This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Looney Toons: Does anyone know where the actual construction "A Winner Is You!" comes from? I've seen it in dozens of contexts over the last decade or so, but no one I've asked can point to an origin for it.
Mister Six: It's from Pro Wrestling on the NES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Wrestling_(video_game)#Engrish
Looney Toons: Thank you!
Mister Six: Can anyone work out why that image is ruining the layout?
Andyroid: Not sure, but I removed an "indent"... thing, and it looks alright now.
Mister Six: Cheers!
Ununnilium: A winner is Andyroid!
Nevrmore: Aww, I thought this trope was about funny dialogue screw ups in video games. Like the "You're Winner!" you get if you actually manage to get through a race of the atrocious Big Rigs without having a brain aneurysm.
crapface: Does portal count?
Trigger Loaded: Took out the following:
- The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the NES is not only Nintendo Hard (Nintendo Very Hard), has a Scrappy Level (underwater, no less) and a boss that can kill you in a single shot — not that you'd know, since it's almost impossible to reach him without going through a corridor of undodgeable enemies. Then, you've got two pictures of Splinter and April, and an offer of pizza.
Since it's a Nintendo game. I've played and beaten it, (After many, many years) and it had a halfway decent ending, especially for an earlier Nintendo game. It's not just screens, there's some text concluding the game, which is what most endings back then were. It's far better than 'You're Winner!'
Someguy: Pulled the following:
- Halo 3 narrowly averted this trope. At the end, the player is given the impression that Master Chief died on the way home. And not only did he die, but he died off-screen, even though they had adequate facilities to create a glorious final cutscene. But if the player stuck around after this lame insult to a great franchise, they would find out that after the credits it turns out that Master Chief and Cortana actually survived in a chunk of the ship that broke off when it entered slip-space, ending with Master Chief going into a functioning cryotube to be awakened when someone found him. If you beat the game on Legendary, the cut scene continues to show the chunk of space ship floating towards a planet with lights all over the surface, indicating the presence of cities.
- Similarly Metal Gear Acid 2 ended with Snake locked in an exploding building after killing the Load Bearing Boss, and his Yandere sidekick Venus escaping with the scientist Takiyama. Venus gets a great escape scene with more than a small homage to the ending of the original Metal Gear Solid, but Snake has died, off-screen, in a profoundly boring way, before even managing to figure out if the speech about him being the Tomato In The Mirror was true. After Venus gets out, there's an utterly bemusing cutscene of the defeated, smoking Metal Gear shooting something into the ocean and then collapsing. Then the credits roll. If the player sticks around until after the credits, it's revealed that Snake had shot himself into the ocean by controlling the Metal Gear with his mind, both saving his own life — and proving that he was the Tomato In The Mirror after all. It's tragic, but Ho Yay partner Dalton shows up, shares a few inspiring words with him, and then gives him several million dollars and the advice to 'live'. Much better.
- And here's some more spoiler text!
and then:
- While the ending was pretty spectacular, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion ends with Martin, the guy you spent all of the main quest protecting and preparing him for his new role as emperor, killing himself to close all the Oblivion Gates. Needless to say, it gives you the feeling that you did everything in the entire game for nothing.
- One would imagine keeping hordes of evil Daedra from taking over the world would be kind of a nice reward.
- The expansion pack makes up for it by making you into the new lord of Madness; of course, you only get the full benefits while being in the Shivering Isles, but story-wise its still awesome.
- One would imagine keeping hordes of evil Daedra from taking over the world would be kind of a nice reward.
This trope is about Endings that are ridiculously minimalistic (Ex: "YOU WON!" on a Black Screen".), not endings that are considered "lame" or not epic enough.
Trigger Loaded: Again took out some endings. Like the guy above said, this is for absolutely minimalist endings, not just 'lame' endings. Especially for the NES days, when most endings were only a screen long.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 has much the same in terms of ending quality. It consists entirely of Mario running up to Princess Peach (then called Toadstool) with a text box popping up overhead saying, "Thank you. But our princess is in another castle!...Just kidding! Ha ha ha ha! Bye bye."
- But then it has a run through of each of the game's worlds with a song not heard in the game up to that point. That's pretty much as good as endings got in the NES days.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 has much the same in terms of ending quality. It consists entirely of Mario running up to Princess Peach (then called Toadstool) with a text box popping up overhead saying, "Thank you. But our princess is in another castle!...Just kidding! Ha ha ha ha! Bye bye."
- Nightmare On Elm Street on NES has just a text screen, with "the nightmare is ended", for the ending. Oh wait. "Or has it" soon appears and... that's it. Back to the title screen.
I've played and beaten the above game, and there's more to it than that. Still kind of weak, but there's mention of 'Fire purifies all,' plus after beating Freddy, your character starts throwing his bones into the furnace. See it here. Like I said, weak, but still decent for a NES game. Much better than 'Congratulation.'
