• Top 10 Video Game Clichés

  

  Written by Zeromage 123 Comments
  Last Updated:: November 16, 2008

  Clichés are found in everything from music to movies to anything where creativity finds a home. This is no different with the video game medium, which mimics past ideas to no end. Why tamper with a formula for success? Repetition has been the basis of our great civilization, and so it comes as no surprise that there are numerous clichés in the video game medium. Some of the clichés we can do with. Some of them actually make us happy when we see them all the time. Others however are just plain annoying and we will go through these in this list. Here then are the top 10 most used clichés in video game history.

  10. Super Soldier

  It seems like every 3D game has some form of a Super Soldier that can destroy entire worlds on their own and dominate beasts that are 10 sizes his size; not that we don’t like a good David and Goliath story once in awhile, but enough of the Super Soldiers. A salient example of the super solider is in Halo where “you are a genetically altered , elite super solider”. Does “elite” really need to be stated in Halo? Isn’t it already implied by every 3D shooter game before it and by the conjoining adjective “Super”? Why can’t the protagonists in these games be something else like a car mechanic or a garbage man? Where is the parody in modern games like these?

  9. Space Marines

  Along with Super Soldiers, there are too many games with Space Marines. Starcraft and the Warhammer 40K games are perfect examples. How about Space Monkeys? How about Space astronauts? Now there’s an idea. Play a game as a space astronaut who has to learn fighting skills while landing on a planet for the first time. Yes. we get it though; there are space marines that have machine guns, who wear body suits that are overly inflated and speak like gruffly bearded commandos. Move on to something else. This shit gets boring quick.

  8. A Chosen One

  How many RPG’s and adventure games have you played in your life where you are first recognized as “The Chosen One”? What the fuck is with all this savior syndrome in these games? Fuck it, I don’t want to be the chosen one. I want to be the least chosen one for the mission. I want the fairy tale God to come down in the beginning of the game and say “You’re the least chosen one, but yet you have to save the world”. This is why Mario was so innovative. Whoever thought to make a plumber “the chosen one” was an utter genius. Out of all the championed possibilities of being a chosen one, Nintendo decided to use a plumber. No wonder why we love Nintendo so much.

  7. The Hero Starts the Game in Bed

  How many video games are there where the teenage male lead will begin the first day of the game in bed oversleeping, being woken up by his mother, and being reminded that he’s slept in so late he missed meeting his girlfriend. Our much beloved Zelda Link To the Past follows the same kind of trend (well not the girlfriend part), as does Chrono Trigger. For 3 or 4 games, starting the game out in bed rule is fine, but at some point I want the developer to explain why the fuck the guy I’m supposed to be controlling can’t fucking wake up except when he needs to save the world and a woman.

  6. Hero’s Town gets destroyed

  What is the single most common reason why a hero in a video game has to go on a quest for vengeance? It’s because his town gets destroyed. This idea has been run to the ground in the adventure and RPG mediums. Why can’t there be different reasons for a hero leaving a town to get vengeance? How about a brutal taxation system by a fascist or monarchical government? What about the bad guys building a dam near the town so everyone in the town becomes malnourished without food? How fun would that be? You have to go out and first destroy a dam, then chase around the nefarious bastards who came up with this actually very clever idea.

  5. Hero only has one parent.
  

  Can anyone name an RPG where the main character has both of his or her parents? These RPG’s many times take place in antiquated ages so you weren’t able to get divorced. Oh yeah, the father died in a battle with a villain you have to eventually face, or the mother was captured by the same villainous enemy. This idea has been over-done. Oh yeah, something happens to the parent in the beginning of the game which frees the protagonist from any familial responsibility. Snore fest. Let’s see some creativity. Why doesn’t the one parent gain an ambition to be an Olympic runner and tell their child that they can’t be with them anymore because they need to practice marathon running. This will really get the child motivated to do some destruction!

  4. All Prophecies Come True During the Course of the Game

  The cliche is in almost every adventure game ever made for the video game medium. All legends are 100% accurate that are told throughout the game. Not only that, but all the rumors in these games are also 100% factual. All prophecies come true too. Forget the fact that legends and prophecies are founded on the mystery of them possibly not coming true. They always come true in any adventure game with a prophet wanting to propheteer, and the prophecy usually comes true immediately, like right when you leave his candlelit cave.

