History Main / ItsAWonderfulFailure

** If the Doom meter reaches 100%, the cultists manage to summon their Old God and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Each of the Old Gods has a unique scenario, including [[GiantSpider Cthac-Atorasu, the Spider God]] hunting down the human race and [[AndIMustScream trapping them for the rest of their lives in its webs]] before [[ToServeMan it devours them one by one]], or [[HypnoticEyes Ygothaeg, the Irresistible Gaze]] bringing all of Shiokawa under its thrall and ordering them to [[PsychicAssistedSuicide throw themselves into the sea and drown]].
** There are also unique death screens for several of the bosses (like the Scissor Woman from "Spine-Chilling Story of School Scissors" or Aka Manto's true form in "Chilling Chronicle of a Crimson Cape"), and for various random events (like trying to drink eldritch blood from a glass bottle, or trying to reroll the Shiba Inu Shop's inventory when the Doom track is maxed out).

* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'': The ''Sacrifice' ending in the [[UpdatedRerelease Triangulum Arc]], serving as a prolonged and ultimately [[SenselessSacrifice senseless]] Game Over. The party goes through with Miyako's plan to sacrifice themself and their Administrative Authority to turn Al Saiduq into a proper Adminstrator, which will allow him to regress the world properly, but none of the partymembers will be reborn into that world. But since Al Saiduq remains part of the Adminstration System, he ''has'' to step down when the next Adminstrator in line appears, who then proceeds to allow the world to be swallowed up by the void.

* ''VideoGame/Nosferatu'' has a unique variation: on the continue screen, if you choose not to continue, you see a brief scene of Nosferatu preparing to bite Erin and turn her into a vampire. [[spoiler:If you use eight continues, the Continue screen will change subtly, as the photo of Kyle and Erin shows Erin sprouting fangs. Choosing not to continue after this point skips straight to the GameOver screen, as Erin will have already been turned by this point. Continuing after this point and making it to the end of the game will have the game end with Erin biting Kyle, revealing that you were too late to save her from Nosferatu: she had been turned into a vampire. This CruelTwistEnding is then immediately followed by the Game Over screen.]]

* ''VideoGame/VoidStranger'': As Gray or [[spoiler(;Lillie]], if you are killed and don't have any more [[JustifiedExtraLives locust idols]] to revive with, you are given the option to come back to life and continue with what's effectively unlimited lives in a "Voided" state. Should the player die five times while in this state, a cutscene will play out of their character slumping over. If the player repeatedly mashes buttons, they will come back once more. However, should you start pressing buttons but then stop, [[DespairEventHorizon the character in question will fall back over and slowly turn into a Void Egg]] as the first few notes of the bad ending theme "Voided" plays. Upon exiting the game and restarting, the game shows the PlayerCharacter-turned-Void-Egg to make it a point that your character is truly dead and you must start a new run.

* The original ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense''. If you failed -- either by losing your last base, having your organization's funding withdrawn, or by getting wiped out during the final Mission to Mars -- you got to see what happened to Earth as a result… humanity reduced to slaves of the alien invaders, slowly mutating into pitiable monsters due to the radiation and pollution leaking from the alien's colonies… the sun blackened by dark clouds… and stuff like that.

** ''X-COM'' liked this trope. In ''[[VideoGame/XCOMTerrorFromTheDeep Terror From the Deep]]'', [[strike:[[EldritchAbomination Cthulhu]]]] [[{{Expy}} The Great Alien]] awakens and destroys the world. In ''[[VideoGame/XCOMApocalypse Apocalypse]]'', the aliens pull Earth into another dimension.

** Subverted at one point where [[FissionMailed it looks like]] Lukas has been once again cornered by the police, and we are treated to the standard GameOver message when he unexpectedly enters TranquilFury mode and proceeds to escape.

** If you allow your three days to run out without resetting the GroundhogDayLoop in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', you get to see the moon [[ColonyDrop fall]] and destroy everyone. Even worse, Majora appears to laugh in your face one last time. The [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] [[VideoGameRemake remake]] drives the point home with a bit of text after the cutscene.

* ''Même les pommes de terre ont des yeux'', a French game for the UsefulNotes/AppleII, punishes failure by BreakingTheFourthWall and shooting the player in the head with a pistol displayed on the screen.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} racing game ''The Fury'' starts you off with a crappy car with no shielding and, more importantly, no ejector seat or life support. It's quite common for a game to last [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAkwtvB9ims 30 seconds, including the time spent navigating the menus]]. Survive a few races and you'll be able to go go fast enough to enter the titular Fury, an alternate dimension that randomly swallows your car above a certain speed and immediately triggers a minigame to keep your aim on target. Succeed, and you reappear a good distance down the track. Fail to keep your aim steady, or just stay in The Fury too long, and the screen cycles bright colours, then abruptly cuts to a black screen with the words "WE ALL DIE SOMETIME. BUT NOT ALL WILL BURN FOREVER."

* In the ''[[VideoGame/TalespinSega TaleSpin]]'' LicensedGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, if you get a Game Over, Shere Khan wins the contest and buys out Higher For Hire, complete with DramaticThunder and [[SoundtrackDissonance unfitting music]].

* Russian pirate developer BMB takes GameOver screens to an unnecessarily disturbing level in several of its UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis bootleg titles:[[note]]The continue screens of their bootlegs are easily recognizable because they not only all have Russian text prompts but also share a musical theme ripped from ''Uwol: Quest for Money''.[[/note]]

** Lose against a boss in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation version of ''Missile Command'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae0jRK0GWwA#t=04m57s a cutscene will ensue showing your command ship getting destroyed by missiles,]] followed by the usual GameOver cutscene showing a city getting destroyed by missiles.

* Creator/{{Infocom}}'s ''Sorcerer'' (the second part of the text adventure ''VideoGame/{{Enchanter}}'' trilogy) has an example of this in the endgame. If you exorcise the demonic BigBad from your mentor, but neglect to protect yourself from possession, the demon will not only take over your body, but show you a vision of the future. He shows you a world where the demon, in your body, has taken over the world and parents offer their children as sacrifices to him. And, worst of all, it is ''you'' who embodies the demon, your image that adorns the temples and sacrificial altars, and your visage that is associated with so much misery and death.
** While ''Sorceror'' best shows it by giving you a preview of the future, all three games of the Enchanter trilogy had similar "Menace to Society" failure states. ''Enchanter'' had a mid-game puzzle that could be failed so badly that a powerful demon was unleashed who teamed up with the BigBad and made him completely unstoppable. In the endgame of ''Spellbreaker'', similarly failing to stop the villain from ascending to godhood — or stopping him by ''destroying the entire universe'' — earned you the honor of seeing all you ever cared for eradicated in an instant.

* The bad ending of ''VideoGame/LauraBow: The Colonel's Bequest'' and its sequel ''The Dagger of Amon Ra''. In particular the one in the second game, which explains in discordantly cheerful detail the fates of everyone and their corpses, thanks to your failure. Then you get murdered, your father commits suicide, and the reporter who wanted your job becomes rich and famous. The end.
* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII: Trial By Fire'', a standard death (by attack or low stats) will usually just give you a punny death message and let you restore and get back to the game. However, if you fail the task of capturing the Elementals or die anytime after [[spoiler:Ad Avis steals the evil Djinn Iblis' statue]], you are treated to a long cut scene of the city being destroyed or [[spoiler:an ''even longer'' cut scene of Iblis escaping the statue and wreaking havoc upon the world]]. The first time, it's creepy, but after the third or fourth time, it gets annoying. And it's a {{Creator/Sierra}} game — you die ''all the freaking time''. Fortunately, [[spoiler:stopping Ad Avis in the Fighter and Mage paths doesn’t cause the scene to happen, regardless of if he manages to kill you, and you just get a typical HaveANiceDeath message. No such luck on the Thief path, though, as it happens every single time you die regardless of if Ad Avis was stopped or not.]]
** In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'', failing to [[spoiler:defeat Ad Avis after the Dark One is summoned]] treats the player to a shot of the Dark One bursting out of a mountain (the same one seen in a vision earlier in the game).
* In ''Obliterator'', your death is followed by a text screen that reads: "YOU HAVE FAILED IN YOUR MISSION. YOU ARE DEAD AND THE EARTH IS DOOMED. SO ENDS THE MISSION OF THE LAST OBLITERATOR." This is followed by a shot of the player character's ''skeleton'', still wearing his space armor, floating in orbit around Earth.

* ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}: [[VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor Grand Inquisitor]]'' has an interesting one. If you do anything that would cause a GameOver, the game switches to a text adventure (a throwback to Zork's old days) and inputs the command you just did, followed with the results of how you died/[[AndIMustScream got totemized]]/whatever. Interestingly, this also happens if you ''win'' the game (after the satisfying ending {{cutscene}}).
* In ''VideoGame/PoliceQuestSWAT'', if you do anything that's outside of SOP for SWAT, you'll get a cutscene where two other officers lead you away from the scene.
* In ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'', there are several actions that can lead to a meltdown. You see the mansion explode, followed by a message that the nuclear explosion has destroyed everything in a 5 mile radius. (It's never made clear how far the mansion is from the town.) Another variation happens if you pull an EpicFail and get all three kids killed. It says that Sandy is doomed to zombiehood and that Dr. Fred, still under the Meteor's influence, takes over the world and a small part of the galaxy.

* Bum around for too long in ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' (roughly until the middle of April) and you'll be treated to a cutscene where [[spoiler:Lan Di returns to the Hazuki compound and demands Ryo give him the Phoenix Mirror. Ryo refuses, charges at Lan Di, and is hit by the same technique Lan Di used to kill his father as the scene freezes and fades to white. The words "Game Over" are then seen, which is impossible to generate under any other circumstance]]. Luckily, this sort of thing almost has to be forced because of the generous timeframe you're given (the game starts in November of the previous year). As long as you commit some plot-related task that day, you'll pretty much always be moving forward to the end of the game [[note]]Unless, of course you keep flubbing the "sneak into Warehouse No. 8" segment, which advances the game one day every time you fail[[/note]].
** The same is true for ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue II}}'', which packs multiple bad endings. In one, [[spoiler:Ryo pulls out the Phoenix Mirror, which glows red, then cracks as he is then confronted by Lan Di. In Guilin, Shenhua senses "the path is closed" before she is confronted by Lan Di, who says he will take her power "for the Chiyou"]].
* Dying late in ''VideoGame/UltimaIX'' replays the Britannian Holocaust cinematic that can be seen in Lord British's MagicMirror: a towering wave of fire sweeps across the land, turning all life to ash and all structures to dust. This is what the Guardian has done to other worlds, and intends to do to this one.
* ''VideoGame/TotalDistortion'' has the memorable little "'''YOU ARE DEAD! DEAD, DEAD!'''" song. ''Your heart has stopped and your brain's turned cooooold...you are so, so, deeaaaad! And now your body is starting to mooooold...you are so, so, deeeaaaaaad!''
%%* The bad endings of ''VideoGame/TheBizarreAdventuresOfWoodruffAndTheSchnibble'' have elements of this.
* ''Maabus'' has the player piloting a drone sent to an island in order to contain a radioactive disturbance being threatened by mutants. If the drone is destroyed, you're treated to an FMV of the admiral telling you that the island is destroyed and the world is going to be destroyed very soon. He then excuses himself to be with his family one last time while you get to watch the world be consumed by radioactive explosions.
* ''Même les pommes de terre ont des yeux'', a French game for the UsefulNotes/AppleII, punishes failure by BreakingTheFourthWall and shooting the player in the head with a pistol displayed on the screen.

** If [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou any of the four main characters]] dies and you get a GameOver, you then get a summary of your playthrough and how you did (character stats, how many days you survived, etc.)... plus a summary of how ''everyone'' died and the island was ruled by the BigBad and his bandit gang until [[GaiasLament they depleted all its resources]].
** If you manage to piss off the BigBad enough by failing to pay him tribute too many times, you get an extended, dramatic NonStandardGameOver in which he decapitates the youngest character [[ForcedToWatch in front of her parents]], then murders them and everyone else, except for Moira the witch whom he enslaves. There's even [[AchievementMockery an achievement for this]].

** Episode 5: ''The Armageddon Machine'' ... The arc this episode is part of is named "Goodbye Galaxy" for a reason. To make things worse, the music played on the Game Over screen sounds like it's mocking you.

** In ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix'', they don't recieve a death per se, but if you fail to collect all of the Chaos Rings, you will have the bad ending in which the upgraded [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Metal]] [[EvilCounterpart Sonic]] (known as Metal Sonic Kai) hovers over the burning remains of a city. Probably one of the darkest endings to a Sonic game to be made so far.

** It's a regular trend in the ''Oddworld'' series -- in ''Abe's Exoddus'', the "bad ending" shows Abe getting electrocuted to death, and in ''Munch's Oddysee'', Abe gets ripped apart by the Fuzzles he failed to rescue, and Munch gets kidnapped by the Vykkers who want his valuable lungs, and gets them surgically removed while he's still alive, complete with a shot of a heartbeat monitor beeping rapidly before flatlining. Do even worse and you’ll get the "black ending", which, following Abe and Munch’s deaths, will show the image of a newspaper proudly proclaiming that the Glukkons and Vykkers outright won — the Gabbiar was eaten, the Glukkon Queen was given her new lungs, and the remaining Mudokons have been forced back into slavery with the new hatchlings intended to do the same.

* If you receive a game over in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', you'll also get a [[SarcasmMode cheerful]] message that you've managed to erase Serge [[RetGone from existence altogether.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', your main character is given the option of choosing to quest to save the world, or denying this responsibility. Should you choose the latter, and walk out of that building, the game informs you that you just doomed the world. Funny enough, this choice is presented within the first hour of the game, meaning you can beat an RPG within an hour. As long as you don't care for that 'saving the world' hullabaloo. It gets confusing when, in the second game, you learn that [[spoiler:the DesignatedVillain is the good guys, and you were an UnwittingPawn for most of the game.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VI'' you need to get a scroll of Ritual of the Void from Archibald to prevent the destruction of the Kreegan Reactor from triggering a chain reaction and blowing up entire planet (and its moon). Which is exactly what happens if you don't have it in your inventory when you exit it, as shown in an animation that is rather impressive for that time.
* ''VideoGame/WitchHunterIzana'': Part and parcel of being a transformation centric game. Every enemy type you can get transformed into has a special ending, sometimes changing based on game progress. Same for bosses. In basically all of them you work as a brainwashed and enslaved Monster girl for the vampire Verand.

* The Spirit Overload ending in ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}''. While most of the time you get a simple game over when you die, fail against Rex Cavalier's final attack and you get a special ending [[spoiler:about the true nature of the [[WasOnceAMan Prayers as you become one yourself]].]]

* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'': After defeating the Black Silence, you will be given an option to have Angela kill Roland, followed by an option for Roland to kill Angela. Agreeing to any of these prompts will result in a DownerEnding that also doubles as a NonStandardGameOver (since the game boots you back to the title screen and forces you to restart the Black Silence encounter. And if you do not clear all nine Floor Realizations before this reception, the game will just force you to kill Angela/Roland and prevent you from continuing until you exit the gauntlet and clear their respective realizations.

