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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Lt. Saavik:''' [[Permission to Speak Freely?|Permission to speak candidly, sir.]]
'''Admiral Kirk:''' Granted.
'''Saavik:''' I don't believe this was a fair test of my command abilities.
'''Kirk:''' And why not?
'''Saavik:''' Because... there was no way to win.
'''Kirk:''' A no-win situation is a possibility every commander may face. [...] [[Arc Words|How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life]], wouldn't you say?
'''Saavik:''' (stiffly) As I indicated, Admiral, that thought had not occured to me.
'''Kirk:''' Well, now you have something new to think about. Carry on.
|Informal debriefing from the former [[Trope Namer]] exam, "Kobayashi Maru", in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''}}
Our hero is executing an impossible mission. It's full of action and adventure, and he gets to show off how heroic he is, but at the last minute, something unexpected goes badly -- [[Diabolus Ex Machina|often ridiculously so]]. The killer robot swoops down to off [[The Hero]] and...
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Such a scene shows that the character is not invincible but has a critical flaw which might lead to his demise later without actually affecting the [[Plot]]. This will cause additional suspense later on when the character inevitably gets into a similar "real" situation and must show that he overcame this flaw (or is able to [[Take a Third Option|find a clever workaround]] for it).
The former [[Trope Namer]] is the training simulation shown in the first scenes of ''[[Star Trek II:
An
Occasionally, this will be subverted in that the character ''will'' win the scenario, by 'cheating' (which is how Kirk in both ''[[Star Trek II:
A type of [[False Crucible]]. See also [[Endless Game]] and [[Secret Test of Character]]. If the simulation becomes legitimately dangerous, that's a [[Holodeck Malfunction]]. If the simulation was legitimately dangerous all along, it's [[Deadly Training Area]]. If the situation is not a simulation, but instead a real life situation where the character is set up to fail, it may be [[A Lesson in Defeat]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'': In the Vegeta saga, Kami used a simulation to introduce Kuririn, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu and Yajirobe to the capabilities of Saiyans.
* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'', when Sara trains for sub-lightspeed permission.
* Many times in the ''[[.hack|.hack//]]'' series, although they're in a virtual world to begin with.
* Somewhat used in the second ''[[
* Used once in [[Outlaw Star]], where Gene goes through several launch simulations. Each time, something goes badly wrong as a test to see how he's react in unanticipated situations. Needless to say, it pissed him off, and the first launch went perfectly...Well, if you don't count the thousands of dollars worth of damage he caused to the landing dock, that is.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' doesn't use it, but in one interview the show's director offered a
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' the titular ship has landed on the surface above an underground refugee camp and Captain Yurika Misumaru attempts to save everyone underground, but the ship is crippled and she must face the choice of taking off and retreating (thus causing the ground to collapse and kill everyone below) or the ship itself getting blown up; only it's ''not'' a training simulation. Lest the series end early, she chooses to retreat.
* ''[[Crest of the Stars|Banner of the Stars]]'' opens with a fierce battle which results in the [[Main Character|main characters]]' ship being destroyed. It turns out it was a mock engagement.
== Comic Books ==
* Try to count how many times the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] did this in their Danger Room. Between the comics and cartoons, Wolverine has had his butt kicked by simulated robots in order to learn an important lesson at least once per [[Story Arc]].
{{quote|
* This appears in one of the flashback sequences of ''[[Ex Machina]]'', with Bradbury and Kremlin acting as well-equipped robbers to test out Mitchell's equipment and reflexes.
* ''[[Star Trek
* Played with in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]''. Herr Starr must take unarmed combat lessons with an instructor infamous for badly injuring students on the first day. Starr “beats” him by shooting him in both knees. Perhaps not a straight example though as while it supposed to be an unwinnable situation it was never officially sanctioned.
