8 Video Games That Mock You For Using Cheat Codes

For as long as video games themselves have existed, so too have cheat codes, because no matter how easy a game might be, there’s always someone who wishes it were a little bit easier.

And cheats are great, whether granting players the powers of a literal God or instantly unlocking all that shiny gumpth you’d otherwise have to spend dozens of hours of your life slogging away for.

But through the annals of gaming history, every so often a game comes along that doesn’t feel content to merely let you cheat and be done with it. No siree, these 8 video games felt the need to, in the very least, poke a little fun at you first.

These games all relished mocking players for daring to use cheat codes at all, whether gently mocking them or getting bizarrely mean-spirited about the whole thing.

Given that there’s an argument to be made that cheat codes are basically an accessibility feature in their own right, you couldn’t be blamed for feeling needlessly slighted by these games, each of which seemed to take sadistic exception to your desire for a sneaky shortcut…

Look, just because you're playing the Man of Steel himself in the video game adaptation of Superman Returns, that doesn't mean you won't need or want a little help from a cheat code or two along the way, right?

And indeed, the game features cheats allowing players to harness Infinite Health and Stamina as well as all unlockable moves and in-game items, but it admittedly comes with a mildly spiteful and undeniably humiliating price.

Input any of Superman Returns' cheats and you'll be greeted with the unexpected pop of an achievement that's rather insultingly dubbed "Not That Super." The 'cheev's description then states that you "entered a cheat code in a desperate plea for help."

Though this is admittedly a relatively easy game where most players shouldn't need cheat codes, can you really blame anyone for spicing up its tapioca-bland gameplay with some cheats that let you run riot as Superman totally unchallenged?

Given that Superman Returns is a dreadfully dull superhero romp at the best of times, it's pretty damn cheeky of EA to start making wise-cracks about their own paying customers daring to break up the monotony with cheats - cheats which the devs themselves programmed into the game, no less.