History Main / VideogameLives

* ''VideoGame/VentureKid'': The game starts you off with 2 lives, and more can be bought from the in-game store. One can also be found in each level. They take the form of little dolls of [[PlayerCharacter Andy]].

* ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' used lives in the first few game, but the later entries after Insomniac left the series, and Insomniac's own ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'', dropped lives in favor of just having you restart at checkpoints when you die.

When playing a game with high-stakes lives for the first time, a question looms as the player's lives start to dwindle: is the game displaying the ''spare'' lives the player has, or is their current life in the same pool? Finding that there is a "life zero" for the first time can be quite a relief.

* ''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. 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.
** While ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' doesn't have extra lives, Luigi does mention them at one point.

* ''WebComic/BrawlInTheFamily'' interprets the word "lives" [[http://youtu.be/tpeXTgwh7F4 quite literally]].

Sometimes, a PlotlineDeath can lead to GameplayAndStorySegregation if it isn't explained why the extra lives didn't kick in at that point.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'' used lives, the total expiration of which led to a GameOver. These would be the only games in the series to use lives: starting with ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', players would simply respawn after dying while free-roaming, or start back at a checkpoint during missions.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inscription}}'' has these represented by the candlesticks on the side of the table. You start with two, and can gain one more if you solve a puzzle. Boss battles, however, will reduce you to one life even if you start with more. Bosses themselves also have two lives, with the Final Boss [[spoiler:of Act 1]] having three.

* OneUp
* InfiniteOneUps

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 arcade games. 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.

* ''VideoGame/SharkShark'': Every time [[PlayerCharacter the yellow fish grows in size, you gain a life.

* ''VideoGame/{{Futurama}}'': The video game adaptation actually explains the presence of lives; the Professor builds a "reanimator" that resurrects you when you die.

* ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'': Each character has [[FinalDeath but one life]]. Lose one, you switch to another character. Lose them all, and you get to see the infamous "[[HaveANiceDeath You and your friends are dead]]" GameOver screen.

* ''VideoGame/TheFinalFantasyLegend'' is another rare example of an RPG using lives. Each party member has three hearts. If they run out of HP, they can be revived at a House of Life, but doing so requires a heart in addition to a fee. If a party member has no hearts when they die, [[FinalDeath they cannot be revived]] (unless you purchase another heart for them, [[ContinuingIsPainful which are prohibitively expensive]]) and will have to be "retired" at a guild outpost to make room for a new party member.

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'', in a similar vein to its predecessor ''The Final Fantasy Legend''[[note]]Titled ''Makai Toushi [=SaGa=]'' in Japan[[/note]], is a rare example of a JRPG employing lives. Every character in your party has a limited pool of Life Points, or LP. When they run out of HitPoints, they also lose one LP. If a party member's LP reaches zero, you will not be able to revive them. Thankfully, the game doesn't employ FinalDeath, and LP can be restored by visiting a TraumaInn. If your main character runs out of LP, however, [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou it's an immediate Game Over]]. Some enemies also have attacks that specifically target your party members' LP.

* ''VideoGame/TotalOverdose'' had up to 9 'Rewinds', which would back the action up to 5 seconds before death, giving the player opportunity to other choices, [[CycleOfHurting if possible]]. Running out of Rewinds resulted in FinalDeath, but one could always use a Rewind to exit the mission and return to Sandbox mode, cutting their losses.

** Another BigBad, Parado, is one of the respawning game characters and thinks nothing of killing humans because while he knows they only have one life, he really doesn't ''get'' what death is like. When faced with the possibility of FinalDeath himself, he's terrified. Emu eventually gives him a NearDeathExperience that helps him understand the value of life and prompts a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'', in a similar vein to its predecessor ''The Final Fantasy Legend''[[note]]Titled ''Makai Toushi [=SaGa=]'' in Japan[[/note]], is a rare example of a JRPG employing lives. Every character in your party has a limited pool of Life Points, or LP. When they run out of HitPoints, they also lose one LP. If their LP reaches zero, you will not be able to revive them. Thankfully, the game doesn't employ FinalDeath, and LP can be restored by visiting a TraumaInn. If your main character runs out of LP, however, [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou it's an immediate Game Over]]. Some enemies also have attacks that specifically target your party members' LP.

* ''VideoGame/TyphoonThompson'' had two sets of lives - the first is the number of hovercrafts you have which last for the entire game, and the second is the character's lives which get added at the start of each level. Enemies can either destroy the hovercraft or the character, but the seventh enemy can destroy both at once.

* ''VideoGame/CarriesOrderUp'' uses a "miss" system similar to ''UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch''; it's three strikes and you're out, but [[LawOf100 you can erase a miss by collecting enough coins]]. You can't, however, earn more lives than the cap of three.