* Many [[Fan Fiction]] writers have written their take on how they would win the ''Kobayashi Maru'' scenario, but very few have felt as within the realm of the possible as [http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=71&forum=DCForumID24&omm=15&viewmode= "The Final Simulation
▲== Fan Fiction ==
** Science officer Saavik (the [[Star Trek III:
▲* Many [[Fan Fiction]] writers have written their take on how they would win the ''Kobayashi Maru'' scenario, but very few have felt as within the realm of the possible as "The Final Simulation," a mini-story featured in the [http://www.eyrie.net/ Eyrie Productions] universe, ''[[Undocumented Features]]''. In this story, Ben Hutchins' [[Author Avatar]], Gryphon, captains the simulated ''Enterprise'' through the encounter with Klingons menacing the wayward fuel carrier with a plan to beat the "no-win scenario." Monitoring them are Admirals Christopher Pike (the original Jeffrey Hunter version) and Roger Cartwright (from the classic ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Trek]]'' movies) as he and his crew pull off the ultimate Starfleet Academy stunt - outsmarting the scenario '''without cheating'''. Aiding him are fellow Starfleet cadets from a wide range of sources:
** Orion navigator Gaila comes from the [[Star Trek (
▲** Science officer Saavik (the [[Star Trek III the Search For Spock (Film)|Robin]] [[Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (Film)|Curtis]] incarnation), helmsman John Harriman (before his stint as captain of the ''Enterprise-B'' in ''[[Star Trek Generations (Film)|Star Trek Generations]]'') and engineer Peter Preston (''[[Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan (Film)|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'') come from the classic ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Trek]]'' movies.
▲** Orion navigator Gaila comes from the [[Star Trek (Film)|2009 ''Trek'' movie reboot]], as does the inspiration for their transporter officer - {{spoiler|Valentina Andre'evna Chekova, the imagined daughter of the new movie's Pavel Chekov}}.
** Tactical Officer Winston Zeddemore (yep, from ''[[Ghostbusters]]'').
* A Warhammer/Mass Effect crossover called Hammerfall has a Space Marine trying to beat one of these. The AI tries to persuade him that "winning" the simulation is impossible, since it has no ends and simply keeps spawning more and more (and more powerful) enemies until you die. The point is to die as late as possible.
== Film ==
* The former [[Trope Namer]] was the "Kobayashi Maru" training scenario seen in ''[[Star Trek II:
** Responses to the scenario are varied, with several characters improvising solutions but losing anyway (Scotty, for instance, used a physics trick that worked on paper but not in the real world; the computer's response was to spawn more ships than the entire Klingon fleet ''had''). Only [[The Kirk|James T. Kirk]] ever defeated it, and that was by [[Take a Third Option|reprogramming the simulation beforehand]] so that the Klingons would be respectful of the reputation he intended to have. Computer cheats? [[The Kirk|Kirk]] cheats back. (According to semi-canonical novels by [[William Shatner|Shatner]] himself, the test later becomes used to encourage this sort of outside-the-box thinking.)
*** Other ''[[
*** In [[Star Trek (
*** As [[The Kirk|Kirk]] himself says in the 2009 reboot, "It depends on how you define 'winning', doesn't it?"
** The novels had Sulu go the diplomatic route, the most
*** Two characters ''deliberately'' blew it up, [[Star Trek: New Frontier|one]] rationalizing that either it was screwed to hell anyway, or that it was actually working with the enemy to lure him into a trap. The other was completely apathetic to the plight of the Maru's crew, and simply exploited the ship's volatile cargo to win the fight with the Klingons.
*** Scotty in the [[Expanded Universe]] is mentioned to have beaten it by constantly improvising new and ingenious engineering solutions, forcing the computer to respond by amping up the stakes, leading Scotty to perform yet another off-the-cuff fix and so forth. This kept Scotty and the Computer at a stalemate for ''hours'' until it was shut down by the Examiners who determined that the only way that the Computer could ''potentially'' beat Scotty would be if he spent ''[[Determinator|several days]]'' of outwitting it before collapsing out of sheer exhaustion.