* In ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' 2 Mercenaries, getting your mech destroyed treates you to a short video of your character on the ground outside of the mech trying to reach for a handgun when a booted foot stomps on your hand and a gun barrel is shoved in your face. If you beat the game but fail to save up enough money, you'll get an ending video of your character sitting in a tiny, dirty apartment throwing a beer can at your TV after it quits working, having failed to acquire the wealth and prestige you dreamed of.
* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', each ending has a detailed pixel art scene of the consequences of your choices, even the bad endings. A few endings show exclusive locations such as the interior of Mindlesso, and notably, Ending 8 has an extended sequence, where [[spoiler:you're taken to the medical room by AVAC and are given the memory restoration drug for your interrogation. Your weekly [[PastExperienceNightmare nightmares of your past]] are then [[OnceMoreWithClarity given more context]], but then you suddenly die from the drug's side effects after recounting your memories to AVAC.]]

** There is one logical exception -- [[spoiler:fail the bomb mission in the first game, and you just get an explosion, as Derek has been blown up into itty bitty bits.]]
** There's even one in Under The Knife 2 where [[spoiler: after being kidnapped by Heinrich von Raitenau's henchmen, they force you to operate on one of their henchmen IN THE BACK OF A MOVING CAR IN THE DARK. As if that weren't hard enough, if you fail, they kill Derek and Angie, dispose of their bodies, and they are never seen again and forgotten about within six months as the threat of Delphi encroaches upon the world. As [[{{Pun}} traumatic]] as the murder of your protagonists is, the main concern is probably HOW DID THEIR FRIENDS FORGET ABOUT THEM IN SIX MONTHS?!]]

** Die in battle and you're treated to the same TwentyOneGunSalute that Blair presides over in previous chapters--expect it's you, not some rook, in the coffin.
** Fail to expose the spy in ''Wing Commander II'' (Invisible ships? Admiral Tolwyn thinks you're seeing...er, ''not'' [[CassandraTruth seeing things]]), and Blair exchanges a goodbye kiss with the ''Concordia''[='s=] captain, "Angel" Devereaux. It's also the ''first'' kiss between the two if you haven't progressed far enough in the game. The next scene shows Blair burying his face in his hands as a news bulletin reports that ''Concordia'' was destroyed ''[[ILetGwenStacyDie with all hands aboard]]''. (Also, [[TurnInYourBadge you're fired.]])

** ''VideoGame/WingCommanderIVThePriceOfFreedom '': Fail too many missions in the first chapter, and Blair gets booted from the service. The next scene shows Blair back at the bar in Nephele, drinking himself into a stupor as the civil war he ''could'' have prevented [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pte2qHwsc2k rages on a background newscast.]]

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'': Die, and you get the usual "Snake? SNAAAAAAAAKE!" or "Raiden/Jack, answer me!" messages. Die to the FinalBoss, on the other hand, and [[spoiler:''the Colonel AI laughs at you, and insults you on subsequent game overs''.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}}'' franchise is fond of this trope, especially in the two first games; should you die to a boss, you'll get a cutscene depicting the following events. It ranges from your enemy simply laughing at your defeat to said enemy [[PlayerPunch killing off a character you were fighting to protect]]. For example, [[spoiler:''if you die during your fight against Motohide in Tenchu 2, the following cutscene will show [[TheHero Rikimaru]] lying dead on the floor as Motohide gloats over his victory, [[OffWithHisHead holding the severed head of Lord Goda]], whom he just [[KickTheDog killed the wife]], abducted the daughter and [[UngratefulBastard shot in the chest for being a "sentimental idiot" after Goda saved him from a fatal blow that left him with a deep wound over the back]].'']]

** Getting caught by the enemy that is chasing you ends with the screen blurring and turning red, showing the Game Over text "Acta est fabula" ("The Play is Over) while the sound hints quite well at what they are doing to Fiona ([[spoiler: Debilitas crushes her and rips her body apart like a doll, Daniella will [[LaughingMad laugh like crazy]] while stabbing you and drinking your blood, Riccardo can be heard [[ILoveTheDead taking off her clothes and softly moaning]], Old Lorenzo will rip apart her clothes and then apparently vomit and Young Lorenzo can be heard drinking her blood]]).

* ''VideoGame/AthenaAwakeningFromTheOrdinaryLife'' has quite a few of these and a few {{non standard game over}}s, such as Athena dying from a psychic overload, Rika being killed by a T-Rex, and the bombs at school going off. [[spoiler: Losing the FinalBoss fight to the Tantuals System treats you to a haunting scene where Athena is seized and forcibly made into the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power source for the computer]], with the scene ending with a close up of her face (complete with DullEyesOfUnhappiness) as a SingleTear rolls down her cheek.]]

* While [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist losing a fight is normally a minor setback]] in the ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' series ([[KilledOffForReal unless you lose one of the Stars in the process]]), losing certain battles in ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'' lead to alternate endings. For instance, [[spoiler:lose your fight with Roy, and he gets to take your place just like he wanted... [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor by pretending to be you while you (the Prince) are comatose]]. Then ''he'' gets killed, the Godwins take over your stronghold, your forces scatter, and Sialeeds bitterly muses that it might be better if you never wake up.]]
** Even worse, earlier in the game, [[spoiler:if you choose to go along with Lord Barow's plan to become king, you will be treated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcihHHOjIHM with this very depressing scene.]]]]
** Another lovely one involves choosing to [[spoiler:stay behind and defend the castle as Roy and losing to Childerich, wherein on losing, he slits Roy's throat and gives a disturbing, ranting order to kill everyone in sight to his men.]] Then there's a small portion where you control Kyle, [[spoiler:where losing shows the two Knights you lost to asking why you couldn't have been on their side before leaving you for dead. Kyle's last words are an apology to the Prince and Princess.]]

'''[[spoiler: Zelgius]]''': Maiden... I did not wish for things to end this way. However, the fate of the world has already been sealed.\\

** Lose in the final battle against [[spoiler:Sombron]] in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', and [[spoiler:he will successfully re-corrupt Alear and Veyle.]]

* The original ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense''. If you failed -- either by losing your last base, having your organization's funding withdrawn, or by getting wiped out during the final Mission to Mars -- you got to see what happened to Earth as a result... humanity reduced to slaves of the alien invaders, slowly mutating into pitiable monsters due to the radiation and pollution leaking from the alien's colonies... the sun blackened by dark clouds... and stuff like that.

*** And that's the bad ending. The good ending in ''Apocalypse'' saves Earth, although Megaprimus lies half in ruins. In ''Terror From the Deep'', you destroy the mothership of the abomination, which in turn poisons Earths atmosphere, makes a lot of people die and quite a lot of Earth uninhabitable. This in fact is the reason to build the megacities, like Megaprimus in ''Apocalypse''. Also, your whole expedition dies on the ship. You know, the ones you trained for months, the ones you loved... just gone in an instant. Apparently, it wasn't received all that well, so both ''Apocalypse'' and ''Interceptor'' have much more positive good endings. And ''Interceptor''? Well, if you fail, [[spoiler:Earth is destroyed by a death star]]. If you manage to destroy the [[spoiler:death star]] but not escape in time (or have your way home destroyed), you're dead along with your wingmen but hey, you saved the Earth so it's [[BittersweetEnding kind of victory, right]]?

** Similarily, losing in ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' - whether by failing to stop Avatar Project or losing Avenger defense mission - results in cutscene showing destroyed Resistance havens and [[MouthOfSauron ADVENT speaker]] announcing the end of [=XCOM=] to the world.

* Didn't earn the love of a bird in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend''? Have fun when [[spoiler:the sinister Hawk Party condemns the heroine's failure to mend human-bird relations and commences plans to exterminate humanity!]] [[MoodWhiplash Coffee, anyone?]]
** The sequel has its own moments. Notably, in the last chapter, [[spoiler:failing to get through to Ryouta sees him become one with the King and kill Yuuya, preventing the other characters from escaping the Holiday Star.]]

** After you tell Don that he was [[spoiler:betrayed by his mentor because of his race]], Don is consumed by anger, [[spoiler:loses what little physical form he had left, and destroys half the college as a wraith -- right after you realize that he's the only real friend you have.]]

