Shows Damage: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:smoke damage 9919.jpg|link=Mortal Kombat 9|frame|[[Major Injury Underreaction|Smoke, you might wanna get that checked.]]]]

 

Rather than just give an enemy - or occasionally your character - a generic [[Life Meter]], or show the exact number of hit points, some games will show the enemy taking damage on screen. Sometimes this makes sense and looks good, other times, not so much. The bad guy's armor having bullet holes in it is all well and good, but weren't you using a sword?

 

See also [[Flash of Pain]].

{{examples}}

== Type 1 ==

* In ''[[Battle City|Tank Force]]'' armored tanks and bosses will turn redder as they're damaged.

* The final boss in ''Jackal'' turns mysteriously red when damaged.

 

* The evil exes in ''[[Scott Pilgrim (video game)|Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game]]'' start flashing yellow when their health gets low. When just a few more hits will finish them off, they flash yellow and red.

* In [[Jump Super Stars]] and its sequel, the arena where your characters fight is designed like the pages of a Manga. Likewise, the controllable characters lose their color the more damage they take: when at 50%, their colors are more muted than at full health, when they have less than 10% HP they're basically black and white linearts.

 

* Bosses in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (video game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' NES games will start to flash when low on health.

* The penultimate and final bosses in the NES version of ''[[Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu]]'' change color when low on health.

* In the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series games, Mario/Luigi will actually shrink after taking enough damage before [[Death Throws|dying.]] This is actually reversed with the "Small Fiery Mario" glitch from the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'' (which is triggered by touching both (a fake) Bowser and the ax at the same time at the end of the first seven castles) where big Mario/Luigi will die if taken a hit, while small Mario/Luigi will be the stronger form, causing him to grow if taken damage. As a result, if Mario/Luigi gets a Fire Flower, he will turn into Small Fiery Mario/Luigi!

 

* The core of the core ship of the first ''[[Gradius]]'' game changes its color when low on health.

* Capital ships in NES version of ''[[Zanac]]'' start out as blue, then turn yellow and finally light red.

** Consequently, many units and bosses in ''Zanac Neo'' blink red when damaged.

 

== Type 2 ==

* The robotic punching bag from Rhythm Boxing in ''[[Wii Fit]]'' will emit smoke after punching it enough times. More landed punches increases the number of places it emits smoke. Regardless of the number of blows, it breaks down and one of its arms fall off after completing the exercise.

 

* ''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic]]'': During space combat, the player's ship will start smoking and, eventually, will catch on fire should you take enough hull damage. Other ships show this as well, to varying degree - interceptors start smoking after one or two solid hits, frigates and destroyers will start gushing smoke and fire when one of it's hardpoints is blown up, and elite NPC's (which fly ships that players themselves fly) will show the exact same damage that players of the same ship would.

 

* In ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', both the Egg Cauldron and the Tornado starts to smoke and then catch fire when low on HP.

* Robotnik's and Tails' mechs in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' start sparking and smoking when low on HP.

* The Death Egg Robot in ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' also falls in this trope, showing sparks and smoke as the battle goes along.

 

* Same goes for ''[[StarCraft]]'', where the Protoss buildings start catching on blue fire, while the Zerg buildings [[Organic Technology|bleed]]. This is also played with on Terran buildings: once you damage them beyond a point, they catch on fire, and the fire will slowly damage the building more and more until it explodes. This is balanced by the Terrans being able to repair buildings, and therefore stabilize a critical structure.

** One nice touch with the Zerg bleeding is that the Terran [[Nuke'Em|Nuke]] uses a red dot to indicate its target...which tends to appear just underneath the bleeding, making it hard to tell the difference between "that building is bleeding" and "holy crap, two-thirds of that building's maximum health is doomed unless I can get an Overlord in there fast!"

* ''Far Gate'''s Proximan ships start smoking, then catch fire after they've taken enough damage. When the ship finally blows, pieces of the mesh fly in different directions, the speed varying with the size of the unit. Those pieces then themselves explode.

 

* All enemies in ''Galactix'' start smoking when they're a few shots from death.

 

* The Harrier 2 in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' belches out more and more smoke as it gets more damaged. It also unloads less missiles when it attempts a salvo.

