jankowski remarks "Seems awfully convenient."
    • Project Origin also does this, when Snake Fist introduces his ridiculous codename. Stokes' response is a blunt "... you've got to be fucking kidding me." Made all the more amusing by the fact that the characters would recognize the Snake Fist codename; apparently, its a popular series of action movies in the setting.
    • Snake Fist was originally one of the entries in a competition Monolith ran when licensing problems were stopping them from using F.E.A.R. (someone at the Monolith offices even made a drawing of a snake with it's mouth wide open and a fist coming out of it). Guess it was a bit of a favourite for the devs.
    • Stokes is way too Genre Savvy. Toward the end of the game, on the way to the confrontation with Alma, she remarks that "I hope she doesn't do one of those horror movie things, and throws your biggest fears against you. That would suck."
    • Colonel Vanek lampshades Becket's One-Man Army status: "You sure did kill a lot of my guys. You're a goddamn killing machine!"
  • In what seems to be a prime example of a Message from Fred, the protagonist of the notorious Limbo of the Lost often complains about annoying NPCs, how boring walking through endless tunnels is, etc.
  • In Army of Two, Salem and Rios lampshade the ridiculous requirement of two people being needed to open every door in the Veteran Map Pack downloadable content. Rios asks if Salem can ever remember a time he opened a door by himself, to which he responds how he can hardly open his doors at home by himself now.
  • It happens in Persona 3, before the exams of July. While studying, Junpei tells to the MC that it seemed like all he does is wander around and talk to people.
  • In Persona 4, part of the extended intro of the game (before you get to your first dungeon) has the protagonist walking home from school with Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi. Chie asks the protagonist, "So, you're in town because your parents are out of the country for a year?" After he agrees, she goes on to say, "Wow. I thought it was something much more serious, like your parents dying mysteriously," after which she looks straight at the camera.
  • In Strange Journey, when talking to Jack Frosts, they may ask if you scare them. One of the options is "I'm not scared of a mascot." Even better, you can also say this to Pyro Jack, who responds "Hey, you've got the wrong Jack!"
  • In Legend of Kay the player encounters an archaeologist deep down in the dungeons, who comments on how improbable it is that the machines are still working, and on the mystery what these periodically-retracting-spikes-and-moving-platforms machines might originally have been constructed for.
  • In Uncharted Drakes Fortune, immediately after we discover that Sullivan survived being shot point-blank by Roman due to the use of a perfectly placed Pocket Protector, Nathan exclaims: "I thought this kinda thing only happened in the movies!"
  • As far as expansions go, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm has been called many things; "Good" not being among them. However, if you play enough of the Space Marine campaign in Dawn of War 2 you will find that even the Blood Ravens agree, saying "The Kaurava campaign did not go so well." They go so far as to calling it "A blight on our history". At the end of the narrative, the scout sergeant Cyrus claims "Kaurava was a huge mistake. I will not speak of it again." Players couldn't agree more.
  • Several characters in My World, My Way do this a lot when they give tutorials to players without knowing why they say what they said (there's a Fourth Wall for those characters).
  • The trope itself was lampshaded in the first season of the episodic Sam and Max series. A particular puzzle requires you to improvise your way through an episode of a popular television sitcom called "Midtown Cowboys". (As the theme song informs the audience, "They're probably hiding a cow!") Part of the solution to the puzzle is to take a nearby lampshade and stick it on the cow's head.
    • If that's the only disguise you can think of. You can also use a plate and shaving cream.
    • Also in Sam & Max, a 555 phone number is lampshaded:
      • Max: "It must be one of those stupid 555 phones."
      • Sam: "Yes, actually - 555-1984."
  • This is used during a bonus sequence in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The stage is in space and none of the characters wear air masks:

Falco: Fox looks like he's got his hands full.
Krystal: Yes, he's putting up quite a fight, though.
Peppy: You know, he reminds me of his father every day.
Slippy: Hey, this is no time for chitchat guys! Shouldn't we be worried about Fox? He's out there with no air! How's he supposed to breathe?!
Peppy: Bah! Way to go, Slippy. No-one would've even noticed if you hadn't opened up your big yap!

