8 Terrifying Game Overs That Make Dying Even Worse
5. Ninja Gaiden Arcade - No More Quarters
Arcades will do anything to get you to keep feeding them coins. The majority of arcade goers were young kids with a few quarters in their pockets, and when the coins ran out, they ran out; game time was over. Players had to think carefully about where they wanted to spend them.
Some games had to come up with creative ways to keep you popping in those coins, and one such game was Ninja Gaiden. The original arcade version's game over/continue screen featured a terrifying scene with our ninja tied down surrounded by Nasty McNasties, with a spinning saw slowly descending towards his fleshy, unprotected stomach.
Are you sure you don’t want to continue? You’re about to literally see a man sawn in half!
The timer runs out, and the saw licks its first taste of blood, the scene freezing and the screen turning red, in a game over screen that punishes your lack of quarters with a gory display of halves.
Other notable arcade guilt-trippers include Final Fight, The Punisher, and the nightmare-inducing Cadillac and Dinosaurs, featuring a game over screen with a big ugly thug pointing a gun at arcade-visiting kids everywhere, and actually pulling the trigger when the continue screen timed out. Yikes!