History Main / Checkpoint

* ''TwentiethAnniversaryPacManWorld'', a 3D platform game for the original [=PlayStation=] featuring VideoGame/{{Pac-Man}}, had a shiny Pac-Man icon as level checkpoint.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', [[PlayEveryDay the sixth deliverly of new game features]] includes an Arrow Sign. Shaking it turns it into a Checkpoint Flag. Up to two of these flags can be placed onto the course. Uploading courses with Checkpoint Flags requires you to clear them from the flag(s) onward. Note that this feature wasn't present when the game was originally released, but it (among others) was added in a free software update released on November 4th.

** In ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', this checkpoint becomes a flag that turns from a Bowser icon to a Mario/Mushroom one when activated. Interestingly enough, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' became the first 3D Mario to use this kind of checkpoint.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' had a bell that had to be rung for its midway checkpoint (which is not to be confused with the bell at the end that triggered a bonus game if rung).

* ''{{Halo}}'', as well as its fan game, ''VideoGame/HaloZero'', use this.

* ''{{Halo}}'', as well as its fan game, ''HaloZero'', use this.

* A lot of action games, in particular, first person shooters, will periodically save the game for you in the form of an auto save if the option of saving any time you want is available. This usually happens between map loads or other checkpoint-like areas.

** Also, if you made it to the checkpoint in ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' with enough rings, the lamppost-thing would activate a bonus stage, necessary to collect the chaos emeralds and become Super Sonic.
* ''LittleBigPlanet'' has an interesting variety of checkpoint. Walking by one activates it, and each checkpoint has a set number of lives. If a player dies and uses all the lives, they have to restart the entire level. The life count is reset after activating a new checkpoint. Also, the game has not one, but ''three'' (four since Creator Pack 1 came out) types of checkpoints: Entry Barrel (also the initial spawn point; four lives), normal Checkpoints (also four lives; not as fancy-looking as an Entry Barrel), Double Life Checkpoints (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin; eight lives, and has two glowing rings instead of one. All Checkpoint types have one (or two) rings around them that show the number of lives. When it's flashing red, you're on your last life and must get to a new checkpoint or reach the Scoreboard fast!), and the new Infinite Life Checkpoint, which has one ring but allows infinite respawns, and has the infinity symbol on it. There is no Infinite Life Entry Barrel. Another interesting twist is that (in local multiplayer at least, possibly also in online multiplayer) players ''share lives''. Each player death means one less for the whole group. But there is a bit of a breather: If all but one player dies when a Checkpoint is flashing red, but the last player reaches a new one, all players respawn. Prize Bubbles (the items that hold new collectibles, like stickers and objects to use in level creation) are stil retained even if the player has to restart a level. The Try Again action (which sends a player back to the last Checkpoint by [[spoiler:literally popping the Sackboy]]) uses one of the available lives. All Story mode (and most player-created) levels, excluding Survival Challenges, have a "No Lives Lost" prize if a player survives a whole level without dying or resetting. (Survival Challenges don't have this because to finish the level, the player ''must'' die.)

* The PC game ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' had literal check points: yellow signs with red checks on them that changed to white with Jazz's face on them when shot. ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' replaced these with jack(rabbit)-in-a-boxes (with red checks on them).

* ''DemonsSouls'' has one checkpoint that spawns at the end of every boss fight, dividing each level into 3-4 sections.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'', you can save everywhere, but that didn't stop it from having numerous checkpoints that the player would respawn from after dying.
** ''Bioshock'' (and its predecessor, ''SystemShock2'') is notable in that there's an in-universe explanation of how the checkpoints work.

* Done interestingly in ''VideoGame/FurFighters'' because while you do also have your standard checkpoints throughout the levels the bubbles where you change characters also acts as a sort of SavePoint.

* Done interestingly in ''VideoGame/FurFighters'' because while you do also have your standard checkpoints throughout the levels the bubbles where you change characters also acts as a sort of save point.

* In the GameboyAdvance port of Infogrames' ''VideoGame/TheSmurfs1994'', due to CheckPointStarvation, golden Smurf hats are added into the levels to serve as check points.

* In the GameboyAdvance port of Infogrames ''VideoGame/TheSmurfs1994'', due to CheckPointStarvation, golden Smurf hats are added into the levels to serve as check points.

* The JamesBond LicensedGame ''From Russia With Love'' features a SavePoint at the beginning of each level, and a checkpoint within each of the (typically short) scenes within the level.
* Done interestingly in ''FurFighters'' because while you do also have your standard checkpoints throughout the levels the bubbles where you change characters also acts as a sort of save point.

* ''LittleBigPlanet'' has an interesting variety of checkpoint. Walking by one activates it, and each checkpoint has a set number of lives. If a player dies and uses all the lives, they have to restart the entire level. The life count is reset after activating a new checkpoint. Also, the game has not one, but ''three'' (four since Creator Pack 1 came out) types of checkpoints: Entry Barrel (also the initial spawn point; four lives), normal Checkpoints (also four lives; not as fancy-looking as an Entry Barrel), Double Life Checkpoints (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin; eight lives, and has two glowing rings instead of one. All Checkpoint types have one (or two) rings around them that show the number of lives. When it's flashing red, you're on your last life and must get to a new checkpoint or reach the Scoreboard fast!), and the new Infinite Life Checkpoint, which has one ring but allows infinite respawns, and has the infinity symbol on it. There is no Infinite Life Entry Barrel. Another interesting twist is that (in local multiplayer at least, possibly also in online multiplayer) players ''share lives''. Each player death means one less for the whole group. But there is a bit of a breather: If all but one player dies when a Checkpoint is flashing red, but the last player reaches a new one, all players respawn. And as far as this Troper can remember, Prize Bubbles (the items that hold new collectibles, like stickers and objects to use in level creation) are stil retained even if the player has to restart a level. The Try Again action (which sends a player back to the last Checkpoint by [[spoiler:literally popping the Sackboy]]) uses one of the available lives. All Story mode (and most player-created) levels, excluding Survival Challenges, have a "No Lives Lost" prize if a player survives a whole level without dying or resetting. (Survival Challenges don't have this because to finish the level, the player ''must'' die.)

* ''VideoGame/PitfallII'' was one of the earliest examples. Player deaths slide the player back to the last checkpoint they crossed, shown as little red circles on the ground.

Also see CheckPointStarvation, for when these are few and far-between, or nonexistent.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', as noted, featured an implicit minor checkpoint about halfway through each GameLevel. By ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', this had evolved into a gate through which the player had to run to activate the checkpoint -- if the player missed breaking the tape across the gate, death would return him to the beginning of the level.

Checkpoints may either be explicit, in the form of some sort of door the player must pass through or a station he must touch, or can occur implicity as the player reaches some point in the narrative or geography of the game.

* StarcraftII has checkpoints after each objective is accomplished.