Lampshade Hanging/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* This [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/253819 Zelda spoof] on Newgrounds centers around Link undergoing a [[Chain of Deals]] in order to deliver the mystical Lampshade of No Real Significance to a local temple. (Would it be fair to call this recursive lampshading?)

** Speaking of ''Zelda'', ''[[Spirit Tracks]]'' has Zelda informing Link that his going off into mortal peril while she waits for him to get back with her body is a family tradition. There's a lot more where that came from...

* ''[[Star Wars]]: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy'': at one point, when faced with a [[Locked Door]], Kyle Katarn, [[Genre Savvy|who has been in this kind of game before]], snidely comments to the [[Player Character]], "They always lock the doors. You'd think they'd've learned by now." and later, "The console for opening the door is probably hidden in some room twelve floors up... how does ''that'' make sense?"

** And let's not forget the dialogue at the beginning of the game:

{{quote|'''Saddler:''' Oh, I think you know. The "[[America Saves the Day|American prevailing]]" is a cliché that only happens in your Hollywood movies.}}

*** And then Leon ''[[Nuke'Em|nukes]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|him]]''.

{{quote|'''Chris:''' Do you get all your ideas from comic book supervillains?}}

* ''[[Zork: Grand Inquisitor]]'' lampshaded the [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]. When the player puts a large vacuum on a vending machine, Dalboz comments "Just where were you keeping that?"

* During one of the missions in ''[[Free Space]] 2'', a pilot mutters about how useless their technology had been during the Great War, thirty years before, lampshading the fact that, while in ''Freespace 2'', capital ships will fire all sorts of very large and deadly cannons and lasers, in ''Freespace 1'', during which the Great War takes place, capital ships were for the most part fairly unimpressive moving targets.

* ''[[The Simpsons Game]]'' has you '''collecting''' these for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]].

* ''[[Anachronox]]'' has its TACOs, small boxes with radar dishes, that you collect and get various [[Power-Up|powerups]]. TACO is explained in-game as being a Totally Arbitrary Collectible Object.

* In ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Chaos Theory'', one mission begins with Sam Fisher saying "Don't tell me... Three alarms and the mission is over." to which his superior, Lambert, replies "Of course not. [[This Is Reality|This is no video game]], Fisher." This is taking a jab at the previous games in which missions would frequently end after 3 alarms.

** One of the employees in a tavern in Outlands laments to his employer that he feels as though he's caught in an [[Perpetually Static|unending loop of performing the same meaningless task over and over again]].

** Speaking of ''World of Warcraft'', ''[[My Sims]]'' hangs a lampshade when you move in Arcade Game Owner Vic Vector. When you complete tasks for him, the "flavor text" of each new blueprint reads "This blueprint is soulbound, so try to get rid of it!" "An epic blueprint. Take it, my class can't use it." And for the final task completed... "Vic gives you a rocket wall decorative for your house! An epic mount! Sweet!"

* In ''[[Gears of War]]'', whenever you find a door too thick for your [[Powered Armor]]-clad steroids-overdosed hero to kick down, you have to call a stealthed bot called Jack to cut it. Then you get a tough encounter while the bot is at his business. Every. Single. Time. At one of these points, it gets to the exchange.

{{quote|'''Marcus:''' I'll call JACK.

* What about ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon]]''? One of the lines in the intro is "You got to be fucking kidding me. This is why nobody takes us seriously. Military clones?"

** Also on the [[Redshirt Army]] treatment of the SFOD-D. ''F.E.A.R.'''s credits include the line "No Delta Force Operatives were harmed in the making of this game.")

** ''Project Origin'' also does this, when Snake Fist introduces his ridiculous codename. Stokes' response is a blunt "... you've got to be fucking kidding me." Made all the more amusing by the fact that the characters would ''recognize'' the Snake Fist codename; apparently, its a popular series of action movies in the setting.

** Snake Fist was originally one of the entries in a competition Monolith ran when licensing problems were stopping them from using ''F.E.A.R.'' (someone at the Monolith offices even made a drawing of a snake with it's mouth wide open and a fist coming out of it). Guess it was a bit of a favourite for the devs.

