Power Incontinence in Video Games.
- In Ancient Domains of Mystery, may the gods help you if you accidentally teleport out of a shop without paying. Shopkeepers have absolutely no sense of humor.
- Ayakashi: Romance Reborn:
- Koga suffers from an illness called the carnage, which is another, more powerful form that unfortunately causes him to lose his mind and attack anyone he sees. He accidentally killed his childhood friend while in this form and still feels guilty about it.
- Also Yomi, a side character in an event story. He is a baku, which eats nightmares. But if his emotions go out of control, all the nightmares pour out of him and invade the minds of those around him.
- Partway through BioShock, Jack ingests a dose of an experimental formula in order to undo Fontaine's Psychic-Assisted Suicide Trigger Phrase. However, its side effect causes him to constantly, involuntarily switch plasmids until he finds and ingests another dose.
- One variant of the "Disease" item in Bomberman causes him to uncontrollably drop bombs. With the charming in-game name of bomb diarrhea.
- The Carson Extreme Hot Rod in Burnout Paradise. Infinite boost is a pretty sweet deal... too bad there's no way to turn it off. If you can master it, though, it's one of the fastest and most fun cars in the game.
- In the MMO City of Heroes, an accident suffered during the Rikti War caused the hero Positron's nuclear powers to run constantly, forcing him to spend all his time in his containment suit out of fear of nuking everyone around him. As of Issue 10, though, his powers have gone back to normal, since he was killed when the Rikti invaded again and a teammate resurrected him.
- In Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, the titular character has the power to briefly look into the past by touching objects imprinted with memories. However, her ability gets extra sensitive if she is emotionally distressed, causing her to involuntary use the power in situations where it is very inconvenient for her.
- Played with in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Inquisitor’s Mark on the palm of their left hand initially only gives them the power to open and close opened Fade rifts. Once they survive the attack on Haven, the mark gets upgraded into a power that deals damage over time to enemies. It uses a mechanism called Focus which you need to build up over time, and you have complete control over when you can use this power, provided you have sufficient Focus built up. In the Trespasser DLC however, the mark becomes increasingly unstable, wherein towards the end, the mark automatically builds up Focus way too quickly, and when it saturates, involuntarily detonates, damaging everyone around you, friends included. In order to save your life, your arm bearing the mark, needs to be amputated.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: The Seeress of Paddra, a.k.a. Yeul, cannot control her visions of the future, which strike whenever any change occurs to the timeline. The real kicker is that each vision brings her closer and closer to her demise, until one fateful day, she has a vision that kills her. The main character has the same power as well.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- In Stormblood, the Ala Mhigan Fordola is given an artificial Echo and turned into a Resonant by the Garleans. However, since she's a Flawed Prototype, she can't turn off the Echo's ability to look into their pasts and is constantly seeing them.
- Shadowbringers Eden raid storyline, Ryne decides to teach the massive machine Eden by becoming the ice Primal Shiva herself, similarly to how Ysayle did back in Heavensward. However, being the Oracle of Light and ice magic being close to light magic, Ryne loses control and nearly causes a second Flood of Light on the First.
- Freedom Force has Man-Bot, whose Energy-X mutation is much less desirable than those of his teammates. His body constantly builds up volatile Energy-X. He wears a suit of Powered Armor that contains it; without it, he randomly suffers powerful energy discharges that nuke anything in the immediate vicinity... like his brother. It carries over to gameplay as well; even with the armor, any attack that strikes Man-Bot has a small chance of triggering an explosion that damages Man-Bot and anyone close to him. This can be either very good or very bad, depending on whether he's in the middle of the enemy or the team.
- God of War Ragnarök starts Atreus off this way. The first game showed that he had inherited something akin to his father's Spartan Rage, but he passed out before he was able to harness it. This time around, Atreus learns to control it, becoming a Voluntary Shapeshifter...except when under extreme stress, when he'll still transform into a wolf or bear without thinking about it. The danger of this process is explored by an early boss fight against the enraged bear, "Bjorn," which Kratos nearly kills before he realizes it's actually his son.
