Health is the basic part of life that most humans are conscious of. "How am I feeling? What’s that lump on my arm? Do I need to go to the doctor?" All of these thoughts can cross through a person’s mind daily. Well, thankfully, health in video games is a lot simpler.
Whether a game represents a life force through a health bar, a bunch of numbers, or a group of hearts, most players can understand what’s going on. These other examples are a bit different though and tried to shake things up. Should more games attempt these health systems, or should they stay unique to these eight examples instead?
8 Broforce
The core game is a lot like early run and gun shooters like Contra except that heroes only had one life. Once dead, they would randomly be replaced with another hero until all other backups were killed. So, this replacement system was kind of like the health bar.
The fun thing about the game was that the names were parodies based on famous action films such as Rambro, Bro Hard, and Brade. Broforce is a great game to talk about now because it just received its final patch. The Broforce Forever update added new content and heroes such as Broffy the Vampire Slayer and Desperabro.
7 Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country has a health system similar to Broforce. There were two playable Kong characters, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, with Donkey Kong being the default hero. Once one took a hit, they would run away, so at max players could only get hit twice before defeat.
While the characters changed between sequels on the SNES, the life bar remained the same. It was changed in the reboot on Wii, Donkey King Country Returns when Retro Studios added a heart meter to the game.
6 EarthBound
EarthBound was a weird turn-based RPG on the SNES that followed a lot of traditional mechanics. Special abilities cost points, PP, and health were represented by HP. There was a twist to HP though to make it stand out.
So, let’s say the main character, Ness, had 50 HP and got hit with an attack that cost 50 HP. His life points would not drop immediately and would instead tick down until they reached the correct number over time. To prevent his death, players could heal Ness with magic or an item to cancel out the damage. This is true for the overall Mother series too.
5 Fallout 3
Fallout 3 was a big reboot for the Fallout series that transformed the tactical RPG gameplay into a shooter. Players had an overall health meter and once it dropped to zero, that was it. However, that life bar was a total of the player’s body parts such as all four limbs, the torso, and the head.
If HP dropped to zero on the right arm, that would affect combat such as dropping accuracy down. Radiation sickness also came into play and too much exposure could mutate players if they didn’t get treated.
4 Prince Of Persia (2008)
Prince of Persia, the 2008 version, was like the third reboot of the Ubisoft franchise. It starred a new Prince who was accompanied by a mysterious mage named Elika. Together, they adventured into the surrounding deserts to hopefully restore vegetation to the kingdom.
There was a lot of parkour action in the game and it was easy to fall off of cliffs. However, The Prince could not die as Elika would always use magic to rescue him. The same was true in combat, so there was no real way for players to die or lose unless they just quit the game entirely.
3 Rogue Legacy
Rogue Legacy is a roguelike action game with a standard health bar represented by HP. The death system is where things got interesting. Once dead, that was it for that particular character. Players would then restart their campaign with a new heir to the cursed family and stats were randomized.
Some overall stats and items carry over though based on upgrades made to the family castle. This sense of progression is what helped Rogue Legacy stand out as a roguelike in aaa and in many ways revolutionized the genre.
2 Superman Returns
Superman Returns was not seen by many as a good game when it was released in 2006 for PS2, DS, Xbox, and Xbox 360. It was a tie-in action game that was made alongside the movie. The Xbox 360 version was the lead platform and it at least tried to do something unique for a game based on the famous superhero.
Like the comics, Superman was invincible and could not die. There was a health meter though, but it pertained to Metropolis. If the city took too much damage then it was game over.
1 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was the first major platformer to have Yoshi as the protagonist. The various Yoshi dinosaurs were invincible like Superman, but Baby Mario was not. If players got hit then Baby Mario would go into a bubble and start crying.
Players had ten seconds to grab Baby Mario before he was snatched up by Kamek's underlings. That baby cry is still horrific to this day but haunting cries aside, the game overall is one of the best-looking on the SNES.