Titles in the minority. Most Puzzle games avoid death, but at the same time avoid any characters so there is no potential of death either. For example Tetris.
However some games like Pokemon manage to create character empathy and play out a full story complete with battles and fights and yet none of the characters actually die. Can you guys think of any other examples?

Death
Concept »
The main line of distinction between victory or failure in video games, death is the process of a biological being ceasing to be alive.
Games That Dont Include Death??
The main characters or complete lack of death across the board?
If complete lack of death...
BioShock?
The upcoming Fable 2?
*RIse from your soil you 2 years old topic on a dead forum about death*
*cough*
sorry about this but I just couldn't resist to post.
This instantly brought a Wario Land 3, for Game Boy Color, to my mind. I really, really liked that game when I was a kid. You never could die or see any kind of game over screen despite it being a pure side scrolling platformer. The worst thing you can experience is to get pushed back to the beginning of the level because of a screw up, such as touching an enemy to turn you into a zombie and falling trough bunch of floors. Of course that's really rare, most of the time there are situations where you just simply lose few seconds, such as climbing up to an earlier point after getting bumped into water from a ledge.
I'd say it still is one of the most fun 2D platformers to date featuring some of the tightest level designs ever. This game also provides me some of the fondest gaming memories I can remember ^^ Definitely recommending to anyone interested to try some old GBC game, there is no doubt that it's one of the best and prettiest looking games on the platform.
Wall Street Kid for the NES (1990)
i have no damn idea why this was the first game to pop into my head regarding the topic
" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that.
Arkham Asylum, although I guess Batman could kinda die. And there were dead bodies. But you don't kill anybody at all.
" Arkham Asylum, although I guess Batman could kinda die. And there were dead bodies. But you don't kill anybody at all. "Never played it myself but that's quite interesting, it's even more rare that way around when a game features enemies to defeat.
" @Wildfire570 said:Really? I actually enjoyed that game for that very reason, it was the first platforming game I have played since Jak and Daxter series so it was rough getting used to falling. Kept me from throwing my controller." The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
" @Nintendude said:Yup, I just couldn't care any more after falling few times, ended up jumping all around the place without really checking where those actions lead. I was actually really surprised I got that, Be gentle with her achievement, I would have sworn I fell more often than that." @Wildfire570 said:Really? I actually enjoyed that game for that very reason, it was the first platforming game I have played since Jak and Daxter series so it was rough getting used to falling. Kept me from throwing my controller. "" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
Hmm, maybe another question might be "Games that don't include loss?" Or is that even possible?
Because really, as your original post states, games that avoid character avoid death. Pajitnov could have included the image of a human manually moving the tetrinos around, who would get "killed" when the lines reached the top of the screen.
But games like tetris just abstract the notion of a human avatar until it becomes unrecognizable.
In other words, although there's no human-like object that "dies" in tetris, you can still "lose", which is essentially dying, until you restart the game.
Same thing for Katamari, you "die" by failing to meet the conditions imposed to pass the level.
I'm trying to remember if you can "die" in flower, or whether you just keep going until you win. Do they time out your game?
*Are* there any games that don't have some form of "death"? And I guess to be clear, by "death" I mean an in-game state where you cannot do anything until you "resart" the game, however that's handled by each game.
" @Wildfire570 said:You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time?" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
@thekingoftoilets: Charlie's dead but yeah, I don't think they ever show someone dying.
I can't think of a rhythm game that you die in.
" @Nintendude said:It just worked much better in the sands trilogy in my opinion. i loved those and this one was too different for me. I think it's just the matter of not really risking as much as you used to." @Wildfire570 said:You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
That Wario Land 3 still fits in these rules. You can continue until you have completed a level, no matter what."*Are* there any games that don't have some form of "death"? And I guess to be clear, by "death" I mean an in-game state where you cannot do anything until you "resart" the game, however that's handled by each game. "
" @LiquidPrince:@LiquidPrince said:Trust me, I'm Giantbomb's resident fanboy. I still don't understand why people complained about it." @Nintendude said:It just worked much better in the sands trilogy in my opinion. i loved those and this one was too different for me. I think it's just the matter of not really risking as much as you used to. "" @Wildfire570 said:You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
Heheh, it's just a matter of preference and people tending to stick with something more familiar style of mechanic. Especially with this kind of situation where it has always been the other way. For me, it was purely the lack of bigger penalty which made the game feel just that little bit too easy." @Nintendude said:
Trust me, I'm Giantbomb's resident fanboy. I still don't understand why people complained about it. "" @LiquidPrince:@LiquidPrince said:
It just worked much better in the sands trilogy in my opinion. i loved those and this one was too different for me. I think it's just the matter of not really risking as much as you used to. "" @Nintendude said:
You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" @Wildfire570 said:
" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
" @LiquidPrince said:So you're saying people don't like innovation.Heheh, it's just a matter of preference and people tending to stick with something more familiar style of mechanic. Especially with this kind of situation where it has always been the other way. For me, it was purely the lack of bigger penalty which made the game feel just that little bit too easy. "" @Nintendude said:
Trust me, I'm Giantbomb's resident fanboy. I still don't understand why people complained about it. "" @LiquidPrince:@LiquidPrince said:
It just worked much better in the sands trilogy in my opinion. i loved those and this one was too different for me. I think it's just the matter of not really risking as much as you used to. "" @Nintendude said:
You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" @Wildfire570 said:
" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
" @Nintendude said:Well its sort of innovative that you can't really "die" within the game, it could be due to the lack of challenge that originals might have had then. Though throwing in another option to have higher difficulty maybe wouldn't be such a bad idea." @LiquidPrince said:So you're saying people don't like innovation. "Heheh, it's just a matter of preference and people tending to stick with something more familiar style of mechanic. Especially with this kind of situation where it has always been the other way. For me, it was purely the lack of bigger penalty which made the game feel just that little bit too easy. "" @Nintendude said:
Trust me, I'm Giantbomb's resident fanboy. I still don't understand why people complained about it. "" @LiquidPrince:@LiquidPrince said:
It just worked much better in the sands trilogy in my opinion. i loved those and this one was too different for me. I think it's just the matter of not really risking as much as you used to. "" @Nintendude said:
You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" @Wildfire570 said:
" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
" @Nintendude said:Also, are we talking no deaths or straight up no death-like occurences? because pokemon only "faint", and even in mario games he just kinda howls and the screen fades to black/he hits the last checkpoint but he never actually dies." @Wildfire570 said:You make my brain hurt. It is essentially the same thing as dying sans the reload screen. Why the fuck would you want the load screen? Do you like wasting your time? "" The 2008 Prince of Persia game doesn't have death at all. "Oh, of course. Didn't come to my mind at all. I hated that game and loved the other ones. Deaths are essential for a modern platformer, was only worth a rental for me because of that. "
" @masternater27 said:that game has several people dying ! Frank Boles for example" Arkham Asylum, although I guess Batman could kinda die. And there were dead bodies. But you don't kill anybody at all. "Never played it myself but that's quite interesting, it's even more rare that way around when a game features enemies to defeat. "
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