Video Game Tropes

An article in this index will be about these things:

Gameplay mechanics — including mechanics borrowed from Tabletop Games.
Characterization and setting tropes specific to game characters and settings.
Setting tropes that aren't necessarily specific to games but are used in games to the degree they are pretty much stock elements, or without which many games would be unrecognizable/unplayable.

NOTE: Please do not add tropes to this index if they can instead be put in one of the subcategories below.

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Subcategories and trope indexes

Video Games (main topic)
Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Some amount of unrealism is necessary for video games to work the way they do.
Boss Battle: All the various ways that a Boss enemy is presented in the game.
Error Index
Fighting Game Tropes: Everything there is to know about Fighting Games.
Game Mechanics: Basic rules and regulations of a video game.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: How the gameplay differs from what you see in the cutscenes.
Gaming Stat Tropes
How Video Game Specs Work
Instructive Level Design
Interactive Storytelling Tropes: Elements of a video game's story influenced by player choices.
Levels and Experience Tropes
Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played
Older Than the NES: The oldest video game tropes in the book.
Role-Playing Game Tropes: Everything there is to know about Role Playing Games.
Stock Video Game Puzzle: All of the common types of puzzles that is implemented in video games.
Strategy Game Tropes: Everything there is to know about Strategy Games.
That One Index: That one really frustrating aspect of the game...
Various Video Game Views
Video Game Characters: Playable and non-playable characters, and how they relate to a video game's story and gameplay.
Video Game Culture
Video Game Difficulty Tropes: Things that affect how easy or hard it is to progress through the game.
Video Game Effects and Spells
Video Game Genres: All the different varieties of video games, sorted more by gameplay style than the type of story they belong to.
Video Game Interface Elements
Video Game Items and Inventory: All those weapons and other objects that the Player Character can obtain and use.
Video Game Objectives: Stock goals in video games.
Video Game Physics
Video Game Rewards: Covering all sorts of rewards, bonuses and helps that the game gives toward the player.
Video Game Saving Tropes
Video Game Settings: All kinds of levels/maps/stages the player is able to visit in the game.
Video Game Tactical Index
Visual Novel Tropes: Everything there is to know about about Visual Novels.

