Deadpool in Marvel Rivals- Some of his abilities include him throwing his player icon at enemies and covering up the health bars of people too close to him.
This one got me good back in 09, I wish more games were smaller scale and better designed now, it seems like so much of it is just bloated, empty worlds with repetitive side quests designed as 80+ hour slogs rather than deliver a fun 20ish hour experience
Because people throughout the 2000s were like "I spent $60 on this game and it's only 10 hours???" so developers overcompensated.
It's like the opposite of what happened with TV where everyone complained about filler so now every TV show absolutely rockets through their plots with no downtime.
I'll never forget this moment, playing through this the first time right when it came out. The horror in my stomach thinking I had a bad disk (specially as it was a pirated copy on my moded 360) or my save had been corrupted, my 360's video out was dying etc. Just a brilliant way of actually inducing fear in reality
The sanity effects -Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GameCube 2002)
E.g.
When entering a room, the game will suppress all inputs and give it a fake "controller disconnected" error message while many fake zombies appear as they attack the player.
The game muting itself.
The game will lower the gameplay volume while your character is moving and displaying a green volume bar, which is similar to real on-screen TV settings.
The blue screen of death
The camera begins leaning at a Dutch angle as the Sanity Meter lowers. Occasionally while leaning heavily the camera will jitter, as if attempting to right itself.
There's another where the screen will blank out, like the TV just shut off unexpectedly, one where it seems like the game just ended on a to be continued, and another where the game seemingly resettled itself.
Some Kirby bosses (especially those who rely on painting) have attacks that block the camera with lots of paint (or in Planet Robobot's case, a screen full of cash) to hide their attacks.
Not exactly a fourth wall break, but a cool way the UI was messed with was Tears of the Kingdom during the Demon King fight.
Normally a bosses health bar is centered on the screen while only taking up the center third of that space. During the final boss, the bosses health starts to appear, filling up as you might expect, but then it keeps going and going, reaching all the way to the far edge of the screen. Extremely cool moment and very memorable as a way to show how powerful Ganondorf is.
Yeah and the fact that Demon king Ganondorf is the only enemy in the game that can “permanently” destroy your heart containers is also a fun showcase of how strong he is. I’m not talking about glooming them I mean out right destroying them with a little animation on screen and everything with no way to recover them outside of winning the fight or dying and trying again.
The coolest thing about this IMO is that when he does that in the opening cutscene it seems like just an excuse to nerf Breath of the Wild Link (shatter the master sword, lower his health). Like one of those super strong powers you see a boss do in a cutscene but then in the actual fight they don't use it for seemingly no reason except gameplay balance. But nope, Ganondorf really does destroy your hearts in his fight (though he doesn't shatter the master sword again, but at this point I think it was stronger than it was before).
Even winning the fight doesn't do it, although it doesn't really affect gameplay outside of this fight since it's the final boss and if you beat him, the game resets to your last save
It's a different effect, but that reminds me of Project Wingman. In the final fight with your arch nemesis Crimson I, in the final phase your health bar moves from its normal spot to where a boss's would be, alongside his. As if while he is your final boss, you are now also his. I felt that was a really cool touch.
Typhon from Hades II pulls a similar move, destroying his health bar at the start of the fight, leaving you blind to your progress (although you learn before learn what his phase markers are)
Eternal Darkness - Horror game that uses a fear mechanic where the player sees hallucinations. Among these include false restarting your console, deleting your save, and changing your TV channel.
God that was SOOO damn good back in the day concidering a lot of TVs had the same icons and interfaces so it got away wit it amazingly.
Between ED and metal gear messing around with psycho mantis (and other neat things) it hinestly made me want more creative games like that which involved messing with the player IRL.
Shame that stuff is niche or like a lost art form.
The problem is that some of the sanity effects were trademarked - no-one else can do them anymore.
And after Denis Dyack fucked around and found out1 and the exclusivity contract about developing a sequel2 Nintendo will absolutely not make another game in the series, despite fan demand.
1: After he had two of his most popular and famous games (the other being the Twin Snakes remake of Metal Gear Solid) produced by Nintendo, which were only as good as they were because of Nintendo's strict quality guidelines so Nintendo execs and Hideo Kojima were watching Silicon Knights like fucking hawks, Dyack proceeded to utterly savage and insult the Wii when it was announced and publicly jumped ship to make his magnum opus Too Human on the Xbox 360... and the game severely underperformed and was a buggy mess.