  • In Tales of Hearts, Kunzite, a Ridiculously Human Robot, is nonetheless perfectly capable of being hit with all the Standard Status Ailments such as poison, curse, and petrification. If one of those occurs while The Lancer is in the party, that lancer will question it during the Victory Pose: "How exactly does a machine get poisoned, anyway?" "I am constructed to be very similar to a human being." etc.
  • Ratchet and Clank example: "Where is he keeping all of these guns? I mean, come on!"
  • In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Wakin from Team Snagem says when attempting to take your Snag Machine something along the lines of, "We know you're a great battler. Well, we're not going to have any of that." He then proceeds to put you to sleep with his Gloom.
  • In The Typing of the Dead, during the battle against Strength (where you have to type really long series of sentences), randomly you might get a series talking about how you have to type long phrases, otherwise the zombies will get you.
  • The Nancy Drew game series does this frequently, with everything from Nancy's musings as to why in-game phone numbers all start with "555", to a tabloid newspaper's speculation about why she's such a Mystery Magnet, to Bess and George joking about how Nancy could find a secret passage in a blueberry muffin.
  • In the first episode of Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People, you can find a Teen Girl Squad page with a metal detector. When you dig it up, he remarks something along the lines of "Hey, one of my super cool Teen Girl Squad ideas! Apparently written on slightly metallic paper!"
  • Team Fortress 2 has Capture the Flag maps called, actually, "Capture the Flag", even though there are no flags -- only intelligence briefcases. The third page of the Classless Update reveals what the intelligence is: "a flag made entirely out of microfilm. Or possibly nylon."
  • In an early Amiga game the muse cursor was turned into a fly. At one point the player was offered the choice to "ask about the fly". Using the fly pointer to click at this choice starts a dialog where the player's character asks his assistant if he ever gets the impression that "there's a fly buzzing around and making decisions for you". The assistant laughs this off as a bad joke.
    • That was King of Chicago. Good game.
  • The Sims 2 hangs a lampshade on some of the content present in expansions for the original game that isn't to be found in the initial release, such as an off-hand reference to all the house-pets in the neighbourhood having been abducted by aliens.
    • One of the easiest ways to unleash the Video Game Cruelty Potential in the first two Sims games was to build a pool with only a diving board and no ladder, as Sims couldn't climb out without a ladder. There's a widow in Pleasantview whose husband is described as dying in "a suspicious pool-ladder accident."
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has Goombella, after using her tattle ability on a Hammer Bro, complaining about why her book of neverending character info, which lets you know the HP, Attack, Defense and possible special abilities of an enemy, doesn't answer the real question about the Hammer Bros: where do they keep their infinite supply of hammers? The same also goes for Lakitus.
    • The first game also has Goombario mentioning how nobody knows how a Blooper floats in mid-air as if it's in water.
    • Another part of this game features a well known enemy, using a poor disguise to infiltrate Mario's current group of travelling pirates, coming on screen just after Mario left, just to tell the gamer that he really knows how obvious his disguise is, and threatening the gamer to not tell Mario of his real identity.
  • The color commentators do this all the time in the Backyard Sports series.
  • The human noble intro stage in Dragon Age: Origins includes fighting giant rats, to which your colleage comments that it reminds him of "the start of every bad adventure tale my grandfather used to tell".
    • Zevran asks Oghren if they should now engage in some stereotypical elf-to-dwarf banter/rivalry. Oghren's response? "Nah."
    • Morrigan's response to stopping the merchant in Lothering from setting high prices. "Must we solve every little problem in this town?"
    • Similarly, if you ask the Ostagar merchant if you can help him find his AWOL servants, he'll say he's sure someone like you has more important things to do than worry about his inane personal problems.
    • Also, there's this quote from some adventurers you prevent from (falsely?) accusing a mage of practicing blood magic:

Adventurer: Hey, no need to be pushy! We were just doing it for the experience.

    • If you bring Alistair to the Brecilian Forest and meet Zathrian for the first time, he offers this quote with a knowing smile after hearing about the werewolves' attack:

Alistair: Yes, it seems like you've had your own troubles. What are the odds?