Tropes related to technical aspects of video games

Ambidextrous Sprite: Sprite based games often save data by flipping the character's left and right facing sprites. When this happens with a character that has an asymmetric design it can create odd inconsistencies.
Anti Idling: Ways to discourage players from being idle during gameplay.
Anti-Rage Quitting: Ways in which developers discourage players from leaving multiplayer games early.
Arcade-Perfect Port: Once the golden standard for ported video games when the difference in processing power between arcade and home was substantial.
Artwork and Game Graphics Segregation: Things in-game look considerably different than they do in the manual or the boxart.
Asset Actor: A previously-existing model is re-used to substitute for a minor element.
Automatic New Game: If the game can't find a previous save file, it skips the usual choice of "New Game" / "Continue Game" and starts up a new game by default.
Back That Light Up: Handheld game consoles can be lit in several ways.
Cel Shading: A rendering process used to make 3D models look like cartoons and/or comics.
Completion Mockery: Get 100% on a game or task in the game, and the game makes fun of you for it.
Console Cameo: A replica of the console a game is on (or another console by the same company) appears in the game.
Context-Sensitive Button: A control that does different things depending on the current situation.
Cut and Paste Environments: Repetition of levels/environments, either in part or whole.
Digital Avatar: Your custom persona inside the game (and elsewhere in cyberspace).
Digitized Sprites: Converting an existing or pre-made image into a sprite.
Dynamic Loading: Techniques used to hide Loads and Loads of Loading.
Earn Your Bad Ending: If the Downer Ending among Multiple Endings requires a surprising amount of extra effort to reach.
Elaborate Equals Effective: Items and weapons will have a better look as they grow stronger.
Emergent Gameplay: In the course of playing a game, players discover new methods and strategies beyond the basic mechanics. Can leads to Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played.
Empty Room Until the Trap: A dungeon room looks empty until you stumble upon to boss/trap.
Essence Drop: Dead enemies drop some intangible thing (usually spheres) that refill your health, magic, etc.
Event Flag: Something happens that triggers something else (not always related) to occur.
Evolutionary Retcon: As graphics technology improves, the appearance of the enemies changes so they are scarier, more detailed, and/or more lifelike.
Expository Gameplay Limitation: Temporarily limiting the range of actions the player character can make in a game, to allow for exposition. Doesn't disrupt gameplay as much as an Exposition Break.
Expressive Health Bar: Animations, sounds, etc that play when the player is low on health.
Faux First Person 3D: A way to simulate 3-D graphics by arranging 2D elements into a perspectivical picture.
First-Person Ghost: In First-Person Shooter games, you can never see any part of your body other than perhaps your gun-toting arms.
Fixed Camera: The camera views the level from a specific direction or angle, often for thematic reasons. Either way, you can't change the angle if you wanted to.
Flip-Screen Scrolling: A continuous gameworld scrolls only in full-screen intervals, or is otherwise rendered as a series of "screens".
Freelook Button: The ability to switch from player control to camera control (when you can't have both), and simply observe all the gameworld's Scenery Porn from the character's perspective.
Freeware Games: Games which have either been created for free distribution, or are formerly commercial titles that have been released from their copyright obligations.
Game-Favored Gender: In a game where you can pick your character's gender, one gender is considered more useful than the other.
Gameplay Protagonist, Story Protagonist: The game has two main protagonists: one for the gameplay and one for the narrative.
Going Through the Motions: 3D games have a recognizable set of animations for each character which are repeated throughout the game.
Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Video game characters in older games have big heads in-game due to the low pixel count they take up.
Head Swap: Same body + different head = different character!
Hitbox Dissonance: It didn't look like an attack physically touched your character, but the game says otherwise. (Or the opposite happened.)
Hit Spark: Much like Flash of Pain, it helps you know when one of your attacks hit something.
Holiday Mode: A term related to games that feature nods to holidays through the means of a console's internal clock
