History Main / NonStandardGameOver

* ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'': The Temple Run at the end of the show had one team of two contestants navigating through the Temple to bring an artifact out in three minutes or less. If either player exited the Temple outside of the designated entrance (the stairs on the far right with the bottom of the Cave of Sighs serving as a second in Season 1 only), the team automatically lost. While this never happened, one contestant was so afraid of a Temple Guard that he jumped out of the Temple. It didn't matter since he only had half a pendant of life and needed the other half to give to the Guard for the run to to continue.

* The Interactive Fiction Game, ''Videogame/{{Anchorhead}}'', has a large number of grisly ways to die, but the character can go insane in true ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' fashion by either fully reading the black tome in the church or by attacking and killing your husband during the game's finale. The character can also suffer [[AndIMustScream "Endless]] [[FateWorseThanDeath Torment"]] by being sucked into the womb at any point.
* All of the endings in the [[VideoGame/AtlantisTheLostTales Atlantis]] series are non-standard, and depend entirely on what wrong choice you made to bring them about.

* In ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsOnline'', during the mission The Parley, Queen Arzhela has tasked you with protecting her, during her meeting with Septima Tharn. It is however, an ambush, and by attacking her illusion, she will call out the Seventh Legion to aid in killing the queen. It then becomes an ambush, and you're then asked from the top of a cliff to provide assistance and protect the queen. If her health drops to zero at any point during this mission, the screen will fade to black while Septima Tharn relishes in her victory. Despite the fact that it just reloads the mission from the point of the ambush if you fail, a Nonstandard Game Over doesn't usually happen in an MMORPG. But this is one of few instances where failure to protect an important ally will result in one.

* In the first two ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' games, as well as ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', just quitting the game triggers a Game Over banner, as if the developers of the games (Creator/{{Rare}}) wanted the player to beat the whole campaigns in one session. In both [=DK64=] and the first BK, the Game Over includes a scene showing the potential outcome that would result if the protagonists failed to twart the plans of the villains; once the player gets past the foil of the evil plans, and all that remains is the final battle, no scene is shown, as the game just puts the Game Over banner before returning to the title screen (this is also true for the entirety of ''Banjo-Tooie'', which doesn't have any Game Over cutscenes whatsoever).

** Losing to the TrueFinalBoss in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' results in Soma being taken over by Dracula completely, and you get a short scene where Julius Belmont is implied to make good on the ICannotSelfTerminate promise he made with Soma earlier. The DS sequel one-ups this even more: getting the Non-Standard Game Over unlocks ''a new game mode'' where the other characters team up to take down the now [[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turned]] protagonist.

* In the ''Videogame/{{Oddworld}}'' series, there are horrible consequences if you fail to complete the in-game tasks to a high enough standard. In ''Abe's Oddysee'', if you fail to save over 50 Mudokons, Abe will be sliced and diced through a meat saw in Rupture Farms. In ''Abe's Exoddus'', again, failing to save enough Mudokons, will leave Abe in the hands of the Brewmaster, who will strap him down and pass electricity through his body to extract his tears. Eventually, the electricity gets turned up too high and he will be electrocuted. In ''Munch's Oddysee'', failing to obtain a certain level of Quarma will leave both Munch and Abe to be mauled by Fuzzles, who also alert the Vykkers as to their whereabouts. Abe will be killed and his head hung on a wall which Munch has an even worse fate: He is strapped down, while his lungs are forcibly removed ''while he is still fully conscious'' so that they can be given to the ailing Glukkon queen. If you somehow do ''even worse'' than that, you get one final newspaper showing everything Abe and Munch tried to prevent came true- not only is the Glukkon Queen getting said lungs, but the Gabbiar was sold and consumed, and all the Mudokons are being returned to slavery, with their hatchlings soon to join them.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** The classic [[FanWorks fan game]] ''Sonic Robo Blast'' (predecessor to ''Videogame/SonicRoboBlast2'') had [[LethalLavaLand a stage set in a volcano]] that would erupt [[TimedMission in five minutes, real time]]. The eruption was an instant Game Over, ignoring lives.

* ''Videogame/BattleZone1998'' includes several missions that avert TakeYourTime despite the absence of a mission timer. On Mars, General Collins orders you to scan Cthonian ruins for a flight data log; continue to ignore his orders, and he will transfer [[PlayerCharacter Grizzly One]]'s command to Lieutenant Corbin, who orders Grizzly One to be court-martialed.
* Failing the storyline stage battles in ''Videogame/BrutalLegend'' leads to a Type A cutscene where they gloat over you.

* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', a VideoGame/HeartsOfIron mod depicting a [[CrapsackWorld dystopian]] [[TheSixties 1960s]] where the Nazis won World War II, can also result in a nuclear Holocaust if global stability drops below a certain point or the nuclear powers' core territories are directly threatened. [[spoiler:If you are playing as [[AbsoluteXenophobe Ordenstaat Burgundy]] or the [[RevengeBeforeReason Black League of Omsk]], this outcome is your ''victory condition''. It also results in a BittersweetEnding; millions die, but human civilization rises again thousands of years later in a more peaceful and understanding form, and the brutal ideology of Nazism and the horrors it unleashed on the world are forgotten forever.]]

* ''VideoGame/ReflecBeat'' typically lets the current song run to the end, unless you are playing the UsefulNotes/{{iOS|Games}} port, in which you can pause the game and quit or restart the current song. However, in ''Reflec Beat colette -All Seasons-'', the Pastel Wonder Traveler event puts you on a LifeMeter, which decreases whenever you get a Good or a Miss. If your HP hits zero, the song ends immediately in failure.

