Multiple Endings / Action Games

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• Ace Combat 2 has three different endings:
  • The normal ending being the destruction of the enemy HQ in Saint Ark. The other two are only available if the ZOE ace pilot is shot down during said mission.
  • The bad ending has a cruise missile launched from a nearby submarine, which destroys the city if not shot down.
  • The best ending has the allied forces attack the enemy's second HQ, a fortress with a larger cruise missile ready for launch.
• The uncut Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere has multiple endings: one for each major faction (UPEO, General Resource, Neucom, and Ouroboros) and one lone-wolf ending (technically, also Ouroboros).
• The Animaniacs Licensed Game for the SNES has three different endings. How many scripts you collect in the game determines which ending you get:
  • If you collect 10 scripts or less, you'll get the Bad Ending where Mr. Plotz scolds the Warners for missing too many scenes in their movie.
  • If you collect 11 to 23 scripts, you'll get the normal ending where Mr. Plotz tells the Warners that although they made a better effort, the movie's still incomplete and they need to try harder, then when he sees Yakko and Wakko reacting lustfully to Hello Nurse, he asks if they're even trying.
  • If you collect all 24 scripts, you'll get the Golden Ending, where Mr. Plotz screens the movie, only to discover it has nothing but the Warners in it. After the credits, the Brain plots his next plan to take over the world.
• Armored Core: Last Raven has six main endings, plus a secret ending. In one ending, the 24 Hour War ends in a stalemate. In three endings, Alliance wins the war. In another two, Vertex wins. The secret ending is a continuation of the stalemate ending.
• The Azure Striker Gunvolt Series likes this trope almost as much as its Background Music Override.
  • In the first game, failing to collect a Plot Coupon in each stage results in Asimov shooting Gunvolt and Joule dead. Collecting them all, then talking to Joule results in her fashioning a pendant for Gunvolt. If said pendant is worn for the entirety of the final level, the pendant protects Gunvolt from dying immediately to Asimov's gunshot. Joule's spirit merges with Gunvolt to save his life, then Gunvolt takes revenge on Asimov.
  • Completing either of the two routes in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 results in a truncated version of the true ending where Gunvolt and Copen pull their guns on each other before the screen fades to black in a Cliffhanger. Completing the other character's route allows you to fight the True Final Boss and see the true ending; the ending itself varies based on the route, but once unlocked, you can go back to the other character and see their ending. If 75% of all Challenges (across both characters) are completed, a stinger is unlocked where Nori and Xiao are revealed to be in cahoots and have sealed away the Muse Septima, deeming it too dangerous for either Gunvolt or Copen to wield.
  • Luminous Avenger iX plays with this by not having multiple endings, but also uses this as part of its Wham Episode: The game takes place in an Alternate Timeline where the bad ending in the first game happened, with Asimov following through on his plans of being a Super Supremacist with Gunvolt and Joule's deaths.
  • Luminous Avenger iX 2 brings the multiple endings back with three different endings. Completing the game normally has Copen successfully destroy the Mother Computer, rescue Kohaku, and discover the true identities of Mother and the Creator. With the help of Null's sacrifice, Copen, Lola, and Kohaku find a wormhole that transports them back home, where they reunite with Blade and the other Minos. There's a harder-to-obtain bad ending version where if you attack Kohaku too many times during the Final Boss, the ending is extended to reveal the Mother Computer successfully body-jacks Kohaku. By obtaining all the Bonus Emblems in the stages and then finding a certain hidden door in the final level, Copen will find a teleporter that warps him back out of the tower and force him to climb it again to save his friend Kohaku, unlocking the game's Hard Mode, and once Hard Mode is completed the True Ending. The mysterious person dressed like Ypsilon and replaces him is revealed to be The Creator and Copen's counterpart and a ghost, and he uses the last of his physical power to repair Null and transfer the teleporter program to Copen's Razor Wheel. Afterwards, Copen puts Mother out of her misery, allowing Mother and the Creator to find peace in death. Lastly, Copen invites the now-restored Null to join him and Kohaku to live in their world.
• In the Sega Genesis version of Beavis And Butthead, the normal ending has the two attending a concert featuring GWAR. However, if you've collected the cat, the scissors, and strips of leather, you go backstage and Beavis and Butt-Head get to perform in the concert!
