Press X to Die: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The player is given the option to perform an action that can only ever result in failure or otherwise hinder progress. Rather than simply disabling the action, the developers instead let the player try it, and then punish them for it. Most of the time it's just [[Schmuck Bait]] included as a joke, but some especially sadistic developers add such things with [[Trial and Error Gameplay|no, or little, warning]] in games where [[Continuing Is Painful]].

* ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' is perfectly happy to let players pick a letter that's already been picked. They can even buy a vowel that's already been picked. Under no circumstances can this be beneficial; it's just an easy slip-up that wastes a turn. It's not even an attempt to get the players to pay attention; there's a board just offscreen that tells them the letters that have already been called.

** However, they avert this with vowels. If every vowel in the puzzle is revealed, the host informs the players that there are no more vowels left, even if the puzzle doesn't have all five vowels in it. (They are also dimmed on the used-letter board at this point.)

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtIx5F3516c A more literal example.]

 

** "METEOR", "TSUNAMI" and "EPIC FAIL" will also do the same thing. Sadly, EPIC FAIL summons the same thing as "NUKE". Also, you have to drop the meteor from a few feet up for it to kill everything.

** In the sequel, the Black Hole just grows until everything is destroyed. It can't be deleted either.

* The ''[[Death Gate]]'' adventure-game. Among the spells you learned along the way was 'Self-Immolate', which does [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]] - using the spell would instantly kill you. It did, however, turn out useful when fighting a mirror image of yourself. Just scribe a mirrored version of the spell's runes - which does nothing - and your copy would dutifully flip it and kill himself.

* There is a similar game called ''[http://www.venbrux.com/blog/?p=23 Execution]'' by Jesse Venbrux. The only way to "win" is to quit. {{spoiler|Restarting results in an "it's already too late" message and shows you the failure screen, ''even if you delete and reinstall the game''. This is because [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|the game records your loss in a part of your computer's registry that's not deleted when uninstalling.]]}}

* In ''[[Fallout]]'', you can set the timer on a nuclear warhead to 30 seconds. Try to [[Outrun the Fireball|outrun ''that'' fireball]].

** Another [[We Can Rule Together]] happens in the next-to-last chapter. Cue another 10 Windows Vista "Are you sure"'s from the same character from the previous example before leaving you at the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Nonstandard Game Over|mercy]].

* In ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii]]'''s multiplayer coop mode, you can press the A button to go into a bubble and let your friend(s) continue the level, then have one of them pop the bubble to bring you back into the game. This can save you a life or two when going through tight spots, as only one player needs to surmount the challenge. BUT... the A button is not disabled when everyone else is in a bubble (or out of lives), so if you press it then, you'll be stuck in a bubble with no way to pop it, and you'll have to restart the level!

* ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem:]] [[Fire Emblem Elibe|The Blazing Sword]]''. Go on, [[Violation of Common Sense|attack]] [[Purposefully Overpowered|Fargus]]. I ''dare'' you.

* In ''[[Pathways into Darkness]]'', you can set the timer on your nuke too short, set it too long, or oversleep. The formermost results in burning atomic death, the latter two in a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] by way of [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* In the early 1980s FORTRAN ASCII graphics ''[[Star Trek]]'' game the player can activate the Enterprise's [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]. Which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

** In some ports of this game, when the Enterprise explodes, it will destroy any nearby Klingon ships. Depending on the port, this can result in a net increase in the player's final score, making it, if nothing else, a reasonable thing to do when all other options have been exhausted. One Commodore 64 port, titled "Space: The Ultimate Frontier" plays it out as a sort of cut scene, evoking ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|Star Trek III the Search For Spock]]''.

* In ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3'', throws cannot be performed on the "big ben" type of enemy. However, rather than just disallowing throws on them, the game instead has these enemies crush the player any time they try a throw, doing a fairly large chunk of damage. And just to mock you further, the fat bastards will laugh at you if they squash you... or pretty much taking damage from anything in their sight.

** Which is a bit of an annoyance for people who have played Streets of Rage 2, where the "Big Ben" type enemies were throwable with no ill effects.

* ''[[Castlevania]]: Order of Ecclesia'': Equip {{spoiler|Dominus Anger, Dominus Hatred and Dominus Agony}}, press Up+ X to die. Ironically, however, you are [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun|required to use this exact technique]] to {{spoiler|kill the final form of [[Dracula]],}} and it's the one instance where you ''don't'' die {{spoiler|(Albus's soul takes the place of Shanoa's in this case).}}

** One of the items you can find is the "Death Ring", which drastically raises all your attributes with the description "One hit kills instantly." As it turns out, the description is referring to ''Shanoa'' - taking a single hit will instantly kill her.

* In ''[[Maniac Mansion]]'', you can blow up Ed's beloved hamster in the microwave. And then give it back to him. He reacts poorly. And you can nuke the mansion, by draining the swimming pool, pushing the [[Big Red Button]], or setting off the security system.

* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''

* In ''Duke Nukem: Zero Hour'' it's really not a good idea to start firing off weapons inside the support structure for the blimp. Boom indeed.

* ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'' has a [[Cyanide Pill]] key that kills Blazkowitz.

* In ThunderDome MUD, drinking gasoline was instant death. Since the most convenient way to carry it was in one of the larger canteens, and drinking water is also often necessary, it wasn't an infrequent death. The Implementors themselves would laugh on the gossip line when reading the death logs.

* ''Shadow Madness'' includes the item "Pandora's Caudron". Its in-game description is "[[Schmuck Bait|Do not use. EVER!]]" Using it shows a FMV that ends in an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], followed by a [[Nonstandard Game Over|Game Over]] screen.

* ''[[La-Mulana]]'', PC version: Equip {{spoiler|''F1 Spirit 3D'' and ''[[Contra]]''}}. [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|Take any damage.]] Makes one serving of dead Lemeza. Equipping them in the reverse order rapidly eats Lemeza's health before your very eyes. Either way, good night sweet prince.

** The [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] ability is a clear callback to Contra. As for F1 Spirit, the developers just really hated the game.

* One level in the [[Futurama]] game contains a working Suicide Booth. Step inside and press the interact button.

* In ''[[Mech Assault]]'', in the multiplayer Grinder mode if you play with a friend you are able to walk around as a regular human. Press a certain button? [[Ludicrous Gibs]]!

* [[Uplink]] after the Evil Corporation hands you [[The Virus]]. {{spoiler|DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN REVELATION LOCALLY.}}

** Although creative players can use it as a cheap (free!) alternative to a Self Destruct Device (which otherwise costs a signifigant amount of money and a hardware slot).

* In the original ''[[Dragon Quest I|Dragon Warrior]]'', when the [[Big Bad|Dragonlord]] tells you [[We Can Rule Together]], you actually can take him up on his offer.

* In ''[[Star Control|Star Control 2]]'' , using the Utwig Bomb (a tool designed to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy small planets for easy mining]]) is not wise.

*** In fact, Windows will tell you that your hard drive is in use and not allow you to format it; most Linux systems will give an error message if you type "sudo rm -rf /".

**** Bother. In that case, (don't) try "dd if=/dev/zero of=$(mount | grep 'on / ' | sed -e 's/ .*$//')"

** CTRL+SHIFT+W=all tabs gone...

** What does this do? Is it some sort of Easter Egg? All it seems to do is make the light on the front of the computer flic#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER")...