*** [[The Spock|Spock]] comments in ''[[Star Trek II:
*** One of the novels has [[The Kirk|Kirk's]] nephew {{spoiler|save the ship by [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrificing himself]], challenging the enemy commander (Romulan rather than Klingon in this version) to single combat and having the ''Enterprise'' beam off the ''Kobayashi Maru'' crew and run away while he fights to the death. The admiral in command assumes he must have cheated like his uncle, but [[The Spock|Spock]] explains that it all would've worked. It's just that Peter Kirk knew far more about Romulan culture (including a challenge that - if properly given - is punishable by death to refuse, even if issued by a non-Romulan) than a cadet normally would.}}
*** A recent ''[[Star Trek
** Referenced in ''[[Dog Soldiers]]'', when a platoon on a training exercise finds out their "opponents" have bugged their communications: "It's the Kobayashi Maru test - they've fixed it so we can't fucking win!"
* ''[[Apollo 13]]:'' "If I had a dollar for every time they killed me in this thing (the simulator), I wouldn't have to work for you, Deke."
** In [[Real Life]], initially, the only rule the simulation supervisors had was that they couldn't throw a Kobayashi Maru situation at the astronauts and [[Mission Control]]; the logic was that a no-win scenario would simply demoralize the team to no good purpose. There had to be at least one solution; however, there was no rule stating that the solution had to be obvious or logical or even remotely fair, just that there had to be a point where the controllers and astronauts could be shown: "This is where you screwed up; now learn from it." In the aftermath of Apollo 13, they realized that if they'd been thrown that particular scenario (total loss of oxygen and power in the command/service module), it would have been rejected as [[Unwinnable]]; from Apollo 14 forwards, the new rule for simulation disaster scenarios was: "anything goes".
*** They did, however, go through a variation of the "lunar lifeboat" procedure in at least one training scenario, where there was a pressure drop (but not a loss of power) in the command module, which helped when things went to pot on the actual flight.
* The Agent training scenario in ''[[The Matrix]]''. ("Were you listening to me, Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?") Even Neo is fooled into thinking it was the real thing. The scenario is designed to always end with the trainee's death, because a human ''cannot'' beat an Agent. The only recourse when faced with one is to attempt escape, and even that is iffy at best.
* The virtual reality wargaming scenes in ''[[Avalon (film)|Avalon]]''.
* The beginning of ''[[The Avengers (1998
* Used at the very beginning of ''[[
* ''[[Sherlock Holmes]] A Game of Shadows''. Sherlock is capable of deducing what an opponent would do in response to his own actions, simulating entire fistfights in his head before committing to them. When he concludes the final fight is unwinnable, {{spoiler|he just jumps off the balcony taking his opponent with him}}.
* In ''Moving Violations'', the corrupt judge and policeman set up an unwinnable driving course to ensure the traffic-school students will all fail, allowing the pair to sell off their cars and keep the money.
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Acts of Caine
* "The two .38s roared simultaneously". [[James Bond]] concludes something like this in the first chapter of ''Moonraker'', which is basically a quick-drawing contest. He puts the other "guy" (a cardboard target) in hospital, but is "killed".
** A wrinkle is that no student is ever told any other student's score, and is never told the exact time they took to draw—merely whether or not they hit the target and whether or not the simulator hit them. This is to keep students from comparing scores, or keeping track of their own exact time, and realizing that the machine's speed is set to where it is entirely beyond the limits of human reaction time to actually beat the machine to the draw.
* This occurs several times in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', especially the ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'' books. As in [[Real Life]], cockpit-shaped simulators are essential tools for fighter pilot training - but here, holographic and gravity-altering technology makes the simulations ''much'' more realistic. They get used for all kinds of things, from training to testing new tactics to teamwork-building exercises, and they tend to be either this trope or [[Fictional Video Game]]. There are even a few times when the one in the simulator [[Training Accident|doesn't know it's a sim]].
** Most notably, the opening of the first ''[[X Wing Series|Star Wars X-Wing]]'' book by Michael A. Stackpole has a literal unwinnable simulation, popularly called the [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Redemption_scenario Requiem scenario]. In it, a flight of four X-wings must protect an Alliance corvette called the ''Korolev'' from waves of TIE fighters and bombers (flown by other pilots rather than the AI). Also, only two of the X-Wings could engage the
*** This training mission was based on [[Scrappy Level|a mission in the]] [[Star Wars: X-Wing|X-Wing game]], which basically couldn't be beaten unless the player focused on killing every TIE Bomber the very instant it appeared.
