What happened to Game over screens?

[krazykidd]

I just realized something. Game over screens are becoming more and more rare. What the hell happened to them? With autosaving, autoload and checkpoints , and regenerating health ,most games no longer have you go to a game over screen when you die. With the exception of JRPGs, i can't think of any recent games that have a real game over screen (Dark souls has a "you died" a la Resident evil, but that isn't really a game over screen ), even then , FFXIII didn'T have a game over screen, you just restarted before the battle you lost in . So can someone tell me what happened to them ? and where did they go out of style ? It makes dying in a game seem non-consequencial but thats a subject for another thread.

 

[Zyxx]

And good riddance too, say I. Game Over screens are very frustrating, particularly if they come with an unskippable sequence or take a long time to load. When I die, I don't want to watch the game gloat: I want to go back and try again, preferably RIGHT NOW. Difficult games are just more enjoyable without them, and some games (like Super Meat Boy) would be completely unplayable with them.

 

[lionsprey]

Game over screens died with the whole extra life system that was designed for arcade games to make kids pay more.

 

[blaqknoise]

I don't need the game to tell me that I lost when I already know I did.

"Game Over" screens are like being tea bagged by the game.

 

[hazabaza1]

Because having to press "A" to continue was tedious.

 

[Furioso]

I really like the Arkham Asylum/City style of game over, with the villain taunting you, makes me want to try again, I won't let them have the satisfaction, as opposed to a simple "Game Over" where I just get pissed

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Well, there's not really a 'lives' system either. I think they were linked, like taste and scent. You need to run out of lives to hit Game Over and with unlimited lives comes an unlimited game. It's more of an arcade thing and I don't think I really miss it.

 

[The Pinray]

Game over screens died with the whole extra life system that was designed for arcade games to make kids pay more.

Beat me to the punch, well played.

Anyway, I think the OP is suffering from the whole "It's an old gaming staple so it was good" syndrome. Just because it's old does not make is a classic. Game over screens are relics of the bygone gone age of arcade gaming.

They let the kiddies know that the game was done, and the only way to continue was to shell out more quarters... Which is why the screen right after or below the big "GAME OVER" was a "Continue?"

We don't need that anymore. Of course we're gonna continue. We don't need to fork over any more money once we've purchased the game for ourselves... Unless you count DLC.

I say good riddance, personally. Yes, I died. Yes, I failed the objective. I know. Let's just try again. No need for drama. It's just a game. And it's certainly not "over." Not until I want it to be.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

I really like the Arkham Asylum/City style of game over, with the villain taunting you, makes me want to try again, I won't let them have the satisfaction, as opposed to a simple "Game Over" where I just get pissed

Very true indeed!
It was sometimes even "worth" to die, just to hear the villain's funny comment.

 

[Rad Party God]

You know, I was starting to think the same lately, the last games I noticed that have a GameOver screen are Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Shatter, hopefully Sonic Generations will feature one. I really don't mind them anymore, they used to be really annoying anyway.

Spoiler: Maybe with these exceptions

 

[Lukeje]

You're bemoaning the fact that an immersion breaking relic of the times when you had to feed extra coins into the machine to continue is slowly being phased out?

 

[AnarchistFish]

"Game Over" screens are like being tea bagged by the game.

This makes me think of the screen that appears when you die in Red Dead Redemption.

Mass Effect had "Critical Mission Failure". That was similar.

 

[Dense_Electric]

That's because most games aren't meant to be about kicking your ass anymore, they're about telling a story or providing fun gameplay. A game over screen would only serve to interrupt that.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Well it was mainly because lives were stupid. Also game over screens break immersion.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Too negative and jarring for modern gamers to handle XP

In more seriousness, by now we know when we fail we are given the chance to restart. Not many games run on life systems anymore so cutting to a screen to tell you ran out of lives isn't required.

I kind of miss them but mostly because of nostalgia.

 

[krazykidd]

Game over screens died with the whole extra life system that was designed for arcade games to make kids pay more.

Beat me to the punch, well played.

Anyway, I think the OP is suffering from the whole "It's an old gaming staple so it was good" syndrome. Just because it's old does not make is a classic. Game over screens are relics of the bygone gone age of arcade gaming.

They let the kiddies know that the game was done, and the only way to continue was to shell out more quarters... Which is why the screen right after or below the big "GAME OVER" was a "Continue?"

We don't need that anymore. Of course we're gonna continue. We don't need to fork over any more money once we've purchased the game for ourselves... Unless you count DLC.

I say good riddance, personally. Yes, I died. Yes, I failed the objective. I know. Let's just try again. No need for drama. It's just a game. And it's certainly not "over." Not until I want it to be.

Please quote where i said it was good. It was a simple question , because i made a realisation, it just hit me that i haven't seen a game over screen in quite some time. Please don't make me look like a nostalgia wearing retard for no reason. Also , there were game over screens on other things than arcade games . Playstation 1/2 games have game screens , N64 games have game over screens ,gamecube/dream cast games have game over screens , all but current gen games have them , and arcade styles games died out a LONG time ago.

 

[SodaDew]

The 'game over screen' will make a comeback...someday

 

[Dense_Electric]

That's because most games aren't meant to be about kicking your ass anymore, they're about telling a story or providing fun gameplay. A game over screen would only serve to interrupt that.

And that's a right pity. We need more games that kick people's asses. They're getting uppity about their casual smartphone games and their easy-level Call of Duty success.

That's not a pity at all. The fact that games aren't controller-throwing-inducingly difficult anymore has made games a legitimate story telling medium.

In fact (let's just pretend that Call of Duty had some great story for a moment), Call of Duty's veteran difficulty totally overshadowed its story because you died twenty times every time you tried to move across a room. Completely immersion-breaking. By contrast, the easy difficulty was just that, but the story got told as it was intended.

But I suppose that's why we have difficulty levels.