History Main / UnwinnablebyDesign

{{Adventure Game}}s, and InteractiveFiction in particular, originally were ''rife'' with intentionally unwinnable situations, and were usually known as "dead ends" during the genre's prime. A hallmark of the genre once, the tradition has waned in the 1990s because most players can't stand them.

For cases in which you get a game over from creating an unwinnable situation, see NonstandardGameOver. Games that wish to rub things in a bit may include a period of ControllableHelplessness. For a milder version where you are at least well aware that you're screwed, see CycleOfHurting. For situations where the game intentionally makes you ''think'' you've lost, see FissionMailed.

** Shizune's route is an interesting case, because unlike many other Visual Novel stories it has very limited interactivity - only a single choice ([[spoiler:whether or not to sleep with Misha]]), towards the end of Act 3 (out of 4). Thus, choosing wrong at this point inevitably leads to the player getting a bad end...a whole ''act'' later. Hope you've made a save before (admittedly, this isn't a very "cruel" example because basic decency, logic, and even the game itself practically scream at you all the way through what the right choice is - the odds of you getting it by accident, rather than to see all the scenes, are miniscule).

* The ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' scenario ''Last Stand of the Black Watch'' is like this, as evidenced by the title. The Royal Black Watch was an elite unit of the Star League that was destroyed during the Ameris Coup. In the scenario, the Black Watch forces are defending themselves from Ameris's forces. There are only two possible outcomes: either the Black Watch is killed, or they inflict enough damage that Ameris decides to NukeEm (the canon outcome).

** UnwinnableByDesign/{{Sierra}}
** UnwinnableByDesign/{{Infocom}}

* While ''The Impossible Quiz'' provides you with skips, the final question is unwinnable without using your skips. ''All 7 of them.'' The game gives you no indication that this is what you were supposed to do with them and there are no saves or checkpoints whatsoever in the game.

* '''Merciful''': You only ever need one save file, and use that only if you want to turn the computer off and go to sleep. You never need to restore to an earlier game, because there's no way it ever becomes unwinnable.

* Speaking about operating systems for computers, due to ExecutiveMeddling between Apple and Nvidia, recent UsefulNotes/MacOS versions have discontinued the drivers for the Nvidia graphics cards, so shoving a recent Nvidia card (ie, a Pascal-based GTX, or a Turing-based RTX) for the recent [=MacOS=] version 10.14 (Mojave) will not show images at worst. AMD graphics cards (such as Polaris and Vega-based Radeon cards) on other hand receive continued support from Apple, but on certain basis. Time will tell if the recent AMD Navi-based Radeons will receive Apple support, though.

{{Adventure Game}}s, and InteractiveFiction in particular, originally were ''rife'' with intentionally unwinnable situations. A hallmark of the genre once, the tradition has waned in the 1990s because most players can't stand them.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': In "Ice Cream Mountain", Stu and Drew Pickles are competing at miniature golf, where the course's final hole, "Ice Cream Mountain", allows a free game to golfers who make a hole-in-one. However, the course owner has fixed it so that nobody would get it. [[SpannerInTheWorks That is, until the babies, who were supposed to be taken out for ice cream, find it, believing it's a literal ice cream mountain, and inadvertently unrig the last hole]], leading to Stu and Drew, along with other golfers, making holes-in-ones and getting free games, much to the horror of the owner.

** More diabolical is the case of the Hanako route: towards the end, [[spoiler: after Hanako has locked herself up in her room and wouldn't come out]], Hisao desperately calls Lilly on the phone and they have a conversation where Lilly basically spells out to Hisao what he did wrong and how he should act with Hanako... except that if you chose incorrectly on a seemingly unrelated decision earlier ([[spoiler: opting not to go to town with Hanako after Lilly leaves for Scotland and instead going back to your room]]) Hisao will simply ''refuse to listen to Lilly'' and will go out on his own to do something incredibly stupid that gets you a bad end. If you haven't acted like an idiot, this is where you get an actual choice whether or not to do the right thing.

There are plenty of difficult games out there, but at least most of them have the decency to kill you off the moment your quest becomes impossible to complete -- otherwise you'd end up wandering around looking for a way to progress when none exist. Now, in the case of games that are UnwinnableByMistake it's kind of understandable -- either a bug or an oversight has rendered the game broken so there's no way for it to tell the player how screwed they are.

* If the unwinnable situation arises as the result of a programming flaw, like a bug, or a design error such as making it possible to advance to the next stage without collecting a vital item, this is actually UnwinnableByMistake.
* If the unwinnable situation arises after the player had done one or several mistakes to a point they were continually warned against what they're doing or feel as if the player must actively ''seek'' a way to make the game unwinnable, it is UnwinnableByInsanity.

* Amanda, once she was allowed to start designing and implementing her own traps in ''Film/SawIII,'' had started designing them all to be inescapable. Whether you think this is because of her misanthrophy and distrust of people's ability to change or her desire to put them out of their misery so they wouldn't have to deal with the devastating mental aftermath of a trap is up to your interpretation.

* In a commercial for American Express, (now former) tennis player Andy Roddick faces an opponent that "returns everything"--[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UfGpt-0ncc Pong]]. He then inverts it by making the game Unwinnable by Design for Pong [[spoiler: by taking advantage of Pong not being a 3D game and constrained to the back of the court--and lobbing the ball just over the net so it goes under Pong.]]

