Five kilometers filled with razor wire, pit falls and half demolished buildings. Cultist murder squads drenging the ruins for survivors to torture; human bombers hiding in alcoves, trembling fingers on grenade pins; eviserator priests leading flocks with wire sewn mouths. It was the most expedient route available to Aura Hieron.
— Fires of War, Warhammer 40,000
Another day, another death course.
— Ratchet, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
SUPERVILLAINY 201: Tricky, but doable
Remember gang, we want to take out Mega Man... but only after he's marveled at our Machiavellian stage design!
Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an "Unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!
— GLaDOS, Portal
What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway! No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, WHY IS IT HERE?!
— Gwen DeMarco. Galaxy Quest
To start preparing for human testing again, I checked an old suggestion box. The number one request? Less deadly tests. That's ridiculous: how do they know for sure the tests are deadly if they could still write the suggestion?
— GLaDOS, Portal 2
"That's right, you've been chosen to play a few games. Lose, and you will be subject to immediate de-resolution. Win? Well, *chuckle* no one wins."
Clu: You're in luck. Only a precious few are granted Light Cycle battle privileges.
Riku: You gonna explain why it's so lucky?
Clu: I'll show you. [Cue light cycles]
Riku: How hard can it be?
—Riku being sentenced to death by Clu in the Game Grid - Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]
"The palace's defense system had a twisted logical error. They could be circumvented by using the strategically-placed switches which I soon learned to recognize, yet it was hard to escape the feeling that I had made a terrible mistake by setting in motion such a deadly system of traps, which seemed in truth more likely to claim my life than that of an invader that wasn't made of flesh and blood."
— The Prince, Prince of Persia
"Just once, I'd like to find defenses that can tell me from an enemy."
*later*
"Well, perhaps these defenses do have their use."
— The Prince, Prince of Persia
Spongebob: I bought some life insurance for Patrick and myself and now we can never be hurt.
Patrick: Yeah! To test out the life insurance, we even built a super dangerous obstacle course across the street!
Spongebob: We call it "The Sushi Maker."
143. Despite the recent attack by invader forces, Engineering staff are to stop filling our base with enough booby traps to make it look like a Death Course. This includes: buzzsaws coming from the walls, laser grids, descending ceilings, pitfall traps, embedded wall mounted plasma pistols, poison dart launchers, giant rolling balls and floors mined with pressure plates, walls made of spare MEC arms to grab victims, spiked elevator floors/roofs and covering the entire air vent floor with mouse traps.
143a. When the hallways stop resembling Temple of Doom and start resembling a Japanese game show, this should be regarded as a time to stop.
143ai. Stop trying to sell footage of the Rookies trying to get through them.
143aii. Even if you’ve covered everything in three inches of foam.
143b. Similarly, no dedicating the base as ‘The First Temple of the Great Commandy One’.
143c. No building anything with the express purpose of making future archaeologists scratch their heads in confusion. If we can’t figure out what it does now, then don’t build it.
143d. Stop trying to sell the traps to other bases, even if modifications have made them ‘20% more lethal’.
