History GainaxEnding / VideoGames

* Famously ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'', after traversing the bleak eponymous underworld searching for his sister, the boy breaks into a glass and slowly floats in the darkness, until he wakes up in the same place he started his journey. He stands up and walks to the right, where he finds his sister picking flowers at the base of a tree-house; as he approaches her, she suddenly stands up startled, and then it cuts to credits.

* The extremely rare Israeli MS-DOS game ''Beasts of Horror'' (מפלצות של אימה) has an example of this that was discovered when Website/{{Twitch}} streamer [=Macaw45=] [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/486169062 became the first known player to beat the game]]. After defeating a series of monsters in a cave, the player character's last opponent is [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/486169062?t=02h29m46s a tiny man riding a tiny unicorn]]. Once [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/486169062?t=02h35m22s he trounces them]], our hero finally makes it to the other end of the cave and sees a woman tied up outside. He rescues her (with creepy hand gestures and facial expression) and they embrace, and our hero gives a thumbs-up and smile while the word "סוף" ("End") appears. [[spoiler:They are then crushed by a giant egg that hatches into an eagle as tall as the screen.]] Roll credits.

[[VideoGame Game]] [[GainaxEnding Over?]]
!! Works with their own pages:

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''. [[Recap/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Read its full glory here.]]

** Infamously, the arcade release of ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'' ends with the entire thing you've just played through revealed to be a movie that they were filming. And they all go out for a cold beer after wrapping up the shoot.

* ''VideoGame/TrioThePunch: Never Forget Me...'' is [[WidgetSeries a weird game to begin with,]] but its ending manages to top that. The final level is set in an ordinary park, where the player character is forced to kill regular animals while the text pops up [[WhatTheHellPlayer that seems to be calling the player out.]] What looks like a lead-up to a commentary on killing enemies in video games stops abruptly as text appears saying [[BlatantLies "YOU FIGURED IT OUT,"]] before the screen pans down to show giant, photo-realistic orange eyes peering at the player from the shadows. A brief cutscene shows a zoom-out where that shadow monster has lifted the platform the player character is on, before going right back down. It then cuts to the selected character talking to Master Chin, saying something depending on who was selected. The end.

** The following games mostly contain far less ambiguous endings (although they're still heavy on the MindScrew), but they aren't immune from them. Without contest, the most bizarre is one of the endings of the second game, in which James discovers that the controlling force behind the town and the cause of all his torment is [[TheDogWasTheMastermind a dog]]. No, not a talking dog, just an ordinary dog. A Shiba Inu, to be specific. Her name is Mira. James is utterly confused, and the credits devolve into Shiba Inu happily barking... and growling at [[FatBastard Eddie's belly]]. This is all played for laughs.

* Usually, the ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' series had pretty straightforward endings: Mr. X is defeated, the town is safe, everyone's happy; but the last official installment in the series, ''3'', introduced EasyModeMockery to the already ending trilogy. The ending you get on the lowest difficulty does reveal that Mr. X on the 5th stage is actually a robot. If you try a harder difficulty, but fail to save General Petrov[=/=]chief of the police, you will fight Shiva as the final boss. Right after both of these, the [[BlatantLies true]] Mr. X shows up, watching what happens in his hideout (like a movie in the theatre) and breaking a glass of wine... which makes perfect sense at first, but that's until you get to his '''real''' hideout, which reveals that Mr. X is in fact a BrainInAJar. Now that makes absolutely no sense, especially when you realize he couldn't turn into that in just a couple of hours of the storyline time! And after the bad ending route's stage 7, you see him safe and sound like nothing happened. [[CloningBlues May be a sign that he really loves cloning himself that way.]]

* ''VideoGame/DreadXCollection'' gives us ''Squirrel Stapler'', where after getting the last squirrel in the game, the text [[spoiler: "[[HellIsThatNoise God is coming]]"]], where after two minutes [[spoiler: a giant disembodied squirrel head appears behind you.]] There's plenty of {{Foreshadowing}}, sure, but that doesn't really change how abrupt and out-of-nowhere it is.

* ''VideoGame/ChoRenSha68K''[='=]s version 1.10 ending. In prior versions of the game, after defeating the FinalBoss [[AWinnerIsYou you get a simple "MISSION COMPLETE" message]]. In 1.10...your ship suddenly transforms into a biplane flying over a run-down town in what an on-screen caption calls "THE REAL WORLD". As you're greeted by a crowd of people on the ground and land on the runway, you get one last message: "WELCOME BACK TO OUR PLACE!" And then the screen fades to white. So what exactly was the "world" of the 14 stages you beat, then?

* ''VideoGame/ChoRenSha68k''[='=]s version 1.10 ending. In prior versions of the game, after defeating the FinalBoss [[AWinnerIsYou you get a simple "MISSION COMPLETE" message]]. In 1.10...your ship suddenly transforms into a biplane flying over a run-down town in what an on-screen caption calls "THE REAL WORLD". As you're greeted by a crowd of people on the ground and land on the runway, you get one last message: "WELCOME BACK TO OUR PLACE!" And then the screen fades to white. So what exactly was the "world" of the 14 stages you beat, then?

* ''VideoGame/ChoRenSha68k''[='=]s version 1.10 ending. In prior versions of the game, after defeating the FinalBoss [[AWinnerIs(you you get a simple "MISSION COMPLETE" message]]. In 1.10...your ship suddenly transforms into a biplane flying over a run-down town in what an on-screen caption calls "THE REAL WORLD". As you're greeted by a crowd of people on the ground and land on the runway, you get one last message: "WELCOME BACK TO OUR PLACE!" And then the screen fades to white. So what exactly was the "world" of the 14 stages you beat, then?

* ''VideoGame/QuestFantasy'' ends with a complete MoodWhiplash from SoBadItsGood to SurpriseCreepy, and then the newly-revealed antagonist proceeds to guilt trip the player and character in a long boss fight (that doesn't actually have any gameplay) involving MS Paint bleeding eyes, and then the characters die. That's just the first game. While most of the other ones aren't too crazy, the ending for the final game and thus a series as a whole involves a new villain impersonating the author of the game in order to find the credits sequence and vaporize the world. The protagonist is instructed to assist the character who was the BigBad up until now, because this new villain's plans for the world are much, much worse. Credits roll.

* In the Arcade version of ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'', after beating the game, it shows several kids playing the game. The arcade machine they're playing then breaks open, and [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou enemies from the game spill out, chasing the players away]]. They are all pursued through town by the heroes of the game.

* The Good ending for ''VideoGame/StarSoldier: Vanishing Earth'' consist of a nonsensical poem that doesn't have anything to do with the plot (aside from the implication that the protagonist is [[ShellShockedVeteran shaken from the game's events). The Bad ending, while making more sense, is still very strange.