* UnwinnableByDesign/{{Sierra}}
* UnwinnableByDesign/{{Infocom}}

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The NES/Famicom PortingDisaster of SNK's ''VideoGame/{{Athena}}'' has a very nasty example. After beating the boss of the fourth stage, you get a seemingly useless inventory item and move on to the fifth stage, the [[MeaningfulName World of Hell]]. [[ThatOneLevel This stage is very easy to die in]], with constant RespawningEnemies and {{Bottomless Pit}}s abound. After much strife, you may eventually reach the boss, only to notice that [[DamageSpongeBoss no matter how much damage you pump into it, it just won't go down]], try after try. As it turns out, the item the boss of the fourth stage dropped is what prevents the fifth boss from being completely invincible. However, if you die, it's ''gone forever'', and since you can't revisit previous stages, the only remedy is to [[ContinuingIsPainful restart the entire game]].
* Text adventure ''Battlestar'' in the [=BSDGames=] package has a few users that the author didn't like (specifically, wnj, root and ted). Playing with an account with those usernames causes the game puts a few enemies in the starting area and greatly reduces inventory capacity - and the only weapon you can find only chips away at their health.
* ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}'' for DS had the player stuck in the middle of the tutorial if using a [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/971937-okamiden/59550010 pirate copy]].
* ''VideoGame/LostInBlue'' and its spiritual predecessor ''VideoGame/SurvivalKids'' can often create situations where you're doomed. Did the RNG decide to give you three straight days of typhoons, preventing you from going out to gather food and wood? Unless you have enough stockpiled you won't have anything to eat or light a fire with so you can rest. Saved the game when low on health, poisoned and with a stomach ache (you don't feel the effect of poisoned or spoiled food until after a while you ate it)? Won't be able to rest. Finished building the raft in the Game Boy game, and then dawdled around too much? A volcano will erupt, and unless you have a specific set of items (which you may not have enough time left to gather) fleeing on the raft will net you a NonstandardGameOver where you starve to death in the middle of the ocean.
* In ''[[ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars Bucky'O Hare]]'', the Blue Planet is not possible to complete without completing the Green Planet and rescuing Blinky to break the ice blocks. Either use a password to revert back or get a game over to reselect planet.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starflight}}'': If you are in the red when you visit the starport, you are stuck there until you pay it off. If you don't have enough assets to sell off to pay it off, then you're stuck there forever.
* In ''VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach'' if you make the fatal error of [[DontLookAtMe looking at SCP-096's face]] (which is entirely avoidable as he is docile and curled up in a ball until provoked) he will go into a fit for 30 seconds and then pursue and kill you. Regardless of how many doors you put between him and you, [[TheJuggernaut nothing can impede his progress]] and, as he moves incredibly quickly, [[ControllableHelplessness this is essentially a game over]].
** A later update changed things so SCP-096 walks around in front of a room containing a pivotal switch, making avoiding him significantly more difficult.
* In ''VideoGame/EchoNight'', at one point, you have to enter a sort of flashback and collect a fallen toy before escaping. Escape without the toy and you can't enter the flashback again, leaving you unable to proceed.
* Subverted in the final map of the first episode of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. The hero is teleported into an inescapable pitch black room surrounded by demons where he is torn to shreds. Many players repeatedly attempted to fight their way through the demons or find their way out of the darkness, wondering if there was a different ending. This is a subversion because the hero is ''supposed'' to die, and in fact that's the only way to complete the episode.
** Some fanmade Doom [=WADS=] play this straight, especially the 'Terry WAD' genre, which usually involves what appears to be a normal map but then leads to an inescapable trap that freezes the player's controls, [[SensoryAbuse plays loud annoying sounds and flashing images]] and sometimes [[TrollingCreator deliberately crashes the game]]. Some Terry [=WADS=] are [[DoubleSubversion actually beatable]], though, but [[GuideDangIt only if you know exactly how to avoid triggering the traps]].
* ''VideoGame/EchoNight'' 2: Master of Dreams, the Japanese-exclusive sequel to the first game, is infuriatingly full of these (perhaps not quite, as you can still beat the game in most cases, but [[HundredPercentCompletion 100% completion]], and the good ending, are permanently locked away without warning).
** Very early in the game, a ghost is looking for a pepper grinder. There is one behind the ghost in the bar, but he asks for a partiture in exchange. Took the partiture from the music room and gave it to him? Oops, there goes 2 of the astral pieces, locking you out of the best ending. [[spoiler:Instead of taking the partiture, you have to listen to the second song in the bar jukebox and replicate the first 8 notes in the music room's piano. The piano ghost will play the song and attract the bar ghost, making both disappear to the forever after, giving you two astral pieces and opening the path to get the pepper grinder yourself. The only vague hint you get of all this is that the piano ghost will complain rather desperately once you take the partiture, and the bar ghost will comment on the jukebox song once you listen to it.]]
** A bit later, in the archaeological lab, you eventually come across a pen that clearly belongs to the manager. Give it to her and she runs off, never to be seen again, locking you out of her's AND two other ghost's Astral Pieces. [[spoiler:You're supposed to talk to her while wearing three different jackets in a specific order (very barely alluded to, and which resets if you leave the room) and give her a microscopic lens that's hidden in one of the drawers. You'll be whisked away to a flashback, and THERE you're supposed to give her the pen to make her leave the room and allow you to get the jacket from the bed, said jacket being the only way to free two of the ghosts.]]
* If you don't throw the seed out the window in day 1 of ''VideoGame/OedipusInMyInventory'', it becomes impossible to complete day 3, leaving death your only option.
* ''VideoGame/{{KGB}}'', aka ''Conspiracy'', was a hugely involved espionage adventure game in which it was recommended and nearly required to take notes in order to make any progress. It was VERY easy to make the game unwinnable:
** At one point, the main character investigates a butcher shop. Under the desk is a small button. Push it, and nothing seems to happen. Push it again, or don't push it at all, and you die to a trap 10 minutes later. The game never informs you of this button, and it can't be found without {{pixel hunt}}ing.
** When checking into a hotel room, you get a mysterious phone call saying only "check the lights." Then you needed to switch the lights on 3 times. Switch them on only once? You die. Twice? You die. Turn them off totally? Dead. And you have to break a cypher, or remember the character who can break it for you, to know what to do if you want to live.
** The ENTIRE GAME is timed. It's easy to render it unwinnable by dawdling too long.
** At one point, you have to confront the butcher about what you found in his shop. But if you talked to him even once before, he will never open his door to you again. Especially annoying since just a little while before, it looks like you are supposed to interview everyone in the building for clues.
** Yet another example: a mad scientist you are questioning can escape, and he has a nervous breakdown before you can ask every possible question. You did not ask the only important one? You cannot leave the location.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', almost every quest is timed and gives you the option to reject it, including much of the main questline. Break the main quest chain in this fashion at any point - which is possible as soon as the very first step after leaving the intro dungeon - and it becomes permanently unwinnable. The first step in the main quest will give you a second chance if you miss it, adding another month to the time limit, but only once.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', as all [=NPCs=] are mortal, it is entirely possible to kill someone critical to the main plot and thereby prevent you from completing it. The game is decent enough to tell you when you do this (see the message below) so that you can reload a saved game. There is also a "[[TakeAThirdOption back door]]" method of defeating the BigBad that requires only one living NPC, but it skips the entire story and is [[GuideDangIt pretty well hidden]]. However, this NPC can die as well. This is also true for other major plotlines, such as those for the Guilds and Factions you can join. (However, you will get no such message there.)
--> "With this character's death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created."
** The seven-minute SpeedRun of ''Morrowind'' -- watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1IRxTN-_kU here]], or watch an even shorter run [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_fFApDyki4 here]] -- demonstrates that {{Munchkin}} tricks can be used to bypass the plot routes altogether. This changes the problem: the only way to render ''Morrowind'' {{Unwinnable}} when those tricks are taken into consideration is to collect and then misplace either of the two essential {{Plot Coupon}}s. And even then, since nothing (outside of town guards and creatures) respawn, one could theoretically comb through the entire game world trying to find where they left the item.
*** However, placing either of those {{Plot Coupon}}s on a corpse, and then either disposing of it or waiting the three in-game days for them to disappear will render the game well and truly {{Unwinnable}}. Though doing such a thing makes it UnwinnableByInsanity.
* In ''VideoGame/HugosHouseOfHorrors 2'', if you bump into the side of the bridge (a ludicrously easy thing to do), then you'll drop your matches. You need these matches to progress. There is no way to dry the matches, nor is there any other way to set fire to the things you need to burn.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKyrandia'', you can find two apples. Click one and Brandon will take a bite of it. Click the second, and you have nothing to trade the faun to get the royal chalice back and you might as well restart.
* One level in ''[[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Commander Keen IV]]'' featured monsters who didn't harm you, but appeared in puffs of smoke to steal items before you could collect them. This included a key necessary to get to the end of the level. In fairness, however, if you were unable to kill all of these monsters before they got to the key, then you ''deserve'' to lose. Granted, you can reload a saved game or commit suicide in a tar pit to try again.
* ''VideoGame/DraculaUnleashed'' was a FullMotionVideo video game that was also part adventure. There are numerous times where you can make the game unwinnable. A few of them are GuideDangIt moments. One requires you to go to a bookstore late at night so you know there is a secret passage there. If you didn't go there, then you don't know that there is a clue you can look for. And if you go into the Asylum unprepared, then Hellsing is strangled in front of you and you can do nothing more but wait for a Game Over.
** The entire game more-or-less takes place in real time; every single event and travel to a destination uses up time and you're told at the start of the game that you have four in-game days to finish. Not going to a certain event at a certain time of a certain day or simply wasting too much time going to wrong locations is all it takes to make the game unwinnable. Beating the game requires extensive trial and error to find the correct order of events and then performing all of these events as quickly as possible in one near-flawless run.
*** What pushes this deeper into the cruelty scale is that there's a set of leads and plot thread about the "Bloofer Lady" which is a red herring; pursuing these leads does nothing except waste your time, since the Bloofer Lady plot ends in a dead end and gets you no closer to Dracula.
* {{Defied|Trope}} by much every Creator/LucasArts adventure game after ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders''; these games always allow the player to go back and collect items that they need or refuse to let them continue without the required item. This was often viewed as "dumbing down adventure games for the masses" by [[StopHavingFunGuys hardcore Sierra enthusiasts]]. [=LucasArts=] believed that players should not be punished for experimenting in their games, and criticised Sierra's combination of this trope and TrialAndErrorGameplay as "sadistic". All their adventure game manuals explicitly stated their design philosophy as being "We believe that you buy games to be entertained, not to be whacked over the head every time you make a mistake. [...] We think you'd prefer to solve the game's mysteries by exploring and discovering, not by [[TheManyDeathsOfYou dying a thousand deaths]]." (Interestingly, one of the factors that helped create this design philosophy was Ron Gilbert and David Fox's exasperation with Sierra's blatantly ridiculous game design while working on ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion''. Fox cited a moment in a Sierra game where he attempted to pick up a broken mirror but had his player character die as a result, saying "I know that in the real world I can successfully pick up a broken piece of mirror without dying.")
** In ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', if you stay underwater for more than ten minutes after the sheriff throws you off the pier, then the game not only kills you but also continues, giving you the commands ''float'', ''bloat'', ''bob,'' and ''order hint book''. The last option gives you the [=LucasArts=] helpline phone number.
** Of course, the manual for ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' might be the least appropriate place to state the [=LucasArts=] Design Philosophy since it was like a Sierra game. Missed something in ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion''? No problem... you can beat the game with your other partner. But in "[=Zak McKracken,=]" there was only one way to beat the game. Washed the bread crumbs down the drain? Spent your money and got stuck at a place where you can't win the lottery to gain more money? Accidentally killed someone by removing their helmet on Mars? Got Zak ''and'' Annie stuck in jail? Then you can't beat the game. And despite that, ''Zak [=McKracken=]'' is ''still'' more merciful than Sierra by virtue of not murdering you every five minutes.
** ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' can still throw a few. Have a party with Jeff and Dave (no special skills), and get the third kid (the only one with the special game-winning skill) killed. Expose the film if you're playing Michael. Tear the envelope with Wendy, Syd, and Razor (so you can't send anything to Three Guys). Forget to intercept the package to Ed so you get stamps. Forget to open the lab door and radio the Meteor Police three times. Granted, some ways of making your game a walking dead state took more effort than others.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSeed'', which featured art by Creator/HRGiger, thrives on this. The game has a rather specific solution, complete with many chances to screw up before the end. For example, you only have enough money to buy two items at the store, there are many items available, and you need to buy the right two to win... and you can't buy them at the same time. For another example, you need to set up an alternate way to enter your house before you ever learn that the main way will be blocked. Also, you're playing in "real time", and you need to be in the right place at the right time for certain events. Essentially, the game expects you to [[TrialAndErrorGameplay keep starting over from the beginning until you get it right.]]
** You need to get put in jail at ONE point in this game with three specific items that you need to put in your cell for later to finish the game. The game hints at ''one'' of them if you listen to your car radio, but not the other two.
** The sequel has an even more sadistic feature: the first time you die, you're told that because of your importance, someone else will be sacrificed to save you. If you die again, you actually do die. At first glance, this looks like a nice mechanic to avoid dying without having a save. However, it's there because in order to finish the game you need to die once in a ''particular'', ''specific'' way and then come back to life. Died by a different method and taken advantage of the resurrection? Unwinnable. Keep restoring the game whenever you lost the first life, because you died? Unwinnable.
* The horror {{Role Playing Game}}/adventure game ''[[VideoGame/{{Elvira}} Elvira 2 - Jaws of Cerberus]]'' can be easily made unwinnable - especially by destroying a vital item (step on a fireball trap? Good-bye spell book!), such as by using it up for a spell, or for the ''wrong'' spell (or by using up a spell at the wrong place and time). In addition, entering the wrong room without appropriate protection [[EverythingTryingToKillYou will result in your death]] (and [[TrialAndErrorGameplay you have no idea about the danger until after you die]]).
