Basic Trope: A part of the game that does not allow the player to pause or suspend the game progress.
- Straight:
- In Alex's Adventure, there's a level that takes at least an hour to beat, and the pause button is disabled during it.
- In Carl's Car Racing, there's a marathon mode that requires the player to complete all the courses, and the game only gives you a 5-second break between courses.
- Exaggerated:
- The whole game is this in general.
- ...on top of that, you have to play through all the courses mirrored and reversed, and there are over 40 courses in the game, each course taking at least 10 minutes to finish. Which means you have to spend at least 20 hours to complete the entire thing.
- Alternatively, the level suffers from severe Checkpoint Starvation.
- Downplayed:
- The level is long, but there are a few checkpoints.
- Marathon mode courses are shortened. So it only takes 25 minutes to complete it.
- Justified: The developer wants to give the player more of a challenge. Or he's just a sadist. with Bladder of Steel.
- Inverted: The game encourages the player to take some rest after long periods of time.
- Subverted: The level seems long, but it turns out most parts of the level are inaccessible.
- Double Subverted: Which you have to come back to later when they do become accessible.
- Parodied: The Big Bad engages in some Evil Gloating to the player character about how painful their bladder is probably becoming as the game goes by.
- Zig-Zagged Some levels are extremely long, others are rather short. The number of checkpoints also varies immensely.
- Averted:
- There is a pause button.
- The game uses checkpoints very liberally, and makes sure that you cannot be killed in the checkpoint areas.
- Enforced: "They want realism? we'll show them … in real life you won't have a chance to go to the toilet during these proceedings, therefore you wont get them in this part of the game either."
- Lampshaded: "I need to pee really badly...but you know what would be nice? IF THERE WAS A PAUSE BUTTON!
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Bob plays this game for as long as possible to practice holding his bladder for extended periods of time when he needs to.
- Defied
- "No pause button? Are you kidding me? Not everyone has a steel bladder like you!"
- One of the play testers files a complaint, saying that nobody should be forced to hold it in to beat the game.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed:
- "I like Alex's Adventures, but I really wish there was a pause button. I damn near peed myself playing that Marathon Level near the end."
- "Bottom line, have a fucking pause button, goddammit!"
- Deconstructed:
- People refuse to buy the game, believing the creator is selfish for not including a pause button. As a result, the game becomes a horrendous flop, and the company goes bankrupt.
- Holding your bladder for an extended period of time is not only painful, it can also cause...some issues. Bob discovers this the hard way, and sues the company.
- Reconstructed:
- The developers respond to the backlash by taking the game off the shelves...to add a pause button before re-releasing it.
- Bob gets a You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! reaction when he takes it to court, since they couldn't believe that he would prioritize a video game over his own health, the and the case is thrown out immediately.
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