Quotes / Press Start to Game Over

Video Games

Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 zorkmids

— Nethack, if you are unlucky or incompetent enough to die on the first turn.

The game hasn't started yet, but you just couldn't help yourself. You just shit your pants. Game over.

— Don't Shit Your Pants

Looks like your story ended before it ever even properly began...

— Fear & Hunger: Termina, if you die during O'saa's character history.

"The Pokémon fled!"

— Pokémon GO Plus peripheral, if you try to catch a Pokémon and fail.

Song "Songbird" So Mi: Fucking motherfucking fuck!

V: What?

Song "Songbird" So Mi: Congrats, V. You just killed Rosalind Myers and fucked the NUSA. Pray we don't meet again, and I mean ever.

After V gets kicked out of Dogtown...

Johnny Silverhand: Still with us?

V: What the... what happened?

Johnny Silverhand: Your presidental rescue op - miserable failure. Honestly, though? Good fuckin' riddance.

V: Huh, OK... So now what?

Johnny Silverhand: Huh. We go on livin', start by findin' us a drink.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC, if you quit its main quests early on.

Web Animation

"There's more than one stage that kills you if you don't press anything in a first second or two. This is gameplay I would expect from a fucking ROM hack—designed by Hitler!"

—Zero Punctuation on Sonic Unleashed

Web Original

You just don't expect to fight a vicious boss like this in the middle of a town without any warning. You're walking to the castle with your new friend to have a chat with his father, and then suddenly BOOM DEATH FROM ABOVE GAME OVER. Hopefully you've been making a point to solicit information from the townspeople; otherwise, you probably missed a clue to Garuda's weakness.

— Pat R. on Final Fantasy III

Web Video

"Game Over? I think there has to be a game first for it to be over. Maybe they're talking about the game of life."

— JonTron on Takeshi's Challenge

"Nice! Fuckin' beautiful! The first ladder you see drops you into a pit where you get killed by a bird, or a bat, whatever it is. And even if it wasn't there, I'd fall in the spikes. So it's basically death insurance: Let's put every kind of obstacle we can possibly think of in the very beginning of the game. You know, I'm disappointed. Couldn't there have been lava on top of the spikes, with fire-sharks swimming in it? Couldn't there be more spikes coming from the sides, ready to close in and squash me while stabbing at the same time? How 'bout some laser cannons and upside-down volcanoes? You wanna be even more efficient? Why even have the ladder? Why not just start the game falling down the pit?"

—The Angry Video Game Nerd on Super Pitfall

"Wow! 0.4 seconds! Of the five gos I had at Hambo's Adventures, two of them ended in less than a second. Pure class."

—Stuart Ashen, Quickest Game Overs ever? Part 2

Real Life

You Haven't Lived Until You've Died...During character creation.

—This shirt, referencing Traveller

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