History Main / UnexpectedGamePlayChange

* The final stages of ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' do this a ''lot''. Once the [[EliteMooks Special Forces]] arrive the gameplay shifts violently from fighting hoards of stupid slow zombies to fighting intelligent enemies with ranged weapons who capture instead of killing, with a lot more emphasis on stealth. The second-to-last part of the story suddenly puts you into a gun turret fighting off a tank. Then for the final boss you lose all your weapons and have to fight him with those hand-to-hand moves you probably never bothered to learn because a chainsaw always worked so much better.

* ''VideoGame/DeadMansHand'', for the most part, is a Western-themed FPS, save for two stages (a horse chase and a MinecartMadness sequence) who inexplicably turns into a RailShooter - you can't control where you're moving, and can only fire away at mooks to avoid damage, besides shooting items to collect them and boost your health or gain more ammo (think ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers 2'' or ''VideoGame/GunfighterTheLegendOfJesseJames'' instead of ''Red Dead Redemption'').

* The rougelike ''VideoGame/CavesOfQud'' has an exceedingly frustrating one early in. While the game is normally an open world survival RPG, it has some rather frustrating elements which come into play in the fourth quest. [[spoiler: Upon arriving in the factory you were sent to, you jump down onto a conveyer belt with enough BenevolentArchitecture to make VideoGame/HalfLife proud, the walls are mostly steam vents which shoot streams of flame that will instantly kill most characters of the appropriate level to survive in the surrounding jungle, '''every''' other turn, there are a few eel infested pools of acid that you can use to put yourself out on the way down, and at the bottom, there is a deceivingly hard Boss Battle with a partially randomly generated boss whose name will somehow include the word "Cloaca". If it is beaten with a melee weapon, which it most likely will due to the penetration scores of the highest level long gun/bow being just barely too low to make at least 25% of its shots on the target,]] you will contract a disease which makes simple things such as eating and drinking cause you to bleed profusely, until your tongue falls out. During your time infected with the disease, and in the aftermath of being tongueless you will be unable to speak, and trading will be nigh impossible. If you have regeneration, your tongue will grow back, and immediately start to rot and bleed again. If you have hemophilia, you will die trying to eat without at a minimum, 5 bandages to stop the bleeding. If you have mutations both, the game is Unwinnable if you cannot make the cure, which it is possible for it to be impossible to make, by requiring that you make a mixture that requires more parts of one ingredient than is possible to mix in game! Suddenly, it has become a survival game where there are no options to survive.

* ''ComicBook/{{Bucky OHare|and the toad wars}}'', a very good but rather obscure NES platformer, also becomes a (very good) side-scrolling shoot-'em-up in the last level.

* Quantic Dream's previous game, ''VideoGame/TheNomadSoul'', also had a significant GenreShift towards first person shooting action, and more worrisome, towards beat'em up. None of the segments were particularly good, although some sequences were optional. Woe be to you if you reach the dramatically linear third act of the game without as many medikits as you can buy, however. No going back, and no purchasing more.

* ''Missing: Since January'' had a number of these, turning from a puzzle game to minigames. Some were good (minigolf, the cube game), other annoying (shooting parasites off of flowers, navigating a torch around holes) but all became tedious.
* A few Creator/{{LucasArts}} [[AdventureGame adventure games]] have these:
** ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' has ship combat, which thankfully includes its own difficulty option to make it a cakewalk if you don't find the minigame appealing.
** ''Videogame/FullThrottle'' has motorbike fights.
** ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'' has several, including fistfights, car chases and flying a hot air balloon. You are presented with three choices midgame: solo mode, cooperative, or action. The balloon minigame has to be done on all routes (but is quite easy), whereas not picking the action route will enable you to bypass pretty much every other action scene except for one: You must beat up at least one of the guards on the outer ring of Atlantis to steal his rations for a puzzle.
** ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' also features fistfights and flying a biplane, though the game can be played so that neither has a significant impact on progression (although this requires nabbing certain key items from different parts of the game): Outside of an optional tutorial at the start of the game, the fistfights can occur at Castle Brunwald, the zeppelin, and the checkpoints on the way to Iskenderun. However, all of the encounters in the castle can be bypassed with the right dialogue choices and/or items (though the placement of the guards in the hallways can make it difficult to avoid every single one, and if you trigger too many fights all the guards will go on high alert and [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption talking will no longer be an option]]), and the zeppelin section can be bypassed entirely by successfully starting the biplane in the airfield. Naturally, this leads into the flying minigame (which would have occurred upon completing the zeppelin section anyway) and if you ace it you can avoid the checkpoints completely, but even if you get shot down immediately you can still avoid fighting at the checkpoints whether by bribing your way past or by flashing the travel pass you got signed by Hitler at Berlin ([[PermanentlyMissableContent assuming you have it]]).
* A couple of the VideoGame/NancyDrew games throw in a chase scene at the conclusion, and a couple have rather tedious maze mini-games that are quite a departure from the series' usual brain-teaser style of SolveTheSoupCans. Several of the games also have third-person sequences, such as Nancy walking around a beach searching for treasure: quite the departure from the normal gameplay, which avoids showing her appearance at all costs.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Dune}}'' game started off as an adventure game, then eventually turned into a strategy game for the remainder.