• Possibly the oldest example is Bubble Bobble, which had three different endings — the BAD END obtained by beating the final boss Super Drunk with only one player alive (this boots you back 25 levels on Normal and 50 levels (HALFWAY!) on Super Mode), the Good End obtained by beating the boss with two players alive, and the Happy End obtained by beating the boss with two players alive in Super Mode — which has to be enabled before starting the game with a code you get from the Good End. This was taken literally in a sequel, Bubble Symphony, where the players can go to multiple worlds and see a bad ending exclusive to that world if they don't get the stuff they need. With successive games though, the idea of requiring two players sticking together to the end has been dropped, but in two sequels, there is a Super Mode to play.
• Contra:
  • In Contra: Hard Corps, there are four different paths, each with its own ending. The player must choose between two branching paths at the end of the first stage. The two paths converge to a set of common stages until the player is forced to choose between another pair of branching paths during the fifth stage. The path the player took earlier, along with the path he takes afterward, will determine the final set of stages. There's also a fifth ending if the player completes the secret coliseum stage, as well as a sixth ending in which the player joins Colonel Bahamut's army (although the game counts this as a Non-Standard Game Over).
  • Both Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra have a Bad Ending where the enemy base is destroyed with the heroes still inside, as well as a segmented Good Ending in which the full version can only be seen by maintaining an S rank throughout the game and defeating the True Final Boss.
  • Contra 4 has a different ending for each difficulty setting. Easy mode only takes you to Stage 7, giving you an Easy-Mode Mockery. The ending on Hard shows a different artwork, along with a different ending message, than if you beat it on Normal.
• The first Crash Bandicoot (1996) game features two endings — and interestingly, it's not actually clear which ending is the better one story-wise. The harder ending requires the player to collect all the gems, after which they can traverse The Great Hall and escape the islands with Tawna, followed by a humorous "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. The other ending involves the player actually defeating Cortex. Interestingly, Crash Bandicoot 2 uses information from both endings as canon: Cortex falls down and discovers crystals as in the defeating Cortex ending, but Ripper Roo has a doctorate and Brio does separate from Cortex for a while as said in the Epilogue.
• Devil May Cry 5 has two: there's the normal one at the end of the game, and a joke ending posing as a Golden Ending if you manage to kill Urizen during the prologue or Mission 8.
• Donkey Kong 64 has a Segmented Ending in that, if you collect less than 100%, you just get the credits with a bit of aftermath behind it. If you collect 100%, you get to watch the credits, and K. Lumsy swimming with the Kongs on his stomach and chest. If you get 101%, however, you get the credits, K. Lumsy's swim, and fake Hilarious Outtakes.
• Donkey Kong Country Returns has three endings, though all of them are good (it all depends on which character(s) deliver the last blow onto the Final Boss):
  • If Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are present, Donkey Kong and Diddy will fall towards the moon before Donkey Kong pounds it, ending the Tiki tribe. Diddy then makes a safe landing.
  • If only Donkey Kong is present, the same thing happens, this time without Diddy. Donkey Kong will keep falling until Diddy saves Donkey Kong.
  • If only Diddy is present (only possible when the player who played as Donkey lost and only the player with Diddy remains), Diddy will fall towards the moon and tries to use his jetpack, but the jetpack goes out of control, causing Diddy to land headfirst into the moon, which ends the Tiki tribe. Donkey Kong then catches Diddy as he falls.
• In the Sega CD and PC versions of the original Earthworm Jim, if you beat the game on the easiest setting, you would get an increasingly screwed up lesson on worms (the PC version at least has the background from the real ending during this). Conversely, beating the game on the highest difficulty yields you praise before moving on to the normal ending.
• El Paso, Elsewhere has two endings, depending on how many hostages the player failed to save/killed during the course of the game, both of them bittersweet:
  • "Scars Fade": Before dying, Draculae is impressed by the amount of hostages that James saved, and gives him a vial of her soulsblood to turn himself into a vampire, mockingly telling him that he'll get to become old and cruel like her. After pondering on his journey, James renowns that his scars will heal and drinks it.
  • "Thanks for Believing": Draculae calls out James that many of her hostages died, and James rebuffs that at least they weren't sacrificed to bring the end of the world. Draculae smashes the soulsblood vial to both spare and spite James out of becoming a vampire like her. James then succombs to his own mortal wounds, thanking the player for believing in him.
• Gauntlet IV on the Sega Genesis has two endings, and which one you get depends on your answer to Thor's question: "Will you enter the land of eternal youth?"
