Enemy Roll Call

A couple of enemies on the Tickertape Parade, complete with punny names.

After you beat a video game, the developers may be nice enough to entertain you during or after the credits by confirming the names of all the enemies you've faced on your journey. While there's no reason or point to it most of the time (other than avoiding All There in the Manual), it can be handy if the player wishes to play the game again.

This was very prevalent in many action games during the 8-bit and 16-bit generation, largely because it was the only effective way to communicate this information to curious players. Printing it all out in the manual would spoil the later levels before you got to them, and the internet barely existed.

Compare Monster Compendium.

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Examples

Action-Adventure

• In the GBA version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, completing the Palace of the Four Sword presents a different credits sequence featuring the main bosses in each dungeon.

Beat 'Em Up

• Full Metal Furies provides the page image. Like in Rogue Legacy (which was made by the same developers), every single enemy type and sub-type marches in a parade, ending with the Titan bosses. Some enemies also re-demonstrate their special abilities during the parade: i.e. sharpshooters will fade in and out, Hammer Marios will spin their hammers around, while MK-Mastermolder will jump up and offscreen, only to reappear later with a Ground Pound.

Eastern RPG

• EarthBound ends on a list of every main character and side character before the credits roll.

Fighting Game

• All Punch-Out!! games since the NES version give the names of all the fighters during the credits. The first two entries out of them also give one last line to each of them.
• Most versions of Street Fighter II have credits at the end of Arcade Mode that show the names of two characters at a time
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl has Mini-Game Credits at the end of Classic Mode where the player shoots mugshots of all the characters currently unlocked, as well as items, assist trophies, Pokéball Pokémon, and trophies currently owned.
• In Tekken 4, the credits for Tekken Force mode would show the names of each enemy in the order the player defeated them in, and the attack they were finished off

First-Person Shooter

• Doom II and Doom 64 show each enemy along with the name in the ending, but some of the names differ from those in the manual. This leads to canon ambiguity of the enemy names.
• The console ports of Wolfenstein 3-D have a "Meet the Cast" scene after the final level, showing off every enemy and boss.
• As it runs on the Wolfenstien 3-D engine, Super 3D Noah's Ark does this as well, though it's modified to have the animals run towards Noah instead. This was retained in 2015 PC remaster.

Platformer

• Atomic Runner Chelnov ends with a list of "The Characters," excluding bosses but including Chelnov himself as well as all the enemies. This was not included in the Sega Genesis version.
• Banjo-Kazooie has a Character Parade, which shows the names of all the side characters (once the Pop Quiz minigame near the end is won) and the enemies (after the defeat of the Final Boss, Gruntilda). Its sequel, Banjo-Tooie, only shows the main, side, and boss characters (and only after all Jiggies have been collected).
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: After Buzz beats Zurg, the game's various mooks walk around the arena he fought Zurg in while the credits roll.
• Castlevania: Bloodlines shows each boss animated with their name.
• The credits in Cave Story list all the characters, then all the bosses, then all the regular stage enemies. Since it was entirely developed by one person, there's nobody else to credit except some testers.
• Donkey Kong Country has every enemy in the game run across the bottom of the screen, as well as their names showing up, before the credits roll. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest does the same thing, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has a photo album serving the same purpose, but only in the SNES version, the GBA port omits the roll call. Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 do it as well.
• Ghouls 'N Ghosts does this with a computer controlling Arthur, revealing the enemy in question, and then fading the background out and showing the enemy's name. Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts continued the tradition.
• Grey Area (2023) shows a list of all the game's characters, most of which are enemies, before the actual credits.
• Kendo Rage lists the enemies and bosses in the ending credits. Even though in-game dialogue often plays off the bosses' names, some of them are only clearly named here.
• Kirby does this often.
  • Kirby's Dream Land does this after the credits of Extra Game.
  • Kirby Super Star does a variation after you beat "Revenge of Meta Knight": it only showcases enemies in their Helper forms, with their corresponding Copy Abilities.
  • Kirby's Dream Land 2 has one, but only if you don't reach the True Final Boss after getting all the Plot Coupons. If you get the normal ending, you get to see Kirby and his friends taking a stroll in the rain while all the enemies appear below them... but then a mysterious, shadowy blob appears with the name "!?" followed by "The End ?"
  • Kirby's Dream Land 3 shows the names of all the enemies in the "incomplete" ending, as in the previous game. The "complete" ending instead shows Kirby's friends and a few bosses during the credits through drawings, presumably done by Adeleine.
  • The Japanese version of Kirby Mass Attack has this with Kirby having a picnic, but this was removed in other versions for some reason.
• Mega Man:
  • Almost every Mega Man (Classic) game since 2 has the names of the game's Robot Masters show up during the credits, as well as their serial number. The first three games in the Game Boy series (Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, Mega Man II and Mega Man III) are the only games that include the enemies in addition to the Robot Masters.
  • In an unusual variation, Mega Man X displays the names of all the enemies from each level during the ending, but doesn't show their sprites during this sequence, leaving the player to guess which enemies correspond to which names.
• Mute Crimson+ uses this - in fact, since only two people developed the game, the entire staff share one title card and the whole rest of the credits are devoted to the roll call.
• The first time you clear Twin Seeds in NiGHTS into Dreams…, you’ll get a credits sequence with the names of all the characters and Nightmaren in the game. After you clear it with both characters, the game just settles for a regular credits sequence.
• Ninja Spirit has a review of bosses at the end of the TurboGrafx-16 version. However, the names are in kanji even in the US version.
• Noitu Love 2: Devolution does this after the credits via a yearbook.
• Pharaoh Rebirth does this. But since in the Steam version, the bonus level is unlocked when you finish the game (and even then only when you have found a certain item), the enemies appearing in that level are listed but with their pictures replaced by a "?".
• Prehistorik Man names all enemies and adds a Dog Latin "scientific name".
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 does this, as opposed to its Japanese counterpart, Doki Doki Panic, where it just showed the actual credits. Interestingly, the names "Birdo" and "Ostro" are switched around (this was fixed in later remakes though).
  • Super Mario World is the Trope Codifier. All of the enemies except the Ninjis are given names after the credits roll, as are the game's bosses and minibosses.
• Ticket gives you one of these after you finish the game, showing you every character and their respective name, including the many alternate versions of enemies in the levels that include an Art Shift.
• Toki ends with a cast list in most versions of the game (but not the Nintendo Entertainment System port), starting with Toki himself and proceeding through the enemies and bosses.
• At the end of Vectorman, all the enemies are listed in the closing credits if you beat the game without cheating.
• Völgarr the Viking features all the enemies and their names during the credits scene.