 

* The Mako in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' starts to smoke and catch fire when critically damaged.

 

== Type 3, 2D ==

 

* The aptly named Nightmare boss in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion''. As you damage it, its mask begins to crack; then its mask breaks, and as you attack it, its face melts as you damage it. It's almost [[Nightmare Fuel|indescribably freaky]].

* Some enemies (mostly machines) in ''[[Cannon Dancer]]'' break apart as Kirin hits them. Most notably, the second boss Gamran falls apart as the player strikes specific parts of its body.

* Dracula from ''[[Castlevania Bloodlines]]'' in his [[One-Winged Angel]] mode, at one point will [[Turn Red]], but then afterwards will change into more decaying colours until he reaches a pale bone white. And by which point hitting him from that point onwards will cause [[Dem Bones|bones to fly off his body]].

 

* In the 2D ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' series, buildings show damage.

* Buildings and some vehicles in ''[[Patapon]]'' series look broken when damaged.

 

* Enemies in ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]'' have different sprites. All enemies have "healthy" and "damaged" sprites. Minibosses have a "severely damaged" sprite, while crystal guardians have "grievously damaged" ones. So to sum up: mooks have two, minibosses have three, bosses have four.

 

* Most of the bosses in the ''[[Metal Slug]]'' series show damage, having bullet holes or damage to their armor appear.

* The War God from ''[[Forgotten Worlds]]'' gets his armor cracked and starts losing chunks of it as the battles goes on.

* Most bosses in ''Chariot'', one of the three games forming part of ''[[Three Wonders]]'', fall apart the more damage they get, some times in rather creepy ways.

* Bosses in ''[[Area 88|UN Squadron]]'' show damage by having parts explode or start burning.

 

== Type 3a ==

* ''[[Need for Speed]]: Most Wanted'' and ''Carbon''. Because [[Executive Meddling|licensing contracts that allow the developers to show damaged cars cost a lot]], Electronic Arts settled for showing scraped paint and shattered windshields when you hit something.

 

* ''Warpath: [[Jurassic Park]]'' for the Playstation 1. As the fight goes on, cuts, lacerations, and even missing flesh (with ribs exposed if on the body) appear on the dinosaurs. The amount and speed of the damage depends on what part of the opponent you attack most often (if you bite at the head a lot, the snout and cheeks become bloody; body blows and throws cause exposed ribs and bleeding sides, etc).

* [[Punch-Out!!]] for Wii shows Little Mac and his opponents getting black eyes, missing teeth and bruises depending on where, how often and how hard they get hit. Winning a match while in the worst state of "hurtness" prompts Doc to comment "He can always take a whoppin'"

* In both ''[[Bushido Blade]]'' games' Story Mode, after each death the player character shows up with bandages over the struck areas.

 

* In ''[[Quake II]]'', the enemies get bloodier when their hit points drop. However, the blood will always show up on the same spots, since stock painskins are used.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' does this in a neat way. If shot, spots of blood will appear on player models, and if you have the luxury to look close enough while in the middle of frantic multiplayer combat, their facial expressions become increasingly worried as their health drops.

* The new ''[[Alone in the Dark]]'' has the worst use of this imaginable. The injuries look more like stickers applied over someone's clothes, rather than actual injuries.

* In the ''[[Red Faction]]'' series, most enemies only show blood decals, but the [[Night of the Living Mooks|nano-zombies]] in the second game can be dismembered piece-by-piece.

* Used effectively in ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours]]'' where almost every character model has a "bloody" skin than shows streaks of blood as they take damage. Tony himself has about four or five skins per the suit he is wearing.

 

== Type 3b ==

* ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'' has the Doll Girl [[Giant Mook]] that gets stripped of its clothes, amputated of its arms, shattered of its frontal torso covering the [[Attack Its Weak Point|heart-like organ]].

 

* In ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur]] IV'', if you deal enough damage to a particular region of your opponent's body, that part of the body loses its armor.

 

* Nightmare makes a return appearance in ''[MetroidOtherMMetroid: Other M]''. He does the face-mask cracking from Fusion, but there is no face-melting in the second fight.