  • If you choose "Yes", the last occupant of the final castle dies as you are forced to take his place. The epilogue states that none who have attempted to conquer the castle has ever returned alive.
  • If you choose "No", you leave the castle. The townsfolk are surprised by your decision to refuse eternal youth, but nonetheless wish to hear tales of your adventure some day. In the epilogue, it is stated that foreknowledge of the treasure that awaits in the castle erodes at the luster of adventure into it, and in time, the castle would see no more adventurers.
• In Gekisou Sentai Carranger: Zenkai! Racer Senshi, if the Rangers get 250 gears, RV Robo will be formed, and the good ending will be obtained (though it's rather perfunctory). Otherwise you get the "BAD END," where after the Final Boss, the Bowzock run wild and cause an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
• In Hotline Miami, completing the Puzzle and investigating the Big Bad Duumvirate's computer in the "Resolution" chapter will yield a different dialogue between the Biker and them.
  • In the sequel, Hard Mode adds a number of new scenes. However, the possibility of an alternate ending is explicitly defied and even mocked right at the beginning. It all ends the same way; to do otherwise would be a disservice to the Central Theme of the futility of violence.
  Richard: You all came back, huh? Why? You all know how this ends, don't you?
• Infernax has a bunch of endings, some of them goofy!
  • Coward: After Alcedor (along with Cervul in two-player mode) kills the first monster, you can run back to the boat and tell the captain to get the hell outta Dodge.
  • Sleepyhead: If you sleep in the Inn five times in a row, it parodies Super Mario Bros. 2's ending by showing Alcedor sleeping in bed like Mario... except the city is burning behind him.
  • Good: If Alcedor and Cervul make mostly good choices but don't complete every sidequest and obtain the Necronomicon, they defeat Belphegor but succumb to their wounds shortly afterwards. Alcedor, however, is remembered as a hero and immortalized with a statue.
  • Evil: If Alcedor and Cervul become evil but don't join Robert and obtain the Necronomicon, they defeat Belphegor, but Alcedor transforms into a mindless zombie while Cervul succumbs to his wounds. The credits show the former being chased out of Darsov by a group of soldiers.
  • Redemption: If Alcedor and Cervul become evil enough to unlock the sword, but then manage to return to good, they defeat Belphegor and succumb to their wounds as in the good ending. While rumors persist that their souls were tainted by evil, their sacrifice is not forgotten. During the credits, Alcedor and Cervul are brought to Heaven by two sets of two angels each, signifying that the heroes successfully redeemed themselves.
  • Submission: Alcedor and Cervul become fully evil and join Robert, but Alcedor chooses to kneel before him instead of killing him and taking the Necronomicon for himself, he swears himself as Robert's apprentice, and the three of them conquer the world.
  • Pure Evil: If Alcedor and Cervul become fully evil and take the Necronomicon from Robert, they use it to summon the demon lord Abbadon to kill Belphegor, and then transform into full demons before killing Abbadon and stealing his power. Alcedor becomes the ruler of a demonic empire that spans both Earth and Hell.
  • Pure Good: If Alcedor and Cervul make only good choices, complete every sidequest the good way, and defeat Robert's cult, then after defeating Belphegor they use the Necronomicon to access the lair of Belphegor's true master, Baphomet. After defeating Baphomet, Alcedor and Cervul destroy the Necronomicon, and Alcedor forms a knightly order with his closest allies dedicated to uprooting evil whether it may hide.
  • Future: After you get most of the endings and obtain the Necronomicom, you can bring it to a man, who sends you to the far future, where the game turns into a Run 'N Gun similar to Contra to kill the demon Azazel, the True Final Boss. After you defeat him, you hop on a motorcycle and drive off into the sunset.
• The Famicom version of Karnov has three endings, all of which are "good."
• In Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs, the player has a total of three days (each day represented by one hour real time) to collect seven magic herbs to save the dying king from his terminal illness. The quicker the game is completed, the better the ending:
  • The best ending, which is attained by finishing before the timer hits one and a half hours: The King lives, and will hand over the throne to Kid Kool in the future in addition to the Standard Hero Reward.
  • If the game is finished within one hour and a half to two hours: the King lives and Kid Kool is rewarded with a box of jewels and the King's daughter.
  • If the game is finished between two and two and a half hours, the King lives and Kid Kool is rewarded with a box of jewels.
  • If the game is finished between two and a half and three hours, the King lives and Kid Kool is rewarded with money.
  • If the game is finished after three hours, it gives the bad ending: the King dies and Kid Kool gets nothing.
