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Game over
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Game Over is a traditional message in video games which usually signals the game has ended with a negative outcome, and that the player has failed to complete the game. Notably used first in pinball machines and later arcade games, it has since been adopted widely and is now commonly associated with video games in general; however, it has been somewhat replaced over the years with messages such as "You died/You are dead" as seen in Resident Evil or "Wasted" as seen in the Grand Theft Auto series or "Good Night!" in Luigi's Mansion.
phrase was originally used at the end of games, whether the player has won the game or not.
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Encyclopedia
Game Over is a traditional message in video games which usually signals the game has ended with a negative outcome, and that the player has failed to complete the game. Notably used first in pinball machines and later arcade games, it has since been adopted widely and is now commonly associated with video games in general; however, it has been somewhat replaced over the years with messages such as "You died/You are dead" as seen in Resident Evil or "Wasted" as seen in the Grand Theft Auto series or "Good Night!" in Luigi's Mansion.
History
Origin in gaming
The phrase was originally used at the end of games, whether the player has won the game or not. Early devices such as electromechanical pinball machines would light up the phrase with a lamp (lightbulb). This usage was carried over into arcade games. Early video arcade games such as Space Invaders have the phrase "Game Over" simply superimposed on the screen, while more recent games usually have a separate Game Over screen.
Some arcade games additionally used the "Game Over" not only to indicate the end of the game, but also to signify that the game was not currently being played; a flashing "Game Over" would appear over a demo of the game to indicate that it was not in use.
Modern usage
The usage of "Game Over" varies. Most games of today have dropped the usage of "Game Over" for a successful completion of the game, and instead use other ending texts such as "The End" or an outro and credits sequence. "Game Over" is then only used to signify failure, though some series continue to use the phrase for all endings.
With the advance of computing power, modern Game Over screens tend to be more elaborate than mere flashing text. The phrase may be animated and accompanied by graphics. Furthermore, many modern games don't actually use "Game Over" as the failing ending text. For example, the Resident Evil series uses the ending text "You Are Dead" (also used by Total Distortion complete with a song with lyrics to that effect) or "You Died," usually in lettering that resembles bloody slashes or splatters, and the Devil May Cry series further expands upon the concept by using such phrases as "Rest In Peace" or "Your soul is doomed." NiGHTS into Dreams and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams uses the phrase "Night Over." Mortal Kombat 4 and Mortal Kombat Gold contains a gory Game Over sequence where the beaten fighter falls down a chasm into a spike pit if they run out of credits or choose not to continue. Many other variant texts exist, from "Mission Failed" to "Your adventure has ended."
Occasionally, the screen contains no text at all, but merely a picture, as in Dracula (Jonathan Harker's dead body) or Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (either a Pig Cop replacing a historic or famous figure or landmark or several Pig Cops gathered around Duke's severed head). The phrase can also be spoken by someone off-screen as the scores are shown, such as in the Halo series.
In Need For Speed Most Wanted and Need For Speed Carbon, if the player is busted by numerous police cars, and he/she has only one car left and not enough money to pay the fine, no "Get Out Of Jail" passes OR the car has no impound strikes left, the game ends and the player has to start over from scratch.
In Delphine Software's Fade to Black, which is the sequel to Flashback, getting killed shows a video of Conrad getting killed by the action/enemy. Each video ends with game covering the top of the screen and over covering the bottom.
In the Destroy All Humans Series instead of simply coming back to life it is seen that a clone of Cryptosporidium is created and placed on Earth, even though the player's mission fails. However, it is impossible to get a "Game Over" as countless clones of Crypto himself will keep re-spawning, thus giving the player a chance to complete complicated missions.
In Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, dying and choosing not to continue the game shows the player a short cutscene, in which the player finds himself\herself in a seaweed-filled pool, swimming toward a bright light, while back on Earth, the constellation Delphinus begins to flicker out and finally die.
In the Pokémon series, it is technically impossible to receive a game over. However, if your team is defeated in a battle, half your money is lost and you will backtrack to the last Pokémon Center you visited, sometimes accompanied by text.
"Bad" endings
A "Game Over" is not necessarily the same thing as a bad ending. A bad ending occurs when the player finishes the game but is not completely successful for some reason. Bad endings are usually ending branches where the player has chosen poorly or otherwise failed some task. For example, the main character agrees to join the villain and rule together; the damsel in distress is not freed; the curse afflicting a character is not broken, and that character is dead in the ending; or the enemy is defeated but important goals/objectives are forgotten. These endings usually have their own unique screens and results distinct from a standard "death."
Twists on usage
As games have matured, new twists have been found to keep Game Over sequences unique.
In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, for instance, the game is related as a story being narrated by the Prince. If the Prince or Farah dies, the Prince stumbles a bit and says "No, wait, that didn't happen. May I start again?" or "No, no, she didn't die. I defeated those monsters and moved on. Shall I restart?" Similarly, in the interactive fiction game Spider and Web, the player's actions are describing memories to an interrogator, and they will be accused of lying if they die.
In the Futurama video game, the player, playing as Philip J. Fry, is asked by the Professor to retrieve a missing hammer in the first level, which also serves as a tutorial for the player. The player finds the hammer wedged under a massive stack of tools and boxes. When the player collects the hammer, Fry is immediately crushed and killed. This is followed by the game's standard Game Over screen. Then, in a cut-scene, Fry is revived/cloned, and it is explained that he was set up by the Professor who had been wanting to test his invention, "The Reanimator," which serves as an in-universe explanation for the game's multiple lives mechanic.
The Metal Gear series is particularly notorious for breaking the fourth wall, and has exploited the Game Over screen in game events. In Metal Gear Solid 2, several bizarre events occur, one of which is the sudden switch to the Mission Failed screen, except that the phrase "Fission Mailed" is in the corner, with the gameplay continuing in the small window that normally shows the main character's dead body. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater continues this tradition with a "fake death pill" that, when taken, shows the Game Over screen (though the player can still access items and revive themselves). Additionally, since MGS3 is a prequel, the text of the game over screen switches from "Snake is Dead" to "Time Paradox", and certain game over conditions (Such as killing Ocelot) cause Roy Campbell, to berate the player for causing a time paradox.
In the Paper Mario series, most notably in the game Super Paper Mario, "game over" is used by the characters as a synonym for death. The "Underwhere" and "Overthere" are areas where one goes after one experiences a "Game Over", ruled by Queen Jaydes and King Grambi, respectively. A version of a marriage vow is also in the game where "till death do us part" is replaced by "till your games be over".
In Assassin's Creed, the main character, Desmond, uses a machine called the 'Animus' to access the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr. If Altaïr dies during a memory, the screen states "De-synchronised - Death", and the memory reverts to an earlier point, similar to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This is because anything that happens to Altaïr happens in the past, and the object of the Animus is to see what happened, not to change it.
Voiced Game Overs are when the announcer of the game says, "Game over!" Numerous examples exist
See also
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