Hyperactive Metabolism: A good meal heals injury.
Hyperactive Sprite: The sprites weren't given an idle mode, thereby being animated as if moving when it should be standing still.
Isometric Projection: A form of graphical projection that fakes a third dimension when only 2D graphics are available.
Kill Screen: When an older game gets played so far past expectations that it results in a Game-Breaking Bug.
Live-Action Cutscene: A cutscene that uses live-action actors and sets.
Loading Screen: Please wait, your trope description is loading...
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Loading first example... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Loading second example...
Magnet Hands: Characters in Platform Games will always be holding their weapon/item, no matter what kind of crazy acrobatics they're engaged in.
Model Dissonance: Assets in a game are fudged to look right or make the game run better, which looks weird if you peek behind the scenes.
Mook Debut Cutscene: A short, usually wordless cutscene that introduces you to a new kind of mook.
Moved to the Next Console: In development, a game is moved from one console to the newest hardware, usually due to being a late-release title.
Multi-Platform: Any software program, particularly a Video Game, that is simultaneously developed and (usually) simultaneously released for more than one system.
New Weapon Target Range: Any non-tutorial area set up in such a way as to showcase the newest addition to a player's arsenal.
New Work, Recycled Graphics: Huh, they look familiar, just like their previous game...
Point Build System: The opposite type of Game System to the Class and Level System, you spend points to buy stats & skills.
Post-Processing Video Effects: Common visual effects that are applied after the scene is rendered by the game engine.
Pre-Rendered Graphics: Graphics and cutscenes that are rendered outside the game's own engine, often of a higher-quality.
Ratchet Scrolling: The camera follows you in one direction only; it won't let you retrace your steps.
Real-Time with Pause: The ability to affect gameplay while it's paused.
Repeatable Quest: Quests that can be repeated and completed as many times as you want.
Respawn Point: When you die, there's a designated place where your character pops back out.
Scripted Event: Events in video games that are programmed to unfold in the same way each time.
Self-Contained Demo: A video game demo that uses original levels instead of reusing levels from the final product.
Shareware: A popular form of game distribution, especially during the 1990s.
Side View: A video game perspective in which all objects are viewed strictly from the side, with little or no amount of their tops or bottoms visible.
Skybox: A graphical representation of the sky that "wraps around" a computer game world, and is used to simulate the "sky" of a game world.
Soft Reset: The ability to restart just the game, without having to reboot the system.
Sound of No Damage: A sound effect played when something is hit without taking damage.
Sprite/Polygon Mix: Fifth-generation systems often used fully 3D backgrounds with sprite characters, or static backgrounds with polygonal characters.
Suddenly Blonde: A character's design in earlier works is constrained due to technical limitations.
Swap Fighter: A duo or group of characters mechanically designed to play as one combined character, with the ability to switch between whoever is active on-screen.
Tech-Demo Game: A game that has such high hardware requirements, it's almost like a tech demo for said hardware requirements. It can also refer to games that make an obvious push to show off power (such as a game for a video game console).
Thematic Series: A series of loosely connected games.
Three-Quarters View: A method of portraying three dimensional space in a two-dimensional plane. Basically, it's a tilted bird's eye view perspective in which both the top and front of an object is seen at the same time, and the vertical axis indicates both height and depth.
Top-Down View: A bird's eye view of the action.
Unending End Card: The game ends on an inescapable congratulatory screen.
Vector Game: Any game that uses a vector graphics display instead of pixels or polygons.
Video Game A.I.: Video game sub-systems that govern Non-Player Character behaviors.
Video Game Geography: The consequences of making maps fit to a game instead of the other way around.
Who Forgot The Lights?: They made it dark for atmosphere ... pity you can't see anything because of it.
Wrap Around: A mechanic where the edges of the screen are hyperspatially connected: move past the left side, and you appear on the right.
Zip Mode: An out-of-story way to quickly get from one area to another, to minimize backtracking.