* In ''[[Strange Journey]]'', when talking to Jack Frosts, they may ask if you scare them. One of the options is "I'm not scared of a mascot." Even better, you can also say this to Pyro Jack, who responds "Hey, you've got the wrong Jack!"

* In ''[[Legend of Kay]]'' the player encounters an archaeologist deep down in the dungeons, who comments on how improbable it is that [[Ragnarok Proofing|the machines are still working]], and on the mystery what these periodically-retracting-spikes-and-moving-platforms machines might originally have been constructed for.

* As far as expansions go, ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Dawn of War]]: [[Colon Cancer|Soulstorm]]'' has been called many things; "[[So Bad It's Good|Good]]" not being among them. However, if you play enough of the [[Space Marine]] campaign in ''Dawn of War 2'' you will find that even the Blood Ravens agree, saying "The Kaurava campaign did not go so well." They go so far as to calling it "A blight on our history". At the end of the narrative, the scout sergeant Cyrus claims "Kaurava was a huge mistake. [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again|I will not speak of it again]]." Players couldn't agree more.

* Several characters in ''[[My World, My Way]]'' do this a lot when they give tutorials to players without knowing [[He Knows About Timed Hits|why they say what they said]] (there's a [[Fourth Wall]] for those characters).

*** Max: "It must be one of those stupid 555 phones."

*** Sam: "Yes, actually - 555-1984."

{{quote|'''Falco:''' Fox looks like he's got his hands full.

'''Krystal:''' Yes, he's putting up quite a fight, though.

** There's another part that pokes fun of the long elevator rides during Miranda's mission. As you're starting to ride up an elevator, complete with corny elevator music (from [[Mass Effect 1|ME1]]), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppa8HFG0Jp8 Miranda punches it and asks why it won't go faster.]

** At the end of that elevator ride Captain Enyala lampshades [[Stripperific|Miranda's]] [[Spy Catsuit|outfit]].

** When talking to the asari security officer about Samara's status as a justicar and the rights that affords her, the officer lampshades the [[Planet of Hats|Planet of Hats trope]] when she says that the asari would never question Samara's actions, but "you people can't even figure out your own religions!"

* In Mass Effect 3, {{spoiler|Shepard is on Mars looking for the blueprints to a [[Deus Ex Machina|previously unheard of weapon]] needed to save the galaxy. The Illusive Man contacts Shepard and explains that the blueprints have always been on Mars and promptly blames it on the Alliance for somehow not finding them sooner.}}

{{quote|'''[[G La DOS]]:''' "Did you really think it would be that easy?'''}}

* ''[[House Of The Dead 2]]'' Very subtle example. At the very beginning of Stage Two a car swerves towards you out of control, if you don't shoot the zombie on the bonnet it passes you and crashes into a shop, killing the man inside (and changing the path you take). ''Just'' before you duck inside you get a glimpse of the shop's name. It's called {{spoiler|Curtains}}. Boom, boom, tish.

* In ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'', at the beginning of the ''Swamp Fever'' level, sometimes Ellis complains to Nick about why he shot the helicopter pilot. Then they argue that the pilot was a zombie and that "he wouldn't help us very much" during that time. This seems to be a running joke with the Survivors. This our-pilot-turned-into-a-zombie instance was also lampshaded start of ''Crash Course'' in the first [[Left 4 Dead]].

* In ''[[Rune Factory 3]]'', one of the characters comments that amnesia is extremely common, lampshading the fact that, in all 3 games, the protagonist loses his memory.

{{quote|'''Anaksha:''' *sigh* Here we go again on another treasure hunt! Find this, give it to him, find that, give it to her. Story of my freakin' life!}}

* ''[[X (video game)|X3: Albion Prelude]]'' hangs a shade on ''X3: Terran Conflict's'' [[Fetch Quest|Hub Plot]] and its insane requirements. The scientists you transport to the Hub in ''X3AP'' note that Mahi Ma filled the cargo hold with thousands upon thousands of microchips, referring to the 75,000 microchip requirement in ''TC's'' plot. Afterwards, several crates of microchips are left floating around the Hub.

* The iOS game [[Highborn]] ''[[Better Than a Bare Bulb|really, really ]]'' [[Better Than a Bare Bulb|loves lampshading anything and everything.]]