    • The sequel has one man wandering around the Hanged Man tavern that seems to have knocked a few holes in the fourth wall. Among insane rants of feeling like "just a background character in someone else's play" or like that, come lines specifically pointing out video game contrivances, like "Does anyone else notice the normal day-to-day activities are so much easier? Eating? Sleeping? I hardly even notice them..."
  • In Assassin's Creed II many players were forced to turn on the subtitles due to the incredible amount of Italian spoken. During a present-time conversation with Rebecca she apologizes for it, claiming the translation on the Animus 2.0 isn't up to par. His response? "Oh, it's no problem, those subtitles really help." This is also a lampshade to apologize because there there were no subtitles in the first game.
    • There's also a comment that Animus 2.0 fixes the fault that Animus 1.0 had regarding water (Ezio can swim; Altair reacted to water like it was concentrated acid).
    • The instruction books to Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II lampshade several game mechanics.
  • Being the only normal ones in their workshops, both Vayne and Raze from the Mana Khemia games often lampshade the weirdness of their Nakama.
    • In the first game, Flay also has a tendency to drop down from the ceilings. When questioned, he dismisses it with lines like, "Minor details." Then later on, when he walks through the workshop door normally, the workshop explicitly calls attention to this.
  • In City of Heroes, when you click on the pamphlet guy in front of City Hall, he tell you what particular cause he's promoting this week.

"Burn down Perez Park! It's full of monsters and impossible to get around!"

    • In a passing dialogue, one NPC insists to his obviously disbelieving friends that he actually did manage to snatch a purse.
  • In Silent Hill 3 when Heather is explaining to Douglas that Harry killed the God summoned by Dahlia she points out that "it must not have been much of a god if it could be killed by a human being".
  • In Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, the protagonist, Luther, can (without any practical plot reason to do so) wander up to a raving homeless man and try to speak with him. In parody of the typical gameplay habits of RPG gamers, he comments, "Hi. I'm just wandering around, talking to everyone I meet."
  • In another parody, in Mass Effect 2, the player can ask a Turian bartender at the Citadel about any local news. The bartender stares, then tells the player that if he/she wants local information, go check the news. As the player goes away he starts mumbling to himself about why humans keep asking him that question.
    • In addition to lampshading The Bartender, this lampshades a specific bartender in the first game's version of the Citadel, who specifically tells you to ask him for news.
    • The character of Conrad Verner is one gigantic lampshape in human form. He calls attention to several video game tropes used heavily in both games.

Shepard: So, you just wander the galaxy righting wrongs?
Conrad: Hey, don't say it like that! I talk to people, you know? Ask them if they have big problems that only I can solve. You'd be surprised at how many people are just waiting for someone to talk to them. Sometimes I poke through crates, too. You know, for extra credits.

    • The first game had long load times that were covered with lengthy elevator rides filled with conversations between your squad mates. Mass Effect 2 lampshades these in the following dialog, which can show up if you take Tali and Garrus around the Citadel.

Garrus: You ever miss those talks we had on the elevators?
Tali: No.
Garrus: Come on, remember how we'd all ask you about life on the flotilla? It was an opportunity to share!
Tali: This conversation is over.
Garrus: Tell me again about your immune system!
Tali: I have a shotgun.
Garrus: Mmmmmmaybe we'll talk later.

    • Mordin mentions that the salarian Special Tasks Groups were much better funded than Council Spectres, as they didn't have to buy their own weapons.
    • There's another part that pokes fun of the long elevator rides during Miranda's mission. As you're starting to ride up an elevator, complete with corny elevator music (from ME1), Miranda punches it and asks why it won't go faster.
    • At the end of that elevator ride Captain Enyala lampshades Miranda's outfit.
    • This literally makes up 50% of Liara's non-dramatic dialogue in Lair of the Shadow Broker. Even some of her "chewing Shepard out for cheating on her" lines fall into this (Garrus's calibrations, Jacob's Shirtless Scene).
    • When talking to the asari security officer about Samara's status as a justicar and the rights that affords her, the officer lampshades the Planet of Hats trope when she says that the asari would never question Samara's actions, but "you people can't even figure out your own religions!"
  • In Mass Effect 3, Shepard is on Mars looking for the blueprints to a previously unheard of weapon needed to save the galaxy. The Illusive Man contacts Shepard and explains that the blueprints have always been on Mars and promptly blames it on the Alliance for somehow not finding them sooner.
  • In Smackdown vs Raw 2010 there is a storyline for a created superstar in which your character enters in a feud with Santino Marella. During one exchange, Santino says your character is what an idiot would create in a wrestling game.
    • And then he looks directly at the camera.
  • Disgaea. All forms, all the time. The games THRIVE on this. A particularly good example is Disgaea DS, Where after getting New Game+, You unlock a sarcastic Prinny who seems to have a talent for pointing out ridiculous things. Every other line.
  • Postal 2's version of the Unreal Editor has help messages that lampshade how ridiculously easy it is to cause the program to crash.