** Kent's bad ending has him [[spoiler:giving in to the violent, sadistic half of his personality, slaughtering all of his friends, and forcing May into a relationship with him while the blood of her allies soaks into her shirt.]]
** In Gunn's bad ending, [[spoiler:May is torn apart by a dragon and all of her friends are slaughtered except Gunn, who has grown so delusional from despair that he cradles her corpse in his arms for a full year hoping she'll come back to life.]]
** The most sickening, if not the most violent bad ending, is Erwin's, where [[spoiler:May gives in to his delusion that she is actually April and perpetuates his sick fantasy for the rest of her life.]]

* VisualNovel/MysticMessenger has five Bad Endings per character, three for making the wrong choices and two for not playing, two for not playing before entering a character's route, and one for making the wrong choice in the prologue. Those endings can be somewhat harmless, [[spoiler: like marrying Zen in Jaehee's route, which causes Jaehee to be even more overworked than before, or Zen's first Bad Ending, which makes their relationship become something of a MasochismTango]], many involve [[spoiler: Unknown kidnapping you with no mention what happens to you after]], but others involve [[spoiler: Yoosung getting fully {{Yandere}}, Jumin seeing you as a possession rather than a person, Unknown sending pictures of you being tortured to Seven and deciding to use you as a sex slave...]] And then there's the Casual Common Route Bad Ending, [[spoiler: [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou in which Yoosung becomes aware that they're only programmed machines]], and ends up getting kidnapped by Unknown.]]

** Once per game there is a game over outcome that brings up a haiku mocking the player's fate.

* Failed to stop [[spoiler:Carlito's bombs]] in the 7th Act of ''VideoGame/DeadRising''? [[SarcasmMode Congratulations!]] [[spoiler:[[ColonyDrop You just destroyed every living (and nonliving) being inside the Willamette Mall]], and also [[TheVirus released the deadly virus that turns people into zombies upon America, if not the entire world, essentially dooming humanity.]]]] Way to go, champ. You deserve that [[spoiler:[[MultipleEndings Ending F]].]]

** Well, to be honest, The Brickster [[VictoryIsBoring finds out that ruling everything isn't all that cracked up to b-e]]. Also, it IS LEGO, so they would be able to reconstruct everything easily.

** At the end of the game, [[ChekhovsGun you have to set off the nuke]] [[spoiler: in order to stop [[RobotWar the Cochise AI from infecting every robot and cyborg and wiping out what's left of humanity]].]] [[DirtyCoward Leaving without doing so results in you being told that your team was banished for their cowardice]], the machines killed everyone for a thousand miles (at least), and it's only a matter of time before they find you.
** If you decide to [[WeCanRuleTogether join]] [[BigBad Matthias]], he'll instruct you to kill the leaders of every major faction and town in California [[spoiler: and doing his bidding results in him luring you into ground zero of a nuke he hid in a crate that promptly detonates the second he finishes gloating, and you're then told that your irradiated atoms will rain down upon your victims while Matthias [[RobotMaster enslaves the Rangers with his robot army]].]]
* In the NES version of ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'', you can [[WeCanRuleTogether say "Yes" to the Dragonlord]]... [[spoiler:the screen goes immediately to black. Angry, angry, black. With red text.]] "Take a long, long, rest. HAHAHAHAHA..." The remakes of the game also request that you turn over the sword to seal the alliance, but instead treat the result as a bad nightmare. Then there's ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders'', which treats this as the catalyst of the events of the two games in the series.

** In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', [[spoiler:Gale's personal quest potentially has him and the party perform a HeroicSacrifice to kill the BigBad early. However, the narrator then goes on to state that the resulting EvilPowerVacuum resulted in the country being destroyed by the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens illithids]] and that it's "an ending of sorts, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but not the one destiny had in store for you]]." Roll credits.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', if you don't upgrade your ship, don't earn the loyalty of any of your teammates, and stall before entering the Omega 4 Relay, [[spoiler:everyone on the Normandy (except Joker) is ''killed'' during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRHhdc53Od8 the final mission]]: your team members die in increasingly brutal deaths, the rest of the Normandy crew are liquefied and turned into fuel for a half-human prototype Reaper, and Shepard falls to his/her death after attempting to jump onto the ship during the endrun]]. Unbelievably, [[spoiler:the ending keeps going, as Joker successfully pilots the Normandy out of the system (set to epic music), confronts the Illusive Man, and looks out the window after reading the datapad on the Reaper fleet, completely unsure of what to do. While this ending doesn't automatically doom everyone to the Reapers in and of itself, your inability to continue playing, along with certain developments in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' (such as the Illusive Man getting indoctrinated) don't paint a very hopeful picture]].

* The normal final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' takes over your save files and tries to repeatedly kill you forever. Lose to him and you'll get [[MythologyGag the same results]] from Toby's aforementioned "VideoGame/TheHalloweenHack". Also, if you choose to [[OmnicidalManiac kill every single fightable character through the game]], the protagonist becomes possessed by the embodiment of the player's own lust for power and destroys the game itself. You can only start over by selling your soul to them, which taints the happiest ending of the game '''permanently'''. [[spoiler: Unless you deliberately tamper with your save file.]]
** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', where if you choose not to continue after getting a game over, you'll be told "THEN, THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS", and a track called "Darkness Falls" will play.

* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', losing against a normal enemy leads to a short scene of someone reacting to your death and failure. In some scenarios, you get presented with another ending if you lose to one of the final bosses. A special mention goes to the final chapter, where [[spoiler:losing to Odio means you get to see something similar to the alternate [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Armageddon ending]], but from the other characters' point of view. [[PlayAsABoss Playing AS Odio]] is [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption two variations of this]]: Triggering the mentioned Armageddon (from a ''menu command''), or Oersted left to wander alone in an abandoned Lucrece forever.]]

** If an NPC essential to the game's main plot dies in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', you're given the below message as a sign that the main quest can no longer be completed the normal way. There's an alternative "backpath" to complete the main quest, but the player isn't directly old about it and this hinges on two particular [=NPCs=] being alive - so if you kill either of ''them'', then it really ''is'' doomed.

* In [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Madoka Portable]], if you made the "right" choices, you get to see [[spoiler:and fight Mami and Kyoko's witches, Candeloro and Ophelia, respectively. And if you lose to Walpurgisnatch, you get a glimpse at Homura's witch, Homulilly. That last one is truly this trope -- you can't fight that particular witch, and seeing it is part of a NonstandardGameOver.]]
* ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaMk2'', the [[TearJerker infamous]] Conquest ending. Should you [[spoiler:feed the demon sword by ''killing all of the other [=CPUs=]'' with it then destroy [[BigBad Arfoire]], she actually takes her defeat very well, and because of that, with all the [=CPUs=] killed, Nepgear has faded the world to no competition, and soon Arfoire's ultimate revival will come and she will feed on the remains, and Gamindustri will soon crumble and be doomed to an eternity of destruction. Thankfully, this is only one of the MultipleEndings, but is by far the worst. Ironically, though, this is the hardest of the MultipleEndings to get. If you want some consolation, you do get to keep the sword in a NewGamePlus.]]

* ''VideoGame/ChimeraBeast'' does this in its "Bad" ending, where your Eater destroys the planet and then proceeds to destroy all planets in its path, eventually reaching Earth. It then tells you that "you'll have to live with the knowledge that what led them there was...you.". Somewhat subverted in the sense that [[spoiler:this is the ending you get when you ''beat'' the FinalBoss.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Novastorm}}'', running out of lives shows a cutscene which progressively get longer depending on how far you are in the game, starting with your fighters being shot down, continuing with the destruction of your headquarters, and finishing with your home planet being [[EarthShatteringKaboom blown up by a laser]].

