Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid)

Metal Gear Solid has a reputation for featuring boss fights that defy player expectations – and Psycho Mantis is definitely one such fight that really shocked gamers back in the day. You see, Psycho Mantis will always evade your moves since he’s reading them directly from the controller – which makes it impossible to damage the boss at first. Psycho Mantis can also read your memory card, and his dialogues will reflect what saves are present on your card.

The solution to beating him is to switch the controller from port 1 to port 2, which makes him open to attacks. Once that’s done, this boss fight becomes ridiculously easy and you can easily gun him down and get on with the story. On repeat playthroughs when you know what needs to be done, Psycho Mantis becomes a very silly albeit creative boss fight that poses little to no threat to the player.

METAL GEAR SOLID 5: THE PHANTOM PAIN

An obvious first pick for a feature such as this one. There’s no shortage of areas where Metal Gear Solid 5 ended up being drastically different from the game Hideo Kojima and his team had originally wanted to make. From the story’s conclusion being effectively cut out to several gameplay features being dropped to the entire second half of the game being a remix of the first half due to time constraints to several significant narrative changes being made even to some of the primary characters, the Metal Gear Solid 5 that we got was an almost unrecognizable game from what it could have been if things had gone to plan.

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ruffled some feathers with its abrupt ending, but no one could doubt that it was a great game. It built on the complex systemic moment-to-moment action from Human Revolution, offering players diverse choices in how they wanted to tackle any given objective, and all in all, was more than just a solid package. Sadly, at launch, the game’s sells fell below expectations, and Square Enix ended up putting the franchise on ice. Both Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have said on multiple occasions that the Deus Ex series isn’t done yet, so let’s just hope a sequel isn’t too far away (but it most likely is).

Game over- always a sign of temporary setbacks, but some games and developers know how to have fun even in these dire circumstances. Sure, a plain old screen telling you that you’re dead or that you failed your objective does its job perfectly well, but why not have some fun while doing so? In this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen games with some of the most creative and fun game over screens. Without further ado, let’s begin.

SEGA RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

If you remove the audio from this one, it’d pretty much be the most boring, drab, cookie-cutter game over screen of all time. It literally just says “Game Over” on a white screen. But it’s the audio that makes it so special. Because that screen is also accompanied with a weirdly cheerful person singing the very words on display. Why? We don’t know. Would we have it any other way? Absolutely not.

Dr. Breen – Half Life 2

When the Combine came down to take earth, it was the diplomacy of Dr. Breen that ensured that the human race would survive, if as a slave race to the aliens. Or were his intentions so noble? The unsettling tone and persona of Dr. Breen and his convenient appointment to Earth’s Administrator by the Combine really lean into suggesting that the good doctor screwed you and all of humanity for his own, selfish ends of ruling earth, even if it is as a defacto leader.