** ''Elvira 2'' is pretty much Made Of Unwin. One of the worst instances: at one point, you need to animate a FrankensteinsMonster so that it moves away from a door that it obstructs. However, if you click on the monster's head beforehand, then you'll automatically cut off the wires connected to its head, making it impossible to animate. The worst thing is, the game ''never tells you that you have cut the wires''; there are no hints that clicking on the head would have any ill effect.
** The game even makes jokes with its own unwin-ability. It is possible to get your hands amputated by springing a trap (or have the piranhas in the aquarium eat both your arms). The game allows you to keep playing... but you can't use any items since your hands are gone.
** Some other situations seem unwinnable but have alternate solutions (though you can block them, too). For example, if you fail to get poison from the mad scientist (you only get one try, after which he'll throw you out of his lab and lock the door), you can instead [[spoiler:get the key from the piranha aquarium]] using a telekinesis spell. But if your Intellect and Level are low enough, you will only get one use out of the spell, and spending it there you will have made the game unwinnable once again since you won't be able to retrieve certain keys from a trapped alcove later.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Jigsaw}}'' ([[http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=28uhmejlntcbccqm here]]), you must collect all sixteen jigsaw pieces to restore history in each time period. While there's a device that tells you if there are jigsaw pieces in your current time period that you haven't found yet, it's sometimes easy to make collecting them impossible, especially when you don't realize that a piece is in an area that later becomes inaccessible. For instance, there are the jigsaw pieces you're supposed to pick up during the mission in "Siberia": fail to press the right button in the missile before it flies out or fail to retrieve the cable you used to get down to the missile so you can use it again on the goose's nest, and at least one of these pieces will be [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost for good]]. But the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} Unwinnable situation involves the drawing competition at the end of the game. If you haven't drawn at least four animals in the sketchbook over the course of the game, then you can't get the competition prize you need to complete the game. Oh, you didn't get the sketchbook from inside the stool or the pencil under the stool before all the historical intrigue began? Then you had better restart.
* Kemco's NES version of ''VideoGame/DejaVu'' had one frustrating unwinnable scenario -- if you've used up your last 3 coins going somewhere other than Peoria and have already taken a free cab ride.
** At the beginning of the game, you find pills in a bathroom that can be filled with various medicines, some necessary to complete the game. In the same room is an unlabelled medicine which turns out to be deadly poison. Presumably the designers meant for you to put the poison in the pills swallow them, die, and load your last save. However, if you put the poison in the pills and continue through the game, it becomes unwinnable because there is no way to put a different medicine in the pills without swallowing them first (or feeding them to an NPC, which will kill that person and also make the game unwinnable). It can take several hours to discover this.
* The games of Creator/MagneticScrolls tended to be hideously prone to Unwinnable situations, requiring precise courses of action to win, and they invoked a lot of tropes: TrialAndErrorGameplay, {{Timed Mission}}s, GuideDangIt, PermanentlyMissableContent, PointOfNoReturn, MoonLogicPuzzle, and then some. Examples:
** ''VideoGame/{{Fish}}'' required that you follow one path through the game almost exactly, and that [[TrialAndErrorGameplay required more guesswork than skill]]. Even if you worked it out, it's possible to lose [[TimedMission because of a time limit]] that [[TrialAndErrorGameplay no one told you existed!]]
** In ''VideoGame/{{Corruption}}'', you must be in several right places at several right times, a series of events must be completed in a specific order, and you must avoid a set of pitfalls that ''you don't know exist'' even '''after''' you lose. Failure to work things out properly can result in anything from long-term imprisonment to your sudden inexplicable death. And then there's The Hospital, where over fifty moves must be done in perfect and precise order without a single indication of what they are.
** ''VideoGame/GuildOfThieves'' had puzzles so mind-breaking and deliriously insane that even walkthroughs won't always help. It is possible to destroy your ability to complete the game with one wrong command, and there are ''hundreds'' of wrong commands. Famously, [[spoiler:opening a bag you've just found [[PermanentlyMissableContent instantly destroys]] the ancient sheet music that you didn't know was in there]].
* ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga'' features a hero going through a 60 level tower. Each level has a hidden treasure. Some treasures are bad and make the game unwinnable. This fact might not be discovered until many levels later; nor can the item's properties be discerned until it is obtained. A rare case of GuideDangIt in an arcade game.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', conflicting missions can make 100% completion impossible if [[SequenceBreaking taken out of order.]] For instance, one mission will have you betray a crime boss's trust and kill him -- a bad idea if you haven't finished his missions for you yet. [[RealityEnsues Some players were surprised.]]
** Also, certain missions in the Portland area, such as the ambulance missions, can become unwinnable after you kill the Mafia boss because the Mafia will be all over you like flies on a carcass.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MontyMole Monty on the Run]]'', you had to choose five items at the beginning of the game for Monty's freedom kit, and the game would be unwinnable unless you chose the right ones. This is often claimed to be CopyProtection, but the manual actually didn't tell the player which items to use; it was just TrialAndErrorGameplay.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shanghai}}'' became a popular implementation of Mahjong Solitaire, and cloned frequently. While the more common versions guarantee that the game is solvable, there's other variations that simply have tiles randomly placed (similar to as if the player layed out the tiles without a computer) with no consideration on whether or not the result is winnable.
* ''VideoGame/WingCommander'':
** If you fail too many campaigns, you will be sent to the "Hell's Kitchen" campaign where victory is impossible. Even if you successfully complete every mission in Hell's Kitchen, the Confederation will still lose. On the other hand, winning enough campaigns will send you to the final "Venice" campaign, in which the Confederation will win even if you fail every mission.
** If both [[SubsystemDamage your ejector seat and communications systems are inoperable]], there's no way to complete a mission because you can neither hail the ''Tiger Claw'' to request landing clearance, nor eject to get picked up. You have to start the whole mission over.
** In both ''VideoGame/WingCommanderPrivateer'' games, failing a mission in the main questline will result in the player being unable to progress the story any further and will not reach the ending.
** ''VideoGame/WingCommander III: Heart Of The Tiger'' has a campaign path depending on your performance on previous missions where you fight against an endless wave of Kilrathi until you either quit the game or die. It is possible to outlast the "endless" wave of Kilrathi and destroy all the guns on the mothership, at which point you can shoot the mother ship forever with no results. At that point, quitting is the only option.
** ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV'' has a point where the plot wants you to defect to the Union of Border Worlds. If you decline the second of two chances and choose to stay with Confed, then infinite waves of Border World bombers spawn until your carrier is destroyed, ending the game. If you cheat and remove all the enemy craft from the mission, then your carrier explodes on its own. What made this infuriating is that ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV'' [[LyingCreator billed itself as giving the player the choice of defecting or staying loyal to Confed]]. Technically, it did; but it punished that second choice ''hard!''
* In ''VideoGame/OmikronTheNomadSoul'', a robotic character will make an offhand mention of his aching joints amid a [[WallOfText wall of dialogue.]] If you don't then go out and find some oil for said robot, then the door locks, the game becomes unwinnable, and you won't find out until much later.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'', the main quest of the game, "Basil" [[spoiler: is purposely unwinnable as by the final day, it's replaced by a different quest. This is because Basil is slowly being forgotten by everyone.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}: Shadow of the Horned Rat'' had a stage with so many Orcs it was deemed "impossible" by the makers themselves, and for good reason: there was no stage beyond it. One wily player managed to get through only to have the game lock up as it tried to load a stage that didn't exist.
* In the SNES version of ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', there's a chain of this, with the first one due to GiveMeYourInventoryItem with a consumable with only one use at the time. At the beginning of the game, if you used up the Slap Patch to heal yourself (perhaps after finding your first weapon, which is followed by enemies opening fire on you)? You have nothing to heal the shaman with, which is needed to unlock a topic. But even if you heal the shaman, the required topic is only gotten by "Talk"-ing to them, which is impossible if you don't do it at the first opportunity, as it's possible to end the interaction before that, and the shaman disappears once the interaction ends. The topic is only used two-thirds into the game, it's needed to enter an important location.
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'':
** In the [[VideoGame/AloneInTheDark1992 original game]], you need two small mirrors to defeat the Nightgaunts at the top of the stairs and proceed further into the game. If a monster attacks you just once while you are carrying the mirrors, they will shatter and are [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]]. There are only two mirrors in the entire game. Without both of them intact, the game is unwinnable. Other possible unwinnable situations are entering the caves beneath Derceto (it is a PointOfNoReturn) without every required plot item[[note]]including the key above the ballroom's chimney, which is required to open a chest that contains a gem unlocking the door to the final boss's room, and the star-shaped amulet of the library's secret room, which is required to beat the final boss (the library's secret room itself being very hard to discover)[[/note]], neglecting to unlock the passage back into the basement so you can get back after the bridge collapses (depending on what version you're playing), and running out of fuel for the oil lamp, which you need to reach and defeat the FinalBoss.
** Downplayed in [[VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2 second game]]. There is a bullet-proof vest which reduces damage and keeps Carnby from getting [[CycleOfHurting stun-locked]]. It has limited durability, and if you break it before an area where you must fight off multiple gun-wielding enemies at once, unless the player moves very quickly, all you'll be able to do is watch Carnby [[ItMakesSenseInContext in a Santa suit]] repeatedly flinch and then fall down dead.
** In the [[VideoGame/AloneInTheDark3 third game]], advancing in the plot requires to shoot a villain with a golden bullet (one hit is enough to kill him). There are exactly 11 golden bullets in the game (a single Winchester round and a bag of gold coins kept by the enemy himself, that can be stolen from his hands with the whip). Naturally, using up those bullets will make the game unwinnable.
* The ''Film/DirtyHarry'' game for the NES has a completely normal-looking room which [[DeadEndRoom you cannot exit after you enter it]], forcing you to reset the system. It's not a bug -- the door is replaced with graffiti saying "HA HA HA". WordOfGod says that this was done entirely deliberately to [[TrollingCreator pull a prank on the player]].
* The Freescape game ''VideoGame/DarkSide'' included sensors which zapped you into a prison cell called Io Confinement (often [[NonIndicativeName misnamed]] "I/O Confinement" in maps and walkthroughs) containing an item needed to finish the game, which could only be exited by firing at energy-draining doodads by the door, causing the door to open once you'd sacrificed enough energy. Heaven help you if you ended up there with insufficient energy to do that, or to survive for long once out -- or if you destroyed the sensors before they could imprison you.
** The first game, ''VideoGame/{{Driller}}'', had an even worse feature. Both ''Driller'' and ''Dark Side'' have a game map in the shape of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombicuboctahedron rhombicuboctahedron]] (18 squares and 8 triangles, of which 3 squares and a triangle meet at every corner), the back-story in both cases being that this is an artificial world built around a natural moon by the erection of the square platforms over the moon's surface. In ''Dark Side,'' the triangular facets are simply inaccessible (blocked off by forcefields), but in ''Driller'' it's possible to drive off the edge of a platform and fall through the triangular hole onto the surface of the original moon... from which there is no way back, so it's quit-and-restart time.
** ''VideoGame/{{Driller}}'' also had an AllThereInTheManual moment which probably served as CopyProtection. The game involved erecting drilling rigs on each of the world's 18 square platforms, in order to tap gas pockets and blow off their contents into space, thereby rendering them harmless so the moon doesn't explode and destroy its world when struck by a meteor in a few hours' time. The gas pockets varied in size, the smaller ones being harder to locate, and one of them was so tiny as to be impossible to locate without being told exactly where it was -- which one of the illustrations in the manual did, so those who got a pirate copy without also getting a copy of the manual (or who didn't bother to read the manual) stood no chance of winning.
* ''VideoGame/TheImpossibleQuiz''. As you progress through the game, you're given skips, which you can use to skip most questions. But [[spoiler:the last question is introduced as either the easiest question or the hardest. It turns out that you have to use all your skips to pass it. If you used even one before this, then the game is impossible to win and you have to start over from the beginning.]]
** Not only that, but Question [[spoiler: 84]] has [[spoiler: two hidden skips that you must grab before collecting the star that advances you to the next question]]. Failure to [[spoiler: get both will leave you unable to beat the final question]].
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarI'' has two bosses, Medusa and Lassic, who have attacks that can [[OneHitKO one-shot]] your party unless you have a specific item (the Mirror Shield and the Crystal, respectively). Without them, you have no chance of prevailing against them. [[note]]It technically ''is'' possible to defeat Medusa without the Mirror Shield, but this requires spamming Alis's Rope spell to keep Medusa from attacking and hoping her MP holds out.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'' can become unwinnable if you engage in a little ScriptBreaking in the beginning by using an Escapipe (which lets you escape dungeons instantly) after being arrested. Apparently, you don't just break the script, [[http://sardoose.rustedlogic.net/reviews/ps3/index.htm you break the whole game]]. It's a logical place to use an Escapipe if you don't know you shouldn't have it yet, so the game designers provide messages telling you that you made the game unwinnable after the fact. This also counts as By Insanity, since the only way to afford an Escapipe at this point is by selling all of your character's starting equipment.
* In ''VideoGame/Nitemare3D'', there are a handful of block- or tombstone-pushing puzzles. Because of the simplicity of the game engine, there is no way to "pull" these items back toward you. Yes, there are places where you can push some of them that permanently block critical paths. It's usually clear immediately when you've messed up.