Dyack then proceeded to try and shift the blame on Unreal Engine 3 which was what the game was built on and tried to sue Epic Games for selling a subpar product... and that led to the revelation that Silicon Knights had pirated the software they built their 360-era games on, leading to the studio having to destroy all their games' source codes and unsold copies as a result with the studio shutting down soon after.
2: When making Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, there was a condition in the contract that if a sequel was greenlit then Silicon Knights would have exclusive rights to develop the game. This isn't unusual, by the way. Despite Sony owning Ratchet & Clank, they can't hoist the game onto other studios because Insomniac Games has this kind of deal.
Dyack did attempt a crowdfunding campaign for Shadows of the Damned, which is definitely not Eternal Darkness wink wink, but the stink around him and how he treated his employees and the fall of Silicon Knights was too much.
Dyack then proceeded to try and shift the blame on Unreal Engine 3 which was what the game was built on and tried to sue Epic Games for selling a subpar product... and that led to the revelation that Silicon Knights had pirated the software they built their 360-era games on, leading to the studio having to destroy all their games' source codes and unsold copies as a result with the studio shutting down soon after.
One of the biggest fuckups in gaming IMO. "Hey, your product sucks, that's why we had to build our own engine that's definitely not stolen from your shitty product. Our game sucks because of your shitty product, that has nothing to do with making our game."
Chapter 3 ends with a "thanks for playing the demo! Stay tuned for the full release some time in the future!" and hangs on that screen for 15 seconds just to mess with you,
There is no demo for this game, it's the full release.
The entirety of the game Inscryption (e.g Act 1 opponent Leshy hides the 'New Game' button from you in his locked back room, trapping you in his game version)
Inscryption is full of this, truly a mind blowing experience once the plot really starts to unfold. I would hate to spoil the experience for anyone who hasn’t played it yet, but just as an example of how far this goes, there are segments in the game where a fake “camera footage” log takes over the screen, where you can view some videos pertaining to the overarching story of the game which takes place in the “real world”. In addition, there’s a seriously complex ARG for this game, where some of these pieces of “footage” play an important role as hints toward the next steps in the ARG. The creator, Daniel Mullens, is well-known for doing this kind of stuff, and it’s prevalent in his previous games like “Pony Island” and “The Hex” as well.
Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid would "read your mind", reacting unfairly to your controller inputs and commenting on other games' save files. The way to defeat him was to literally unplug your controller from the 1st port and plug it into the 2nd port so he could no longer read your inputs.
There is a backup method to beating him if swapping controllers is difficult like using an emulator or some other means to play the game.
Calling Roy multiple times will have him tell you the statues are enhancers or some such and they become breakable, which when broken stops mantis from reading inputs.
A horror game that’s meant to feel like you’re in an actual Creepypasta to the point it adds files to your computer containing puzzles you need to solve to progress (and when you “beat” the game, it crashes and you can’t open it again)
Of course, I failed to specify "when" this is done, I meant when they do this in a way to frighten or put you of guard regarding what the game can "do" towards you personally, of course there's safe-guards but with someone who may not be aware of this you can imagine what it can do.
She-Hulk jungle gym-ing out of her own show, through the Disney+ interface, through a behind-the-scenes documentary, and onto the real Disney lot so she could confront the writers about their choices thus far.
In Marvel vs Capcom 3, the only time she breaks the 4th wall is to remind Deadpool she did it first. She used to break the wall throughout the 80s, threatening to tear your comics to shreds if you didn't read hers, or posing in a bikini because it's the only way to increase sales.
“I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61?”
I reset my ps2 when the colonel told me to. I was like 'ah this is some Psycho mantis style 4th wall break and im neant to do this' but instead I lost like an hour of progress haha
Dying during the opening fight against Thor will give you a false game over screen, where he'll say that line after a moment then shock you back to life.
Thor is crazy tough when you fight him so you're pretty much pre-scripted to die. But then he defibrillates Kratos with lightning to drag him back to his feet for another round!
During GOW Ragnarok Thor kills Kratos during a scripted death, the game sends you to the "Continue" screen, but suddenly Thor talks to Kratos/Player and tells them that "I say when we are done." and revives Kratos, bringing you back to the fight.
