What's the mechanic for one life, no health bar?

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1hit

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#1  Edited By 1hit

Platformers,stealth games, and even racing games sometimes share the one mistake death mechanic. If you make a mistake the area is reloaded and you try again. I made a list of examples

Rayman Origins and Limbo, hit any enemy/fall, you die, reload area

Last of Us, zombie gets too close, death, reload area

MGS (higher difficulties) guard sees you, alert mode, reload area

Gran Turismo, crash during a race, can't win anyway, reload race

I prefer this mechanic to the standard health bar. So I'd like to be able to check for this mechanic before I buy a game. It's not Instant death per the definition on this site. Also it's also not setting an FPS to maximum difficulty as I am no where near that skillful.

Any help finding good games that use this mechanic or discussion would be greatly appreciated

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BeachThunder

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I suppose that not everything on this page is exactly relevant, but you're bound to find something.

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TyCobb

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Sooty

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IRL

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maccyd

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@1hit: Super Meat Boy relies on this mechanic, it's a brilliant indie game.

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RonGalaxy

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Last of Us has a checkpoint system, so I don't think it really applies to what you're talking about.

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RedLoopz

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Ah yes I remember playing on PS1 before there were memory cards. You die, you have to start the whole game from the stat again. Damn Pandemonium!

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JZ

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#8  Edited By JZ

Bad ui

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1hit

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@naru_joe93: Rayman and Limbo have check points. Check points are great, I just don't like having to deal with a health system. I know MGS had one but that was only needed during the boss fights.

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Ghostiet

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One Hit Kill?

TVTropes has the glorious "One Hit Wonder" name for it.

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e30bmw

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You're describing like 3 different mechanics. Limbo and Rayman are in fact one hit kills. But The Last of Us isn't, there is one enemy that has one hit kills early in the game until you get an upgrade. What you're describing in MGS is kind of like that, but its more of a fail state and is only present at the highest difficulties. And the thing in GT isn't a mechanic at all, that's you deciding you don't think you can win the race so you're resetting it.

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EVO

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Trials is the first that comes to mind, but there's many.