** Another book, ''[[Death Star]]'', has a pilot compulsively replaying a simulation that had been made from a scan of one of the top fighter pilots. Even as a simulation, the top pilot kept gunning down the compulsive pilot within seconds, but this pilot was pleased to note that he was lasting a couple seconds more than when he'd started.
*** Later in the book, that same top pilot is said to have engaged in a practice fighter duel with [[Improbable Piloting Skills|Darth Vader]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|and lasted about the same amount of time]]. The viewpoint pilot, who'd seen it and been morbidly fascinated, swore that if ''he'' was ever in Vader's sights, he'd just overload his engines and kill himself.
* In the novel ''Reach'' by Edward Gibson the Wayfarer 2 astronauts are approaching their destination when one looks out the window to find they're about to collide with...his house! It turns out they're in the simulator, and the people running it were trying to demonstrate the importance of staying focused even when something unexpected happens.
* Mentioned in one of the ''[[
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'': Pretty much all of the games in the school when Ender is given his own team are designed to be unwinnable. {{spoiler|Of course, he wins them all.}}
** Also inverted at the end, when {{spoiler|Ender discovers all the "simulations" were actual space battles. The deception was crucial because the final "simulation" was unwinninable by any conventional means. Ender, thinking that it was all just a game and that he nothing to lose, destroys the enemy homeworld by sacrificing his own fleet in a kamikaze attack. When he finds out that he ordered ''actual'' soldiers to their deaths - as well as utterly destroying an entire alien race - Ender feels incredibly guilty.}}
** The battle school also has a fantasy game that all the children play (used to monitor their psychological development and stability). Within this game is a section called "The Giant's Drink". A giant offers the [[Player Character]] a choice of two drinks, claiming one is poison and the other leads to Fairyland. Of course, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|no matter what the player chooses]], they die [[The Many Deaths of You|a gruesome death]]. {{spoiler|Ender ultimately confounds this, forcing the game to invent entirely new sections that had never existed before and generally freaking out the [[Powers That Be]].}}
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* In [[The Culture]] novel ''Surface Detail'' a protagonist in an Orbital militia does one of these and complains that it serves no purpose.
* In addition to its original appearance, the Kobayashi Maru simulation is found or mentioned in a number of ''[[Star Trek:
▲== Live Action TV ==
** The holodeck in general made for a convenient and simple premise for a lot of invocations of this trope in many of the series. In the ''[[Star Trek
▲* In addition to its original appearance, the Kobayashi Maru simulation is found or mentioned in a number of ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episodes. (''TNG'' also includes fresh instances and variations of the trope; for instance, the Bridge Officer qualification test on the Holodeck in the episode "Thine Own Self", in which Troi realizes that she can only succeed if she {{spoiler|1=orders holographic LaForge to his death}}).
** ''[[Star Trek
▲** The holodeck in general made for a convenient and simple premise for a lot of invocations of this trope in many of the series. In the ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' episode ''The Magnificent Ferengi'' where the Ferengi are shown in a botched attempt to rescue Quark and Rom's mother, in which she ends up being shot by one of her rescuers, before it is revealed that they are practicing for the real thing, in a holosuite.
▲** ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek Voyager]]'' is particularly guilty of someone dying in a [[Batman Cold Open]] only to be revealed as a simulation that you could make a drinking game out of it.
*** The failed invasion of a Borg ship to steal some [[Phlebotinum]] that leads to Borg storming the ''Voyager'' proves to be a simulation. Also, "Learning Curves" subverts the No Win Scenario with a test similar, but not identical to, the original Kobayashi Maru is used by Tuvok when assigned to instruct some unruly ex-Maquis in the Starfleet way. It ends the way the original Kobayashi did. However, Tuvok suggests that the test is built with a victory condition: retreating. had they tried to run they'd have lived and passed, while [[Stupid Sacrifice|dying pointlessly]] helped no one.
*** Tuvok provides an interesting twist in the episode
*** [[Fridge Logic]]: Why is it so easy to remove all safety locks but [[Are These Wires Important?|so hard to just turn it off?]]