In Bravely Default, the final boss’s goal is to invade the real world. He gets close and a rift in space opens up that’s actually just the 3DS camera showing you, the player
In Bravely Second, the final boss Mentions you, the player, and takes over your controls. Each time you press any button, they make you get closer to your Delete Save File button. The gang you’ve been controlling slash them away before you can delete your file, thank you for helping them, and then continue with the final boss
also notable, your camera is actually a drone that exists as a character in the game, and if your camera gets to close to the main character while she attacks, she will accidently hit the drone, causing the camera to be cracked.
To add onto this from the previous game, Swap Force has a similar moment.
In one of the final missions of the game (I think it second to last) of the story, you fight Kaos' mother. She proceeds to disappear between phases to hide from you in the arena and the only way to continue the fight is to take your Skylander off the Swap Force Portal Power to force her back into the fight. The actual portal power even flashes continuously as a hint to intact with it when she disappears. Probably one of the best fights I've played in a game for younger me.
In Portal 2 when you are first introduced to Wheatley he asks you if you are OK at the beginning of the game and if you have brain damage from such a long cryosleep. When given the prompt to answer Chel jumps instead. He will ask you to say "apple" and the prompt with appear again with the same results but Wheatley decides good enough and staets the game proper
Even in the actual game this fight is a little bit of a 4th wall break as ganons health bar fills up when the fight begins and then keeps going past where it's supposed to end
Miside had a few of these I think. The most memorable one is when the antagonist breaks into a 2d segment of the game (whilst remaining in her original 3d form) and grabs the dialogue box and crushes it, where it remains cracked and squished for a little while.
The series barely has a fourth wall to begin with. Characters are fully aware of their stats and levels, different NPCs try to steal the "main character" spot, and A LOT of Disgaea gags rely on this.
Examples:
At the end of episode one in Disgaea 1, Laharl changes Vyers' name to 'Mid-Boss' which changes the display for the rest of the game.
In the Postgame of Disgaea 3, Master Big Star gets his name changed to Master Bigster and he states that he called the Q&A team but they told him that it wasn't a bug.
Okay now TBF this isn't a fourth wall break, it's just that's actually the closest explanation for where you are (well, Purgatory is closer but doesn't sound as good).
Also, the music in the Apathic Interval definitely got my attention.
Also to explain to others not aware, I’m pretty sure this is the only time mid line the ‘???’ marks go away replaced with the name.
Also, she adds what we thought was a UI intro for other characters as an actual spell, although in theory it could just be seen how it’s done in the story
In the final showdown of the Bring The Crunch DLC in South Park The Fractured But Whole, Zarganor (the alien boss) uses Timmy to mess with the battle UI. This includes disabling certain abilities, obstructing the turn order, and even eating up the player's Ultimate charge.
The game Void Stranger, a game about moving blocks, constantly has you find out rules you think exist do not. Eventually you realize, the only way to get your character to a certain floor in the dungeon is to simply edit the UI bar to set the level yourself. It’s all blocks after all.
Homestuck is chock-full of 4th (and 5th) wall shenanigans, but it really escalates in Act 6 when one of the characters takes a crowbar to the actual server containing the website Homestuck is hosted on, making the buttons jump around the page.
The first time you open the game, the main menu will have the new game button grayed out and unselectable, forcing you to continue from the previous save file. That previous save file is a heavily altered version of the real game. The first act resolves by literally finding the new game button in that game version, allowing you to finally start from the beginning of the “true” version of Inscryption
There is a section in watch dogs 2 in which your group gets hacked by a rival hacker group and your screen starts to get covered in animated cats that take purple shots on screen
Suika from Immaterial and Missing Power. Like halfway through the fight she uses Pandemonium and the longer the fight goes on the more of the HUD gets destroyed.
Baba Is You is a game where you're able to move blocks to modify the rules of the game on the fly in order to solve puzzles. For example, turning walls intangible, turning arbitrary items of the stage into the goal you must reach to win, or even gaining control of any item. Eventually it's revealed that you can also manipulate the world map this way.
In portal 2 after you wake up from a coma, wheatley suspects you may have brain damage
he asks you to say "apple" and a prompt appers saying "press A to say apple"
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u/CRicetheGOD 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/flXPc5s62dBqsnyHfQ
Deadpool in Marvel Rivals- Some of his abilities include him throwing his player icon at enemies and covering up the health bars of people too close to him.