Did you know...
Successful use of the engine is defined as thwarting the intentions of those who made it?

  • A scene at the beginning of Yo-Jin-Bo has Jin asking Hatsuhime if she has disguised herself to wander the land and experience the life of the common people. Yo immediately reproaches Jin, telling him that sounds like something out of a story. This not five minutes after both Yo and Jin tease Mon-Mon about not being "one of the guys you can get at the end of the game."
  • Borderlands downloadable content "The Island of Doctor Ned" consistently lampshades it's own use of lazily recycled material from the original game, including the name of the Big Bad "Ned" as opposed to the character, Zed, and re-use of areas from the primary game, sometimes with the original signs being scribbled out with a paintbrush and childishly re-written.
  • The Destroy All Humans!! series does this a few times, most prominently in the second game. A notable example is in the third game, as Crypto confronts Milenkov. Crypto threatens Milenkov three times. Each time, Milenkov blows off the threats and mentions his "Feindish Master Plan". Crypto finally gets fed up and agrees to let him tell his master plan, commenting "Geez, you guys just gotta have your monologues." Then it turns out the master plan is really something to be REALLY concerned about.
  • Near the beginning of Conker's Bad Fur Day, Conker wonders why everyone keeps asking him to do things for them.
  • In the flash game, "Remnants of Skystone," you can take a sidequest where the one who gives it to you tells you that certain monsters will drop certain things he needs. He will then say, "Weird, huh?"
  • In Banjo-Tooie, during the final world of the game Banjo enters what appears to be an empty room. He remarks that there's nothing in the room and they should leave, but Kazooie cleverly points out that the music has changed, meaning a boss is present somewhere in the room.
    • Another similar scene occurs right after the quiz show at the end of the game. Kazooie asks, "Do you think this is the end of the game?" Banjo replies that it can't be because the credits haven't rolled yet.
  • In Lord of the Rings Online there is a quest titled A Striking Absence of Boar which requires you to spend 30 minutes searching for boars in Evendim. After the 30 minute timer is up, the quest is considered complete, and you return to the quest-giver to inform him that there are indeed no boars in Evendim. This quest mocks the abundance of boars in LOTRO and the typical grinding "kill X monsters" or "get X item from monster Y" type of quests prevalent in MMORPGS.
  • In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn there are quite a few instances. True to RPG form, everyone wants the heroes to help, and our heroes are fully aware when someone is going to ask for something.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy does a lot of this.
    • The item description for an Iifa Tree[1] lampshades the ridiculousness of some of the things the player could have in their Bag of Sharing over the series (and in this game too):

"One whole Iifa Tree. It's amazingly heavy...obviously."

    • The game's "player plan" system, which rewards the player for continued playing of the game with boosts to the experience points gained and special treasures, and is represented by a little chocobo running across a field, is in-game explained like so:

Mogstache: "As you progress through your play plan, chocobos find treasure chests with their favorite greens inside. In return, they'll give you accessories."
"... Look, just don't think about this one too hard."

Kefka: "Who cares? He's just another sadist with a god complex--like THAT'S something special!"

Shantotto: "Your hair... is a DISTRACTION!"

    • Significant parts of Cloud and Sephiroth's dialogue make subtle digs at the fact that they fight each other in every spinoff of their original game, due to popularity.

Cloud (to Sephiroth): "Fighting you ... would be meaningless. I'm tired of taking part in pointless battles."

Sephiroth (about Cloud): "I must face him and fulfill my obligation."