• In Luigi's Mansion, after you complete the game, Professor E. Gadd builds Luigi a new house, and how nice a house he builds depends on how much treasure you've accumulated during the game. Curiously, getting the ''worst'' house is actually harder than getting the ''best'' one. You'd literally have to pick up no treasure except the stuff you automatically get. Some players have actually tried to finish the game with the worst house as a challenge. The 3DS version keeps track of which endings you've gotten, and further encourages players to try for the worst ending by saving the lowest score along with the highest.
• The PC game Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance had two possible endings. There were two second to last missions. In one, you make a raid on an enemy storehouse. The second option is to launch an assault to save the player character's sister from an enemy attack. The first option will result in having the most powerful mech in the game for the most difficult mission, but will result in one of your better NPC pilots going rogue to attempt to save the sister. After completing that mission, your trusted mechanic adviser chews you out for leaving your sister to die and leaves your employ. This results in a final cutscene in which the sister, mechanic, and rogue pilot are all absent. In this ending, you become a hardened and almost despondent Duke. The second mission will result in your character not having access to the most powerful machine, but it is the "good" ending where you have kept all of your pilots and allies. In this ending, your sister becomes Duchess, and you decide to go become a mercenary lance, which suits your temperament better. Both endings result in you winning the game, leaving it up to player preference.
  • Interestingly, the expansion, Black Knight, assumes the "Bad" ending happened, as you play as a member of a mercenary outfit hired to kill the very character you played in MechWarrior 4, who has become a tyrant.
  • The other expansion, Mercenaries, had three endings. If you sided with the pro-Victor faction, you became the guard unit for the new Lyran Archon. If you threw in with the (eventually defeated) pro-Katherine faction, you could go rogue and become a leading player in the Chaos Marsh. Alternatively, you could join Clan Wolf by fighting a Trial of Position and go on to rescue Katherine.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man & Bass has two different endings depending on whether you choose to play as Mega Man or Bass. Similarly, Mega Man 10 has three endings based on which character was used (Mega Man, Proto Man or Bass). For 10, the main difference between endings is the dialogue between the characters and Dr. Wily after defeating him.
  • Mega Man X3 has two endings depending on whether Zero loses all of his health while playing as him. If the player manages to keep him alive, Zero saves X from the Sigma Virus during the ending. If not, Dr. Doppler saves X instead, dying in the process. Zero is also absent during the final cutscene and staff roll in the latter.
  • Mega Man X4 had two different endings depending on which player character (X or Zero) was used. X5 had three different endings that depended on chance. Whether Zero turns Maverick or not, which also dictates if you can still play as him, is random, though completing various objectives tips the odds in your favor. X6 also had three endings: two involving X and determined by whether or not he defeated Zero Nightmare and reunited with Zero after the events of X5, no matter which ending you got, ended with his apparent death, and the third beating it with Zero himself once he's unlocked.
  • Mega Man X7 has three different endings, depending on which of the three characters (X, Zero or Axl) defeated the Final Boss, with a different cutscene played during the ending for each. Mega Man X8 does something similar. One cutscene during the ending depends on whether X, Zero or Axl defeated Lumine. X8 also has an alternate ending when playing on easy mode. In normal or hard mode, the player fights Lumine after defeating Sigma. In easy mode, the credits play immediately after Sigma's defeat, with a Post-Credits Scene teasing the real ending.
  • Then there's Rockman 4 Minus ∞, which has a variation - the ending's basically the same, but there are a lot of minor differences.
    • If you rescue Rush during the final level, Mega Man will use Rush Cannon on Wily's space ship upon escaping the castle. Otherwise, Mega Man will collide with the space ship with Hell Wheel instead, destroying it regardless.
    • Eddie, Rush, and Beat make appearances depending on if you used the Recycle Inhaler on the former and/or rescued the other two during the final level.
    • If you turned Toad Man into a toad during the rematch and spared him, he will appear in the first part of the credits, hopping alongside the train.
    • Depending on what happened to Rush, Eddie, and Beat at the end of the game, they will appear either in color or grey (ala Mega Man X2) in the "Presented by Capcom" screen.
  • Mega Man: The Power Battle has three endings, one for each character. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters has four single-player endings for each character, in addition to six two-player endings, one for each combination of characters. Most of the two-player endings are minor variations on the single-player endings, but the endings for a Mega Man and Bass team and a Proto Man and Bass team are unique.