 

* In the 3D ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' series, buildings show damage.

 

* ''[[SD Snatcher]]'' had enemies that would show visible damage the more you hit them. In addition, hitting certain parts would decrease specific stats.

* ''[[Too Human]]'' does this with Trolls—you can blow off the outer armor plating of various parts, then destroy the internal components. Their arms can actually be destroyed altogether.

 

* In the ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' series, cars change into a "battered" version after getting enough damage. They magically return to their "shiny new" version after picking up a Health icon.

* Same for the tanks in ''[[Battle Tanx]]''.

 

== Multiple ==

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has Type 2 plasma fires show how damaged a ship section in. When a segment explodes, it undergoes a Type 3b model swap.

 

* In ''Command & Conquer Generals'' units will smoke, slow down/limp when damaged.

 

* The ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' series uses this trope extensively:

** Type 2: 'Mechs start to emit smoke and sometimes even visible flames when they are heavily damaged.

** Type 3b: Limbs (and in MW4, missile racks as well as various gun mounts) can be blown off entirely, leaving only twisted bits of metal and wiring hanging from the stump.

 

* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' vehicles and destructible buildings are mixed.

** Buildings and armor are 3A until destroyed, which then become 3B. 3B'd armor are debris able to be picked and thrown.

** Civilian vehicles are type 2 and 3B. These vehicles, which can be picked and thrown right away(except the coach/bus and the garbage truck), will undergo deformation and finally catching fire before blowing up as they take damage.

*** Military trucks toss in types 2, 3A, and 3B. They suffer 3A decal-ing, getting 3B-ish window and chassis busting, and finally catching fire in a type 2 manner before a final 3B-resulting ka-boom. Entirely possible [[Cherry Tapping|from just landing on it from ceiling heights within a military base sufficient times]].

 

== Uncategorized ==

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'', during the Ganondorf battle, Ganondorf's cape gets more tattered as Link damages him.

** The same thing applies to a boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]''. {{spoiler|It's him again.}}

* This was a major feature of the game for ''[[X-Men|X-Men Origins: Wolverine]]'', occurring to Wolverine himself. The more damage he takes, his clothes start to get tattered, and then his flesh starts being ripped up and bleeding. No wonder it ended up M.

 

* The Statue of Rhodes from ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] 2'' is fought three separate times, with each time causing it to become more and more damaged.

** The Minotaur in the original ''God Of War'' is also an example, with bonus credit for also having a ''health bar'' that shows damage (the armour on the health bar slowly breaks away as damage is added... the bar itself doesn't start going down until all the armour is removed).

* As you progress in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', the Batsuit shows more and more damage. By the end of the game, there are noticeably a tear at the chest, a few tatters and holes in the cape, a cut on Batman's cheek and a few bullet holes.

 

* The zombies in ''[[Wax Works]]'' will lose their arms and head if hit in the right spots.

 

* While a [[Life Meter]] is used, ''[[The Warriors (video game)|The Warriors]]'' also shows damage to characters by increasing the amount of bleeding, cuts, and bruises on the bodies as they get hurt more.

* The modern remake of the classic horror action game ''[[Splatterhouse]]'' has the hero lose flesh and even body parts as he takes damage. He can use this to his advantage somewhat in that if his arm is removed (he'll grow it back quickly), he can pick it up as a weapon.

* As ''[[Bayonetta]]'' deals damage to her enemies, more and more of their skin and angelic accoutrements are flayed off until they're little more than bone, muscle and writhing internal organs.

 

* Many driving games will at least have your car become emit smoke and pained noises when on its last legs, and usually the cars become battered and lose parts.

** Some games that don't have a damage model, usually for technical reasons or because the licensing contract says the game can't show damaged cars, resort to showing scraped paint, bare metal and shattered windshields.

** Interestingly, if your life meter drops to zero, you'll regain all your top speed. One more tap, though, and you suffer [[Critical Existence Failure]].

 

* The ''[[Gundam]]'' 2D fighter ''Gundam the Battle Master'' (or ''Gundam Battle Assault'' in America) has the mecha show damage if you pound them in one specific area enough times. For example, performing a lot of sweeps will eventually make the armor on your opponent's legs break off, exposing the internal mechanisms.

