History Main / FlashofPain

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a variation: your squadmates' status bar icons flash red when they take health damage, rather than the squadmates themselves.

* Bosses and some other things with multiple hitpoints flash white in most 2D ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games when damaged. If [[BigBad Eggman]] is piloting a machine, he'll also display a surprised reaction while also facing the screen when his vehicle is damaged.

* ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'': The enemies in the original games. Normal enemies flash red, bosses flash white.

* All of the ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' games have the enemies flash when your shots are dealing damage, but in ''Contra: Hard Corps'' the bosses and minibosses go through an almost psychedelic pattern of colors while taking damage. It's especially unsettling with the larger bosses.

* Strangely enough, enemies and bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' only flash red in the Sega Saturn version. The PC version averts this. Bug himself flashes green when he's under MercyInvincibility, also only in the Saturn version.

* Creator/{{Konami}}: Many games do this when bosses are hit combined with [[TurnsRed turning red]] such as ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame'', ''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'', and ''VideoGame/XMen''.

* Enemies and bosses in ''Spin Master'' blink red when hit.
* ''Vice: Project Doom'': The enemies blink yellow when hit.

%%* ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'': The enemies in the original games do this.

%%* ''VideoGame/HeavyBarrel'': Larger enemies, bosses, and walls.

The Flash of Pain will definitely be used on a boss that is ImmuneToFlinching, because it conveys that the player's attacks are actually landing damage. Especially important if the boss has a [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point on its body]] that must be hit in order to cause any damage (in which case usually just the weak part of the enemy will flash). Absence of this feature is nowadays considered FakeDifficulty. Sometimes the player also flashes in a different color when hit, when the game doesn't feature MercyInvincibility.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': It happens to both Link and the enemies, when hit.

%%* ''VideoGame/HeavyBarrel'': Larger enemies, bosses and walls.

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

* ''VideoGame/CosmosCosmicAdventure'': The enemies that require more than one hit to be defeated blink white during a split second. Stronger objects susceptible to bombs, such as the red buds which [[MookMaker summon enemies]], rubber barriers and a certain pod hiding a [[HeartContainer meter-raising burger]], blink rapidly multiple times in a row as they only go down with multiple explosions. The FinalBoss in the first and third episodes also blinks successively with each hit, though it only takes damage from GoombaStomp instead of explosions.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'': The bosses when damaged. The sound effect is sligthly different from ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'', due to the more primitive sound chip of the NES compared to that of the Famicon Disk System. The flash rapidly varies through shades of white, green and pink.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'': The only boss in the game that flashes when hit is Big Boo (a MiniBoss); it flashes multiple colors (such as red, yellow and green) every time Mario or Luigi throw a block at it (it takes three hits to defeat it).

[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Z}}'' has robots that flash white when hit by a bullet. Both for the robots you control and the enemy, presumably to help you notice when your units are being attack by something slightly off screen.

[[folder:Role Playing Game]]

* Enemies in ''VideoGame/DonPachi'' series have been known to flash different color depending on game. In one game, they flash blue while in the other, they flash gold color.