* The UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum port of ''[[VideoGame/{{Gladiator}} Great Gurianos]]'' used up so much memory that there was no room to include the ending. Dave Perry was forced to [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5103 make the final boss undefeatable]].
* While still polite compared to others (you just have to die, rather than restart the game), ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland DS'' makes nearly every secret level potentially Unwinnable By Design. The last secret level, for example -- Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs -- has a room in which there's a platform powered by shooting eggs at it. You can and often will run out long before reaching the end, there's no backtracking, and your only hope is the instakill spikes surrounding you. On occasion, your platform just goes straight past a spike covered obstacle that needs to be raised and gets stuck on the other side.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ravenskull}}'' features such jollities as floor squares that make gates trap you in or objects disappear from your inventory when stood on. Many of these contain treasures and thus ''have'' to be stood on; the puzzle is working out the correct order to perform certain tasks so as to prevent an {{Unwinnable}} outcome occurring.
* ''VideoGame/TowerOfTheSorcerer'' includes an altar where you can give money to raise your stats. The price goes up on a quadratic scale with each use. The catch? Later levels have additional altars that give you a greater stat increase; but each time you use one, the price goes up for all of them. Using the first one too much can make it impossible to progress.
* A game simply known as ''VideoGame/BowAndArrow'' had a level in which a white dove passes by the main character, followed by swarms of black birds. If the player failed to exterminate even one of the black birds, then a later level is impossible. The game's story between levels does say that the dove is carrying a message from you to a helpful wizard, and the later level does say, "I hope the message got to XYZ". The game did not explicitly say, however, that ''all'' the black birds had to be eliminated.
* ''VideoGame/AlexKidd in Miracle World'' had a situation that counted as Unwinnable when the game was released. If you didn't pick up the letter your brother talked about, then you did not receive the stone slab with the combination on it to unlock the last part of the game. The stone slab is not required, however, if you know the combination of by heart. But if you don't know the code at all, then this renders the game Unwinnable. GuideDangIt now, but the guides probably wouldn't give you the code without the slab then.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' had the Dark Elf, who lived in a cave where it was highly magnetic and would disable you if you wore anything metal in it. To get past him you needed to have talked with Edward and received a key item. However, if you did not do this, there is nothing stopping you from initiating the battle. While in theory you could defeat him without getting the harp and could still de-equip the armor (or wear silver armor and weapons instead, because [[FridgeBrilliance silver is a non-ferrous metal, thus unaffected by magnetism]]) mid-battle, you could only do so with cheats since the Dark Elf would one-shot any character without armor. If you did not save before-hand, you would have wasted a ton of time.
* The NES port of ICOM's ''VideoGame/{{Uninvited}}'' has a Ruby in one of the bedrooms in the game. You are warned not to take it the first time you try. If you choose again to take it, then the game will let you continue and even save until you die after a certain number of moves. There's one location where you can put the ruby down and live. Fortunately enough, upon entering a message explicitly says you can use it to throw away items you don't need anymore.
** The original computer versions of Uninvited are far more cruel. At the very beginning of the game, you need to retrieve an envelope from the mailbox and open it for the talisman inside. Once you enter the house you can't leave, and without the talisman, winning is impossible. The NES version requires the talisman to actually open the door in the first place, saving gamers from a no-win situation at the start.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Gateway}}'' series of adventure games by Legend could be made unwinnable, but it was usually obvious when you did. For instance, breaking the PV commset in the beginning of Gateway 1 makes it impossible to receive a crucial message later on, but that's obvious because the screen cracks. [[spoiler:Wearing the ring while in the mirror room in Hell in Gateway 1 also eventually makes the portals close, so you'll be stuck. But if that happens, then you can simply type "die" and restart.]]
** You can also miss a particular meeting, where certain items are handed out, and be stuck.
* In ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' dating sim ''Dokidoki Survival'', your success getting a character to be your boyfriend usually depends on the number of "heart points" you have earned for interacting with him throughout the game. For Ooishi, however, whether he accepts your feelings also hinges on answering a single question correctly. If you answer wrong, then no matter how full your heart meter is, he won't accept your feelings. What's more, ''you earn heart points for giving the wrong answer.'' In fact, you earn the exact same amount as for giving the ''right'' answer, and so it's nearly impossible to figure out where you've gone wrong.
* ''VideoGame/ColossalCave Adventure''
** The original ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' has a nasty one near the end -- after you deposit the last treasure, you have a small number of moves to get back into the cave system before you're locked out of it (literally). If you're anywhere in the caves when the timer expires, then you're whisked to the last two locations; if you aren't, then you can't get back in -- and thus can't end the game.
** Several in the bridge:
*** If you give the troll a non-recoverable treasure to pass (as in, not the magic egg), then you'd have lost it forever and won't get it back.
*** If you return via the bridge with the bear still following you, the bridge breaks under the bear's weight, causing you to fall and die. You can then respawn back at the starting location, but once you make it back to the bridge room, the bridge will still be gone, and if you left something you need on the other side, you're doomed.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Shift}}'', on one level, if you press a particular button, you are trapped in an inescapable little area with spikes above you, and it reveals a message 'suicide time!' that describes the only way to get out of there. DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist, though - it simply restarts the level.
** On one screen of ''Shift 4'', if you take a certain key before you use a certain arrow, that arrow will get covered, and you will be trapped in a black rectangular area with no way out and no spikes to impale yourself on. Time for the R key!
* ''VideoGame/{{Everquest}}'' had the Sleeper. This fight was intended to be hopeless, but the designers didn't tell that to the players, so they would try anyway. They were careful to not make the boss actually invincible, so others would try it on other servers too. And there can be only one attempt on the entire server, ''ever.'' The quest to wake the sleeper can only be completed once and cannot be finished by any other players after completion. Once the raid inevitably wipes, this boss runs rampant through the entire continent of Velious and kills a major NPC. It was killed on ONE server many years later with ZergRush tactics in a raid force consisting of over 300 players.
* From ''VideoGame/EyeOfTheBeholder 2'':
** Temple Level 2 had two rooms with doors that permanently closed after you entered them, trapping your party. You had to reload a saved game to continue.
** Silver Tower Level 2 had a room with a pile of magic items and a dying Darkmoon priest. You have to kill the priest to get the treasure -- but if you do, then the pressure plate he's lying on releases and the door closes, trapping you forever.
* ''VideoGame/ClockTowerTheFirstFear'' has two such possible states that get you stuck in a permanent loop of {{Game Over}}s, ironically triggered by the game's otherwise very merciful "continue in the room you died in" mechanic. Thankfully they both rely on fairly unlikely circumstances:
** Meeting Ms. Mary in the telephone room without learning her true identity ''or'' picking up the ham will get you tossed in the cage with the starving-to-the-point-of-cannibalism Simon Barrows, trapping you in a permanent loop of waking up in the cage, getting killed and eaten, game over, continuing from the moment you woke up in the cage...
** Fleeing from Scissorman by jumping the gap in the second story hallway, and then entering the storeroom and happening to be ambushed by Scissorman without first picking up the rope and using it to make an escape to the first floor, makes you unable to get away. You'll be unable to interact with the rope to create the escape when being pursued, be cornered and killed by Scissorman, and continue in the room where he immediately ambushes you again...
* ''VideoGame/ClockTower'' plays with this. It's possible on more than a few occasions to create unwinnable scenarios, depending on if you missed an item or failed to do something, and you won't know about it until ''much'' later when there's nothing you can do about it. However rather than just giving you the generic GameOver screen you instead get alternate (and worse) ending sequences, all of which you need for HundredPercentCompletion. There are also obtainable extras that give you warnings on how to avoid these fates (or trigger them if you're a completionist), such as advising you to find the flashlight or remember who you gave the Demon Idol to.
* ''[[VideoGame/ClockTower Clock Tower 2]]'' (Ghost Head in Japan) features several unwinnable scenarios, most of which involve talking to a particular character in the wrong form. Two particularly cruel instances involve situations that the game doesn't properly warn you about:
** Shortly after the protagonist survives an attack from the first enemy of the game, she leaves the room the enemy is lying in and stands in the hallway. You're supposed to turn around and lock the door with the key you used to open the room, but this is never made clear anywhere. If you don't lock the door and you leave the hallway, then the game becomes unwinnable and one of the worst endings will play shortly after reaching another section of the house.
** The worst case is the samurai armor the player has to inspect. It can only be examined in the first section of the game. Failure to do so will result in the armor dropping out of a window during an unavoidable cutscene several hours later, killing the player character and securing a bad ending long after anything could be done to avoid it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' is cruel -- you don't realise how deeply you've failed until up to 12 hours later. Some players have had breakdowns when they realised that they're going to have to start over because they didn't pick up something from an unmarked house.
** ''VideoGame/{{Turgor}}'', Ice-pick's better translated game is worse. Much of the game centers around the allocation of a resource that slowly kills the entire game world every time you use it, meaning you have to think wisely about what you're doing. You would think that the cleaner translation would mean that the game would actually instruct you on how to not lock yourself into an unwinnable state, but no such luck.
* ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'':
** The second game, ''Martian Memorandum''. Aside from all the unfair scenarios, such as preparing to survive for several days in a fridge, you can get screwed bad at the casino on Mars: if, while in the mob boss's office, you fail to do and get everything necessary before you leave, then you're boned. Trying to go back there ever again gets you murdered instantly. But you do have to go there the first time to move the plot.
** The fourth game, ''Pandora Directive'' is very fair but it does have a single very '''cruel''' example. If you enter Dag Horton's office on your first visit to Autotech you'll be free to ransack the place and pick up several useful items. Except you should wonder why the "Travel" button just become unavailable. As soon as you exit the office you're caught and killed. If you saved inside the office you've no choice but to reload an earlier save or restart the game.
*** On the other hand, trying to get the Good Ending of said game is firmly on the '''Cruel''' end of the scale all the way through. Unless you use the "jky" cheat code to see your exact karma points and event flags, you have no way of knowing where, how or if you went wrong.
* A big one in ''[[VideoGame/AnotherWorld Out of This World]]'', among other examples: If the player floods the cave with water but fail to shoot out the wall of the pit so the player can get back into the flooded caverns as well as cross the pit, then the player will be unable to progress. The player also get stuck if Buddy gets killed. Fortunately the game's checkpoint system is based on tasks, not on locations. The player can always die after screwing up and even if that's not possible, a password can still be used that takes the player to the last checkpoint. There are no passwords that takes the player to an unbeatable situation.
* In ''The Theater,'' an UsefulNotes/RPGMaker VX game, the final boss battle can be made unwinnable. An imp just before the battle offers you passage to a final save point after a difficult puzzle; in return, you need to give him one of your items. All but one of your items are needed to defeat the boss. Oh, well, that's not so bad; you can just load your sa- OH, WAIT, YOU JUST SAVED! There is no hint beforehand that this will make it impossible to win. The creator, when questioned, claimed that he added this feature because no other game had done it.
* The NES billiards game ''VideoGame/LunarBall'' allows the friction of the pool table to be altered. It goes as far down as 0 -- ''no'' friction. At 0, balls will move at a constant speed, making it possible for the balls to be caught in an infinite loop if none of them are pocketed.
* In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', there is one particular boss (Beldr) that only you, the main character, can damage (and thus kill). If you die, and no live character or demon has (Sama)Recarm on hand, then the battle keeps going... without a chance of winning. Also, while the plot makes this complication clear the first time you encounter him, he comes back during the BossRush that precedes the FinalBoss, by which point you might have forgotten...
* The 1980s platform adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Dizzy}}'' had a nasty situation two screens from the starting position. A bridge over a deep crevasse needs to be crossed many times during the course of the game. Many, many times. If just once you tread in the middle of it rather than jump, then the bridge vanishes. It doesn't respawn.
** In ''VideoGame/SeymourGoesToHollywood'', if you try using the teleporter in the Flash Gordon parody, you will be teleported above a spike pit, and you automatically respawn above the spike pit each time you die. You need to teleport the towel item first.
* In ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'''s sixth stage, there's one point where you can shoot upwards through a set of blocks and enter a door, but when you return, the blocks will have respawned, and you can't shoot downwards, so you're stuck for good unless you commit suicide. In some other places like this, you can't do that either, so the only option is to reset.
** There's a small gap to the right of the gate that leads to Area 2. Falling into it causes you to get trapped because there's not enough room to perform a precise jump through its small entrance and get out.
* Rainbird's text adventure ''VideoGame/LegendOfTheSword'' took this to the limit and beyond. Your character's HyperactiveMetabolism meant you burned through your life force at a tremendous rate, so you had to do things in a ''very'' specific order for you to avoid dying of lost energy. On top of this, there were numerous ways to [[PermanentlyMissableContent leave something behind]] when irreversibly entering a new area. The combination of these two factors meant that the situation at any given time would almost always be unwinnable.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' gives you an option to destroy a Door Control Panel on Telos. If you actually destroy it, you will be unable to enter the room later and thus you won't be able to progress.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' not only has the most limited ammo supply in the series, but in many areas, zombies ''respawn''. Don't blow away your ammo so that you can't get past an [[InescapableAmbush unavoidable ambush]] later in the game. Also, [[SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear don't take any of the big guns as Claire near the end]], especially the Grenade Launcher, or they will be [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] and you will find yourself up the creek without a paddle in the FinalBoss fight.