Point and Click

• Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 5 Parodies this trope by listing the names off all the characters during the credits, even the ones with little importance.

Puzzle Game

• The closing credits of the Sega Genesis version of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine shows the names of all the Badniks you've battled, with Dr. Robotnik at the end. The same thing goes for Kirby's Avalanche, except that Kirby also appears at the beginning, and the enemies' voices introduce their names.
• Gomola Speed for the TurboGrafx-16 has an animated "Cast" list of all enemies (bosses included), with "Starring Gorm" thrown in at the very end.
• Pop'n Bounce for the Neo Geo accompanies the credits with a roster of all the creatures you've been hitting with balls, also mentioning "Likes" and "Dislikes" for each.

Rhythm Game

• Rhythm Heaven and its sequel, Rhythm Heaven Fever have a little section in thier credits called "Rhythm Heaven Cast", which shows the names of every character from every stage. In Fever, as you might expect, most of them move to the beat of the music in some way.

Real-Time Strategy

• Pikmin (2001) has all its enemies mentioned by name in alphabetical order (except the Swooping Snitchbug, which is placed after the Firey Blowhog, possibly due to its name being changed in development) after the credits via an animated slide, should the player collect all thirty Ship Parts. Interestingly, the footage used seems to be from an earlier version of the game due to a number of discrepancies, such as Bulborbs being located in the Distant Spring or Ship Parts being in much different locations than in the final release.

Roguelike

• The original The Binding of Isaac showed the enemies crudely drawn on paper during the credits. Rebirth removed these, however.
• Crypt Of The Necrodancer shows all the enemies dancing one by one during the credits.
• Rogue Legacy:
  • In the first game, after defeating the Final Boss and leaving the room, you're treated to a scene featuring each and every boss, miniboss, and enemy in paintings, along with their names and how many times you've killed them. Humorously, if your character has Vertigo, this entire scene will be upside down.
  • Rogue Legacy 2 does the same as its predecessor, with the exception of adding any screen distortions from traits, and with the addition of roots from the Tree of Immortality growing on the walls and overtop the Final Boss' portrait.

Shoot 'em Up

• The ending of Star Fox shows all the bosses, along with their names, fought in the selected route.

Western RPG

• The "True Pacifist" ending of Undertale does this, and also shows what happened to them after the events of the game.

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