* ''VideOGame/FTLFasterThanLight'':

* ''Theatre Europe'', a WWIII wargame from 1985, is an odd duck: both the mechanics and presentation are more interested in the nonstandard loss (global thermonuclear war) than the stated win/loss condition (Warsaw Pact taking West Germany within a month.) To access nuclear weapons, you had to call a RealLife UK phone line that'd play a recording of air raid sirens and the sounds of war leading up to an explosion, a baby crying, and "If this really what you want... the code is [[spoiler:Midnight Sun]]." The nuclear war cutscene is chilling despite the [[Platform/Commodore64 Commodore 64]]'s limitations, while normal win or loss [[AWinnerIsYou just says peace talks are underway]] and gives you your score. Enough nuclear strikes can pull you out of any bind - except pushing that button too many times means the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt instead, you're not told how many is "too many", you may push it by accident (one type of air mission can escalate out of your control and go nuclear, though the game's so obtuse on what that mission does that there's little point), and you're not the only one pushing the button (plus you automatically tit-for-tat the enemy's strikes; you can disable that, but then he'll have the lead.) There are undocumented triggers for global thermonuclear war (UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} crossing into Warsaw Pact territory, the Warsaw Pact [[UnwinnableByDesign being about to win the game on hard difficulty]][[note]][[ShownTheirWork This tracks actual historical NATO and Soviet doctrine]]: the US and NATO merely had a no-offensive-use policy -- that is, we'll use nukes first, but only if they attacked conventionally first -- but not a no-first-use policy. The US and NATO several times considered and rejected proposals to move to no-first-use (most recently in 1999 on a motion by Germany). In contrast, the USSR actually ''did'' have a no-first-use policy from time to time (although they never announced it). This shows in their respective targeting: US missiles were targeted counterforce (aimed at known Soviet missile sites) while Soviet missiles were targeted countervalue (aimed at US and other NATO cities and sites of economic value).[[/note]]) and an option to fire everything [[PressXToDie with no helpful uses]]. A lot of work's gone into this nonstandard game over to teach players that [=WMDs=] are a ''horrible'' idea, and the game may be a very old DeconstructionGame, where the goal is to reject the premise you've been given, that of ground war in Europe.

* ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo'' has a few, but some are difficult to distinguish from the good endings, [[{{Utsuge}} such as they are]]. [[spoiler:In one in particular, Reiji will end the game locked in a mental ward if he [[SadisticChoice disembowels his best friend Shugo for the key to escape a trap]].]]

* In the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/FantasyFlightGames ''Star Wars LCG'']], the Light Side player typically wins by destroying 3 Dark Side objectives which typically have 5 (rarely 4 or 6) damage capacity each. In the Core set, there are two cards that can circumvent this scenario:

* TabletopGame/YuGiOh has two standard loss conditions; your life points become 0 by any means or you have no cards in your deck when you are forced to draw (either at the draw phase or by card effect). However even in its earliest days, Exodia existed as an alternative win condition. Since then several cards have been printed, most of which fall under AwesomeButImpractical. A full list of them can be found [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Duel_winner here]].

* There are two ways to lose in [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD6 the original version of]] ''Franchise/StarWars: The Roleplaying Game'' from Creator/WestEndGames: dying, and falling to TheDarkSide. The latter is the game's non-standard game over, and is due to the fact that the game is of the NoCampaignForTheWicked persuasion in which all player characters are members of the Rebel Alliance. Ergo, if you have your character make a FaceHeelTurn, [[VideogameCrueltyPunishment you are expelled from the Alliance]] and have to start over. [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD20 The second version of the game]] from Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast made Darksiders fully playable, though still cautioned [=GMs=] not to let them be used as protagonists ''too'' much.

** Some events, including Flashbacks, will implement no off-track cuts and avoiding damage to their cars, failure to do so causes the player to get an instant DNF. Additionally, certain goals even include fuel management (as well as battery management for Formula E cars, which is carried over in its own race section), and even maintaining their car's engine heat. The player can instantly lose the race if they run out of fuel or overheat their engine.

** In Time Trials, the player's lsp will be rendered invalid if they go off-track or collide on the wall, forcing players to start over. Weekly Time Trials and Time Trial Competitions, on the other hand, mitigate this by giving players a time penalty for off-track cuts and wall collisions.

* In the Tandy Color Computer game ''A Mazing World of Malcolm Mortar'', sealing yourself into a dead end or blocking the path to the exit with a permanent brick wall triggers an immediate Game Over, so as to avert an {{Unwinnable}} situation.

* Labyrinth of the Minotaur, a shooter dark ride at Spsnish theme park Terra Mítica, has an unloading station seperate from the main one, only reached if riders don't acculumate enough points.

** ''Theatre Europe''. Notably, you [[{{Unwinnable}} can't win]] as Warsaw Pact under the hardest difficulty, as UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} will, as a desperate measure, launch a major nuclear attack against you, leading to an EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.[[note]]Oddly, [[ShownTheirWork this tracks actual historical NATO and Soviet doctrine]]: the US and NATO merely had a no-offensive-use policy — that is, we'll use nukes first, but only if they attacked conventionally first — but not a no-first-use policy. The US and NATO several times considered and rejected proposals to move to no-first-use (most recently in 1999 on a motion by Germany). In contrast, the USSR actually ''did'' have a no-first-use policy from time to time (although they never announced it). This shows in their respective targeting: US missiles were targeted counterforce (aimed at known Soviet missile sites) while Soviet missiles were targeted countervalue (aimed at US and other NATO cities and sites of economic value).[[/note]] (Conversely, when playing as NATO, your goal is to defend yourself for a requisite number of turns; if you ever enter the Warsaw Pact territory, the enemy will start a global nuclear war. You can also trigger it deliberately, or by provoking the enemy by launching one too many nuclear missiles against them.)