* In ''VideoGame/ShiningForceTheSwordOfHajya'', Prince Nick, whose right arm is turned to stone and rendered unusable for the majority of the game, shows up in the confrontation with the FinalBoss, Iom. The only thing that can break the invincibility seal on the boss is the Sword of Hajya, and he is the only one who can use it. And if Iom happens to kill Nick before he gets a chance to use his sword, which in this battle can ''easily'' happen because of how absurdly over-powered the boss is, you'll have to start all over again because it becomes unwinnable.
* ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' and its sequel use this design trope well. The plot to find the root of the conspiracy has several key points where Frank/Chuck have to be at an appointed place at or before a certain time to get info/save someone/defeat someone. (Special emphasis is given to Chuck's daughter, who has to be given medication between 7 and 8 [=AM=] every day to prevent zombification.) If they don't perform these actions, a warning will come up on screen saying that "The Truth has disappeared into the darkness" - followed by an option to [[NewGamePlus start over while keeping their previous experience]] - or letting them still keep playing and trying to just get out alive. [[spoiler: And since many of the plot threads and additional survivor scoops overlap, in addition to some of the main characters succumbing to PlotlineDeath later in the story, letting the plot expire is actually the easiest way to get achievements for saving 50+ survivors.]] This is eased by the fact that the game is designed around multiple runs, all of the levels you have gained carry over between runs, so it isn't like you are starting from zero every single run.
* The InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/SavoirFaire'' gives you several opportunities to screw yourself out of victory. One occurs when you have to retrieve a bauble from a high shelf; you not only have to make sure it doesn't shatter, you also need to throw one of your inventory items up there for it to fall down - and the inventory item you use for that purpose [[PermanentlyMissableContent can't be retrieved]], so you'd better hope that said item isn't one you'll need later on.
* The two playable characters in ''VideoGame/HeadOverHeels'' have seperate life counters, so it's possible to kill one of them off completely. The game is impossible to beat with only one character though.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'', there is a risk you'll end up stuck if you don't pick up a certain item inside an archive. There is no early indication you need this item - it's pretty much impossible to know you need it until the very moment you're supposed to use it. What is this item? ''A can of soda.'' Which you buy from a inconspicuous vending machine standing inside a building you ''can't get back into once you've left''. Chances are you never even saw the machine.
* ''VideoGame/{{Jumpman}}'': One of the levels can be made completely unwinnable, to the point where you must lose all of your lives and start over if you pick up certain bombs near that starting place too early, which then traps you on the starting platform, unable to jump to anywhere else. There is no way to find this out in advance.
* Originally, the LevelEditor in ''VideoGame/GliderPRO'' allowed a switch to be linked to a {{star|ShapedCoupon}}. When triggered, the switch would destroy the star permanently without excluding it from the number required to win (or turning off its animation). Later versions ostensibly disabled this, but it could still be done with a bit of trickery. (Not that one really needed it to make houses unwinnable...)
* In one of the story modes in the ''WWE Smackdown vs. Raw'' games, If you advance the story by NEVER LOSING A MATCH, and retaining your championship title for many seasons, eventually you will be proposed a special referee match, with Vince [=McMahon=] as the referee. The game sets the match rules so that you can't defeat your enemy by doing enough damage to a certain body part, knocking them out with a wrestler's signature move, 10 count ring-out, or anything else other than a 3 count pin. The match is intentionally designed that the referee will NOT count to 3 unless your character is being pinned. The reason being that [=McMahon=] had enough of you being the champion for years on end, and decided to take it away whether you liked it or not.
* In ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'', you are a time traveller. At one point, you have to get a computer chip from a robot you disable in one era so that you can fool a retinal scanner in another. The problem is that there are a handful of chips you can take from the robot after you disable it, you can take them in any order, and taking a certain chip (which isn't the one you need to get past the scanner) will cause the robot to explode. There's no indication which chip does what, the game doesn't give any hints about how to solve the scanner puzzle, and there's no way to access the robot again after it's been destroyed. Good luck figuring out where you went wrong and pulling the chips out in the correct order after you restart!
** in the sequel, ''Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time'', you can go back to any of your time zones and re-obtain any item you missed, or even obtained and later lost again (the Grappling Hook, notoriously, had to be used, lost, and retrieved multiple times) at any time, except once you reach the [[spoiler:Krynn embassy in the present day]]. Even then, the two items required in this area are impossible to progress through the game without obtaining[[note]]The Explosive Charge, which is automatically added to your inventory after Arthur disengages it from the door where it's found, and the Spent Power Core, which you have to remove in order to replace it.[[/note]] However, there's one problem: the explosive charge is used to open a pod to find certain items. You get one charge, which can open one pod. There are seven pods, four of which contain items you need[[note]]Two are empty, and one contains a BigLippedAlligatorMoment.[[/note]]. One of those items can be used to open the other pods. Use the charge on the wrong pod, and you're done.
* ''VideoGame/CompanionsOfXanth'': In the real world, before using the ''Xanth'' CD to begin the game proper, you must take the mustard from the refrigerator. You need it to defeat a hot dog half-way through the game.
** If you drink from the lake filled with "hate water", there are no apparent ill effects at first, but then your character begins hating everything around himself until he can no longer continue with his quest. Almost mockingly, there's an option to "undo" your last move once the game over happens, but obviously it won't work since you've drank the water many turns ago. Especially annoying as drinking from the lake seems to be just harmless game flavor.
* A few times near the end of ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'', which is especially unpredictable since in most of the game it's impossible to make a mistake during the riddles. But it isn't as frustrating as it seems, because at these moments it is impossible to reach a savepoint.
** [[spoiler:On the ship, starting the engine requires the player to find a blowtorch, turn a specific wheel, fix a pipe with the blowtorch, turn another specific wheel. [[NonstandardGameOver Not turning the right wheel will cause the engine to explode and kill the player]].]]
** [[spoiler:On the Devil's Reef, a door near the exit of the level must be reached within a timer. To trigger it, you have to put a jewel in a mechanism, run to the other door and put a red crystal in the opened claw in front of the door; when the timer expires, the claws close; if the red crystal is put in the claws the door opens, if not nothing happens. The first problem is that the timer can only be triggered once. The second is that near the triggering mechanism there are claws like the ones you have to reach; the ones near the triggering mechanism hold a green crystal and also open when you put the jewel in the timer's mechanism. The green crystal can be picked up by the player, but if it isn't in its claws when the timer expires the door won't open.]]
* In the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series, you cannot talk with anyone who's hostile to you. To prevent the game from becoming Unwinnable by making a plot-critical (i.e. you need to talk to them to advance the plot) NPC hostile, the game will immediately kill you if you make them hostile. The methods differ from fire from the sky (Tethoril) to death by a game-breaking amount of magic missiles (Gorion) to spawning assassins that instantly kill you (Aran/Bodhi in their respective paths, Elthan). Most of these {{NPC}}s are almost impossible to kill on top of it.
* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series has this built right into the main gameplay, for most of the series. The general formula for a campaign is that you fight one battle, then the next, and you are expected to level up your army and manage your equipment as you go. Your weapons break over time, and units who die in battle are [[FinalDeath lost permanently]]. If you lose too many units, or run out of weapons, or rely too much on your CrutchCharacter and fail to level up your army properly, you may find yourself in an impossible situation.
** The final boss of most of the games is only vulnerable to certain characters with certain equipment. Many of these characters can sometimes be missed, killed, or underleveled, and many of these items can be missed, lost, or broken. As an example, in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight the first game]], you will have serious difficulty beating the final boss, Medeus, if you don't have Marth with his Falchion. Marth is the main character, so he cannot be missed and [[HeroMustSurvive you get a game over if he dies]], but getting the Falchion is a fairly involved process.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'', there is a later mission where you are supposed to meet with an NPC to receive an item that allows its holder to negate the PlotArmor of the second story's [[DiscOneFinalBoss penultimate boss]] and ultimately kill him, however, it is possible to complete that chapter without ever talking to this NPC, and the game will continue as if you had done so regardless. This will later bite you HARD when you finally get to the game's penultimate boss and you quickly realize that without that item in a unit's inventory, it is impossible to even ''attack'' the boss, let alone kill, and there's no way to replay a completed mission outside starting the ''entire campaign over''.
*** That same chapter also has another item [[spoiler: that is required to obtain in order to and get the final two missions and the good ending]], that involves collecting all of the [[MacGuffin twelve Star Orb Fragments]]. Missing even ''one'' of the fragments denies you the chance to finish the whole story. And about half of them can easily be missed if you do not know exactly what to do beforehand.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', there are several chapters that require you to use a key (or a lockpick owned by a thief) to progress in the mission. Should the thieves be too tired to participate in the mission (or ''[[FinalDeath too DEAD]]'' for that matter) and/or you do not have any keys/lockpicks, you will not be able to finish that chapter (and by consequence, the ''rest of the game''). In fact, you can encounter this situation as early as the third chapter if you did not do the Chapter 2 Gaiden mission (to recruit a thief that comes with a Lockpick) and unwittingly kill the only enemy that has a Door Key in Chapter 3.
*** Additionally, from chapter 8 onward in that same game, you are always required to select a minimum number of units in order to begin the chapter; should enough of your units either be exhausted, captured, and of course ''[[FinalDeath dead]]'' at that time, it is possible to actually lack the required numbers to even ''start'' the chapter - nevermind try to complete it.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', you need to acquire and keep eight special, powerful weapons intact ''and'' keep a certain character alive [[spoiler: in order to proceed to the final three missions and the good ending]]. Six of these eight weapons are acquired in extra chapters, but accessing them can be impossible unless you know what exactly needs to be done to get to them ([[spoiler:for example, to access one of the extra chapters, you have to keep a fairly powerful enemy unit ''alive''; he won't join you even if you talk to him, but he will deal considerable damage if he gets close.]]). And, like all the other games, you cannot replay a completed chapter.
* In the Facebook app ''VideoGame/LittleCaveHero'' there are various levels with underground springs which endlessly produces water. If tiles of water block a path and you can't destroy the source, or if for some reason you can't get the water to hit important water-switches, the level becomes unwinnable. What's worse is that you either have to pay real money or get a item from a Level 20 Facebook friend to be able to restart levels. Also troublesome is that (this being a Facebook game and all) you ''need'' to invite friends to get the tools necessary to clear many levels.
* In ''Videogame/{{Submachine}} Extended'', the second version of the original ''Submachine'' game, a puzzle was added where one of the four pieces you needed appeared in a teleporter once you pulled certain switches and the power was on. However, it also retained the puzzle where you had to burn out the power in order to get another piece. Blow the fuses before you've found the former piece and it disappears again, so you're screwed. Mateusz Skutnik later decided this was a mistake, and in the current version the teleporter does not require power.
* In ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'', if you run away from any of the "big three," then it's impossible to beat the game without restarting. You'll find out you've screwed up after you've crawled the castle a few times and start to suspect that it has no ending.
* That arcade game ''VideoGame/{{Crossbow}}'' featured [[TooDumbToLive unarmed adventurers walking from left to right across a screen]], whilst [[EverythingTryingToKillYou bats, birds, scorpions, monsters, stalactites and arrows]] moved in on them and had to be shot by the player to ensure safe passage. The arcade cabinet featured a light gun shaped as an actual crossbow, meaning you could aim as quickly as you could move the weapon. The home versions used a crosshair moved by the keyboard or joystick - and in the Commodore version it moved at the same speed as all of the enemies. Accidentally move your crosshair past any enemy, and you can watch it crawl back with no chance to stop a crow or rat chewing through five humans in one go.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'':
** If you anger the [[InexplicablyAwesome Lady of Pain]] twice, the game becomes unwinnable; in this situation, she will always show up and kill you as soon as you leave whatever area you're in. However, the programmers were kind; the game will not let you ''save'' if you have done this, and will give you an error message stating that you have incurred the Lady's wrath and saving now would imperil your quest.
** You can skip a part at the very beginning of the game that gives you the ability to resurrect your companions. If you remove a dead companion from your party, they're [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost for good]], and so is any (even essential) game content you need them to get to. Also, the Modron Maze is a procedurally generated dungeon, and all items (and ''companions'') inside will be gone forever if you let it reset.
*** As a fun bit of DevelopersForesight, you can leave the companion that, depending on your alignment, will betray and attack you at the end of the game to die in the maze. If you do that, you will encounter them anyway and they will call you out on that. Their return is even justified by one of them being [[{{Determinator}} literally Hell-bent]] on killing you and the other being linked to the virtually limitless energy of another plane.
* A mini-game form of this happens in ''VideoGame/TheClueFinders''. There's one mini-game in ''Search and Solve'' where you guess a few times, and then figure out which coordinates the spaces you have to hit are. The problem is, sometimes you can get unlucky and you either '''a)''' have all the spaces clustered into one spot (and your initial guesses are on the other parts of the map), or '''b)''' they're all spread out; and by the time you know which symbol and colour represents which row and column, you won't be able to win. It's going to take a lot more than just four.
* The US Army's version of ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarrior'' (used for NCO tactical training) includes a [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation mission that is unwinnable]], teaching noncoms that yes, you will lose battles and people will die. {{Defied|Trope}} in the commercial release.