** Quantic Dream's previous game, ''The Nomad Soul'', also had a significant GenreShift towards first person shooting action, and more worrisome, towards beat'em up. None of the segments were particularly good, although some sequences were optional. Woe be to you if you reach the dramatically linear third act of the game without as many medikits as you can buy, however. No going back, and no purchasing more.

* The insertion of action elements (sometimes called "[[PressXToNotDie twitch scenes]]") into {{Adventure Game}}s became increasingly common through the 1990s, as developers began to think that players would be attracted by them. The interactive movie game based on ''Series/TheXFiles'' turned briefly into a RailShooter, ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' includes a number of combat scenes, etc. "Purist" adventure game enthusiasts decry the shift, firstly because they see it as a "dumbing down" of the genre, and secondly, because adventure game developers are, on the whole, not very good at writing action sequences. Or at least, not with an interface horribly unsuited to quick reactions. It's very very easy for those action sequences to become ThatOneSidequest.

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'', a classic NES platform game, unexpectedly becomes a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up in the last level. Which ''[[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Uprising]]'' would end up adopting as the ''standard'' gameplay type. Even then, the game had a few examples of this trope such as:

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' Ironically, it's practically a series tradition to include a shoot 'em up section (main series Kirby games are, spinoff games and mini-games aside, platform games).
** ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' parodied the concept by having a boss fight that uses RPG mechanics.

* Occurs frequently in the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' series, such as the Rush Jet [[UnexpectedShmupLevel shmup sequences]], the AutoScrollingLevel in Dr. Cossack's Castle, the waverider level in ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'', and the snowboarding sequences in ''VideoGame/MegaMan8''.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' loves to shift from 3D gameplay to 2D gameplay, but the opening level of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' takes the cake -- it starts on a strict 2D plane, then becomes 2AndAHalfD (as in that Mario can roam freely around the ground, yet the game is still in a sidescrolling state), and then fully 3D by the time Mario reaches the castle.

* One of the major bosses of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'', the Bed of Chaos, was the game's one and only PuzzleBoss- rather than being able to damage it normally, you have to run to one side (while dodging its swipes) and smash a glowing root (which will cause the floor to start dropping out around the arena and for the boss to start lunging at you with a giant fiery claw) then to the other side and smash the other glowing root (which will cause the boss to start generating firestorms). Then you have to make a running jump onto a tree root in the pit in front of it, run up the root and smash through some tangled roots to get to the center of the boss, where you find a weird bug-creature which dies in one hit- then you win. As a puzzle/platforming challenge in a game that was all about careful, measured melee combat (and also had infamously awful jumping controls which you otherwise rarely had to use), it was a drastic departure from every other boss in the game, and also hailed by almost everyone as the absolute ''worst'' boss in the entire series.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' when you suddenly have to play as Joker, your pilot with brittle bones disease who can't fight or even run. The level is practically a walk-in cutscene as all you can do is walk slowly along the one safe path while [[spoiler:the rest of the crew gets abducted]] around you. Straying from the safe path will get you instantly killed by enemies that you would normally squash like a bug. It has a very survival/horror feel to it.

** Contra III also featured two top down "3D" like levels, with full 360 rotation. Probably inserted to show off the UsefulNotes/{{Super Nintendo|EntertainmentSystem}}'s [=Mode7=].

* ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture'' has this in the form of N'Doul, a villain with the power to control water. When playing as one of the good guys, the game shifts from a fighting game into a side-scroller where you have to avoid various water hazards. It's difficult at best, though [[AntiClimaxBoss at the end of it you only have to punch N'Doul once to win]], since he's blind and can't fight back. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation port of the game has a "Super Story Mode" with an event for every antagonist the party faced in the original manga. A few are like N'Doul and incorporate part of the "fighting genre" controls into an action sequence, but there are also events that are entirely different genres. Some are used several times, like breaking up narrative sequences with [[PressXToNotDie quick time events]]. Other genres are only used once, like the Lovers stage [[UnexpectedShmupLevel being a shoot-em-up]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheAdventureOfLittleRalph'', an obscure Japanese platformer for the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation, the hero, Ralph, was originally a man, but the main villain turned him into a boy. Ralph spends almost the entire game like this, but just prior to the game's midboss fight (halfway through the stages) Ralph randomly turns into a man again. Then, he fights the villain in a traditional fighting-game style (complete with health bars) until the villain is defeated. Then Ralph randomly turns back into a boy again. However, past the second time this happens, it is no longer unexpected, as all of the boss battles after the midboss are played as in a fighting game.