*** "Threshold" starts off with Tom Paris trying to break the Warp 10 limit in a shuttle. As he reaches Warp 9.95 the nacelles are ripped off and the shuttle explodes. Paris appears sitting on the holodeck floor and B'Elanna Torres says "You're dead." How they were able to program a simulation for what would happen at Warp 10 without any data one what happens when you approach Warp 10 is unclear, but that's the least of the problems the infamous episode has.
** Mackenzie Calhoun found an interesting way to get through the Kobayashi Maru in ''[[Expanded Universe|Stone And Anvil]]'': {{spoiler|he gives the orders to destroy the ship himself.}}
** There is also a Super Nintendo videogame based on Starfleet command training. One of the missions the player must complete is the actual Kobayashi Maru scenario, and it
*** It's worth noting that while you can't save the Kobayashi Maru, you can prevent its destruction indefinitely if you're good enough. Unfortunately as the enemy infinitely respawns there's very little point.
** Proving that Starfleet isn't blind to all those "How I Flunked The ''Kobayashi Maru'' Test" stories circulating among cadets, Wesley Crusher on TNG was subjected to a different kind of simulated no-win scenario during his Academy training. A faked "accident" left two technicians trapped in a room that would soon flood with radiation, and Wesley was given time to save only one of them. Unable to talk the more terrified man into moving, he helped the injured one to safety and reluctantly left the other behind. Unlike the traditional test this was just for entrance into the academy, and designed to make him face what they had determined was his greatest fear (being in the situation Picard had faced when unable to save Wesley's father on an away mission).
*** His encounter in the books led to a disaster in Boogeymen.
** The episode of TNG in which Picard, Crusher, and Worf storm a Cardassian base also uses this.
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is fond of this one, using it in episodes of ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]'' ("Trial by Fire"), ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' ("There's No 'I' In Team"), ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' ("Beginnings"), and ''[[
** "Gung-Ho" from MMPR is a very interesting
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' does it with "Avatar", wherein Teal'c is trapped in a training simulation designed to learn from him and become harder to beat as a result. It did this by either spawning enemies right around corners to shoot him, spawning new enemies after the conditions of the simulation had been beaten, and adding factors to make the enemies harder to beat. It took Daniel being added in as an ally (with the ability to see the future as a cheat) for the computer to finally give Teal'c a victory scenario.
** Worse, it turns out {{spoiler|it was a reverse-[[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]] scenario. Since Teal'c's mind was driving the game, it turns out that Teal'c had to ''believe'' he'd won}} or every time, he'd find that [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]] and would change the rules on him. And he {{spoiler|could ''never'' see the battle against the Goa'uld finally being over.}}
** ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' has a blatant one in Progeny where
** ''[[
* ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]''{{context}}
* ''[[MacGyver]]'', multiple times ("Lost Love", "The Survivors").
* In the short-lived series ''Heist'', a cliffhanger has professional thief Mickey locking himself in a vault to motivate his team members to figure out how to open it quickly before he suffocates. The next episode begins with the team members apparently failing to unlock the vault in time, only for Mickey to yell at them and for the camera to reveal the giant hole they had cut in the vault to get him out.
* In ''[[The Listener]]'', paramedic main character Toby and his partner get stuck while trying to reach a woman with a head wound. She is annoyed, but amused; if it hadn't been an exam, she could have died.
* In ''[[Leverage]]'', it is mentioned that a master hacker with the handle "Chaos" is referred to as the Kobayashi Maru by CIA and NSA computer specialists, in reference to the fact that Chaos' hacking methods are unstoppable.
** Becomes a [[Shout
** The scene where this is revealed could also be viewed as a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] for that episode.
* In ''[[CSI]]'', David Hodges also mentions that he called his cat Kobayashi Maru (affectionately known as 'Kobe' or 'Mr. K').
* The third season premiere of ''[[Chuck]]''.{{context}}
* Happened a few times in ''[[ER]]''. Abby was working with a dying patient, with [[Dr. Jerk|Romano]] briskly telling at her to move faster, only for the patient to die. Then, just as Romano solemnly and brutally told her that the patient was dead, the camera swivelled around to show us that the patient was a dummy.