* In the digitized-graphics game ''VideoGame/{{Titanic}}'', you have three options to escape from the ship after it hits the iceberg: Find Henry and Ribeena Gorse-Jones and get on a lifeboat with them (you have to do this early), win the boat pass from Buick Riviera and use it before the two crewmen run out of lifeboats, or rescue Shailagh Hacker, then wait until ''almost'' the time the last lifeboat leaves and talk to Morrow. If you miss all three, the game continues for a few minutes (where you can get some unique lines of dialogue with the other doomed passengers) before the ship sinks and you die. This tosses you to the options screen, the same as dying at any previous point, meaning that if you save after the last lifeboat is gone, you're [[IncrediblyLamePun sunk]]. Polite level, because who'd do such a thing (unless it's an extra save to get all the dialogues).
* ''VideoGame/KronologTheNaziParadox'' (Localized and released as ''Red Hell'' in Europe [[NoSwastikas for obvious reasons]]) is just RIFE with these, mostly from failing to realize you need to acquire and keep certain items to solve later puzzles. Most notable is the zeppelin condom, hinted at in the elevator immediately after the second room in the game (which has the coin required to get the condom) and used to solve the second-to-last puzzle in the entire game. The 12-item limit in your inventory only makes this worse, as some items are not automatically discarded after their usefulness is gone, and unless you write down and remember EVERYTHING, you'll probably discard the condom to make space for other things, rendering the game completely unwinnable from that point on.
* ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}: Quest for the Sigil'' has ''many'' Cruel dead ends. One quest giver, Harris, gives you a quest to steal a chalice from the villainous Order's interrogation complex. [[spoiler:If you do so the game becomes unwinnable, as he sends you to report to Governor Mourel (who normally is an NPC who gives out an essential quest a bit later).]] Mourel tells you you are under arrest and waves of [[TheGoomba Acolytes]] spawn in all over the city to kill you. There is no way of knowing this will happen and no turning back once you have the [[spoiler:chalice]]. And that's just ''one'' dead end. Killing any NPC could potentially make the game unwinnable as that character would not be able to give out important quests or items.
** ''Strife: [[UpdatedRerelease Veteran Edition]]'' fixes the dead end involving Harris. If you complete that quest, Governor Mourel will still put you under arrest, but this time, he'll have you [[TapOnTheHead knocked out]] and dragged back to the interrogation room from the start of the game with new personnel. Escape it again and you can proceed through the game normally. There will still be extra guards in town, but they won't bother you unless you fire a shot. [[spoiler:For good measure, you can go back to Harris and kill him for his treachery, unlocking access to his secret stash.]]
* In ''[[Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy Below the Root]],'' your character is able to pick up a "wand of Befal" (a machete). [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment Use it on an animal or human being, and your spirit strength goes poof, rendering the game unwinnable.]] Mind you, this is "tough" level at worst, and "Polite" if you actually [[ShownTheirWork read the books]] and knew that you were dealing with a society of pacifists and a book series where the ''major theme'' is the futility of violence.
* In the indie game ''VideoGame/SevenMinutes'', the ''entire game'' is a trap. The only way to win is to do nothing for seven minutes. [[PressStartToGameOver Leaving the first room makes the game unwinnable]] and leads to a NightmareFuel ending: "You were too eager to know what was out there; but sometimes, there is nothing out there. There is nothing. NOTHING."
* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' uses a Nasty level of this InUniverse. Stocke, either under the guidance of the player or not, will frequently find his decisions or actions (many of which seem sensible at the time) send events spiraling out of control and ultimately doom the entire world. The White Chronicle allows him to combat this with an also InUniverse version of SaveScumming, traveling back in time to various key events and experimenting with different permutations to try and get things back on track.
* In the Accolade adventure game ''VideoGame/SearchForTheKing'', there are two places (Las Vegas and Graceland) that, once you go there, you can't go back. The game will let you go to those areas before you have everything you need, making the game unwinnable. Fortunately, the game informs you that you don't have everything you need as soon as you get there, so you can go back to a previous save and hunt around some more.
* ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}: Abe's Oddysee'' has the HubLevel Scrabanian Temple, where, in several areas, you need to light a lamp, then leave. It's possible in at least one area to take the lift up to the exit without lighting the lamp (which is on the bottom level). If you do so, the game is unwinnable, as the next time you enter this area to fix your mistake, you cannot access the lift anymore -- it's still up there and you cannot call it down, and thus the exit is unreachable. Time to reload!
* In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'', the Steelions in White Park Act 3 start creating large chunks of ice the moment they spot Sonic. Towards the end of the Act, they're deliberately placed to completely obstruct Sonic's path, making it impossible to proceed further (even with the powerful Rolling Combo or using Super Sonic) and your only option to let Sonic drown and try again. Since these Steelions are located in a narrow (relative to Sonic) corridor and are already facing the direction where Sonic would emerge, the only way to get through this area is to run past the Steelions' range of ice before they finish (or defeat them before the ice starts forming, which is much harder), easier said than done as there are so many of them. And it's underwater.
* The online video game ''[[http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm September 12th]]'', by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_Frasca Gonzalo Frasca]], was written as a social commentary on UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. The player has to shoot terrorists with missiles who are openly marching around a city full of civilians, but if the missiles kill any of the civilians, other civilians may come around, see the bodies, and suddenly decide to become terrorists themselves. This will happen '''without fail''', and is (hopefully unintentionally) pretty damning, since it suggests that the only way to end terrorism is to KillEmAll.
* ''VideoGame/SolarWinds'' can be unwinnable by poor design if you step off the intended story track, either by killing someone you shouldn't have or by picking a wrong dialog option. Once you go OffTheRails, the storyline comes apart at the seams: people tell you to do things you've already done, or you can't find anything to do, or you're stuck taking the two-hour route from Point A to Point B, or...
* In the ''[[VideoGame/UltimaVII Ultima VII: The Black Gate]]'' expansion ''Forge of Virtue'', you can forge a weapon known as the Obsidian Sword, which is capable of drinking the souls of your enemies, killing them instantly. In a combination of Unwinnable By Design and UnwinnableByInsanity, you can use this to instantly kill Lord British, the BigGood of the Ultima games, rendering ''Ultima 7'' essentially unwinnable. [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] lampshades how ridiculous this is, because while you can do this and make the game unwinnable, you ''cannot'' use the touch of death on the final bosses of the game or the villain who you see earlier in the game for some reason.
--> "So I can kill Lord British and make the game unwinnable, but not to take out the villains, which would be logical."
** You can also kill Lord British by having a loose brick fall and hit him in the head as he's passing under it. Same result.
*** Lord British was killable through player ingenuity and/or persistence in the earlier games. Instead of trying to counter the LordBritishPostulate, devs started including ways to kill him as EasterEggs, naturally rendering the game unwinnable.
** Use of the Armageddon in any game that it's included as a spell (not the ritual version in IX) will wipe out everyone in Britannia except the Avatar and Lord British, who informs the Avatar of this trope.
* ''VideoGame/TechnicianTed'' had [[TimedMission a very tight time limit]] -- one has to complete the game in 8½ hours of game time (just over 40 minutes of real time). It's just barely possible, but only by not hanging around. Take too long over any task, and it's no longer possible to win. This game also exploits the Endless Death problem of its spiritual predecessor, ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'', by ''deliberately'' designing some jumps so that if missed, [[CycleOfHurting all your remaining lives are burned up]]; the game even detects this, and after the second fall-to-death cycle, cuts the cycle down to just the death part.
* ''VideoGame/CannonFodder'': most phases can become unwinnable if you use up all your grenades and missiles with targets still left to destroy. (A couple of phases deliberately give you less explosives than you need to destroy all the targets: the winning tactic in these is to lure enemies to fire on the targets.)
* In ''VideoGame/SoulSacrifice'', if you sacrifice [[spoiler:Magusar]] at any point during the "Seven Years Later" chapters, you won't be able to continue the game since [[spoiler:he's the BigBad of the single-player campaign, and he needs to be kept alive so that you can fight him later.]] However, it is possible to spend Lacrima to undo the sacrifice and continue the game normally.
* The freeware Windows version of the old Macintosh game ''{{VideoGame/Bolo}}'' comes with a number of maps prepackaged. One of these, called ''Better Best Map Ever'', has all arrival points in the center of the board, which is deep sea and ''where all the pillboxes are''. And even if you sacrifice a lot of tanks to get the pillboxes to hit each other, ''there will still be a few pillboxes left standing''.
* ''VideoGame/IsleOfTheDead'', an [[FirstPersonShooter FPS]]/AdventureGame mix, faceplants squarely into the Cruel type. If you decide to use the flare gun at the beginning of the game (sensible given you're on a desert island), you won't find out until the end of the game that you need it. Whoops! Time to start over!
* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter''[='=]s {{Final Boss}}es are often prone to this, requiring that you postpone using the Healing Touch (which can only be manually invoked once per operation) until the very last moment. Prematurely deploying the Healing Touch may as well result in instant failure. To elaborate:
** ''Under the Knife'' / ''[[VideoGameRemake Second Opinion]]'': [[spoiler:Right before you can deal the finishing dose of serum to Savato, Derek automatically activates a Healing Touch. Even with [[BulletTime slowed time]], Savato still moves too fast for him to inject the serum. You use your manual Healing Touch to [[TimeStandsStill to freeze time]] so you can finish off Savato; if you've already used it, [[HaveANiceDeath the Medical Board will be notified]].]]
** ''New Blood'': [[spoiler:Cardia drops a ring of tumors, which it will when detonate with a ripple attack for [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hundreds of vitals of damage]]. You must use Markus's Healing Touch (to slow time down so you can pick up the tumors before they explode) or Valerie's (so that the patient doesn't lose vitals from the explosions) at this point or a mere few seconds before; if you have used the Healing Touch previously in this operation, you're screwed.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/PokemonStadium Pokémon Stadium 2]]'' has the nefarious Challenge Cup, where you must win a tournament using a team of Pokémon that the game selects at random. The problem is that--and the game's strategy guide admits this--the game will often give you a team that makes completion of the tournament impossible, either because you don't have a good mixture of types, your Pokémon's stats are too low, or some members of your party know useless attacks (all of these problems being depressingly common among ''Pokémon Stadium 2''[='=]s rental Pokémon). What's worse is that you need to complete the Challenge Cup on ''four difficulty levels... then on four more in R2 mode.''
** Similarly, in some online Pokémon battle simulators like ''Showdown!'' you can select a Random Battle, which, as above, gives you a random team and sends you up against a player with their own random team. It's ''slightly'' better than the Stadium version in that you can be at least certain that every Pokémon will be EV-trained and have competitively viable movesets. The levels are also tweaked to try and make it more fair--most Legendaries will be around level 70, while under-evolved Pokémon are generally in the 80s or 90s. This is very little comfort when the Random Number God hands you a team filled with useless Pokémon like Caterpie, or ones that have strategies that rely on other Pokémon you don't have (i.e a sun sweeper like Venusaur always relies on someone else to set up the sun) or a team that shares a weakness. Meanwhile, your opponent may have three Uber-Legendaries that'll destroy you faster than you can forfeit. For extra punishment, you can choose to be ranked for this.
*** As of Generation VI, the random battle system has improved. You will never receive a not-fully-evolved Pokémon, with the exception of Chansey, Scyther, Magneton or [=Porygon2=], all of which see usage in Smogon's official tiers due to increased bulk from holding an Eviolite. Still, the game can hand you an Unown, which will always have STAB HP Psychic and is generally the worst thing you can get. Even freaking ''Delibird'' can have a viable set or two!
** Both ''Pokémon Stadium'' games make use of the Transfer Pak, which allows you to use Pokémon from the Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal versions in a variety of tournaments. If you don't have the Game Boy games or Transfer Pak you can play using rental Pokémon... ''in theory.'' ''Pokémon Stadium 2''[='=]s rentals are all so weak that it's pretty much ''impossible'' to beat ''anything'' without homegrown Pokémon. The rentals' stats are about 15% lower than they should be and many have pitiful movesets that have no tactical uses or decent power. (Good luck finding ''any'' evolved Rental with ''any'' attack that has over 65 power) Meanwhile the enemies have hacked movesets and stats to make them significantly stronger than they should be. Plus many of the rentals have a ton of status ailment attacks and the game's random number generator is programmed to have your ailment attacks wear off faster than the enemies' ''and'' is programmed to give your Pokémon worse accuracy. Put simply: ''Pokémon Stadium 2'' is ''unplayable'' without the Transfer Pak and several specially trained teams in the Game Boy games. It is feasible (though extremely difficult once you get to the final tournaments) to beat ''Pokémon Stadium 1'' with nothing but rentals, but once you beat the game and unlock R2 mode, you'll promptly get butchered without homegrown Pokémon.
*** That said, it's entirely possible to consistently beat the games with nothing but rentals - even R2 can be taken down with the proper stratgies...unless it's the level 20 Alakazam in the Pika Cup in the first game. It has Thunder Wave and Psychic, which are the two best moves in the game[[note]]''Stadium 1'' has a sleep clause that makes anyone who sleeps multiple mons at once on an opponent's team auto forfeit, so Thunder Wave is far more threatening because of ArtificialStupidity[[/note]] on one of the best non-Mewtwo Pokemon in the game, in a cup where most of the top tier options aren't allowed. If you're using rentals, your options are as follows: pray for a freeze, use Starmie (the only Pokemon who even has a ''chance'' of beating it one on one), or pray you fight Dragonair instead.
* The coin-op game ''Shanghai 3'' (an arcade version of ''VideoGame/{{Shanghai}}'' by Sunsoft, licensed from Activision) uses fair shuffles, so every deal can be beaten -- but not if you don't pay close attention to how the tiles lie, as deals usually include at least one situation (such as a tile being laid on top of another of the same type) which is unwinnable if you remove the wrong pair of that tile -- indeed, often four or more of that type of situation.
* In the UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC game ''Heroes Of Karn'', if you wander too far south, a guard comes by and puts you in prison. The way out requires bribing the guard with money taken from a barrow-wight beforehand. If you don't have the money, you have to restart the game.
* Getting the good ending in ''VideoGame/BatmanDarkTomorrow'' requires disarming a signal device before going to the final BossRush. Save at any point during the boss rush without having disarmed the device and... better hope you have more than one save file or else you'll have to start over to get the good ending.