 

* Especially after ''[[Halo 2]]'', vehicles will get broken, have large pieces fall off, and begin sputtering sparks and smoke as they're damaged.

** In the finale of ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' Noble Six's visor shows damage as his condition deteriorates.

* The "gore zone" system in ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]'' allows players to destroy individual body parts of enemies, e.g. severed limbs, shattered skulls, and disembowelment, [[Chunky Salsa Rule|usually causing instant death]].

 

* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'': First Ed The Undying gets a rip in his hat, then a knocked-out tooth, then another rip, then an arm knocked off, then another rip and a couple more knocked-out teeth, and finally knocked-off legs. And even after that, he's still technically alive.

* ''[[Maple Story]]'': Zakum, a huge, eight-armed statue, does this twice. By the end, it'll have quite a few huge cracks and its teeth will barely be there.

* ''[[EVE Online]]'' ships catch fire when they start to take structural damage.

 

* Most bosses in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]'' were like this. Targitzan is a totem pole, a layer of which falls off each time he takes damage. Old King Coal's arms and head fall off over the course of the fight. Mr. Patch's patches come off with each hit, in the first half of the Lord Woo Fak Fak battle his boils explode with each hit (leaking blood into the water), and Mingy Jongo's plating comes off each time he takes damage, revealing more of his true robotic self.

* In ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', while the player has a lifebar, bosses are visibly affected when damaged. For example, Dino Piranha starts inside an eggshell, which shatters after the first attack. Subsequent attacks remove petals, and also causes the boss to [[Turn Red]].

 

* The ''[[Homeworld]]'' series, for all its scientific accuracy, shows the larger battleships on fire when they are damaged before they finally go boom. In the second game, they don't just blow up; smaller explosions, hulls being ripped off by the explosions, debris flying, and '''then''' the ship goes kablooie.

* ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' has this during the stage battles; the stages have ten lights which represent health, and as they take damage the lights break (healing the stage will restore one light)

 

* In ''[[SaGa Frontier]]'', the final boss of T260G's game, Genocide Heart has [[Ominous Multiple Screens]] which fizzle out as he takes damage.

* Every enemy in ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]'' shows damage as you whittle his HP away. Regular enemies have two sprites (normal and injured), while mid-bosses have three and area bosses four. The [[Final Boss|Dark King]] has four different [[One-Winged Angel]] forms (and a whole lot of HP).

* All enemies and [[Player Character|player characters]] in ''[[Brave Story]]'' have "healthy" and "weak" forms, for when their HP drop below 20%.

 

* Just about every ''enemy'' in the sadly-obscure shooter ''[[Einhander]]'', provided they take more than one shot to kill. The very first miniboss, in fact, has a weapon in each arm that you can destroy. It then pulls out a two-handed energy rifle. Blow that up, and it retreats. Blow up its propulsion source, and it falls to the ground while throwing out parting shots.

 

* While not an enemy, the normal ax in ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' gets more and more cracked as you use it, until it finally breaks.

* In ''[[Star Trek Starfleet Command]]'', if too many phaser hits got through your shields you'd start leaking glowy purple plasma trails. In the sequels, you'd see scorch marks, electrical cracklies, and bits of your ship on fire.

 

* ''UFC Undisputed'' shows damage through bruising, bloody noses, and cuts on the face. Land a solid punch and you can open a gash across your opponent's cheek.

* Every fighter in ''[[Punch-Out!!]] Wii'', including Little Mac, will show all manners of bruises and bandages as they come closer to getting KO'd.

** The original NES game also had it, showing the battered characters inbetween rounds.

 

* ''Unknown Armies'' for a tabletop example. Players do not keep track of how many hit points they have left. Instead the GM does it and tells them how wounded they are, eventually giving them penalties due to the pain of their wounds.

 

* Vehicles in ''[[Saints Row]]'' demonstrate this quite well. Ramming things damages your bumper, shooting the tyres makes the wheels spark as you drive, and you can snipe off doors or panels with the right weapons.

* Same for the later ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games, especially ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV|IV]]''.