* In ''VideoGame/NAM1975'', [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/neogeo/a/nambad.htm should you lose to the final boss]], [[spoiler:[[MadScientist Dr. R.]] [[BigBad Muckly]],]] he will be heard boasting about his victory and that the world is now his, then it cuts to the world being destroyed by the laser weapon he had built, and as he is heard [[EvilLaugh laughing evilly]], it then cuts to the typical GameOver screen.

* ''VideoGame/InTheHunt'' has two Wonderful Failures out of three bad endings. [[spoiler:When you beat the game as one player [[NoDamageRun without using]] [[NoCasualtiesRun any continues]], you are destroyed along with the enemy base]]. Another one occurs [[spoiler:when you beat the game with two players, and are [[FightingYourFriend forced to fight your friend]]. If you succeed in destroying in the other player within time, you [[FaceHeelTurn become the new leader of the D.A.S]].]]
* In the bad ending of ''VideoGame/RaidenV'', [[spoiler: our heroes return to the solar system after destroying the crystal aliens at the source, but they appear to have accidentally warped to Mars at first. A closer examination reveals that it is EarthAllAlong, reduced to a lifeless red rock by the AlienInvasion.]]

* Lose in ''VideoGame/EcoFighters'', and the Continue screen is a comic of your fighter crashing to the ground…only to hit and get stuck in a billboard. If you Continue, the comic changes to your pilot regaining control and taking back to the fight.

** The same is true for ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue II}}'', which packs multiple bad endings. In one, [[spoiler:Ryo pulls out the Phoenix Mirror, which glows red, then cracks as he is then confronted by Lan Di. In Guilin, Shenhua senses "the path is closed" before she is confronted by Lan Di, who says he will take her power "for the Chiyou."]]

** In one ending, George becomes "foodarackacycle" repairman. He gets a lot of abuse from his {{Unsatisfiable Customer}}s, and then he learns why they're so bad-tempered. Foodarackacycles break down as often as once a week, so George and his friend Henry design a new, more reliable model. George and Henry then sell the design to Edible Engineering, and George becomes rich from the design's sales and his new job as "senior culinary technician".

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' has a horrible Game Over screen, but it's not as much frightening as it is depressing, demented, or scary. If you choose to continue, okay ("The shadow remains cast!"), but if you choose not to, she screams in agony as about twenty or thirty hands grab her from all sides and [[DraggedOffToHell pull her down into Hell]] to collect on their deal. And this all happens within two seconds flat. Made even more depressing when [[spoiler:you fail to rescue Cereza from the Beloved or Joy and the game over screen is just [[EmpathyDollShot her discarded cat doll]]]].

* In the ''VideoGame/SoulEdge'' knockoff ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge'', each character has a "good" ending if they defeat [[BigBad Asmodeus]] and claim the Mace, and a "bad" ending should they fail (i.e., run out of continues). The bad endings for the evil characters tend to have a ring of poetic justice to them, such as the despotic ruler Lord Deimos deposed by his subjects, or the sadistic Executioner tortured to death (assuming he died in the end...) by Asmodeus. Those of the good characters are depressing and/or disturbing, such as the lost princess Namira going insane in a dungeon, or Ragnar turned into a powerful, ravenous wolf sent to kill the last of his family and friends, completely aware of what he's doing.

** You have two endings in the arcade. Either see the BigBad's plan go through and be faced with Mu-12, or [[spoiler:see Hazama get torn to pieces... by the ''other'' [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad]]. And either way, you ''still'' don't win]].

* If you make it to the final boss battle in ''VideoGame/Tekken5'' and [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard run out of quarters,]] a [[NonstandardGameOver brief FMV is shown,]] in which [[https://youtu.be/fj_eDS9ALNE Jinpachi laments that nobody could stop him,]] appended with the text "The world will never be the same."

* The point behind ''VideoGame/EternalChampions'' is that you play as one of nine martial arts fighters who died before their time and are now given the chance to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong... the rest [[HaveANiceDeath will suffer their original fates]]. Once you defeat the other eight opponents, you are not in need to worry about fighting a mirror match, but you WILL have to worry when facing the Eternal Champion. They all have different endings, but if you fail to defeat the Eternal Champion in combat? You are not given the option to try again; he merely absorbs the defeated fighter before [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/genesis/b/ecbad.htm giving a speech about his disappointment in your failure]] (with music that does ''not'' help).

** ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' ends with [[spoiler:a BolivianArmyEnding]], but after the credits [[spoiler:you get to play through your inevitable end. After you're defeated, a final cutscene shows you still fighting on the ground while being buried under a pile of elites.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', losing teams on Defense in Payload get to watch the bomb you didn't stop make a big boom. Even winning Payload teams aren't safe — just don't stand too close to the cart you're, er... supposed to stand next to.

** In Special Delivery, victory for one team sends the rocket launching into the air...and landing into the losing team's spawn. (Actually, it lands on a presumably civilian building off to the side, at which point the Administrator will often say "Gentlemen, this never happened.")

* If you run out of lives in ''VideoGame/TerminatorRampage'', you'll be treated to a cutscene of the machines riddling you with bullets... followed by Los Angeles getting wiped out by a ''nuke'', before the narration rubs it in that your failure to stop Skynet have ''doomed the rest of humanity''.

* ''Idol Death Game [=TV=]'' both plays this straight and subvert it. Fail to pass judgement, and you end up watching them perform their [[DeadlyGame Death Live]] challenge, before getting a game over. Pass judgement, and you end up watching another idol perform their Death Live challenge, before moving onto the next round.
** [[spoiler: No more is this subverted than in [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Mariko's storyline,]] present in all stories (yes, even her's, ignoring the [[GoldenEnding D.o.D]] [[EverybodyLives Chapter]]).]] [[spoiler: And that's because [[BackFromTheDead everyone is revived]] [[BackForTheFinale for the finale.]]]] [[spoiler: Her death ('Dream Penalty Game') is a catalyst for the rest of the contestants to realize that the stakes for the gameshow, ''[[ShowWithinAShow Dream Or Death]]'', [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame are very high, and very real.]] And the only other outcome to this storyline is instead of [[UnwinnableByDesign just missing a key needed to unlock the]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext present box, with her and a pink bomb that will explode in 30 seconds]], her surroundings are ''also'' full of bombs, [[HeKnowsTooMuch as she tries to convince the others behind Doripaku, who ends up being more apathetic to Mariko's death.]] [[ObviousRulePatch For obvious reasons, her storyline is considered 'cleared' after this.]]]]
** And even if we apply the subversion for you, played straight for characters not named [[spoiler: Mariko]] for this trope, [[spoiler: even ''that'' is subverted for the [[GoldenEnding D.]][[EverybodyLives o.]][[EarnYourHappyEnding D]] Chapter, where everybody (and yes, including the runner-up who had to do a Death Live challenge just a few minutes ago) comes back to life to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech call out Doripaku]] for putting them into a DeadlyGame to the point that he [[VillainousBreakdown snaps]] and [[DisneyVillainDeath runs off the roof of the building by accident.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem 2'', two roles play a special cutscene if they fulfill their objective and win the game for their side. If the Hex Master hexes every living non-Coven player, they launch a FantasticNuke on the town. If the Soul Collector successfully transforms into Death and isn't lynched, they kill the rest of town and steals their souls.

* If you get a menace to 8 or above in ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', you end up getting forcibly transported to another area that serves as something of a Game Over. Despite being a punishment area the writing in all of the settings is unusually strong and somewhat makes up for the indignity of being forced to go there.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', most of the losses in battle just has the boss reset and the party restarting the fight. There's some fights that have their own extended cutscene to show just how royally screwed you are if you lose:

* Believe it or not, ''Liquid Kids'', a platformer from Creator/{{Taito}} with cute characters, does this with its continue screen. Here, Hipopo (the player character) has one of the bomb enemies bouncing on him with the clock counting down (and a cuckoo clock sounding) with each bounce. When the timer reaches one or so, Hipopo will call out "Help Me!" When it reaches zero, the screen fades to black, and the sound of an explosion can be heard...