Common gameplay tropes

Ability Depletion Penalty: Depleting or exceeding the limits of an ability or weapon, leaving it temporarily inoperable or rendering you helpless.
Ability Required to Proceed: Once you receive a particular item that lets you enter a previously inaccessible area, you will need it all over the place to simply continue on your journey.
Absurdly High Level Cap: In games with Character Levels, the maximum level is far higher than necessary to defeat the Final Boss.
Absurdly Low Level Cap: In games with Character Levels, the maximum level will be attained long before the end of the game.
Action-Based Mission: An action-heavy sequence in a game which for the most part eschews action, combat and direct confrontation.
Action Commands: The player must execute a command within a small window of time.
- Perfect Reload Command: The player must execute a command to reload a weapon quickly.
Action Initiative: The players' in-game Initiative stat determines who goes in which order.
Adventure-Friendly World: How the game's setting is designed to justify the gameplay mechanics.
Alchemic Elementals: Four specific monsters (variations are rare) are often used to represent an element.
Alliance Meter: Getting the game's factions/groups to like or hate you.
Already Done for You: Another character in the story has already accomplished one of your objectives.
And Now for Someone Completely Different: After getting used to one hero, out of the blue you are forced to control a different character.
Another Side, Another Story: After beating the game, you get to play a parallel storyline with another character or plotline.
Antepiece: A small piece of level design that is not in itself very challenging but gives players a clue about how they should respond to a bigger challenge that's just around the corner.
Anti-Hoarding: Gameplay mechanics that discourage hoarding up in-game resources.
Arbitrary Mission Restriction: The player is given a mission that must be completed in an arbitrarily specific way, or a mission has optional extra conditions that can be fulfilled for a better reward than just completing the mission.
Artificial Atmospheric Actions: Non-Player Character actions which are programmed but turn up in inappropriate ways or circumstances.
Awesome, but Temporary: That super awesome new weapon isn't going to be around for long...
Backtracking: Returning to an area you've already been to.
Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic: Random Number God against you? The developers included this mechanic to make sure you eventually succeed.
Bag of Spilling: Wait, didn't I have a rocket launcher at the end of the last level?
Battle Intro: The introduction a character has before a fighting game match.
Battle Theme Music: Feel those awesome riffs, man!
Beating A Dead Player: You just died... so why are those dudes still attacking your corpse?
Beat Them at Their Own Game: The most effective way to defeat the enemy is by using their own tactics.
Big Damn Fire Exit: Is the building being destroyed around you? There'll always be a fireproof/destructionproof pathway you can escape through!
Bonsai Forest: Video game trees that are not to scale.
Bottomless Fuel Tanks: Your vehicle goes on and on indefinitely without having to refuel.
Bragging Rights Option; A character or gameplay option players pick to show off with.
Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": A common video game convention that is given a different name in an attempt at immersion.
Camera Lock-On: Focusing the camera on a target.
Camera Screw: The camera in a 3D game can be more of a hindrance than a help.
Cap: The upper limit in terms of quantity that something can have.
Capture the Flag: Common video game mode (usually in a First-Person Shooter) where two teams try to capture each other's flag. And kill lots of them while they're at it, usually.
Changing Gameplay Priorities: A game's mechanical elements grow and change over the course of the game, such that the things you prioritize in the early game are much different than the things you prioritize in the late game.
Character Customization: Altering the statistics and appearance of your character in relation to the game the character is in.
Checkpoint: A point to which the player can return after play has been interrupted, especially by player character death.
Checkpoint Starvation: A severe lack of Check Points.
Class Change Level Reset: If your character changes their class, you must level them up from zero.
Collision Damage: Coming in physical contact with an enemy hurts/kills the player.
Color-Coded Armies: Opposing sides in a strategy game can be told apart by their color.
Color-Coded Multiplayer: Identical PCs can be told apart by their color.
Com Mons: The monster (in monster battlers) or card (in card battlers) for beginners, which quickly becomes useless.
Combatant Cooldown System: A combat system where how soon combatants can act again is determined both by their Speed stat and by the complexity of their respective previous actions.
Combat Resuscitation: When a player character runs out of Hit Points, they are put in a temporary injured state and need to be helped back on their feet by a teammate. Most of the time, if the downed player didn't get rescued quick enough, their character will die for real.
Comeback Mechanic: A feature that provides assistance to losing players or players near elimination.
Common Tactical Gameplay Elements: Rules that add a tactical dimension to video game combat.
Controllable Helplessness: Video games that allow you to control your character (somewhat) that is in an injured state. Most of your actions are also limited.
Cooldown: The game puts a limit on how often you can use an attack or ability.
- Cooldown Manipulation: Where you can manipulate the Cooldown of your abilities (or even your foes').
Corridor Cubbyhole Run: A corridor with a constant hazard you have to avoid by utilizing "safe zones".