- In the original series of .hack R1 Games, overusing Data Drain caused an array of adverse effects to the player. Depending on how much viral infection the player has taken on from using Data Drain, they can suffer anything from status ailments and debuffs to loss of experience points or even suffer a System Error.
- inFAMOUS: Cole McGrath can't control his ability to Shock and Awe enough to hold a gun, ride in a car, or even swim.
- K' from The King of Fighters has to wear a special glove to control the flame powers given to him by the Kusanagi DNA, otherwise he can cause explosions without trying. A similar character, Nameless, also has to wear a special glove to control his flame powers: at one point in his backstory, he killed somebody accidentally by tapping them on the shoulder.
- Love of Magic:
- If an Evoker's Power Crutch is broken, they'll die of an overload of magic, with their magic literally setting them on fire from the inside.
- In the Alternate Timeline without Emily to anchor him, Owyn has very poor control over his power; a single pair of twos (literally the smallest amount of energy he can project) completely blows up the front of Montrose Asylum.
- The Unbreakable Darkness from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny. Merely appearing somewhere causes fluctuations in time and space and creates Dark Piece clones formed from the characters' pasts and even alternate futures. Oh, and the world she's in and everything around it will be reduced to nothing if she ever reaches full power, even though she doesn't want such things to happen. The ending reveals that the Materials and the Tome of the Purple Sky were originally meant to be a Power Limiter system so that she could regulate her unlimited powers, and she's finally able to use them for good once Lord Dearche, the Material of Sovereignty, successfully re-establishes this role of hers.
- David, the autistic mathematical genius introduced in the Mass Effect 2 DLC Overlord, can understand the Geth and talk in their language. Once plugged in the Geth neural network, however, he can't block out any of their constant chattering.David: QUIET, PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!
- Metal Gear:
- Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid is constantly reading the minds of those around him unless he wears his gas mask. The popular explanation (which was used in The Last Days of FOXHOUND as well) is that the mask itself doesn't do anything. Rather, it serves as a sort of crutch, like a security blanket or a lucky charm or Magic Feather, that allows Mantis to filter out undesirable thoughts.
- Colonel Volgin of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is covered in burn scars and wears a rubber suit, making it clear he has little control over the electrical charge in his body. Not that he has much control in the first place. He's also a walking lightning rod and terrified of being struck, and chants "Kuwabara kuwabara" in the rain hoping it will ward it off.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has this as a side effect of using Hyper Mode. After a few seconds of active use, the power meter starts charging on its own, causing a Non-Standard Game Over if it fills. While the usual "treatment" is an Unstoppable Rage, Samus can opt for A-Team Firing if there are no targets nearby.
- Metroid Dread gives Samus a new problem with the Metroid Suit: in Samus' hand is the power to drain anything she can grab and everything it's connected to. This is a problem when you're on a planet in the throes of self-destruction and the only way off is a spaceship, and were it not for a specific X Parasite, this particular trait would have gotten her killed.
- At the end of every set of stages in Mighty Flip Champs!, Alta's magic wand flips the chambers on its own, so she has a very short time to move to a safe spot to avoid getting crushed by the incoming dimensional wall.
- The same thing happens in the final stage of Mighty Switch Force!, where Patricia's helmet siren activates every few seconds without her input.
- NetHack characters may acquire (either from certain magic items or from eating corpses) the ability to polymorph or teleport... but at random times, uncontrollably. If you're polymorphed into a strong monster during a tough combat or teleported away from danger, good for you! If you're polymorphed into a sewer rat on dungeon level 15, that's a different matter...
- Redeemed Demons from Nexus Clash can channel their guilt and anger at their former evil ways into a powerful holy smiting attack that quickly mows through still-unrepentant demons in a few blows. Unfortunately, the line between good and evil anger is blurry and thus these attacks regularly manifest as an unholy demonic wave of evil instead. Despite having no control over these outbursts, the Redeemed are blamed for them and punished with a massive reduction in the all-important Karma Meter, making their smites a sort of Death or Glory Attack.