* In the arcade version of ''VideoGame/RainbowIslands'', if the TrueFinalBoss hits Bub or Bob with one of his bubbles, [[spoiler:he ends up FloatingInABubble (an orange one) heading off above the screen, instantly [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a bubble dragon]]. If this happens on the last life, the game over screen shows the character float all the way up into and get locked into [[TheAlcatraz the mountaintop prison]] with eleven other victims in small individual jail cells in eternal tragedy as a green bubble dragon.]] Strangely, if [[ColorCodedMultiplayer the 2nd player, Bob]], loses this way, [[spoiler:he also becomes a green bubble dragon despite being a ''blue'' one in other games.]]

** It's a regular trend in the Oddworld series -- in Abe's Exoddus, the "bad ending" shows Abe getting electrocuted to death, and in Munch's Oddysee, Abe gets ripped apart by the Fuzzles he failed to rescue, and Munch gets kidnapped by the Vykkers who want his valuable lungs, and gets them surgically removed while he's still alive, complete with a shot of a heartbeat monitor beeping rapidly before flatlining. Do even worse and you’ll get the "black ending", which, following Abe and Munch’s deaths, will show the image of a newspaper proudly proclaiming that the Glukkons and Vykkers outright won- the Gabbiar was eaten, the Glukkon Queen was given her new lungs, and the remaining Mudokons have been forced back into slavery with the new hatchlings intended to do the same.

* In ''VideoGame/PrinnyCanIReallyBeTheHero'', you have the option to disobey the Prinnies' sadistic overlord Etna and attempt to escape. Doing so can be beneficial for players trying to visit each stage at each time, but if you take this route you are taken to a credit roll and treated to a slideshow of the Prinnies' escape attempt. Everything seems to go well for the first few pictures, as the Prinnies flee across the countryside... until a Pringer X, one of Etna's mechanical minions, appears just behind them. The last few slides are the Prinnies being massacred wholesale for their disobedience - none survive.
* The original ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002'' sees you fighting [[BigBad Drek]] on [[EarthShatteringKaboom Deplanetizer]] for second half. [[spoiler: Each time you deplete one section of his health bar, he triggers a timer after which the weapon fires and obliterates Veldin. You have then to power-slam a button to disable it. If you fail to stop it in time, you're rewarded by an animation of said weapon firing and a Game Over.]]

* The other Pixar licensed game Ratatouille has some surprisingly brutal game over screens whenever you lose your last hit point:

** Falling into the abyss: He falls into the abyss; (nuff said).

* ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty'': When the Protoss base is destroyed in the mission "In Utter Darkness", the closing cutscene shows the star system being ''outright consumed'' by the Dark Voice. [[spoiler:This is the ''victory'' ending -- you're guaranteed to die in the mission. It's a vision of the future that you have to prevent]].

** If you fail to [[spoiler:collect Koudelka's Pendant]], and the final boss will instantly reduce your party to charred skeletons in a cutscene.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'', there are two. First, if you die and have not yet paid the tab Charon TheFerryman demands for reviving you, you will be tossed into a mountain of souls to wait for your turn to cross the Styx... which is implied will take millennia if not aeons. The second one is [[spoiler:just after destroying Kenji in Infernal Tokyo; to achieve it, you overload the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, which results in it malfunctioning and creating a massive black hole, which you watch as it consumes you, followed by Tokyo, followed by Mikado, and as the screen turns to black, the game informs you that everyone [[MercyKill has been freed from agony and sorrow]] and that everything is '''[[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 gone]]'''.]]
* Die in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', and Igor will recite a poem about how though death is inevitable, one will live on in memory... before adding that ''you'' are an exception. Interestingly, dying in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' has Igor recite something that goes against the meaning of the last game.[[note]][[spoiler:Because, as it turns out, this is an impostor. [[ImpostorForgotOneDetail Aside from that, it's almost like he's the same person throughout the entire series]]...]][[/note]]
** If you die in "The Answer", Igor recites another poem, about [[spoiler:how the Main Character sacrificed his life for you and that you dying was a waste of his death.]] Gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn't it?
** And prior to any of that, you get to hear your character groan his last breath, along with MissionControl ordering you to get up or ''crying out for your life.'' Made even more poignant if you've been building up your MissionControl's Social Link and [[DatingSim getting intimate with them]].

---->''In the decades following the Battle of Hoover Dam, the Big Empty remained a desolate stretch of wasteland, where few travelers dared venture. In time, however, a strange blue field began to grow, slowly spreading across the Big Empty. Lightning-blue fields of force danced on the horizon, like electrical storms. People whispered of floating spheres flickering like a rainbow of torches in the desert like Old World wisps. Then communities began to vanish. Goodsprings was crushed beneath bizarre hexcrete blocks that stacked to the sky. The inhabitants of Primm winked out, flesh-fried into X-ray silhouettes, their arms raised in surrender. A satellite fell on Jacobstown, beaming a kaleidoscope of bright blue equations into the deranged Nightkin minds, driving some berserk, paralyzing others. Black Mountain Radio began broadcasting a strange staccato static as hordes of giant man-eating battle Brahmin began to swarm from its peak. Camp Searchlight became a garden of giant carnivorous plants, and the Colorado river... "shrugged" one day, drowning several communities as its contours adjusted themselves. The Gomorrah became home to a particularly virulent vegetation-based STD that grew like a fungus within victim's genitalia until their bodies burst open like pods. The Legion East were systematically brain-scrubbed and rebuilt so that all the inhabitants believed they were in ancient Rome... on the moon. The human cattle of NCR were re-educated into believing they existed in perpetuity in a nation-wide version of someplace called "Tranquility Lane." In the end, no one was sure who had cracked the Dome of the Big Empty, although it was clear someone had been playing with forces they did not understand. Throughout all this, the Think Tank was industrious, confident these experiments were all for the best, the results of the data they obtained - incredible. They marveled that all of this had been waiting for them to come along and experiment since the war. Humanity certainly was persistent, no matter what experiments, nuclear holocaust or otherwise, it inflicted on itself.''

Some particularly cruel game developers aren't satisfied with ''just'' telling them how badly they lost--they have to show that the player failed through an alternate DownerEnding in which players are forced to endure the terrible fate that awaits the characters [[YouBastard they were supposed to be helping]]. They didn't just get a GameOver where they can [[SaveScumming reload and everything's fine]]--they FAILED. They failed and now they will live just long enough to see the BigBad [[TheBadGuyWins claim victory]] and to see the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt END OF THEIR CIVILIZATION]]. This has the effect of getting players so upset that they are inclined to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and retry the game.

If done right, it will end up being [[NightmareFuel very]], [[TearJerker very]] depressing, [[HarmfulToMinors especially for younger gamers]], and thus a very strong incentive to not die. If it's a cartoon action game that features cute, playable characters, be warned: The GameOver scene may show them in a pitiful, humiliating state of powerless defeat. It may, however, become very annoying when the game is hard and [[TrialAndErrorGameplay requires the player to try and fail over and over]]. Either way, there's no shaking that sense that the game developers just stuck their big pointing fingers at the gamer, saying "YouBastard Look what you did to your favorite character... take a good, long look. ''You'' caused this--not us."

** However, if you died in the second half of the game, you were fully shown the horrible fate of your city...

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}} 3'' kills off your wife or child if you take too long to rescue one or both of them. The endings reflect these failures ("Daddy, where's mommy?" if you save the kid but let your wife die, "Where's David? No... NO!!" if you only have your beloved still be alive and well by the end ([[VideoGameCrueltyPotential unless you were heartless enough to deliberately fail to keep your precious, precious son from dying]], so good luck trying to get over THAT, YouMonster), or just plain old "your family is dead" (with the protagonist implied to cross the DespairEventHorizon) if...yeah, they're both dead).

