History RunningGag / Videogames

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': Every main game (that isn't ''Travis Strikes Again'') has Travis goaded/accept to participate in a ranked killing game, with the promise of Sylvia giving him some sweet love if he wins. By the final game, it's done more out of obligation than anything else, when an ''[[SkewedPriorities alien invasion]]'' is already in progress anyway.

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus]] waking up on a new shore after [[BigBad S]][[LukeIAmYourFather i]][[TricksterMentor n]] attacked; it happens like 7 times over the course of the game. [[spoiler:It's also the manner in which he is revived in VideoGame/FinalFantasyX-2]].

* The protagonist of the ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' franchise, Adol Christin, starts many of his adventures via getting shipwrecked and losing all of his equipment from his previous adventure. This notably happens in the first game, ''Dawn of Ys'', ''Ark of Napishtim'', and ''[[VideoGame/YsVIIILacrimosaOfDana Lacrimosa of Dana]]''.

* ZigZagged throughout the ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'' franchise with the tradition of members of the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Mishima clan]] [[DisneyVillainDeath throwing each other from high places]]. Sometimes, like Heihachi's attempt at throwing his son Kazuya and grandson Jin into the atmosphere from a space station backfiring on him, [[PlayedForLaughs it's funny]]. Other times, like Kazuya brutally beating Jin's cousin Asuka to near death and then throwing her off a skyscraper, [[PlayedForDrama it's not]].

** Starting with ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Amy thinks someone else is Sonic, runs up behind them out of nowhere, and hugs them, and seconds later Amy sees she was mistaken.

* ZigZagged throughut the ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'' franchise with the tradition of members of the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Mishima clan]] [[DisneyVillainDeath throwing each other from high places]]. Sometimes, like Heihachi's attempt at throwing his son Kazuya and grandson Jin into the atmosphere from a space station backfiring on him, [[PlayedForLaughs it's funny]]. Other times, like Kazuya brutally beating his son's cousin Asuka to near death and then throwing her off a skyscraper, [[PlayedForDrama it's not]].

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', Roxas can't really go to [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas HalloweenTown]] without getting a pumpkin bomb to the face courtesy of [[TerribleTrio Lock, Shock, and Barrel]]. Also, Ven's drowned goldfish.

* Sound designer Dan Forden's infamous "Toasty!" cry in the ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' series.

* The ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series, since 3, has had a sequence with the male party members of each game accidentally ending up in a hot spring at the same time as the female party members, where the former face UnprovokedPervertPayback-- while it's skipped in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', it shows up in ''VideoGame/Persona5ScrambleThePhantomStrikers'', even happening in Kyoto-- the same place it happened in ''3''.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Morgana, the team's FunnyAnimal cat and resident ButtMonkey, regularly gets thrown by other party members. This includes in the opening animation by Ryuji, and as you're escaping the Pyramid dungeon by Ann.

--> '''Asbel:''' (thinking)"One of these days I'll clean this desk up."

--> '''Colette:''' Our weapons are - love!
--> '''Genis:''' Justice! And?
--> '''Kratos:''' [[TheComicallySerious Ugh...hope.]]

--> '''Luke:''' Our weapons are status-!
--> '''Jade:''' [[MagnificentBastard Scheming!]]
--> '''Anise:''' Playing ''dirty''

--> '''Estelle:''' Our weapons are love!
--> '''Yuri:''' [[VigilanteMan Justice!]]
--> '''[[DirtyOldMan Raven]]:''' SEXUALITEEEEEHHHAH!

--> '''Luke:''' You're weak!
--> '''Guy:''' You're a hack!
--> '''Jade:''' [[DeadpanSnarker You're whack.]]

--> '''Yuri:''' You're weak.
--> '''Karol:''' You're a hack!
--> '''Estelle:''' You're whack...teehee!

** This running gag became so popular that a number of completely unrelated games from other companies now make references to it. ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' (along with many other games) will sometimes show the line on its LoadingScreen, and ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'' has it as one of its random splash messages. Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' apparantelly spends some time at startup "reticulating ''[[{{Pun}} pines]]''." This has practically become a running gag in video games as an industry.

* For ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' in general, we have Gilgamesh, a recurring PluckyComicRelief boss character that is technically the same guy from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' (Not a rehash, ''the same exact person''), just caught in the endless void of dimension hopping who shows up in other games in the franchise. Even those that were made before VideoGame/FinalFantasyV.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}} Onmyōji]]'': [[TheRival Kyūmei-neko]]'s utter inability to defeat Seimei.

* "[[VideoGame/MetalGear Metal]] [[ParrotExposition Gear?!]]".

* Given your [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits party's]] status as a walking band of racial stereotypes in VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2, some running gags are unavoidable: Khelgar's constant belligerent drunkenness, his constant insistence that Elanee is underfed, [[FishOutOfWater Shandra's]] constant complaints about being a farmer stuck on an adventure, and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Grobnar]]. No more need be said about that last one.