- Tracer from Overwatch suffers this. Tracer is Unstuck in Time and needs her chronal accelerator to stay in the present timeline. Without it, she'll glitch out from the timeline and disappear (as seen in the Doomfist Origins Trailer when Doomfist destroyed it). Good news, however. Winston, genius scientist that he is, has made copies, so if she for example is in her flat, she'll be fine.
- In Persona 3: The members of Strega. Their Personas are real, but artificially awakened, and the medication they take to control it will eventually kill them (Albeit not very quickly, given that they're still alive after ten years). However, none of them die on screen from it as they die in battle, or in Chidori's case sacrifices herself. Shinji has it to a lesser extent, as he only lost control once but took the same medication in an attempt to kill his Persona out of guilt. He either dies of a gunshot wound or in the Portable version, the game ends with him alive but hospitalized with the implication that he won't live much longer.
- Several Pokémon appear to have this:
- Pichu is power incontinent. In the video games, this doesn't manifest. In the anime, as well as in Super Smash Bros. Melee, however, it damages itself with its electric attacks, bringing the cute little critter from "outmatched" to "useless".
- Psyduck suffers from constant headaches due to its psychic powers, and when the headaches get really bad, it can cause an explosion. When this happens, it doesn't remember it.
- Espurr also. It has enough psychic energy to blast everything within 300 feet of itself, but it has no control over its power. The only way to protect itself and its environment is closing its ears, so that no power can leak out.
- Darkrai has the power to inflict endless, painful nightmares upon all who draw near it. It also happens to be incapable of turning this power off, so it hides away on a remote, uninhabited island to avoid inadvertently harming people.
- In Pokémon Sun and Moon, Mega Evolved Pokémon have separate dex entries from their normal counterparts. Most of them imply that the power of Mega Evolution appears to have adverse effects on these Pokémon, such as Mega Glalie whose transformation forces its jaw open and continually leaks ice breath, which may explain why they cannot remain Mega Evolved indefinitely.
- In Pokémon Legends: Arceus it's established that all Pokémon innately have the ability to shrink themselves in compact environments but implied that most can't do it at will (with the exception of the ones capable of learning Minimize), which the Poké Balls exploit by forcing the effect to activate for easy storage.
- Prayer of the Faithless: As Serra describes the uncontrollability of an Oracle's prophecies, as compared to when they voluntarily see into the future:When an Oracle receives a prophecy, it's god himself speaking to us. Oracles do not control when they receive a prophecy, nor can they stop themselves from uttering it.
- The gods Zaros and Seren from RuneScape have the power to inspire loyalty and adoration respectively towards them in anybody who stays around then for a prolonged period of time. They cannot turn this power off and the effect fades away after one is separated from them. Zaros considers this power a curse because it means he cannot tell who is truly loyal to him, and who will turn on him when he isn't around. Zaros and Seren are not immune to each other's power so they avoid each other except when necessary. Mah created them that way to keep the two of them together.
- Players suffer from this in the intro to The Secret World immediately after they first bond with their Bee. It all kicks off with the PC accidentally setting their clothes on fire just by reaching for them, and within a matter of days, you're blasting furniture across the room, firing Eye Beams into the ceiling and uncontrollably levitating. By day five, however, you've gotten things under control — enough to juggle fireballs at any rate.
- Some offerings Soul Sacrifice cannot be turned off once they are used, such as armors and evasion spells. It's particularly annoying when you place a golem and get constantly knocked back.
- StarCraft:
- While they aren't specifically superheroes, the Terran Ghosts suffer from being unable to not read thoughts of those around them. At least the superficial stuff.
- And Protoss, especially the higher-level ones, sometimes suffer from extreme excess of psychic energy. High Templar units, for example, are in the manual mentioned to go through conditioning so as to not make heads randomly explode in their presence due to extreme psychic power (and relaxing these mental blocks is the basis for their devastating Psionic Storm ability).
