Here are some of the silliest ways to die in video games

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Losing in games can be hilarious

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People don’t like to die in video games — unless there’s a payoff accompanying the inevitable Game Over and loading screens. Some developers know that and went out of their way to create slapstick death situations just to sabotage players in ways they’ll hopefully find funny… in retrospect.

Trying to get Lara Croft naked in Tomb Raider 2

Nude Raider is one of the most prevalent myths in gaming history. Yeah, total myth, not worth Googling at work.

It stems from the wishful thinking that there totally was a way to get Lara Croft to take off all of her clothes during the first game. There wasn’t, but developers totally made it a thing for Tomb Raider 2!

They decided to give players a cheat code that would totally make Lara strip naked for no reason. But in reality, this code actually made Lara explode into tiny pieces that would then also explode when hitting the floor.

Eating the forbidden fish in Nier: Automata

Nier: Automata puts players in charge of androids so awesomely capable one would think them devoid of weaknesses. They are indeed devoid of serious weaknesses, but they have a really domb one. 

Probably as a way to accommodate for world-saving and alien god-killing capabilities, these android bodies never received a digestive system capable of dealing with a threat such as the mackerel. Even though the game states that androids shouldn’t try to eat them, it doesn’t ever prevent players from trying. Eating the mackerel won’t simply hurt the android, it will kill it and bring about one of the game’s many bad endings.

Shooting the lake in Resident Evil 4

Players should shoot most things in Resident Evil 4, both for the sake of fun and safety, but not the lake. Never the lake.

You see, in this lake lives the “Del Lago”, which translates to “Of The Lake” — ugh, that’s not a very scary name, is it? No way the developers will deter anyone from shooting at the fishies with that. It’s almost as if they wanted players to mess with the lake just so that they’d get eaten whole by a huge lake creature.

The Scroll of Icarian Flight from Morrowind

When exploring the world of Morrowind on The Elder Scrolls III, players might witness a man plunging from the sky to his death. A strange occurrence, sure, but one that brings free loot, so that mostly evens things out.

Inside the corpse’s stash, players will find something called “Scroll of Icarian Flight”. Upon activating the scroll’s ability, players will gain 1000 points in acrobatics, meaning that as soon as they press jump, they’ll shoot up to the skies. That’s really cool, too bad the scroll doesn’t also shoot up players’ abilities to sustain fall damage. Players will plunge to their death much like the man they had just looted.

That’s what you get for stealing from the dead, and also from not knowing your Greek Mythology — although there are no other signs that Greek Mythology even exists in the world of Morrowind.

Sonic Adventure 2‘s eternal death loop for pirates

Thought you could take advantage of the Dreamcast’s seemingly weak anti-piracy measures to breeze past Sonic Adventure 2 for free? Not so fast.

The most efficient anti-piracy measure might be to just not allow pirates to experience games at all, but that’s far from the funniest-possible idea. The best moment to catch a pirate is just as they think no one can prevent them from taking their treasure home. The developers at Team Sonic knew that. Just as they reach the final stage, people playing pirated copies of the game will witness Dr. Eggman falling through the floor to never return.

This strategy proved a perfect way to get pirates to out themselves. First, they would wonder if they were doing something wrong. Then, they’d ask the internet if the game had any flaws, which would immediately prompt them to get dunked on by everyone for stealing from the poor gold ring-hoarding hedgehog.

GTA IV‘s swingset of death

Do you think Liberty City is a fun place? Well, you’d be right provided your idea of fun revolves solely around massacre and mayhem.

If you’re the kind of person who’d rather just go to a park and sit on a swing set, then this is not the place for you. Due to either a hilarious coding oversight or a devious trap, Liberty City’s swing sets will murder whoever gets too close.

Try to sit on one and your character will get catapulted hundreds of feet up in the air. These swings are so powerful they can even work on cars.

Max Payne vs Rats

Most gamers would probably agree that Mr. Payne already has enough on his plate, but the developers disagree. In the subway section, if players either decide to or accidentally throw a grenade into a specific hole, the game will respond by having rats kill Max. How do these rats even stand a chance against this painkiller-fed one-man army? Well, because these rats have guns, that’s why.

Best of all is how Max uses his overtly serious noir tone to explain how screwed players are as soon as the grenade explodes.

Of course, these are just a small handful of the fun, entertaining, and creative deaths offered over the many decades of gaming. What are the other funniest ways to die in a game that you know of?


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Tiago Manuel
Tiago is a freelancer who used to write about video games, cults, and video game cults. He now writes for Destructoid in an attempt to find himself on the winning side when the robot uprising comes.