  3. WW2 Games

  How many wars have there been in the history of the world? Anyone who can count the exact amount will get a free Old-Wizard T-shirt. For the TV (History Channel), movie and video game medium though, there is only one war. That is good ol’ World War 2. Sure, we understand the importance of World War 2. We understand how The United States became the most powerful country in the world afterwards, but do we really have to keep rehashing this war in every new war themed video game that gets released? What about the Great Northern War, or even the subtle forays into Bosnia and Cambodia? And why the fuck does every guy in your squad have to have a West Virginian accent smoking some bullshit cigarette?

  2. Food that completely fills your energy

  Picture this; you’re about to die and are gasping for your final breath. You’re rushed to the emergency room, and what does the doctor give you? A roasted chicken. You eat the chicken and walk out as if nothing happened. Could you imagine what would happen in the real world if all your physical and mental ailments could be solved by a piece of chicken? What would happen to modern medicine? All modern doctors would have to become nutritionists, or at least know how to use an oven. From Gauntlet to Castlevania, the most inane pieces of food are able to make you feel better. There’s gushing blood coming out of your arm from being attacked by a warrior or a skeleton, and somehow a piece of chicken heals it. Are we just supposed to assume they used the roasted chicken as a bandage?

  1. Saving a Princess

  Don’t get me wrong, some of my favorite games involve saving a princess. Super Mario 1 and 3, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past, and even more recently Super Mario Galaxy; but why does it always have to be a princess? Surely the imagination can conjure up a better quest than a damsel in distress. How are princesses always being kidnapped anyway? Don’t these kingdoms have any security? And why are they always being kidnapped anyway? Is it because they’re all virgins? Do the nefarious bosses of these games want to keep the princesses virgins for a reason? Are there other reasons that the villains kidnap the princess besides obvious sexual reasons? We may never know the answers to these question, but as long as there are new video games being made, its a sure bet that more princesses will be kidnapped.

123 Comments

1. #1 Momo says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 am

   Is it bad for me to say that I actually enjoy most of these cliches?
   For example:
   4. All Prophecies Come True During the Course of the Game
   What would really be the point if everyone in town raved about there being some legendary treasure in their cave, going through shit to get it, and finding out there is nothing there? Would you really enjoy that? I mean, I think I’d stop playing whatever game it was right there.

   Though I do agree with the food thing. But it would be kind of weird to find a crazed beast carrying bandages.
2. #2 ThePants says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 11:28 pm

   The Warhammer games are directly based on a miniatures board game that has been around since 1987. I’m sure the creators of Warhammer40k stole the term “Space Marines” from Robert Heinlein’s 1959 book “Starship Troopers” (yes, like the movie), but I’m just as certain the other games with “Space Marines” swiped it from Heinlein or the original Warhammer miniatures game and not vice versa.
3. #3 badrew says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 am

   This list is stupid. If you took out all these “cliches” you would be playing the most boring game ever.
4. #4 Eric says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am

   You nailed it. I’m not much of a gamer these days for these exact reasons. I haven’t seen a new game idea that is captivating since I was 10. I’ve often wished I could design a game with some creative friends and make a decent buck that was well deserved. Personally…I’m sick of crap companies like EA putting out low quality titles and somehow make bank off of it. (I do appreciate blizzard…I think they at least try…) Anyway…nice insight.
5. #5 your face says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 9:07 pm

   u do know that wihtout these cliche’s, the video game industry would be dull and boring. yah, alot of games have these elements so one could say they are overused, but these are key traits to plot and story(ah redundency)
   i hate the term cliche because if somthing is used time and time again so that it can be called a cliche then it must have value of some sort. some of aforementioned cliche’s were uneeded yes but if alot of them were left out of there respective stories, then there would be unexpected gaps in timelines and questions left unanswered. to that effect, in lack of many of them there would be stupid questions asked by stupid ppl like yourself but even with them ppl again like yourself would note that theey have been used before and shouldnt be used as much as they are. You need to realize that game developers go through a substantial amount of work to get the game from an idea in there head to a playable world for you to enjoy(not criticize). SO lay off the developers for taking the easy way out on stuff that doesnt matter in games.(for the latter half of this rant i had in mind the so called cliche of starting in bed)
6. #6 John Doe says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 pm

   It seems like you’d just like to play a lame game with a lame story.
7. #7 Etherwinter says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 3:04 am

   “Can anyone name an RPG where the RPG characters have both of their parents?”