* ''Black Isle / Troika'' has regular instances of {{Squick}} / BlackHumor bestiality. VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}} has an omnisexual farmer's son. ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has a sheep as a worker in a brothel (that the player can purchase the services of) and VideoGame/TempleOfElementalEvil has a cut content brothel that also included an option with a rooster.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' has ''truckloads'' of them.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' features a running joke and MythologyGag in the form of Harold, a FEV mutant with a tree called Bob [[ItMakesSenseInContext (or is it Herbert?)]] growing out of his head. He shows up again in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' and makes jokes and references to the first game. Finally in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' He shows up again, completely mad from his 200 years of life and still very friendly.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''

* ''VisualNovel/MajiDeWatashiNiKoiShinasai'' has several:

* In every cutscene in ''[[Videogame/ASuperMarioThing A2XT]]'', [[ExpositionFairy Kood tries to explain the plot]], while Demo, Iris and raocow ignore him. Meanwhile, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Sheath was there too]].

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Morganna, the team's FunnyAnimal cat and resident ButtMonkey, regularly gets thrown by other party members. This includes in the opening animation by Ryuji, and as you're escaping the Pyramid dungeon by Ann.

* Many examples in the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series. Calling Schezo a pervert, Schezo causing Accidental Innuendo, Harpy's atrocious singing, Incubus trying and failing to flirt with Arle, Draco's obsession with beauty contests, Dark Prince's Carbuncle or Arle obsession, etc.

* ''VideoGame/{{Sam And Max|Freelance Police}}'': The second ever example of Sam letting Max answer the phone (Look in the ''Sam and Max'' entry in Western Animation for the other) occurs in the last episode of Telltale's second episodic season. [[spoiler:Hell freezes over, at which point the phone starts ringing and Sam just stands by and lets Max answer the phone. Max also won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Sybil lets him be the official at her wedding.]]
** During the Telltale games episodes, you can ask Bosco for various ridiculous items, which he almost invariably doesn't have, including "hats in the shape of a cow udder", "Self respect" (''"Ha, got you!" "No, I understood the question, all too well."''), "Vegetables in the shapes of naturalists" (Which is a shoutout to the first game, "Sam and Max hit the road") "Ketchup" (which he ''does'' have, but it takes him a second to realize he was asked about an actual thing), and "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (to which his answer was "Who's asking?"). In the last episode of Season 1, Sam asks for items which would have made every previous episode trivial (except the second, where the item either would have been useless or wouldn't have existed yet). He has ''all of them'', and you later find them right behind the lottery tickets.
*** In season 2, he's not running a store any more, but you can still torment him by asking him, even when [[spoiler:''he's naked in hell.'']] In the first episode, Sam asks for "passive aggressive payback disguised as innocuous customer inquiry?"

** Each of the main areas has a table with cheese (or, in one case, spaghetti) on it near a mouse hole, and exmanining them will have the narration say that "it's stuck to the table." The save points nearby will give some narration about how the mice will eventually come out of their holes to eat the cheese, which they do in the GoldenEnding (the mouse that had the spaghetti gives up trying to eat it though).

*** [[EasterEgg M'aiq the Lair]] is a Khajiit LegacyCharacter who has appeared in every game since ''Morrowind''. M'aiq is a known a FourthWallObserver (and [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Leaner]] and ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall Breaker]]'') who [[AuthorAvatar voices the opinions]] of the series' creators and developers, largely in the form of {{Take That}}s, to both the [[TakeThatAudience audience]] (given the ''ES'' UnpleasableFanbase) and isn't above above [[SelfDeprecation taking some]] at [[TakeThatUs Bethesda itself]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Morganna, the team's FunnyAnimal cat and resident ButtMonkey, regularly gets thrown by other party members. This includes in the opening animation by Ryuji, and as you're escaping the Pyramid dungeon by Ann.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', the Annoying Dog has an inexplicable ability to pop up in storage places (including the player's inventory) where it's neither wanted nor expected. It also has a habit of stealing things that the characters have or want, including Papyrus's special attack, a legendary artifact from a shrine, [[spoiler:Toriel's cell phone]] (potentially, more than once even!).... Another gag is Frisk finding something to eat but something ends up making that food inedible, like dumping all the ketchup on your fries (or burger)

* ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'' has one about Felicity knifing Veradux in the face. The first time they meet, he almost lines up a shot and she throws a knife at him. The second time they meet, she throws a knife at him as she [[VillainExitStageLeft escapes]], prompting a shout of "ow! My face! Again!". When she shows up later and joins your party, [[DeadpanSnarker Sonny]] comments "quick, cover your face.". She also has an attack in-game that inflicts a debuff described as the victim having a knife in its face.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' series, since 3, has had a sequence with the male party members of each game accidentally ending up in a hot spring at the same time as the female party members, where the former face UnprovokedPervertPayback-- while it's skipped in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', it shows up in ''VideoGame/Persona5ScrambleThePhantomStrikers'', even happening in Kyoto-- the same place it happened in ''3''.

* The protagonist of the ''Franchise/{{Ys}}'' franchise, Adol Christin, starts many of his adventures via getting shipwrecked and losing all of his equipment from his previous adventure. This notably happens in the first game, ''Dawn of Ys'', ''Ark of Napishtim'', and ''[[VideoGame/YsVIIILacrimosaOfDana Lacrimosa of Dana]]''.