- In the novel Liberty's Crusade, the title reporter meets Sarah Kerrigan and thinks how great it would be for a reporter to have telepathy, only for Kerrigan to pick up on his thought and simply tell him that it wouldn't be as great as he thinks. In Ghost: Nova, the title character is an extremely-powerful telepath and telekinetic who has yet to learn what she is thanks to her wealthy father carefully hiding her abilities (any telepath is promptly taken by the Ghost Academy). However, the violent murder of her parents by a terrorist group results in her Mind over Matter abilities to manifest violently in the form of a wave that not only kills anyone still alive in the penthouse but also shatters the glass dome that is supposed to be rated against direct nuclear strikes.
- A more pleasant example is Nadia Grell, the Consular's companion in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The poor girl might be one of the most powerful telekinetics in a generation. Unfortunately, Force Sensitives (much less Force Users) are unheard of on her planet. Without training, it led to things exploding whenever Nadia got too happy, too sad, too scared, or too angry. Part of the reason her father was so eager to make an alliance with the Republic (and the Consular, personally) was to find anyone who could help his daughter control her abilities.
- The Hammer and Golden Hammer in the Super Smash Bros. games come with this. While very powerful, once you grab one of them, your character will be forced to swing it like a madman until it either disappears with time or gets knocked out of your hands by an attack, unable to do anything but move and jump until then. Getting knocked off the edge almost ensures your demise due to your inability to double jump or use a special, there are certain things you don't want to hit accidentally (Explosives or an Ike or Marth using a Counter-Attack), and if you're unfortunate enough to get a defective hammer that's incapable of causing harm, you can't voluntarily dispose of it.
- This is a risk Force users run in Tales of Rebirth if their emotions start going out of control, usually with negative consequences to the surrounding environment. Veigue, for example, freezes his friend Claire accidentally, while Tytree trashes an entire factory within fifteen minutes by causing plants to grow out of control.
- Jenna/Vibe from Third Crisis is an Expy of Tracer (in the game's original fangame version, she was Tracer), and as such also requires her suit in order to stay in one timeline. Since the game is an H-game, however, she can operate without her suit for longer periods of time than Tracer can.
- With its vast and varied Superpower Lottery, Touhou Project naturally has a few examples of this.
- Cirno constantly cools the area around her, and among other things is prone to giving people who touch her frostbite.
- Satori Komeiji has the power to read the hearts and minds of anyone and everyone with her third eye, and the contempt this earned her, both amongst humans and other youkai, impacted her to such an extent that she willfully exiled herself to the Underground with other undesired youkai.
- Her sister Koishi, who had the same power, permanently sealed off her eye in order to escape the contempt. On the downside, this had the unforeseen side-effect of permanently sealing off her own heart and mind, resulting in her Walking the Earth in a purely subconscious stupor. She now also has the incontinential power to manipulate other peoples' subconscious minds which manifests in various interesting ways.
- Hina is a curse goddess who is actually benevolent and absorbs misfortune instead of spreading it, however, she has a tendency to... leak misfortune.
- Miko can't turn off her super-hearing and wears earmuffs to try to deal with it.
- Akyuu can't forget anything, at least until the next time she dies.
- Kokoro's powers go haywire after she loses her Mask of Hope, making everybody, well, hopeless. She does her best to fix this, though.
- Parsee has, in an interesting mix of this trope and Power Born of Madness, the ability to manipulate the jealousy of others; this power is derived from her own jealousy of them... Also, Parsee is pretty much physically incapable of not being jealous of others.
- Seija Kijin combines this trope with Personality Powers; she is an amanojaku with the ability to flip anything over. She is a Commander Contrarian and Consummate Liar who is happy when others are sad and hates herself when she makes others happy.
- Sagume Kishin's power causes reality to warp itself into the opposite of what she says. She must therefore choose her words very carefully or, better yet, remain completely silent.
- A tragic example happens to the Daughter of Fujimi, Yuyuko's past self. At the beginning, she was only able to control some dead spirits. Unconsciously, that power grew stronger, eventually becoming the ability to invoke death by simply willing death onto someone. Terrified by her own ability, she committed suicide and was buried under the Saigyou Ayakashi. Years later, Yuyuko attempted to break the seal to resurrect both the cherry blossom and the girl out of boredom, but she failed to realise the very same girl buried under Saigyou Ayakashi was none other than herself.
