Games that Taunt You
I’ve been playing a lot of Super Punch-Out lately, and finding the skills I had a decade ago have gone a bit rusty. Currently, I’m trapped on the third round of fighters and getting a non-stop beatdown by Irish stereotype Aran Ryan–and there’s no offensive stereotypes present to distract me from my suckitude. Maybe if Ryan was a stumbling drunk covered in four-leaf clovers and Blarney Stones I could at least be entertained by Nintendo’s ethnic insensitivity, but at the moment I can only watch him taunt me after my brief minutes of fighting end in utter misery.
And that brings us to the topic of today’s post, as Super Punch-Out is not alone in mocking the player’s failure to push the right buttons. But it may be one of the few games where a flagrant display of disrespect is actually a motivating factor. With the Punch-Out series–the first one did this, too–being mocked for your lousy skills allows you to channel your hatred into a single (fictional) person, making your eventual triumph much sweeter in the end. This technique is obviously a hold-over from arcade games (like the original Punch-Outs) that used this technique to pry more quarters out of your sweaty pockets. But sometimes, being laughed at for video game ineptitude can be more of a de-motivational factor than an inspiration to keep on truckin’.
Take Chrono Trigger, for instance; anyone who’s died during one of the many possible encounters with Lavos, the game’s biggest, baddest space urchin, can attest to the bring-downitude of Trigger’s “game over” screen. Your inability to beat this final boss is rewarded with a brief scene of Lavos practically destroying the world in 1999 A.D., leaving you with a shot of a ruined planet paired with the words “But… The future refused to change.”
And for as cheesy as it was, the game over screen of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was just as distressing; sure, a shot of some pre-rendered bones isn’t exactly nightmare fuel, but there’s just something about it that makes me want to crawl into bed and go all Brian Wilson.
So, fellow 61FPSers, have there been any memorable post-game over moments that either inspired you to keep playing, or made you bury your controller in the nearest wall?
Related Links:
Give Super Punch-Out a Chance
Warning: Wii Punch-Out!! Might Just Kill You
Georges St Pierre’s Punch-Out!!
Tags: bob mackey, chrono trigger, game over screens, punch out, super punch out, virtual console
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself. 
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines.
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Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
The Snake, snake, SNAKE!! made me want to respawn everytime, and reassure everyone that I was ok! from MGS2
Either Banjo Kazooie or Final Fight. Combining a countdown timer with the impending doom of a lady in peril is the ultimate in effective taunts.
What’s a “game over screen”? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
The arcade Ninja Gaiden’s game over screen always made me want to pump in more quarters, not to keep playing, but to avoid the timer ticking down and the gruesome conclusion that awaited.