** Particularly memorable in the UsefulNotes/GameBoy ''VideoGame/MegaManV'', where you begin by dodging indestructible asteroids, then taking on {{Mooks}} with the BreathWeapon Rush is now equipped with, then dodging lasers on the way to fight the [[ThatsNoMoon Wily Star]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Sockman}}'' includes hidden arcade cabinets that the player can find once per world. If they have coins to spend, they get to play clones of classic [[UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame arcade]] and UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum games like ''VideoGame/{{Breakout}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/{{Pang}} Bubble Buster]]''.

* The UsefulNotes/{{PSP}} adaptation of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' has a few:

* The last in the series of ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' games on the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube did this when it introduced on-foot sections and/or levels to what had been a spacefighter combat game.

** And ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' features a major fight scene between Snake and Ocelot. Nothing unusual about that, except [[spoiler: both characters are piloting Metal Gears, Snake in REX, and Liquid in RAY. The only thing better than a bitchslap, is one involving 100-ton bipedal death machines.]] That doesn't really matter since it's [[RuleOfCool completely]] '' '''[[BestBossEver awesome.]]''' ''

** Relatedly, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', if the player saves their game and turns it off right after Naked Snake is captured in a cell, the next time they turn it on they will be subject to an EasterEgg which isn't just a genre shift, it's a complete game shift.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'' has a NostalgiaLevel-themed story mode called "Deja Vu". Apart from the [[PlayedForLaughs silly mission objectives]] and deliberately unsubtle ContinuityPorn the gameplay is the same slow-paced dark stealth as the core game, until you complete the game after recreating all of the [=SCENEs=] - upon which the game suddenly shifts into a quiz game about the original ''Metal Gear Solid'' with multiple choice answers, Liquid Snake and Ocelot hosting and a whooping StudioAudience.

For an ''Expected'' Gameplay Change, see BonusStage. When this happens to the ''plot'' of a game (or any other media) it's a HalfwayPlotSwitch, GenreShift, or OutOfGenreExperience.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' had its own cardgame, though it included a section where it had to be played and won to proceed. But if the player chose to ignore the cardgame by not playing all cardbattles or losing them, they'd lose out on a nifty item. There was also Chocobo Hot And Cold, where the player used a chocobo to dig around in some areas to get items.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' had Blitzball as its main gameplay change because part of the game focused on the big tournament in Luca, forcing the player to play against an unfairly-balanced team. Fortunately, winning or losing the game made a minute difference in a later scene, and otherwise had no impact.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' had this in the form of the massage minigame, where the player had to massage Leblanc's back [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything just right]] in order to proceed in the game.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky The 3rd'': Sun Door 1, Capua Deliver Service changes from turn-based JRPG to FirstPersonShooter as Josette mans her CoolAirship GatlingGood cannon against Gilbert [[FlunkyBoss and his armada]] of AttackDrone, missiles, and strike craft.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* The remake of ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' at least allowed you to skip the poker bit.

* ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' is a typical turn-based RPG... except when it isn't. At certain points, especially as you get nearer to the end, you'll suddenly find yourself thrust into platforming levels, Mode 7 BulletHell sequences, nonogram puzzle rooms, and all sorts of other crazy situations. The platformer bits stand out especially, mainly because they're [[NintendoHard so dang hard]].

* * ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' introduces a third-person shooter sub-mode that has a few unique bosses, where Travis dons Gundam-esque mecha-armor and fights giant aliens in space. After beating a certain boss, the mecha-armor becomes usable in base gameplay via the kill Roulette, even able to use unique Limit Break techniques.

* * ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes3'' l introduces a third-person shooter sub-mode that has a few unique bosses, where Travis dons Gundam-esque mecha-armor and fights giant aliens in space. After beating a certain boss, the mecha-armor becomes usable in base gameplay via the kill Roulette, even able to use unique Limit Break techniques.

* The ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' games were {{Point And Click Game}}s (excepting {{Minigame}}s), until ''Episode 3'' of ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse The Devil's Playhouse]]'', which is an ''Franchise/AceAttorney''-style VisualNovel. [[HalfwayPlotSwitch For the first part, anyway]].

* In ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight'', some of enemy encounters in the later stages of [[spoiler:Hessonite's Warship]] are ''puzzle'' encounters instead. Steven has to throw his shield to change the lights of all the switches to a certain color, in order to unlock the door before he runs out of [[{{Mana}} Star Points.]]