Highlights
- Game Over screens in the Batman: Arkham series show villains gloating over the fallen Dark Knight, adding a heavy and iconic touch.
- the Ninja Gaiden arcade game over screen features demons tying down the protagonist and bringing a circular saw toward his chest, giving players 10 seconds to save him.
People can’t play a new game perfectly from scratch. Even with Tips and a walkthrough they can miss key points or items, make mistakes, or die to difficult Bosses. Then, if they don’t save or have enough time or credits, that’s it. Game Over.
Game Over screens are usually pretty simple, with many games sticking to a black screen with words on it. Others went further, showing the grave consequences players left from their foul-ups. Here are some of the darkest game over screens.
8 Batman: Arkham series
The game over screens in the Batman: Arkham series have become iconic in their own right. Batman is supposed to be the more human, vulnerable hero compared to Superman, Wonder Woman et al. So, if he were to fall, he would have his rogue’s gallery gloating over him. Still, some of them got heavy as they outright stated that they killed The Dark Knight.
Penguin thinks of selling his cowl in Arkham Origins. Alfred mourns him in Arkham Knight, while the titular foe forces the dying Caped Crusader to look back at him face to face. Arkham City’s Hugo Strange is all too happy to dissect his fallen foe. Even the first game, Arkham Asylum, had Scarecrow destroy his mind, Killer Croc eats him, and Bane snaps his back (again). It’s probably a good thing they made some funny ones too to soften the edge a little.
7 Theme Park
Created by Peter Molyneux and future DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, Theme Park has nowadays faded next to the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon. It’s a shame as it had an edge that Tycoon and its sequels lacked. Sure, it was about the player making and managing their theme park, but they could be as unscrupulous as they liked.
For example, they could jack up the salt on the fries to make the visitors thirstier for drinks. They could save extra money by giving them soda that’s 90% ice to save cash, or coffee that’s 90% caffeine to make them ride faster and leave sooner to allow more visitors. Anything to avoid the game over screen, where the reflected picture frame of the manager’s happy family shows them making a premature exit from a high-up window.
6 The Punisher
Arcade beat ‘em ups was another genre that squeezed players for their pennies. Final Fight infamously tied Haggar, Cody, and Guy to a chair next to a stick of dynamite. If players didn’t put a quarter or two in to cut the fuse, the heroes would get blown to smithereens. As harsh as that is, it’s not quite as stark as Capcom’s later brawler The Punisher.
If Frank Castle and/or Nick Fury failed in their journey to stop the Kingpin, they’d be left receiving CPR from their sidekick's Microchip, Alexander Pierce, and Kathleen Neville. Once the countdown reached 0, the first-aiders would cry in horror as their patient flatlines. There’s no blood or explosions, but the Punisher/Nick Fury are dead either way.
5 Ninja Gaiden
It’s not often that someone can say The Punisher is the more subtle option. But its game over screen is comparatively understated next to Ninja Gaiden. The arcade game was a different beast from the NES one, as Hayabusa and an unnamed orange ninja (maybe Dead or Alive’s Hayate?) fought against the Cult of Nostradamus.
Gameplay-wise, it couldn’t beat its NES equivalent. It was pretty ropey compared to the other late 1980s big hits like Double Dragon too. But if the player ran out of lives, demons would tie Hayabusa down and bring a circular saw down toward his chest. Players had 10 seconds to stick another coin in the slot to save him and keep going. Otherwise, he’d be down for the count permanently.
4 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
This one likely needs no introduction, but the list would be incomplete without it. Being a console game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask didn’t press players for the coin to keep going. They just had to be good at time management as they completed each quest. It wasn’t particularly difficult either as they could warp back to the dawn of the first day if push came to shove.
This is because, as Link, they had to save the town of Termina and the surrounding world from their freaky-faced moon, which is due to crash into it in 3 days, getting closer each time. If Link screws up or the final hour of the final day is reached, the moon finally hits and destroys everything, including Link himself. Luckily the Happy Mask Salesman can reset the clock to bring everything back, but it’s a longer, more harrowing process than keeping an eye on the time and keeping the ocarina ready.
3 Haunting Ground
Capcom is capable of horrifically graphic deaths. Resident Evil has a few bloody examples from getting swallowed whole to getting a chainsaw through the chest cavity. Though those are more gruesome kills than game overs, as the subsequent screen is usually the same old text on a background. Haunting Ground, a survival horror that spun off from an old build of Resident Evil 4, stuck to subtlety.
It saw Fiona and that dog trying to escape a creepy castle full of stalking horrors. If they caught up to the poor girl, then it left the horror to the imagination. Players would get the typical screen, but it’d be set to the sounds of Fiona’s screaming followed by the nasty, crunchy, fleshy sounds of mangling. Sometimes people don’t need to see the results to feel their skin crawl.
2 Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill stood out as one of the best, if not THE best, survival horror games because it made players feel the stress of survival in a horror story. In Silent Hill, there were no big guns, rocket launchers, or other bombastic elements like in Resident Evil. Just a host of freaky, incomprehensible monsters, shocking lore that held them all together, and set pieces that set people’s nerves on edge.
Silent Hill 3 put its lead, Heather, through the ringer. She could die to a monster, a ritual, or a train among other threats. If she died in the later stages of the game, her body would get dragged away by a weird figure called Valtiel. It stalks Heather through most of the game, but it never attacks her. So, why would he need her body? The lore eventually explains why, and it’s no better than the player’s guesses up to that point. Just that the town’s cult will have its goddess one way or another.
1 Grange Hill
So, how can an old microcomputer game based on a British kid's show match that? Grange Hill was about the ins & outs of a secondary school (a combined junior high & high school) in London. It dealt with a variety of issues in a rough but realistic manner. For example, while Saved by the Bell used caffeine pills for its anti-drugs special episode, Grange Hill saw one of its pupils narrowly survive a heroin overdose.
The Spectrum game cooled things down to a simpler plot about a student trying to get their confiscated stereo back. On their way around the school, they’ll meet a shifty man trying to sell them some white powder. The player has to say no to move on. But if they say yes, they get a grim description of the dealer and the transaction (“He is dead, and soon you will be too”). It's one way to drive home an anti-drug message.