* The final game in the ''VideoGame/MentalSeries'', ''Murder Most Foul'' has a chemistry lab that a character can go into after triggering a door, but there's only one trigger, and it's outside the door. Another character will need to come and get them out. It's possible to trap all three characters in the lab, making it impossible to progress, with the game have to be started over. Though you need to be actively trying to do this, thankfully.
* ''VideoGame/StarControl2'' is a very sneaky one. It looks like an open-world sandbox, and your first quest giver actually encourages you to take your time to explore, gather resources and spend time leveling up. Unbeknown to a first-time player, and unlike all other similar games, the main plot unfolds itself even without any input from the player. Even when you learn that there is a world-ending menace looming over the galaxy, it's not obvious that the game has a time limit and it already started counting at the very beginning! Sandbox {{Role Playing Game}}s almost always feature stopping a world-threatening evil as the main plot, but even if in-story you are urged to hurry, the evil advances only at instances when you accept and complete quests, so no matter if you were as fast as possible or spent an eternity dawdling around, the last scene always features you stopping the menace at the last moment. Not in ''Star Control 2''! Here if you spend your time building up, being proud of your uber-advanced starship, you arrive to a plot-critical location, discover that it was already destroyed by the Big Bad, and after playing countless hours you are greeted with a "Game Over", and only then do you realize that you lost. However, as plot progresses, and [[spoiler: Kohr-Ah exterminate various races one-by-one]], you can easily pick up various plot-crucial artifacts from their planets, bypassing their quests entirely. As villains proceed with their evil plan, they make your work easier.
* According to the devs from ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', the game in "Ironman Impossible was [[ImpossibleTask only theoretically winnable]]". Players still found a way to succeed.
** Also according to the developers, ''VideoGame/{{XCOM 2}}'' is based on your first attempt at Ironman Impossible; its setting is a BadFuture where [[TheBadGuyWins XCOM failed and the aliens conquered Earth.]]
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'''s creator stated that he was ''pretty sure'' that 4/20 Mode (playing the custom night with all four [=AIs=] set to the max difficulty of 20) was impossible to beat... and then gamers began beating it. So many people beat it that he added a CosmeticAward for beating the mode.[[note]] However -- no matter how good you are at the game -- the mode is still a LuckBasedMission without very specific and counter-intuitive strategies. 4/20 mode cannot be beaten without running out of power. Winning the mode is a total matter of luck -- if Freddy decides not to play his longest song at the end of the night you cannot win, and if Foxy attacks too many times he will drain your power prematurely.[[/note]]
* In ''VideoGame/KingsKnight'', you can access the final level as long as at least one character survives their specific level. However, unless all four characters survive ''and'' collect specific magic spell glyphs, completing that final level is impossible. The game is merciful enough to allow you to return to the training stages and try to improve your characters' stats and find any items you missed... if you enter a cheat code, anyway. What makes this stand out is that the game simply proceeds to the next level if you lose a character.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheHobbit1982 The Hobbit]]''. it was ''essential'' to read the accompanying book first to pick up a few hints. In particular, if you reached the Black River without having read the corresponding part of the book, you wouldn't know that attempting to swim across is a dumb idea, hence might try this... only to fall asleep and drown.
* ''VideoGame/TakeshisChallenge'', [[TrollingCreator having been designed by someone who wanted players to break their controllers]], sits squarely on the Cruel end of the spectrum and refuses to budge an inch.
** Money is a very finite resource; if you lose too much of it, you won't be able to buy everything you need. The things that you need to buy to win (or are very useful to have) are mixed with items made purely to waste your time. Even if you know what you have to buy, there's another pitfall; when you divorce your wife, you have to pay her alimony, which means you give her a good amount of what you have. If you have too much on hand, even if you've bought everything in the first area, you probably won't have enough to buy what you need after flying off to the South Pacific. For the record, if you don't divorce your wife, [[NonStandardGameOver your plane explodes, for no discernible reason, on the way to the South Pacific]].
** Talking to your boss gives you plenty of options. If you select ''any'' option other than quitting your job, your boss will get angry, and will refuse to pay you when you do quit (which, if done too early, is wasted on alimony). Similarly, on the island with the treasure, you can enter a house and be put into a cooking pot without any warning. There's two options that get you out of that situation; "Play Shamisen" (you need a shamisen and lessons for it) and "Lunge" (no requirements). Choosing to lunge gets you out of the pot, but the chief who put you there will never talk to you again. If you didn't give him a specific gift before this happens, you can't get into the caves.
** Since you can't get back once you leave an area, you need to have all required items beforehand; the game won't stop you from leaving the first area without [[spoiler:hang-gliding lessons]], and the second will allow you to leave without [[spoiler:a gun and canteen]].
** The cruelest of them all; in the first area, you must go through a process to get a map from an old man. After you decode the map, he'll stay on the screen for a while. If you don't [[spoiler:punch him dead]] before leaving the screen, no worries; you'll be allowed to progress. But at the very end, with the treasure in you grasp, [[spoiler:the old man will appear, thank you for leading him to the treasure, and kill you]]. Either have fun ''starting all over'', or assume it was just trying to protect you from seeing [[AWinnerIsYou the "ending"]] and move on.
* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', slaying a monster is simple: Just beat the crap out of it until it dies. Capturing a monster, on the other hand, requires traps and Tranquilizer Bombs and/or Tranq Shots. If you use them all up without capturing the monster, or have them stolen (especialy by a Gypceros), you may as well abort or fail the quest. It's possible to make more Tranq Bombs and Shots by combining gathered materials[[note]]Sap Plant and a Stone or Iron Ore makes a Bomb Casing, Sleep Herb and a Parashroom makes a Traquilizer, a Bomb Casing and Tranquilizer makes a Tranq Bomb, and Tranquilizer and a Bone Husk makes a Tranq Shot[[/note]], but traps require Trap Tools, which can only be bought at stores in towns and cannot be made with any item combination, let alone combos that use only gatherables.
* Whether or not El Ajedrecista (Spanish for The Chess Player) counts as a ''video game'' is questionable as the game interface/controller was an actual chessboard[[labelnote:However...]]it ''is'' considered the first ''computer'' game[[/labelnote]], but it does provide the UrExample of this: it played a king vs. king+rook endgame (the human got the king, El Ajedrecista got the king+rook) and won every time. It's an unusual example that the player knew the game was unwinnable from the very beginning. Since El Ajedrecista was built in ''1912'', it makes this trope OlderThanTelevision.
* In ''Super VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'', you have to manage the weight of your inventory, which will see you often throwing out items to make room for food and healing potions. The game does not prevent you from accidentally throwing away quest items.
** The sequel ''Virtual VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'' is far more forgiving, with one notable exception: if you make it to the end of the game and the fight with Varalys without getting the Sword of Light, he's invincible. The game [[GuideDangIt never bothers to tell you this, never tells you where the sword is, or that it even exists.]] On top of that, because of the multiple dungeon layouts the location of the sword varies, it's in an otherwise insignificant chest, and if you miss it before beating the boss of the Lost Castle you can't go back to grab it because the [[LoadBearingBoss dungeon collapses]].[[note]]The game does try to make it at least slightly apparent you've missed something: the boss of the Lost Castle is extremely hard to beat without the Sword of Light...but not impossible.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'':
** ''Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight'' has a floor in its second dungeon - Ginunngagap - that tells you beforehand that you can't leave, and any attempts to do so will do nothing. What it doesn't tell you, however, is that the area is also full of moving walls that are actually overpowered [[DemonicSpider [=F.O.E.s=]]]. Considering that they're able to trap you between walls where your only way out is through them, and that [=F.O.E.s=] are already extremely overpowered to begin with, your only choice is death if you take a wrong turn. However, the game does place three treasure chests in the first room of this floor, each with an item that allows the player to escape from almost any battle - including F.O.E.s - to the entry point of the floor. There are also one-way shortcuts that can aid a player in escaping a situation before it becomes hopeless, and the F.O.E.s will walk back to their neutral positions when the player leaves the room, allowing the player to make a different attempt at passing through the rooms.
** ''Etrian Odyssey Nexus'' features a TrickBoss segment: One boss is defeated ([[spoiler:The Berserker King]]) only for another to show up with no chance for you to jump back to town and rest ([[spoiler:Cernunnos]]). Between these fights, you're given a full-party heal (HP, TP, Force gauges) and a chance to save -- one of the very few times in the series where you can save away from a town or geomagnetic pole, no less. If you choose to save, the game warns you to please save your game in a new slot, because if you can't defeat the second boss with everything you've got and you've got no other save to fall back on, it's time to start ''the entire game'' over!
* After beating the main game and Title Defense of the Wii ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' game, you can partake in Mac's Last Stand, an EndlessGame where you will face the boxers [[spoiler:and Donkey Kong]] until you eventually lose three times and retire. [[FinalDeath Permanently]]. This is justified, as Little Mac wants to cement his place in boxing history with one last show.
* ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'' requires the player to retrieve a magical coconut from the lair of a dragon. Although it's stated numerous times to be important to your quest, you can instead choose to give it to a man who wants to make a piña colada. There's no way of getting it back, and the player character will comment [[LampshadeHanging that he doesn't think that was the best use for it]].
* The programmers for the Amiga 500 port of ''Film/DennisTheMenace'' ran out of time and didn't put in the final boss or the ending, so they just put an impossible jump in the final stage. All the other Amiga ports are finished.
* ''Franchise/{{RoboCop}}'' on UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} has a GameBreakingBug that turns level 4 into a big glitchy mess, so the programmers put a time limit on level 3 that's too narrow to beat legitimately so no-one could get that far. Though it is possible to complete level 3 within the time limit by glitching through a wall.
* ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer''
** There is a trap that consists of four arrow pads pointing towards an item. If you grab the item without either destroying one of the pads or having boots that allow you to move over them, you get stuck with no way out. Normally, you could just wait for the stage's song to end, which would make you skip to the next stage, but if you play as Aria (who dies if the song ends) or Bard (who is unaffected by any music-related mechanics, including the song's time limit), you are completely stuck.
** If you play as Monk, who dies if he so much as touches a single coin, you'd better always keep a spare bomb handy. If you kill an enemy that is standing over the exit, or kill a boss's minions in such a way that the gold they drop forms an impassable barrier, and you cannot blow up the coins, you have no hope of ever getting past them.
* Due to the story variations in the ending to the ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' DLC ''The Knife of Dunwall'' you can't complete certain challenges if you were aiming for a [[KillEmAll High Chaos]] game. On High Chaos, [[spoiler: [[TheMole Billie Lurk]] doesn't pull a HeelFaceTurn]] and instead the final conversation leads into an immediate BossBattle, but [[spoiler: Billie]] begins the fight by being alerted as any other guard in the area. As a result, the Ghost Run and StealthRun challenges for that level, and the entire game if you were trying, is instantly voided.
* Many of the boss fights in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are designed to instantly wipe out the whole party if certain mechanics are not done on time or if they are done incorrectly. Other bosses will get a massive buff in attack power or attack speed that make it impossible to weather out since the damage given and/or the rate of damage pumped out is simply too much for the healers to counteract. The bosses are obviously beatable, but they will become unbeatable if you screw up.
* It's very hard to get the good ending in ''[[Webcomic/{{Megamanspritecomic}} Megaman Sprite Game]]'' on the first try for one particular reason: [[spoiler:if you walk off the path, you'll be arrested]]. The only time this is foreshadowed is a sign in the beginning of the game... [[spoiler:which requires you to step off the path to read, naturally]].
* ''VideoGame/BloodwingsPumpkinheadsRevenge'' has a fairly dastardly example. The first level is spent collecting items to use through the rest of the game and it's entirely possible to leave the first level with only a small portion of the items. If you leave the first level without the Voodoo doll all of level 2's objectives are rendered impossible to complete and you can't go back to the first level for the voodoo doll. You also need either the newspaper or the dollar bill or you won't be able to finish level 2. You should also bring the crystal gun and plenty of ammo before finishing the first level as levels 2 and 3 have no ammo or spare weapons.
* Several levels in ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'' and its sequel require hitting switches that can only be reached by one of the three controlled characters. The problem is, two of the Vikings can't jump at all - if they walk to an area that doesn't have a way back to where they need to hit a switch, the level can't be cleared. Luckily, there's a "level restart" option that can be taken at any time from the pause menu.
* The adventure game adaptation of the Polish ''ComicBook/KajkoIKokosz'' comic has numerous opportunities to get stuck. For example: picked up the flower at the beginning with your bare hands? It withers immediately, and you will need it later. There are also two [[PointOfNoReturn Points of no Return]] in the game; if you leave any necessary items behind (you have limited space in your inventory) before moving to the next part, you're screwed--and there's no way to tell ahead of time which items will be useful and which won't.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', killing even one monster locks you out of the True Pacifist ending [[spoiler:because you can't make friends with Undyne]]. Even nastier is what happens if you get the No Mercy ending - which requires you to specifically hunt down and murder ''everything'' - and then reset to do a Pacifist run. [[spoiler:Even if you don't kill a single monster the entire time and befriend everyone, ''you cannot get the True Pacifist ending'', because you gave your soul to the Fallen Child. What you get instead is the "Soulless Pacifist" ending. And unless you play the game on a different Steam account or know how to edit Steam's files, you can never get True Pacifist.]] That's right - this game can make itself ''permanently unwinnable''!
* ''VideoGame/{{Kingdom}}: New Lands'' has a finite number of resources, which may make it impossible to complete the task of getting off that island and moving onto the next one. Sometime around the 25th day, the forests will wither up and die, and water will run out. This means that you can no longer collect gold by hunting rabbits and deer, or from farming (the farmers themselves eventually throw away their tools and become jobless peasants again.) At this point, there's only one way you can collect gold, which is to pay a single gold coin to the Merchant and have him send off for supplies, which will give you gold upon the start of the next day that he's returned to your camp. However, if you clear out the trees next to the merchant's camp, it'll disappear along with the cleared out woods surrounding it, making it impossible to earn any more coin at that point.
* ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII'' on Xbox 360 is a tricky little devil. While not exactly a sandbox-type game, there are plenty of places you can explore - and you'll have to if you want to have any hope whatsoever of beating the bosses, since you'll have to search high and low for ammo, health upgrades, new weapons, and cash. And make ''damn'' sure you're thorough, as [[PointOfNoReturn you will likely not be able to backtrack]]. You can get stuck as early as the boss fight of Chapter 3 which is ''impossible'' if you didn't equip yourself properly. If you play it right, you can upgrade a weapon all the way to the third and highest level in the same chapter you found it, which you will desperately need since the game is ''[[NintendoHard stupid]]'' [[NintendoHard hard]], befitting the series' notorious legacy. This is not a game you should approach with the mentality of merely getting to the end of each level; each level holds secrets you ''must'' unlock to have any hope of finishing the game, or even beating the current boss - which can actually be fairly easy to beat if you have the right equipment. This is definitely one for the [[SaveScumming save scummers]] among us, and the game's files enable save scumming quite easily.
* Invoked InUniverse with Lucas Baker's final DeathTrap in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard''. The "quest" appears easy; you need to place a lit candle on a birthday cake to earn your freedom. But, a pressure-plate in the floor of the doorway triggers a roof-mounted sprinkler that douses your candle when you get near. There's a window outside to another room that you can see a wheel-crank in, which can be used to deactivate the sprinkler. So, you set off on what seems like a typical [[SolveTheSoupCans Resident Evil-style puzzle]]. You pull out a big key from a wooden cask near the birthday cake and stick it in a creepy animatronic clown-scribe to unblock a nearby toilet. Recovering a dirty polarized telescope from the toilet, you wash it off under the sprinkler and then look at a nearby family portrait to reveal the three symbols you need to open a safe containing a straw doll. Burning the doll on a lit stove reveals a dummy finger, which you use to repair the clown-scribe's missing hand. Lighting the candle, you burn off the rope holding a third door closed, which takes you to the room with the door to the crank-room. But it's protected by a code-word tumbler. Looking around, you find an uninflated balloon nearby and take it back to the main room to a gas vent. Here's your first warning that things aren't what they seem: the balloon is full of sharp objects, so you wind up with a nail through your hand and a feather pen driven quill-first into your gut. When you give the clown-scribe the quill, it ''carves the code into your arm with it''. And then, finally, when you solve the puzzle... [[spoiler: you die a horribly flaming death. See, that cask with the key in it? Was full of ''oil'', which has been seeping all over the room since you pulled it out and so promptly ignites when the firecrackers in the cake go off. With the room sealing itself and locking the sprinkler system when it does.]] This comes with a unique solution: [[spoiler: you have to watch a VHS of some poor bastard solving it the intended way, so that instead you can skip the deadly parts and just burn the rope, enter the password, turn off the water and light the cake, as an invoked/meta example of SaveScumming]].
* In the SNES version of ''VideoGame/CoolWorld'', you can be teleported to Las Vegas two times after you get the pen. But if you fail to ascend towards the Hotel, or waste your time after capturing the Doodles, you will be teleported back to Cool World. The second time will be the last time, and you will be stuck in Cool World forever.
* While you're trying to save somebody in the past in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', you can only use a telephone when it's in use, and can only travel to the other phone's location. This creates many scenarios where you'll get stuck in a place that doesn't have anything useful to prevent the token person from being killed, forcing you to start the segment over and not take the bait again. Played with even further when you discover that sometimes the same phone will ring twice, with the former call being [[RedHerring the misleading trap]] and the latter being the key to prevent the killing.
* If you run out of nitro in ''VideoGame/MotocrossManiacs'' you might as well restart the game, because not only are the vast majority of nitro pick-ups only reachable with a nitro boost, but some later courses literally cannot be beaten without it (as in, even with unlimited time you can't even finish the lap due to mandatory obstacles with no alternate routes.)
* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' features an [[TimedMission in-game timer]] that gave the player one hour to reach the top of the castle and save the princess. However, the SNES version gives two hours, and if the clock runs out, the players are allowed to keep going, lulling them into thinking that the quest is still doable they didn't get the Game Over... [[NonStandardGameOver only for them to arrive and see her missing]], necessitating a restart.
* Both ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' games have a time limit that automatically locks the player into the BadEnding if they haven't reached the final mission by a certain date. However, the time limit is so generous that most players would have to deliberately fail just to see it.
* Done in-universe in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''. [[spoiler:At the beginning of week 3, Kitanji takes all of the other Players as Neku's entry fee for the Reaper's Game. No Players means no partners means no way to fight the Noise (in gameplay, it translates to your pins being disabled) means bye-bye Neku. [[SpannerInTheWorks Then cue Beat.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' was one of the first games ever to include objectives you could actually mess up, to the point where the manual has an entire page warning the player that just destroying everything won't get them far. As a general rule, many levels give you things to do (like placing a bug), to find (like the golden gun), or to avoid (like killing scientists) and if you fail, the levels will be unwinnable and the player has to restart. Other well-known instances are:
** In ''Facility'' destroying the computer that operated the remote door leaves the player completely stuck in this room. Killing Dr. Doak will prevent Bond from entering the bottling room (00Agent only) and damaging the tanks in the bottling room will lock the exit doors and Bond will be killed by poisonous gas.
** In ''Surface 1'' destroying the console instead of powering it down will fail the mission (however you have to destroy it in ''Surface 2'').
** In ''Bunker 1'' if you kill Boris, you can't steal the data with your data thief and fail (00Agent).
** In ''Statue'' failing to meet Valentin or killing him beforehand fails the mission. Also encountering Janus with your gun equipped will get you nowhere.
** In ''Control'' if you destroy the computer in the elevator hall or kill Boris, Natalya will refuse to help you and abort the mission. However players get around the 2nd one with a glitch.
** In ''Caverns'' if you destroy the radio (and this is very easy to do) you won't be able to contact Jack Wade, thus fail (00Agent)
** In ''Aztec'' destroying the computers that are needed to open doors will get you stuck with no way around it. Also, if you fail to reprogram the shuttle you still can launch it, but the mission will be a failure.
* The SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'', has a ''lot'' of these, as well. Some prominent examples:
** You can actually (and on higher difficulties, ''have to'') encounter the DiscOneFinalBoss in the ''very first mission''. You can freely gun her down, but it will fail the mission and prevent you from progressing. (The InUniverse justification is that she has a key you need to get into the secret lab, but it will stop working if she dies - and the mission's intro cutscene even tells you as much!)
** Rarely, mission objectives will have (non-obvious) [[TimedMission timers]]; two big examples in the ''same mission'' are the taxi and the limo on the Chicago stage. You need to bug both of them, but the taxi will leave permanently only a short time into the mission, and the limo will depart a short time after (they'll also both leave if you make too much of a ruckus.) Didn't bug them before they depart? Mission failed, abort and try again.
*** Also in the Chicago mission, you need to create an opening to sneak into the secret base. If you just casually waltz into the guards' line of sight, they'll ''permanently'' lock the door; mission failed.
** Obviously, any mission where you need to [[EscortMission keep plot-critical NPC's alive]] will fail if they die.
** You need a disguise to infiltrate Area 51 in the second self-named mission. If you get the disguise, but then botch it by raising the alarm anyway, you can't get into the room you need to to complete the mission. Time to restart!
*** Likewise, in the start of that same mission, you need to escort a hovercrate to a weakened wall to blast an opening into the base itself. You have to move it through a warehouse full of enemies. The crate is fragile, and there is only one. You do the math. [[spoiler:However, you can still pull it off if you lose the crate, by throwing the assault rifle in proximity mine mode next to the marked wall, then shooting it with another gun to detonate it.]]
** In the Airbase missions, raise the alarm in the airbase before you've infiltrated it, or on Air Force One before you've proven the conspiracy to the President (or don't have the evidence when you do, or leave before you present it, etc.) will turn the level hostile and prevent you from finishing.
* ''VideoGame/SoFar'', by Creator/AndrewPlotkin, has this in some places:
** Play around too much with the hatch on the west pillar on the abandoned road? Now you can't get past the gate and into the castle.
** Waste too much time in the alley with the granite statue during the rodeo world? Now you can't get back in at all, and have no way of jumping to the next world.
** Fail to get the knife on the hillside before the locals are alerted? Now you can't jump the river in the rodeo world.
** Went through the castle without inhaling the vapor? Better not save anytime soon.
** Get rid of the blanket after leaving the ice world for the first time? Good luck making it out alive the next go around.
** Of course the worst cases are failing to get objects located near the beginning of the game. Failing to get the square from the rodeo makes the second-to-last puzzle unwinnable, while leaving the box at the theatre (the very first part of the game), will make it impossible to traverse the dark world in safety.
* In ''VideoGame/CastleMaster'', instead of BottomlessPits, there are pits that drop you into a dungeon called an oubliette. You survive the fall just fine, and you can still move around down there, but there's nothing to see except the walls and a skull called [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorick]], and there's no way to get out. You're just stuck there, trying to find the exit, until you eventually give up and start the game over.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'', whenever you find a notebook, you need to answer three math problems, but if you get one wrong, Baldi will come after you. It doesn't take long before the third problem in a notebook becomes a garbled mess that's impossible to solve, thus ensuring Baldi will be coming after you.
* A short flash game called ''VideoGame/LabyrinthX'' has this with the final opponent. You have three choices as to attack her; Low Punch, Kick, or High Punch, but no matter which one you choose, she kills you and it's game over. In order to defeat her, you need to find the katana that a warrior lady you free from a spider web tells you about, and when you reach the boss, you'll have the Katana option, which is how you defeat her. The thing is, the warrior is found on a path past the point you can get the katana, so learning about it the first time means you won't be able to win.
* A game of ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'' with two opponents both at difficulty 10 is intended to be unwinnable. Anything that lets you win such a game without massive cheese or exploits is considered a bug or imbalance and will be patched; if the difficulty scaling bug out and spawns a million ships, as long as it doesn't happen on lower difficulties it's a feature and will remain. The devs have stated that 10/10 is meant to only be honestly beatable by someone who sinks as much time into the game as pro VideoGame/StarcraftII players put in; since nobody does, the level should be unwinnable.
* In the movie tie-in game ''VideoGame/ThePhantomMenace'', if you kill anyone in the city on Tatooine before helping Anakin fix his podracer, he will peg you as a murderer and refuse to talk to you--regardless of whether you have started his mandatory quest or not. Where this falls on the scale depends on [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential how readily you slice NPCs with lightsabers]], but there are numerous required battles before this point in the game, including just outside the city.
* ''VideoGame/BabaIsYou'':
** In addition to the usual traps of BlockPuzzle games, you can also lose control over a certain object by breaking apart the "[Object] is You" rule associated with it. If that was the only such object, the music stops as if to tell you you'll need to undo/restart.
** Level [[spoiler:Meta-15, "The Box"]] can be rendered unwinnable ''before you enter it'', because [[spoiler:its solution relies on you having turned Meta-14 into a flag]]. Thankfully, the game's level structure makes fixing this problem a matter of simply backtracking and doing the earlier level correctly.
* In ''VideoGame/MuseDash'', playing as Little Devil Marija gives you a 25% score boost every time you hit an enemy, but she makes easier, less dense charts literally impossible to complete simply because there aren't enough hearts to offset her 10 HP per second depletion; at 200 HP, she will fail in 20 seconds and no track in the game is anywhere near that short. Even if she also equips her Lilith companion to restore 2 HP per Perfect and hits every enemy perfectly, she will still lose if the chart isn't dense enough.
* There's a boss in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' that can only be damaged by using the Reflect spell to bounce his magic spells back at him. If you reached him without obtaining Reflect, you cannot win. Luckily, dying puts you in the room before the boss room so you're free to leave the temple and find the spell.
* Supposedly, ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' enters this trope in the Impossible option. It's the same game as before, but without Save Points. But still, gamers found a way to beat the game.
* The demo of ''VideoGame/{{Ratropolis}}'' is unwinnable from the beginning. After beating wave 15, you are told to "prepare the last defense". Shortly afterwards, a horde of mooks buffed to 99 attack and 999 health spawns and reduces your city to smouldering ruins. Since this is a demo version, this was to be expected. The full game is 30 waves long and so is the demo [[LordBritishPostulate if you somehow find a way to defeat these enemies]].
* ''VideoGame/GarfieldBigFatHairyDeal'' is a Cruel variant. You play as ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}, who has a constantly depleting hunger meter. When it runs out, Garfield eats whatever he has on hand. If the meter depletes and Garfield doesn't have any items, it's GameOver. The game is full of {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s and {{Red Herring}}s, so it's hard to figure out what you actually need and what's just there to refill the hunger meter. There's no indication when Garfield eats something important, so you're doomed to wander around until you run out of items to eat.
* ''[[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]'' is the only game in the series to give Arthur an actual melee weapon, the Sword, and its range is as awful as you might expect. It also plays host to a boss whose strategy involves Arthur running along its back and firing down at its exposed hearts. Naturally, the Sword can only reach a few of the targets, so your only choice is to waste a life to try grabbing a new weapon from a chest or as a random drop.
* ''VideoGame/KeinegedAnNor'': Missing any crucial item will get you screwed. For instance, if you don't get the sword in room 2, you won't be able to open the right lock in room 3, and there's no way to return to a previous room.
* In the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' games, the hacking mini-game can become unwinnable, especially further on, as a consequence of the increasing difficulty. This is especially true in the first game, where overload and alarm slots can appear in unavoidable patterns. The idea is to force you to use hacking tonics to dial them back down to a winnable state.
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