** Another time was when Sam and a much taller, muscular man were yelling at each other when suddenly the man tackled Sam to the ground, where we can see that there are mats on the ground. Turns out it was a training session for nurses to deal with violent patients.
* One episode of ''[[Cleopatra 2525]]'' featured a variant of this trope where one character had to learn the nearly impossible route and hazards of a rescue mission using a virtual reality simulator (in time to actually make the run and save a teammate). Of course, nobody bothers to tell her it's a simulation the first time so for her the trope is in effect like she's in the audience until she fails and sees her friend die before the simulation resets.
* An episode of ''[[JAG]]'' ends with Harm crashing on a carrier landing. Turns out Harm was running a simulation of the doomed flight of the Defendant of The Week. It's implied that Harm's run the simulation several times, crashed every time, and went down with the jet, rather than eject, every time.
* In the blow-off for
== Video Games ==
* Arguably the most famous cutscene from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] [[Crisis Core]]'' involves a [[Melee a Trois]] between Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth. Everybody was just plain fighting when Genesis entered [[Let's Get Dangerous]] mode and Sephiroth started ''slicing off the Sister Ray'' in retaliation (they were fighting on top of it). During the climax, Angeal's sword broke off blocking Genesis's attack, the piece cuts Genesis' shoulder, and the "sky" came off as bright color pieces. It was all just a training simulator.
** Not to mention how the game itself begins with one of these, with Zack and Angeal on a simulated mission to the Sector 1 train station ([[Continuity Nod|which was not entirely unlike that of the original game...]]). At least it explains [[Violation of Common Sense|why Zack was acting so casual with a dozen soldiers firing machine guns at him...]] At the end of the mission he engages Sephiroth who viciously and effortlessly defeats him, only for Angeal to end the simulation as Sephiroth holds his sword business-edge over Zack's face.
* ''[[James Bond]]'' likes this trope. The first mission in ''[[
** Which is entirely silly for so many reasons, including the fact that the death wasn't really caused by him (IIRC, Bond is hanging on to a ledge and falls) and getting fired caused the agent to turn evil.
*** Specifically, the helicopter was shot down and crashed through the roof of Fort Knox. Bond was barely hanging from the hanging chopper, and Goldeneye was too far to reach out to him. He had no choice but to let the craft fall on Bond.
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* ''[[Space Quest]] V'' opens with Roger Wilco at the helm of a spaceship facing a dire red alert situation (a direct homage to the Kobayashi Maru scenario). He's then interrupted by on the viewscreen by an actual captain who tells him to stop messing around in the spaceship simulator and get back to class.
* ''[[Star Trek Elite Force|Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force]]'' couldn't resist: the game opens with you playing as Ensign Munro with an away team on a Borg cube. Then things go horribly wrong and you end up killing yourself and your team mates, only to reveal that's a Holodeck simulation all along. True to form, Tuvok is there to tell you what a sorry excuse for a Starfleet officer you are. Even worse, he tells you, as you board the turbolift, to consider the scenario to be your personal Kobayashi Maru.
** The comic book adaptation has the same scenario, more or less; the holodeck mission is actually combat training, it ends with Munro being unable to shoot his assimilated teammates as they attack him (instead of impatiently blowing up a console like the game), and Tuvok states Munro has even harder training to go through before calling the scenario a Kobayashi Maru. [[Atop the Fourth Wall
* ''Starfleet Academy'' games tend to have the actual Kobayashi Maru as a level. In the old PC version by Interplay, you're given the option to cheat in a similar way to Kirk - in fact, you ''have to'' in order to [[Multiple Endings|get the best ending]]. Your bridge crew's reactions when the Klingons recognize you are priceless.
* One of the "Tales from New Terra" short stories from ''Outpost 2'' opens up with a crew heading to the spaceport to fight a fire. It is later revealed that they are firefighters training in a simulator.