   In Golden Sun 1 and 2, Isaac has both parents, even though his father is assumed dead. In the second game, all is revealed.
8. #8 Atlas says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 3:30 am

   Bioshock has supersoldiers- that’s the only cliche of the above it has.
9. #9 AntiQuest says:
   December 3rd, 2009 at 12:41 am

   Space Marines were at least from LaserBurn, which RogueTrader (Which later became Warhammer 40k) copied alot from. Some sections, such as the Lasguns appearing word for word in the original books of both, LaserBurn predating Warhammer by several years.
10. #10 Marauder3058 says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 am

    The “West Virginian” accent in WW2 games comes from the fact that alot of people in the military comes from this poor state. I should know, i live there.
11. #11 traptin85 says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    lolol so true so true.
12. #12 One Eyed Willie says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    LOL. Awesome list!
13. #13 Stephen Ulm says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 am

    6 5 2 1 all of them don’t happen in pokemon emerald sapphire and ruby
14. #14 mikey says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    missing red barrels
15. #15 Kurono says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    THE FUEL-EXPLOSIVE BARRILS!!! All the 1st and 3rd person shooters has some of them.
16. #16 lukel127 says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    WTF?!?!?
    What about zombies????
17. #17 Delta says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 am

    I’d have to say that the RPG cliches like hero having one parent, starting in bed, being the chosen one, town getting destroyed, and all prophecies coming true are far more cliched than World War Two based games.

    Annoying RPGs from Japan long beaten those stables to death, and continue to this day, long before WW2 themed games became a gaming staple. And the out-put of the annoying Japanese themed RPG games seems to have a very comparable out-put to WW2 games, in fact the cliched games alone seem to be made more often than WW2 games now.
18. #18 Delta says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 6:28 am

    “Is quite ironic some people believes re-hash is doing a game full with new ideas but with the same story and not have a different story but do the same game.

    That why I love Mario: There’s always a game with good twist to the principal game mechanics. Trying to save Peach is just an excuse for make a new game. But I still can’t understand all the people who still batch Nintendo for “rehash any game with new ideas”. Seriously people, learn to see.”

    Maybe they’re complaining about Mario having the same damn storyline with stupid new twists each iteration because there’s been a number of good Platformers that manage to provide good gameplay, often with innovation like the Mario series is often praised for, and still provide a far better storyline than rescuing Princess Peach?

    Of course there’s not a long list, but considering the Platformer genre is nearly dead and is mostly filled with licensed games with a few gems salvaging it to keep it relevant, it’s not surprising that there’s only been a few games in the past 5 years to do this.

    How many franchises in the Platformer genre are still considered relevant and good? MARIO, RACHET & CLANK and JAK & DAXTER, and that’s it. With one new IP in half a decade(PSYCHONAUTS) that was well received with critics, and a few beloved franchises that are doing decent to somewhat above average but are mostly treading water at this point(SPYRO and CRASH BANDICOOT), at best.
19. #19 Avi says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 am

    the Megaman series is often still considered good also. so is the kirby series. (I know theres no Kirby on next-gen but its true.)
20. #20 Wolf says:
    December 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 am

    “WW2 Games”
    WW’s are very famous wars obviously more famous than most wars because almost everyone’s involved hence the name so obviously WW’s are the logical war choice, WW1 isn’t as famous as WW2 and doesn’t have as many guns WW3 hasn’t happened yet so WW2 is the obvious choice, and almost everyone where there selling hates nazi’s and knows about WW2 and it was an event where many Americans died… it seems like a logical choice to make a WW2 FPS and yet this is number 3 on your cliche list? and your against zombie and alien FPS games… it sounds like to me you just hate FPS games