History Main / VideoGameLives

* ''VideoGame/{{Helldivers}}'' and its sequel has "Reinforcements" which can be called in to re-deploy players who were killed in action. All players have a limited supply of reinforcements that can be called in on a mission, and all players share the same pool of reinforcements. If all players die when reinforcements are all used up, the mission fails. As long as one player is still alive and has an activated Reinforcements beacon in hand, even if they are killed before they can throw it, players will rejoin the fray.

[[caption-width-right:256:You have three. [[TryNotToDie Don't waste them]].]]

* Falling down a BottomlessPit.

This is based on carnival games, where you get a certain number of tries before you have to pay to play again. This was carried over to {{Pinball}} games, and continued in UsefulNotes/{{arcade game}}s. When games were released on home consoles, the need for lives was largely removed (with the exception of games where the goal is to get the highest score and not to beat the game), but they were initially kept in as TheArtifact and the punishment for running out of lives was changed from entering a new coin to starting the game over. Eventually a continue system also became more widespread so players didn't have to start from the beginning of the game when their lives ran out.

* OneUp: A power-up you collect to obtain an extra life.

* DeathIsNotPermanent: A game with infinite lives gives an in-story reason why you don't get a game over no matter how many times you die.

* JustifiedExtraLives: where they explain in the story why you have more than one chance
* MeaninglessLives: when the lives are almost inconsequential to completion

* Unusually for a TimeManagementGame featuring standarized levels (especially one with a save and load system released in the mid-to-late [=2000s=]), ''Cake Mania'' has a life system in which the player loses one of four lives every time they fail a level, with the loss of all lives leaving the player unable to continute the game from where they ended at and forcing them to start over again. The several sequels to the game made afterwards omit this system completely, instead letting the player take as many tries as they need to complete each level.

* ''VideoGame/EveryExtend'' makes a single life trivial: you start with a large stock of lives (usually 12), and your only attack consists of you exploding your current life to destroy other enemies. Because of this, the games offer generous amounts of {{e|veryTenThousandPoints}}ext[[TitleDrop ends]].

* ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrim'':

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'': The number of lives that Bug starts out per continue is 3. He can get extra lives by getting enough medal collectibles in the bonus levels (10 collected = 1 life), and a {{One Up}}s are generally found in hard to reach areas. [[NintendoHard Bug needs all of them]]. Getting [[LawOf100 100 crystals]] (the regular collectible) ''didn't'' give an extra life, however, it could allow him to enter an end-of-level bonus level for the chance to get an extra continue.

* ''VideoGame/{{Police 911}}'' gives you ''one hundred'' more extra lives above your starting three if you reach the top rank of Comissioner - but since the process of losing a life and restarting takes about 15 seconds of your rarely more than 2 minute timer (the game ends instantly if the timer runs out) this is solely a BraggingRightsReward. And if you die on your way to Commissioner rank, you lose every promotion and have to start over.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nightshade}}'' has a very unique take on the trope: when you run out of health, the BigBad will place you into a DeathTrap. The first four times this happens, the death traps will have a puzzle that, if successfully solved, will allow you to escape and continue. Each time this occurs, the death trap will have a more complex puzzle that requires more effort to escape from. After running out of health the fifth time, however, the Big Bad will decide that he's finally done holding the VillainBall and he will [[GameOver kill you outright]].

* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': In a few sections, Bowser plays through a facsimile of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''. Before each attempt, a screen like the one above is shown, only replacing Mario with Bowser, and the three with an infinity symbol.

* Another PlatformHell game, ''VideoGame/SyobonAction'', has a lives counter that starts at three ala ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', but instead of giving the player a GameOver when it hits zero, it just keeps dropping into negative numbers.

* ''WebComic/BrawlInTheFamily'' interprets the word "lives" quite literally in [[http://youtu.be/tpeXTgwh7F4 "If It Takes a Lifetime"]], in which every time Mario dies in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' he relives his entire life up to that point (specifically going through ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong94'', and ''VideoGame/MarioBros'').

* A variation of this mechanic occurs in the original ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' game on NES. In that game, you have the four different ninja turtles; rather than providing an arbitrary number of lives, a turtle will be captured when his health bar is exhausted, and the player has to face an additional challenge to rescue him.

* Unusually for a TimeManagementGame featuring standarized levels (especially one with a save and load system released in the mid-to-late [=2000s=]), ''Cake Mania'' has a life system in which the player loses one of four lives every time they fail a level, with the loss of all lives leaving the player unable to continute the game from where they ended at and forcing them to start over again. The several sequels to the game made afterwards removed this system altogether, instead letting the player take as many tries as they need to complete each level.

* Unusually for a TimeManagementGame featuring standarized levels (especially one with a save and load system released in the mid-to-late [=2000s=]), ''Cake Mania'' has a life system in which the player loses one of four lives every time they fail a level, with the loss of all lives leaving the player unable to continute the game from where they ended at and forcing them to start over again. The several sequels to the game made afterwards removed this system altogether, instead letting the player to take as many tries as they need to complete each level.

* Unusually for a TimeManagementGame featuring standarized levels (especially one with a save and load system released in the mid-to-late [=2000s=]), ''Cake Mania'' has a life system in which the player loses one of four lives every time they fail a level, with the loss of all lives leaving the player unable to continute the game from where they ended at and forcing them to start over again. The several sequels to the game made afterwards removed this system altogether, allowing the player to take as many tries as they need to complete each level.

* Unusually for a TimeManagementGame with standarized levels (especially one with a save and load system released in the mid-to-late [=2000s=]), ''Cake Mania'' has a life system in which the player loses one of four lives every time they fail a level, with the loss of all lives leaving the player unable to continute the game from where they ended at and forcing them to start over again. The several sequels to the game made afterwards removed this system altogether, allowing the player to take as many tries as they need to complete each level.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'': Lives are used in Mini-Game Coaster. If a player loses all lives before reaching the end of a world, they'll have to restart from the first minigame of the current world. They can earn an extra life by collecting 100 coins (if the player wins multiple minigames in a row, then the number of coins gathered will increase).

* The first chapter of ''[[Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy Only You Can Save Mankind]]'' is titled "The Hero With a Thousand Extra Lives" in imitation of ''Literature/TheHeroWithAThousandFaces''. Part of the MookHorrorShow aspect is that when the [=ScreeWee=] ships are destroyed, they're killed, but when the human ships are destroyed, they know that, ''somehow'', they come back.

* The first chapter of ''[[Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy Only You Can Save Mankind]]'' is titled "The Hero With a Thousand Extra Lives" in imitation of ''The Hero With a Thousand Faces''. Part of the MookHorrorShow aspect is that when the [=ScreeWee=] ships are destroyed, they're killed, but when the human ships are destroyed, they know that, ''somehow'', they come back.

[[/folder]]

This is based on carnival games, where you you got a certain number of tries before you had to pay to play again. This was then carried over to {{Pinball}} games, and continued in UsefulNotes/{{arcade game}}s. When games were released on home consoles, the need for lives was largely removed (with the exception of games where the goal is to get the highest score and not to beat the game), but they were initially kept in as TheArtifact and the punishment for running out of lives was changed from entering a new coin to starting the game over. Eventually a continue system also became more widespread so players didn't have to start from the beginning of the game when their lives ran out.