Press X to Not Die: Difference between revisions

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Named for a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Zero Punctuation]]''.

== Action Adventure ==

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== Fighting ==

* The combat in ''Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi'' consists almost exclusively of these. There are very few things a player can do to another player that won't start a small minigame.

* Even ''[[MUGEN]]'' has this, of all games. The_None's [[Earthbound|Giygas]] possesses two [[Mind Rape]] attacks. One imprisons the opponent in a box and requires to rapidly tap left and right. Failure to do so results in [[One Hit Kill|electrocution and explosion in a shower of gore]]. The second has the opponent falling down a pit and requires to press the right buttons to escape - failure will result in [[One Hit Kill|being shredded by a massive buzzsaw]].

* Even ''[[MUGEN]]'' has this, of all games. The_None's [[Earthbound|Giygas]] possesses two [[Mind Rape]] attacks. One imprisons the opponent in a box and requires to rapidly tap left and right. Failure to do so results in [[One-Hit Kill|electrocution and explosion in a shower of gore]]. The second has the opponent falling down a pit and requires to press the right buttons to escape - failure will result in [[One-Hit Kill|being shredded by a massive buzzsaw]].

* Most [[Naruto]] games are victim of this. In the most recent Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, if you're doing a battle that's important to the plot, you will not only just have to press one button. You will have to press one button, mash one button, input a series of buttons, and many more things that involve buttons.

* The very first ''[[Soul Series]]'' game, ''Soul Edge'' had these for endings: if you didn't do...something at a certain point, you'd almost always get a bad ending. The later games didn't do this.

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== Stealth Based ==

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'' has optional ones during certain cutscenes. You don't die if you miss them, the cutscene just goes a slightly alternate direction (for instance, Ezio won't...[[Handsome Lech|remove the woman's dress]], or won't hug Leonardo, or will get hit in the head with a vase). It's a bit more strange than most other games, as most other games have quick time events when something dramatic and sudden happens. This game however, has quick time events for... [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ Not Awesome|shaking your friends' hands]]...

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'' has optional ones during certain cutscenes. You don't die if you miss them, the cutscene just goes a slightly alternate direction (for instance, Ezio won't...[[Handsome Lech|remove the woman's dress]], or won't hug Leonardo, or will get hit in the head with a vase). It's a bit more strange than most other games, as most other games have quick time events when something dramatic and sudden happens. This game however, has quick time events for... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|shaking your friends' hands]]...

* ''[[Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' has exactly two of these. The first is in the introductory [[Flash Forward]], which is a preview of the [[Final Boss]] battle. In the actual fight, they occur when you deal sufficient damage to the boss's health; Ezio attempts a Hidden Blade kill which instead {{spoiler|strips away pieces of Cesare's armor}}. Oddly, once he's finally defeated, {{spoiler|Ezio instead opts to throw Cesare off a wall, making the whole exercise pointless}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Batman Arkham Asylum]]'' where an ''[[Interface Screw]]'' claims you were supposed to push X not to die, but when you select to retry {{spoiler|[[Fission Mailed|Batman instead rises from his own grave as a zombie and continues his fear gas induced hallucination where it left off.]]}}

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* ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' multiplayer. If you have a lancer and an enemy tries to chainsaw you from the front, and you do not ''immediately'' begin hammering Y, X, B, or A, you will die. Often you'll die anyways - it's usually a question of who starts hammering first, and since you need to use your finger rather than your thumb to get maximum speed, this is often a tricky situation.

* ''[[Lost Planet]] 2'' has three instances of this. Interestingly, you have to die at least '''FOUR''' times for [[One Hundred Percent Completion|100%]].

* ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' has an interesting subversion of this where the X that you need to press causes Shepard to perform actions that affect his/her [[Karma Meter|karma]] rather than killing him/her. They are also up on the screen longer to allow some thought to be put into it. Not that it matters for most gamers. Since you get [[No Points for Neutrality]], they'll hammer it the instant it comes up. It's basically [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|Press X To Be A Jerk Ass]] or [[~~Videogame~~ Caring Potential|Press X To Be A Nice Guy]].

* ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' has an interesting subversion of this where the X that you need to press causes Shepard to perform actions that affect his/her [[Karma Meter|karma]] rather than killing him/her. They are also up on the screen longer to allow some thought to be put into it. Not that it matters for most gamers. Since you get [[No Points for Neutrality]], they'll hammer it the instant it comes up. It's basically [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|Press X To Be A Jerk Ass]] or [[Video Game Caring Potential|Press X To Be A Nice Guy]].

* In ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', the final ten minutes has a literal [[Press X to Not Die]] when you confront {{spoiler|The Illusive Man}}. If you cannot talk him into suicide, you have two quick-time events in which you shoot him to death. If you don't press either of those, he shoots Anderson and then you, and you need to reload to the last checkpoint.

*** Subverted when {{spoiler|Tali commits suicide}} and a paragon interrupt pops up to save her. Even if you make it, she still dies.

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* Some bosses in ''[[Eat Lead the Return of Matt Hazard]]'' are fought like this. A button or other controller action is shown and you have a moment to do and get Matt to beat up his foe in the cutscene. Repeat until bad guy falls. Missing them will make him lose the fight and die. The game plays with this at points. One such 'fight' is a single suckerpunch that you can't lose, and another is repeatedly smashing the other guy's face into his car.

* ''GHOST Squad'' has Hand-to-Hand Combat scenes in which you must line up your aiming cursor with targets on your opponent and hit the Action button to block his attacks. Completing a scene will show a cutscene of your character [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|beating the crap out of his opponent]], while failing a scene (from taking too long to hit targets) will, in addition to taking off health, will show your character getting his ass kicked instead.

** Attempts to do this on the highest difficulty level (lv. 20) will almost always be met with failure, as while the number of simultaneous targets go BACK down to 1, ''[[Fake Difficulty|the timing window for that one target suddenly becomes comparable to Gambol on Another]]''. Carefully planning your route through the missions to avoid these confrontations suddenly becomes a good idea. oh, and did we forget to mention that PERMANENT EXP is obtained from successfully doing "missions" IF the level is cleared (boss is properly defeated)? and the best route for this always goes through at least ONE of these scenes? [[Precision F Strike|FUCK!]]

** Attempts to do this on the highest difficulty level (lv. 20) will almost always be met with failure, as while the number of simultaneous targets go BACK down to 1, ''[[Fake Difficulty|the timing window for that one target suddenly becomes comparable to Gambol on Another]]''. Carefully planning your route through the missions to avoid these confrontations suddenly becomes a good idea. oh, and did we forget to mention that PERMANENT EXP is obtained from successfully doing "missions" IF the level is cleared (boss is properly defeated)? and the best route for this always goes through at least ONE of these scenes? [[Precision F-Strike|FUCK!]]

* Used a lot in the movie game for [[Kung Fu Panda]], making up the majority of the fights vs. Tai Lung. Most are ''just'' hard enough that you may not succeed the first time you play them, but not so hard that you have to replay the sequence a ton of times after to get through.

* The ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' game on the Sega CD was constructed around the trope. All you did in the game was tap the buttons on the screen while watching a random mishmash of action scenes from the series in the background.

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[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]

[[Category:Press X To Not Die]]

[[Category:Trope]]

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