** Also, when you finish the game and wait until the credits are over, you will get two different cutscenes, depending on whether you saved all of the saveable classmates or not. If you didn't save all of them, [[spoiler:the cutscene you get shows Juliet's mom revealing that she's a zombie, and saying, "Time for dinner! And by dinner, I mean...YOU!" The screen then cuts to black as we hear everyone screaming, followed by a loud *CRUNCH*.]]

* The home console game of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterTheMovie'' has a "Movie Battle" mode where the player, as Guile, must fight your way to General Bison under an expiring time limit — represented by the amount of time given to pay a $20 billion dollar ransom to the Shadaloo Tong before the hostages are executed — through different ''Street Fighter'' characters. If the player does not reach Bison within said time frame, once the current fight is over, Cammy tells Guile [[YouAreTooLate there is no more time left]], meaning Bison needs to be found immediately[[spoiler:, leading into the bad ending. The Allied Nations is forced to pay Bison the ransom for the hostages (which he thankfully releases, as promised) and Guile is [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome arrested, stripped of his rank and court-martialed for disobeying orders]] and being responsible for the utter failure of the mission. Two years later, Bison uses the ransom money to successfully complete the operation to turn his entire army into [[SuperSoldier Perfect Genetic Soldiers]], allowing him to [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/psx/a/sfmovmvb.htm rise up and seize control of the world.]]]]

** The aforementioned victory screen shows the Earth blazing red before it is destroyed. If that isn't creepy in itself, sometimes, while fighting the final boss, should the player take too long, the planet (which is seen in the background) will start to turn red by itself. This reddened Earth is still visible if the character wins, though, the ending sequence progresses as if the planet had been saved quickly. Seeing the Earth decay before you even lose is just plain [[DefangedHorrors creepy.]]

** You have two endings in the arcade. Either see the BigBad's plan go through and be faced with Mu-12, or [[spoiler:see Hazama get torn to pieces... by the ''other'' [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad.]] And either way, you ''still'' don't win]].

* The point behind ''VideoGame/EternalChampions'' is that you play as one of nine martial arts fighters who died before their time and are now given the chance to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong... the rest [[HaveANiceDeath will suffer their original fates]]. Once you defeat the other eight opponents, you are not in need to worry about fighting a mirror match, but you WILL have to worry when facing the Eternal Champion. They all have different endings, but if you fail to defeat the Eternal Champion in combat? You are not given the option to try again; he merely absorbs the defeated fighter before [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/genesis/b/ecbad.htm giving a speech about his disappointment in your failure]] (with music that does NOT help).
** It goes further in the Sega CD update, Challenge from the Dark Side. If you fail in the game you are given a shot of the Earth with a spirit ball that circles it, as the Eternal Champion says "I have no choice but to return you back to your death." Cue a short video of your respective fighter reappearing in their timeline [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/scd/a/ec2b.htm and dying the death fate originally dealt]].

** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'': On "The Maw", fail to escape the Autumn in time; cue {{cutscene}} of the ship exploding, taking you with it. Ditto if Captain Keyes dies on "Truth & Reconciliation". "Without the Captain, the Covenant have already won".

* ''{{VideoGame/Strife}}'', like the other games that use the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' engine, normally just has your view spin (as it falls to the ground) to face the baddie that killed you. Should you die in the final boss fight versus [[BigBad the Entity]], however, you get to see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OITBkFNP8U this ending.]], where The Entity renders humanity extinct and leaves the lifeless planet afterward.
* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', should you [[spoiler:spare [[BigBad Menendez]] but have Lynch die in one point of the game, the ending will show the cyberattack succeeding, and Menendez will escape from jail. He kills Woods in his retirement home, then he'll be shown visiting his sister's grave. After that, [[DrivenToSuicide Menendez will douse himself in gasoline]] and [[SelfImmolation set himself on fire]].]]
** Another bad ending in the game includes [[spoiler:killing Menendez. If you kill him, a Website/YouTube video he had recorded earlier will play, and a mass riot by Cordis Die will spread around the world. ''Black Ops III's'' timeframe would confirm that this ending is the canon one...[[BroadStrokes sort of]].]]

** In the Zombies map "Mob of the Dead", the main Easter egg involves a group of mobsters who are stuck in an infinite loop in Purgatory, which would only stop if the cycle is broken. If Albert "The Weasel" Arlington is killed by the rest of the mobsters, the game over screen reads, "The Cycle Continues", forcing the events of Mob of the Dead to occur again, preventing the timeline from moving forward, and thus, the mobsters will not be able to rest in peace (as they are already dead). [[spoiler: The ''Black Ops 4'' remake "Blood of the Dead" confirms that Weasel did eventually kill the others and allow the Cycle to break, though all four would still be stuck as ghosts on the island until Primis came along.]]

* ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment2'': In Stage 6, [[spoiler:fail to keep your partner, being held by a crane, above the [[AdvancingWallOfDoom rising lava]], and he/she is ''dumped into the lava'', resulting in a GameOver.]]

* The bad endings of ''VideoGame/TheBizarreAdventuresOfWoodruffAndTheSchnibble'' have elements of this.

* ''VideoGame/AthenaAwakeningFromTheOrdinaryLife'' has quite a few of these and a few [[NonStandardGameOver NonStandard Game Overs]], such as Athena dying from a psychic overload, Rika being killed by a T-Rex, and the bombs at school going off. [[spoiler: Losing the FinalBoss fight to the Tantuals System treats you to a haunting scene where Athena is seized and forcibly made into the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild power source for the computer]], with the scene ending with a close up of her face (complete with DullEyesOfUnhappiness) as a SingleTear rolls down her cheek.]]

* ''VideoGame/AthenaAwakeningFromTheOrdinaryLife'' has quite a few of these and a few [[NonStandardGameOver NonStandard Game Overs]], such as Athena dying from a psychic overload, Rika being killed by a T-Rex, and the bombs at school going off. [[spoiler: Losing the FinalBoss fight to the Tantuals System treats you to a haunting scene where Athena is seized by the system and forcibly made into an [[PoweredByAForsakenChild unfeeling power source for the system]], with the scene ending with a close up of her face (complete with DullEyesOfUnhappiness) as a SingleTear rolls down her cheek.]]

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''

* In the arcade game ''VideoGame/ElevatorAction II'' (''VideoGame/ElevatorAction Returns'' in Japan), running out of time near the end of the final mission will cause the terrorists to launch the missile, followed by a picture of an erupting mushroom cloud. Then it goes to the computer screen, with the message saying "YOUR MISSION IS OVER".

* In ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}: Shattered Soldier'', if you don't have a high enough ranking when you beat Mission 5, you get a DownerEnding where the island is destroyed by a KillSat, killing everyone -- including the heroes.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has a weird one: if the player loses to the final boss, [[spoiler:Frederic Chopin]], Chopin ''wakes up from his terminal illness in the real world.'' He closes his eyes again, though, and it's not certain whether he goes back to sleep or dies anyway.

* Die in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', and Igor will recite a poem about how though death is inevitable, one will live on in memory... before adding that ''you'' are an exception. Interestingly, dying in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' has Igor recite something that goes against the meaning of the last game.

* In ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest: SWAT'', if you do anything that's outside of SOP for SWAT, you'll get a cutscene where two other officers lead you away from the scene.