* The ''Starfleet Adventures'' mod for ''[[EV Nova]]'' (based on TOS and the first six movies) has the Kobayashi Maru as the first thing the player does. It was designed to be unbeatable for the player (six D-7s versus one ''Constitution''-class), but some players managed to beat it only to find that [[Unwinnable By Mistake|the dev team hadn't accounted for that]].
* ''[[
** To clarify, the tutorial takes you through all the basics: movement, attacking, defending, counters, items, etc... Then you face your very first boss, who is capable killing you in one hit, no matter what armor you have on, and is very likely to do so... On the off chance that you manage to survive the fight and defeat him, you are transported to another area where a massive (were talking as big as the ''whole frickin room'') delivers a single instant death punch right to your face in a cutscene, resulting in your death.
== Western Animation ==
* An opening sequence on ''[[Batman
* ''[[Kids Next Door]]'', "Operation T.U.R.N.I.P.", where an attack by a hostile mecha turns out to just be Numbuh 3 testing the treehouse defenses.
* The ''[[Legion of Super
** And "The Man From The Edge of Tomorrow: Part 1" opens with Brainiac 5 seemingly [[Ho Yay|dying tragically in Superman's arms]], complete with melodramatic music [[
* ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' does this the most times in its short run, twice forming the plot for the episode. (In the first, Cyclops doesn't want to train against Rogue's simulation, and in the second, the young'uns learn teamwork.)
* The 1990's ''[[X-Men (
* Used in the "Glitter N' Gold" episode of ''[[Jem]]''. Jerrica wants to tell her boyfriend, Rio, that she is Jem's secret identity. She uses Synergy, her hologram-making super-computer to make an illusion of Rio to see what will happen; it goes badly. Synergy assumes that she might be
* ''[[Spider
* ''[[
** Lampshaded when Brian describes it as "a huge middle finger to the viewers."
* The [[Powerpuff Girls]] use a holographic training room in one episode as a [[Shout
* One ''[[Time Squad]]'' episode began with the heroes fighting a pyromaniac George Washington in a training simulation (bizarrely this ''wasn't'' part of the simulation's design: Larry just wanted to see what would happen if they invited "virtual Washington" for a tour of the space station...)
* The episode "Failsafe" of ''[[Young Justice (
* The direct-to-video/pilot episode three-parter "The Adventure Begins" of ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' has this. At Star Command's training deck, Commander Nebula calls Buzz up to watch one of the rookies, Mira, with the intention of making her Buzz's new partner. Mira beats Buzz's level, Level 9, and goes on to Level 10, which is comprised of three huge and presumably impenetrable robots. {{spoiler|Where any normal Ranger, even Buzz (since we never hear that he beat it), would have been blasted to Game Over, Mira succeeds by using her ghosting abilities.}}
* ''[[My Little Pony
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [[Erfworld]]: ''The Battle for Gobwin Knob''
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'' has [http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=538 its own version] of [[Konami Code|how]] Kirk cheated that test in ''Star Trek''.
== Web Original ==
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*** It's turned into a [[Noodle Incident]], but Team Kimba used what Ayla learned in "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" to come up with two ways to win that sim. And apparently, Jade's [[Crazy Awesome]] 'Radioactive Condor Girl' idea ''actually worked''. And completely freaked out the people running the sims.
== Other Media ==▼
▲== Other ==
* A prank puzzle called "The Inescapable Island". The teller begins with "imagine that you are stranded on a tiny little island", then goes on to describe with detail how the surrounding sea is vast and borderless and filled with hungry sharks and how the island is a bare spot of sand with thousands of poisonous scorpions and this and that. Once the situation is inescapeable enough, the teller then asks the victim to find out a way to save themself. The only acceptable solution is along the lines of "stop imagining".
* Part of a typical NASA Astronaut's [[Training
▲== Real life ==
▲* Part of a typical NASA Astronaut's [[Training From Hell]] involves dealing with emergencies in a simulator, though in this case the scenarios used have obscure or complicated solutions, as opposed to no solution at all. The idea here is training the astronauts in Olympic-standard mental gymnastics rather than training them to face death stoically. The latter is [[Danger Deadpan|part of the job description]] anyway.
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