Player Punch/Video Games/Platform Game

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Player Punches in Platform Games include:

  • Klonoa: Door to Phantomile has two—first, we discover that Klonoa was never a resident of the world to begin with, but is really a dream traveller destined to travel from world to world wherever danger goes, and that all of his memories of his life there were false ones implanted by his friend Huepow. Then, we have the absolutely gut-wrenching ending where Klonoa is permanently sent away from Dream Phantomile, just after Huepow tried in vain to keep him from being sucked away.
  • Super Metroid did this with the Metroid larva which imprinted on Samus as its mother at the end of the second game. Its kidnapping starts the plot of Super and when we next see it outside its little case, it's been mutated to a horrendously huge size. In a rather touching scene, the giant Metroid nearly kills Samus, but suddenly backs off when it recognizes its "mother." The Metroid is later killed by Mother Brain while rescuing Samus from her near lethal wounds. Considering you're given an ungodly powerful gun as the Metroid's last sacrifice, Mother Brain probably didn't have time to process she was vaporized before you finish the monster off.
    • And on top of all this, the Metroid gives an absolutely pitiable death cry when Mother Brain blasts it. Try to find a Metroid fan who isn't affected by that sound.
    • What makes it even more of a Player Punch is that Mother Brain reactivates and starts blasting the poor Metroid with all her power, but the Metroid refuses to flee or even let go of Samus until the latter is fully healed. The Metroid's bright green shell and crimson nuclei darken gradually as the energy drain/Mother Brain assault combination slowly kills it, and any first-time player is likely screaming at the Metroid to go away before it really dies.
      • In Metroid: Other M the scene where Ridley finally makes a full appearance and Samus flashes back to when he killed her parents, it truly drives home that while Samus is an ultra-hard, unstoppable Badass, she's that way a great deal in part because her parents were brutally murdered right before her eyes when she was just a little girl.
  • Sonic Adventure 2 has Robotnik apparently kill main hero Sonic, acting as a Player Punch for his sidekick Tails.
  • Tomb Raider Underworld: Poor Alister. And as for Amelia Croft, it's a punch to both the player and Lara.
  • The death of Dan at the hands of recurring villain Asha in Iji. There is a way to save him, but one you're not likely to find the first time you play the game.
    • For that matter, the death of Tasen Soldier KG111:PAIE and the rest of the surviving Tasen is fairly crushing. Three of them can, however, be saved.
  • Ape Escape had the villainous albino monkey Specter kidnap and brainwash the protagonist's friend Jake (the only person who would have been directly able to help him, and considering his superior jumping ability, he would have been a big help) and pit the two against each other three times, the third time resulting in a broken arm for Jake.
  • Jak 3 had that horrifying death scene with Damas. During said scene, we discover that he's Jak's father. Jak figures out right away, but Damas doesn't and he dies before he got to know the son he missed WAS Jak! Veger, YOU ARE SO GOING TO DIE! Too bad the game doesn't even give you the pleasure of beating him up; though he at least ends up humiliated.
  • Bentley being crippled by Clock-La near the end of Sly Cooper 2. It's made even more heartbreaking because you have to do the standard button-mashing sequence as Murray to get him out, but no matter how hard you try, he can't be saved. It's even worse when Bentley cries for someone to pick him up and causes poor Murray to go walk the Earth for peace.
    • Also, many players came to really love Arpeggio. But when Clockla killed him...CLOCKLA WILL DIE IN THE PITS OF HELL!
  • When Ignitus gets killed in The Legend of Spyro, you really start pulling out all the stops.
  • In the Flash game The Company of Myself, it is strongly implied that something bad happened to the narrator's girlfriend, Kathryn. It still comes as a shock when you get to the flashback level where you have to sacrifice Kathryn to proceed.
  • In Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the Sands transform the Prince's father into a boss. Guess what happens.
    • Warrior Within: In case you didn't figure it out, that attractive woman who the Prince has been having sexual tension with for most of the game? That's the Empress of Time. And she's been trying to kill you. Oh, and you have to kill yourself. It Makes Sense in Context.
    • The Two Thrones: The Prince's father is dead, and has been so for a while.
  • Can Your Pet? looks at first glance like a harmless little virtual pet game where you get to customize an adorable baby chick, feed it, shower it, play with it and so forth. The more you do with your pet, the more options get unlocked at the bottom of the screen, leading all the way up to the bicycle at the far right.. It's not a bicycle at all. Click it and the floor drops out from under your pet, sending it falling into a black void; the bicycle icon then grows huge, flips upside-down, and reveals itself to be a pair of buzzsaws that promptly process your pet Ludicrous Gibs-style into a pile of chicken parts which fall down into a can labeled with whatever name you gave your pet. And all the while this obnoxious chicken song is playing. That's right, the game tricks you into not only killing your pet, but butchering it as well. And its title is a terrible pun.
  • At the very end of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter,The very world you've been working hard to save for the past three games is forced to be put to an end for the sake of keeping two characters alive in the real world.
  • Mega Man X's Zero ends up being a major player punch when, true to his name, he kamikazes Vile (the planes used at Pearl Harbor were called Zeros - although this is not the origin of his name). And it also seems that X himself channels the player punch by breaking out of an electrocage, having his health refill and finally having his weapons restored.
    • The player punch feelings comes up again after defeating Vile with the conversation, and gift, that Zero will give you if you didn't get the buster upgrade.
      • By the by, if this scene is too much for someone to handle in the SNES version, do not play the PSP remake. It's much worse.
    • And the favor is eventually returned in Mega Man Zero. Elpizo destroys X's body in order to release the Dark Elf.
      • This one is worse...because Zero made it in time, but was immobilized and could only watch helplessly.
    • This scene is somewhat mirrored in Mega Man ZX, when the Big Bad takes control of Zero's ZX Expy, Girouette and forces the two of you to fight to the death. You don't get to Take a Third Option.
    • Iris. Zero's really, really pissed after this especially since he was forced to fight her. Cue Unstoppable Rage that would span the last few stages of the game. Afterwards, he even wonders if he's actually capable of saving anyone he cares for. Ouch...
  • Kwolok's demise in Ori and the Will of the Wisps is widely regarded as the saddest moment in the game: just as things are getting better and the land starts to heal itself, the Big Good suddenly gets brainwashed by the Stink Spirit that nearly killed Ori earlier and forced to fight him to the death. The Stink Spirit is brutal, literally using Kwolok as a battering ram during the fight, and all you can do is attack the visibly struggling and suffering Kwolok until he snaps out of the brainwashing and crushes the Stink Spirit himself, before dying of his injuries after a last farewell to Ori.
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