* Most bad endings in otome games involve perhaps getting in a fight and never speaking to the man-pursuit of your dreams again - but if you think that's all of them, you haven't played Romance Is Dead, where (besides the bad endings where you piss the three guys off so much that they kill you) endings can include Adam finding out he's [[spoiler:actually from the 1950s and jumping off a bridge]], and, after you tell Don that he was [[spoiler:betrayed by his mentor because of his race, Don is consumed by anger, becomes practically schizophrenic, loses what little physical form he had left, is consumed by anger and destroys half the college as a wraith - right after you realize that he's the only real friend you have.]]
* Thought the above otome game was bad? Try April was a Fool, a game that starts out hilarious and quickly destroys every semblance of fun you had left. We can start with Kent, the shota type, whose bad ending has him [[spoiler:giving in to the violent, sadistic half of his personality, slaughtering all of his friends, and forcing you into a relationship with him while the blood of your allies soaks into your shirt.]] Or Gunn's bad ending, where [[spoiler:you are torn apart by a dragon and all of your friends are slaughtered except Gunn, who has grown so delusional from despair that he cradles your corpse in his arms for a full year hoping you'll come back to life.]] The most sickening, if not the most violent bad ending, is Erwin's, where [[spoiler:you give in to his delusion that you are actually April and perpetuate his sick fantasy for the rest of your life.]] Have fun!

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', each ending has a detailed pixel art scene of the consequences of your choices, even the bad endings. Notably, Ending 8 has an extended sequence where [[spoiler:you're taken to the medical room by AVAC and are given the memory restoration drug for your interrogation. Your weekly [[PastExperienceNightmare nightmares of your past]] are then [[OnceMoreWithClarity given more context]], but then you suddenly die from the drug's side effects after recounting your memories to AVAC.]]

* In the last level of ''VideoGame/FreeSpace 2'', it doesn't matter if you [[spoiler:successfully escape at the end]]. Most of the ending cutscene is the same, with the narration either mentioning your miraculous survival, or your outstanding sacrifice.
* Consciously averted by the 1980s geopolitical sim ''Balance Of Power''.
--> ''You have ignited a nuclear war. And no, there is no animated display of a mushroom cloud with parts of bodies flying through the air. We do not reward failure.''
** The game [[DevelopersForesight knew]] if the player had intentionally done it, too. It would say "You have ignited an unintentional nuclear war" if the player naturally screwed up.
* The Game Over/Bankrupt screen of ''VideoGame/ThemePark'' for PC shows an office desk with a framed photograph of a happy family. In the reflection of the glass covering the photo, [[DrivenToSuicide the theme park owner tries to commit suicide by jumping out the window]], though he changes his mind and goes back up after a second or two. Still, this detail is easily missable, especially if you're trying to stomach the (up until then) disturbing sequence. The SNES and Genesis versions, on the other hand, had neither the storage space nor video decoding capability to include that clip. As a result, they used a still picture of the owner ''in mid-jump'', making the implication even more disturbing than what PC players would have seen.
* Going bankrupt or otherwise losing in the Sim City-alike ''VideoGame/{{Constructor}}'' leads to a delightful CGI cutscene of the player character being buried alive.
* ''VideoGame/{{Aerobiz}}'': If another airline beats you to achieving the [[InstantWinCondition scenario goal]], you are treated to "scary-music" and screen-shots of people pointing in terror as a huge, ghost-looking guy descends on your corporate HQ building. So the other airlines had an insidious plan to build a HumongousMecha to unleash on your HQ ''after'' they won?
* Losing a scenario in ''VideoGame/RailroadTycoon 3'' would trigger an FMV with the Railroad's former chairman (you) walking down the tracks as a hobo whilst a dialogue box suggested you try again.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Warhawk}}'' on the [=PS1=] featured some of the most fantastically morbid game over screens ever devised, some of them going so far that they cross into HumiliationConga (in addition to one that details how you inadvertedly defeat the BigBad by having him [[EpicFail laugh so hard at your defeat that he chokes to death]]). Experience them for yourself [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWub-yqy3_I&list=PL0E7E11757C9AD925&index=87 here.]]
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' allows you to explore the shambles of your once thriving fortress in Adventure Mode.
** For a straight example, you'd have to view the history in Legends mode after retiring your fortress to see it declared destroyed, and all the dwarves and other named characters who died or went insane as a consequence.
* In ''VideoGame/AbramsBattle Tank'', quitting the mission without fulfilling the objectives results in your superior chewing you out (sometimes in a highly over-the-top way), followed by the status screen informing you how your failure has harmed the Allied cause. For example,
-->'''Commander:''' ''Cologne is destroyed and both the Soviet base and the communications fort are still standing.'' (clutches his head) ''Your incompetence is overwhelming. Get out of my office.''
-->'''Status screen:''' Complete Failure! Neither the Soviet base or their communications fort were destroyed. The Allies were soundly defeated at Cologne.
* In ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' 2 Mercenaries, getting your mech destroyed treates you to a short video of your character on the ground outside of the mech trying to reach for a handgun when a booted foot stomps on your hand and a gun barrel is shoved in your face. If you beat the game but fail to save up enough money, you'll get an ending video of your character sitting in a tiny, dirty apartment throwing a beer can at your TV after it quits working, having failed to acquire the wealth and prestige you dreamed of.
* Played straight in the ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker'' series.
** In the first game, ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker1'', (especially in Japanese [=PC Engine=] version, if your daughter gets lower-class (or even immoral) jobs. You’ll be berated by the narrator that he knows one thing for sure: [[spoiler:you’re the worst parent ever]].
** In ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker2'', having your daughter succumb to death or end up getting immoral jobs, the patron deity will berate you as a heartless parent.
* Only three endings in ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'' are good endings; the other 17 endings are this trope. Some examples:
** If your entire family dies: You are told of the fact, and given a brief lecture about Arstotzkan workers being required ''by law'' to support large healthy families to stimulate the growth of Arstotzka. You are then fired and replaced with someone who's better suited for that goal.
** If you shoot a non-terrorist with your weapons: You are arrested and sentenced to forced labor if you tranquilize an innocent. If you shoot one with the non-tranquilizer rifle, or if you shoot an Arstotkan border guard ''with either weapon'', you're sentenced to death instead. A variation of this ending happens if you shoot [[spoiler:the Man in Red]]: [[spoiler:You are sentenced to forced labor or death as above, but EZIC then sends you a note stating that the replacement inspector isn't cooperative and they have to go into hiding, [[BittersweetEnding but they will safely relocate your family to Obristan]].]]
** If you [[spoiler:escape to Obristan by yourself or only with part of your living family]] in the last act of the game: [[spoiler:You and the family members you take make it across the border, while the rest move back to their home village. [[UncertainDoom The game points out that the safety of the family you left behind is unknown.]]]]
** If you reach the end of the game [[spoiler:having helped out EZIC, but not enough to unlock their special ending, and don't flee to Obristan]]: [[spoiler:Your connection to EZIC is uncovered by the Ministry of Information, and you face the death penalty for treason against Arstotzka.]]
* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'': After defeating the Black Silence, you will be given an option to have Angela kill Roland, followed by an option for Roland to kill Angela. Agreeing to any of these prompts will result in a DownerEnding that also doubles as a NonStandardGameOver (since the game boots you back to the title screen and forces you to restart the Black Silence encounter. And if you do not clear all nine Floor Realizations before this reception, the game will just force you to kill Angela/Roland and prevent you from continuing until you exit the gauntlet and clear their respective realizations.
** Fail to clear the Asiyah Realizations as well as Hokma's, and you will be forced to have Angela kill Roland. Angela turns Roland into a book, kills all of her fellow Sephirot and becomes human, aimlessly wrecking havoc within the southwestern quarters of the City for 13 years before an unnamed Bookhunter puts her out of her misery.
** Fail to clear the Briah Realizations as well as Binahs, and you will have to let Roland kill Angela, due to Angela being a human, she was unambiguously decapitated and the Library collapses like a mirage. Roland goes back to the City, but according to his former friends, he was under the influence of drugs and doing shady businesses due to losing the will to live. His former friends and enemies track him down and impale him with numerous weapons, and he dies ingloriously with his weapon-filled corpse drifting alongside the gutter, and only his former comrade Astolfo remotely displaying sympathy for his death..