• The Doom II mod My House has technically four endings:
  • Ending 0 has you reaching the exit portal as soon as possible. This directly leads to "Underhalls", the second level of Doom II... And after that, you return straight to the House.
    • A secret variant of this ending can be obtained going through the portal in the mirror world. Doing so leads to a secret version of "Underhalls".
  • Ending 1 is similar to Ending 0, except that the house disappears when you exit it for the final time.
  • Ending 2 leads you to a beach, except that it's completely fake and stranded in an endless white void. Among other things, there's a clapperboard with "My House" written on it; if you interact with it, it snaps shut, turning the screen black and ending the story.
  • Ending 3 also leads you to a beach, except this time it's real. There's nothing else to do except manually exiting the game. Notably, reaching this ending counts as the only "secret" of the map.
• Nosferatu has two different endings: a good ending (with three minor variants in ending text depending on the chosen difficulty level) and a bad ending. The bad ending is achieved by dying eight times or more before beating the game, and results in Kyle being bitten by the kidnapped Erin, Nosferatu having bitten and turned her before his arrival. The Game Over and Continue screens clue the player on Erin's fate: if you choose not to continue after having died fewer than eight times, you will see a short scene where Nosferatu bites Erin. After dying eight times, the photograph on the Continue screen changes subtly to show Erin with fangs. Choosing not to continue after this point leads to the scene of Nosferatu biting Erin not being shown, since he had already bitten her by this point.
• Penguin Adventure, the sequel to Antarctic Adventure had two endings — a sad ending where the penguin retrieved the MacGuffin needed to heal the princess's disease, only to find her already dead, and a happy ending where she survives. There's no Karma Meter — the choice between the two endings is made by how many times you pause the game. Pause the game once, and exactly once, and the princess lives.
  • Some of you may wonder why a kid's game about a cute penguin contains such a bizarre Mind Screw. This was the very first game a certain Mr. Hideo Kojima worked on as an assistant designer.
• The Sega Genesis and Sega CD versions of Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin had alternate endings depending on the outcome of the final boss fight against the Kingpin.
  • Defeating the Kingpin in time to save Mary Jane from falling into the acid she's hanging above will get you the good ending, where Spider-Man successfully clears his name.
  • Defeating the Kingpin but failing to save Mary Jane results in Spider-Man swearing vengeance for Mary Jane's death while the Kingpin is carried away by the police.
  • Losing to the Kingpin or either of the previous miniboss encounters with Bullseye and Typhoid Mary results in an ending where the Kingpin has knocked out Spider-Man and proceeds to have him dunked in the acid with Mary Jane.
  • Failing to clear the game within the time limit results in New York being destroyed in a nuclear explosion.
• Spinal Breakers has three endings:
  • Worst ending (run out of time on any stage): Captain Waffle reunites with his wife and daughter, only to find that they've been taken over by Hildroids, forcing him to Mercy Kill them. After the credits roll, a third gunshot rings out...
  • Normal ending (don't run out of time on any stage, but use a continue): Captain Waffle reunites with his wife and daughter. As they prepare to escape from Earth, however, Waffle falls victim to Hildroid infestation.
  • Good ending (beat the game without continuing or running out of time): Captain Waffle reunites with his wife and daughter, and the Earth returns to its original state before the Hildroid uprising.
• In Splatterhouse 3, there are four endings, three bad ones and one happy one. If you fail to save your wife or son (or both, the worst-case scenario) during the game, you get one of the bad endings. If both survive, you get the happy ending.
• Total Carnage has three endings — if you've collected less than 220 keys, you won't be able to enter the Pleasure Domes after clearing the final level, and the game tells you that you suck, and you don't get any credits. If you've managed to fulfill the condition and clear the Pleasure Dome without collecting all the bonus items lying around, you'll get a screen featuring Captain Carnage and Major Mayhem standing triumphantly with the Smash T.V. winners, and before rolling the credits, the game encourages you to get everything in the Pleasure Dome so that "the ladies will prove that pain before pleasure is worth it". If you've unlocked the Pleasure Dome and managed to get all of the cash and prises, then you'll get the same ending image as before, this time with three bikini-clad girls joining them. At least, that's the whole idea of it... while the "No Pleasure Dome" ending works as intended, you always get the screen with the girls and the text challenging you to get all the bonuses no matter what you do.
• Venture Kid has a regular ending, and a Golden Ending that can be unlocked by getting all eight treasures.

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