10 Video Games That Punish You For Cheating
3. Your Ship Instantly Crashes - Pop'n TwinBee
The Konami Code is undeniably the single most iconic cheat code in video game history, because who among us can't recite it from heart at this point?
But in case you can't, the code - which can be used in a wide variety of Konami titles across the decades - involves tapping "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A," and then sometimes Start or a similar function button.
The code would grant players a full set of power-ups in Gradius and 30 lives in Contra, for example, but eventually developers started weaponising players' familiarity with the Konami Code against them.
Case in point, shooter Pop'n TwinBee will unlock an extra difficulty level if players enter the Konami Code in the game's menu, but if they input it in-game, their ship will instantly crash.
Following the lead of Gradius III - which similarly explodes your ship if you input the very code - the developers clearly wanted to have some giddy fun at players' expense.