  • EarthBound lampshades dozens of RPG cliches. Understandable, given it's something of an Affectionate Parody.
  • One notable line shows up near the end of the entire trilogy of Xenosaga: Shion is distraught after several traumatic incidents occur. A mysterious girl named Nephilim who appears periodically with cryptic advice shows up once more. Shion is surprised at her appearance and says "What do you want? Are you here to say a bunch of cryptic things again and confuse me?"
  • Team Plasma from Pokémon Black and White spend every chance they get pointing out that the game world is based on what amounts to dog fighting, and that it is cruel and wrong. And they are supposed to be the bad guys.
    • Subverted. The leader of Team Plasma who feels that way is merely a figurehead; their actual leader wants Pokemon battling outlawed so he'll be the only one to use Pokemon-- and thus, free to take over Unova with his hacked dragon.
  • The Pandora Directive entry in the Tex Murphy FMV adventure game series lampshades adventure game hammerspace by showing Tex pull a 10ft bamboo pole out of his coat pocket.
  • In the Lepanto scenario of Age of Empires II, the goal is to build and protect a wonder from enemy Turks with an enormous navy with which they continually attack. One of the Spanish soldiers asks, "Why did our brilliant leaders insist upon building the Wonder so close to the shoreline?"
  • Every conversation in Hyperdimension Neptunia hangs a lampshade of what each character or NPC is doing.
  • The first thing Pit says in the announcement trailer for Kid Icarus: Uprising is "Sorry to keep you waiting!" At one point in the demo for said game, Palutena mentions that it's been "about 24 years" since she last battled Medusa. Guess when the original Kid Icarus was released in America. Go on, guess.
  • GLaDOS enjoys lampshading things you do that are particulary stupid, especially in Portal 2. After you are separated from Wheatley and land in a shattered corridor, with the only way of proceeding being a portal-friendly wall that makes you fall into a room with a door that reads "GLaDOS Emergency Shutdown (and Cake Dispensary), it naturally turns out to be a trap. GLaDOS mocks you openly when she reveals herself.

GLaDOS: "Did you really think it would be that easy?

  • House Of The Dead 2 Very subtle example. At the very beginning of Stage Two a car swerves towards you out of control, if you don't shoot the zombie on the bonnet it passes you and crashes into a shop, killing the man inside (and changing the path you take). Just before you duck inside you get a glimpse of the shop's name. It's called Curtains. Boom, boom, tish.
  • The Uncharted series loves to hang lampshades on everything. Just about half of the speech in the games is dedicated to saying "why does this keep happening?"
  • In Left 4 Dead 2, at the beginning of the Swamp Fever level, sometimes Ellis complains to Nick about why he shot the helicopter pilot. Then they argue that the pilot was a zombie and that "he wouldn't help us very much" during that time. This seems to be a running joke with the Survivors. This our-pilot-turned-into-a-zombie instance was also lampshaded start of Crash Course in the first Left 4 Dead.
  • In Rune Factory 3, one of the characters comments that amnesia is extremely common, lampshading the fact that, in all 3 games, the protagonist loses his memory.
  • In the fantasy MMO RuneScape, there is a saga in which the player walks in the shoes of Thok, master of Dungeoneering. During the saga, Thok battles his way through dungeons filled with enemies, some of which attempt to run and exit through a door which can only be opened by killing all of the guardians in that room. One of them remarks "The door won't open until we're dead? What kind of crazy security system is that?!"
  • In Jak 3, the third installment of the Jak and Daxter series, Seem the monk comments to Jak and Daxter "This isn't a game!" to which Jak and Daxter turn to the camera with eyebrows raised.
  • Near the beginning of the Anaksha Female Assassin Mini-Adventure "A New Threat," Anaksha has just been asked for some parts to make a taser so that the owner of a recently-robbed shop is confident enough to open it again so that Anaksha can get a battery for her new cell phone. Having been through two previous Mini-Adventures where she had to do a Chain of Deals to get what she wanted, Anaksha knows immediately what's coming:

Anaksha: *sigh* Here we go again on another treasure hunt! Find this, give it to him, find that, give it to her. Story of my freakin' life!

  • X3: Albion Prelude hangs a shade on X3: Terran Conflict's Hub Plot and its insane requirements. The scientists you transport to the Hub in X3AP note that Mahi Ma filled the cargo hold with thousands upon thousands of microchips, referring to the 75,000 microchip requirement in TC's plot. Afterwards, several crates of microchips are left floating around the Hub.
  • Star Control 2 has several, but perhaps the most hilarious is when you talk to the Dnyarri after getting it and he complains he's becoming insane because there's music loops playing ceaselessly and that he has heard the same song several hundred times.
  • The iOS game Highborn really, really loves lampshading anything and everything.
  1. ↑ The extremely large World Tree in Final Fantasy IX originally, here simply something used in Item Crafting as a Mythology Gag
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