Press Start to Game Over: Difference between revisions

This can be deliberate through a [[Kaizo Trap]], [[Schmuck Bait]] like a suicidal dialogue option or [[Press X to Die]], or an [[Harder Than Hard|"Impossible"]] difficulty level; and may or may not result in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. It can also be accidental, due to a [[Game Breaking Bug]], bad starting positions in [[Randomly Generated Levels]], or simply taking an action that the [[Unwinnable By Mistake|designers never accounted for]].

 

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Slouching Towards Bedlam]]'' lets you jump out the window as your first command. {{spoiler|Depending on your point of view, this is the best ending, and definitely one of the best two.}}

* In the Kongregate Game ''Don't Shit Your Pants'', you normally type in "play" to start the game. But instead, you can type "shit" to immediately soil yourself. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|There's an achievement for that.]]

* ''[[Red Faction]]: Guerrilla'' has one where if you attack your brother in the first mission, you get a game over screen complete with "WTF, you killed your Brother!?!?!?!?!"

* In ''[[Grand Chase]]'', one PVP map has a layout where, if you're unlucky enough to be in a certain position, you lose a life immediately after spawning. (You still have 4 lives, but you're at a serious disadvantage.)

* In ''[[King's Quest I]]'', it's not unusual to die by falling into the moat on the first screen because you can't navigate the small, wooden bridge properly while adjusting to the controls.

* Pretty much everyone who tries ''[http://www.rrrrthats5rs.com/games/dont-shoot-the-puppy/ Don't Shoot The Puppy]'' for the first time is going to [[Shoot the Dog]] almost instantly.

* In ''[[Elite]]'' and its [[Fan Remake]] ''[[Oolite]]'', beginning players must dock with space stations manually until they can afford to buy a docking computer for their ship. The catch is that all orbital space stations rotate, making said docking a hair-raising experience at best the first time it is attempted and causing a number of new pilots to plow into the station instead of flying into the docking bay. Engaging pirates before being upgraded with advanced weapons, armor, scanners, or fuel injectors also tends to lead to disastrous results.

* [[Kings Field]] The Ancient City: Walk forward for about five seconds from the start.

* The first ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' game: Walk south on the road. You become an instant pancake. Game over. Walk into the alleyway to the west, get beaten to death by a mugger. Game over.

* The first ''[[Space Quest]]'' (original) game on a modern computer: Set speed to "Fastest". A few seconds later, the Arcada explodes and it's game over.

* In the second ''[[Space Quest]]'' game, you can die ''earlier'' than shown above: Walk east on the first screen and fall in to Xenon's atmosphere. Naturally, no one helps you and you are DEAD.

* In the second ''[[Police Quest]]'' game, you can die in a similar fashion as ''Leisure Suit Larry'' above by crossing the road in front of the Lytton PD.

* At least one of the ''[[Kaizo Mario World]]'' hacks tries to kill Mario in the opening scene.

 

== All Others ==

* In ''[[Traveller]]'', character generation is done in stages. The first part of each stage is rolling to see if your character is still alive. Yep, your character can die before the game even starts.

** This measure, apparently installed to weed out characters too weak to survive the actual game, is optional in the most recent editions of the game, in which it is called "Iron Man Character Generation".

** deadEarth seems to follow a mechanic where you have to roll for "Radiation Manipulations", which can actually kill you or cripple your ability to use certain skills before you even start playing. You roll for the manipulations after you've done the rest of the character generation work (i.e., after you've rolled your stats and skills), so you can't create your character in anticipation of how badly he/she will be affected. And depending on how strictly the rules are followed, you might only get three character sheets ever.

* Spoofed on an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' with an arcade game based on ''[[Waterworld]]''. The player takes one step and the game asks for more quarters, as a [[Take That]] on how expensive the movie was.

'''Milhouse''': What a rip! (hesitates a second, then deposits more quarters) }}

* Both Iji and [[Hero Core]] have the impossible hidden difficulty "Reallyjoel's dad". The first just overpowers enemies and locks a door, making it impossible to leave the first area. The second locks you in a room with [[Oh Crap|every boss in the game]].

** The boss room has been completed but only on a tool-assisted run.

* Combinations that cause this appear in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' on a regular basis. Luckily, however, any consistent examples get banned on the next banlist.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]