Cranium Ride: Jumping on an enemy's head and riding them, often across hazards.
Creature-Breeding Mechanic: Breeding in-game animals or monsters to further one's goals.
Critical Existence Failure: You can survive any amount of injury with no lasting effects — unless it takes out your last Hit Point, in which case it's instant death.
Critical Status Buff: A character becomes more powerful as their Hit Points approach zero.
- Turns Red: When an enemy (usually a Boss) becomes more powerful as their Hit Points dwindles.
Crouch and Prone: Crouching and/or lying on the ground has various effects for your character.
Danger with a Deadline: An enemy or obstacle is very dangerous, but only for a finite period of time.
Defenseless Transports: Transport units are usually unarmed.
Die, Chair, Die!: In-game props which can be destroyed, sometimes resulting in a reward.
Diegetic Character Creation: Customising your character is done within the story of the game.
Direct Continuous Levels: It's a linear game, but not broken up by jumps between levels.
Do Not Drop Your Weapon: Heroes and enemies will never drop their gun—until they die.
Do Not Run with a Gun: Only the player can move and shoot at the same time; everyone else has to stop if they want to attack.
Dream Match Game: Games whose roster include absolutely everyone from a series at the time, at the expense of canonicity. Common in fighting games.
Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer: Other players can join and leave any time they want.
Dual-World Gameplay: Gameplay techniques introduced by the idea of the player travelling between two worlds.
Easy Exp: Non-standard way to gain XP (experience/experience points).
Easy-Mode Mockery: The game makes fun of you for playing on an easy difficulty.
Elites Are More Glamorous: While frequently a military type, your Player Character's specific position rarely happens to be "Yet Another Grunt In This Trench". Then again, in most cases you would not want to play as one of these for long.
Endgame+: Defeating the Final Boss returns you to your most recent save point, but with new bonus content added to the gameworld somewhere.
Endless Game: A game that never ends; you just keep going to more and more levels.
Enemy-Detecting Radar: Blip! Blip! Blip... VRRRRP!?
An Entrepreneur Is You: A game where you run a business of some sort.
Equipment Upgrade: Enhance your equippable items instead of replacing them!
Event-Obscuring Camera: The in-game camera prevents the player from seeing what's going on.
Everything Breaks: It's like as soon as you touch it, it crumbles into dust!
Everything-Is-Smashable Area: A confined space in a video game where every object surrounding you is smashable, usually for collecting points.
Everything Trying to Kill You: Everything in the game wants you dead. Everything.
Extra Turn: Take one step, and then again!
Fake Difficulty: When game designers create the illusion of a challenge through Luck-Based Mission and other means, or when a game really is hard, but for the wrong reasons.
Fake Longevity: Padding a game out to make it longer.
Fame Gate: Story progression occurs as the Player Character's fame increases.
First-Person Snapshooter: A gameplay element that requires you to take pictures of things.
Fission Mailed: When it looks like you've lost the game, but the plot still continues.
Flash of Pain: Every time an enemy gets hit, it blinks a different colour for a short time.
Flushing-Edge Interactivity: Because being able to flush toilets that otherwise serve no function whatsoever is the cinematic interactive experience players are looking for!
Follow the Money: Ubiquitous, small, often shiny collectible items, usually in Platform Games.
Fractional Winning Condition: You have several objectives, and completing a certain number of them advances you to the next stage (though you can stay to get them all).
Game Lobby: A type of hub where players get together and agree to play before an online game can start.
Gameplay Automation: When the game optionally runs, or offers to run, parts of itself.
Game Plays Itself: A video game forcibly automates something traditionally player-controlled in that genre of game.
Game Within a Game: Playing a different game inside a game.
Geo Effects: Where the terrain can affect battles, such as stats or effectiveness of elemental abilities.
Goodies in the Toilets: Bathrooms will contain the most bizarre of treasure, clues, or other useful things, if they're included in a game at all.
Gravity Barrier: A huge cliff or vertical drop that acts as a "fence" keeping the player from passing it.
Green Boy Color: If you see this specific palette of green colors, it is likely meant as a throwback to old-school Game Boy games.
Grimy Water: Water with a tainted color that harms or kills the character upon contact.
Healing Boss: A boss that uses the ability to heal themselves in battle.
Healing Spring: A body of water that heals bathers.
Hit Points: A number attributed to your health that indicates how close to death you are.
Home Field Advantage: Common in strategy games and Role Playing Games, where one side has a distinct advantage based on terrain or location.
Homing Boulders: Where any projectile homes into its target—even things like arrows and boulders.
Human Cannonball: Launching yourself out of a cannon is a useful form of transportation.
In-Game Banking Services: The player can deposit their cash into a bank account.
In-Universe Game Clock: Time passes, generally on a day/night cycle.
- NPC Scheduling: NPCs can be seen moving about as the time passes.
Idiosyncratic Combo Levels: Names for combo length or timing specific to a game.
Informed Equipment: Equipped weapons and armor are not visibly reflected on your character sprites or models.
Injured Player Character Stage: The player character in a game gets injured in a cutscene, which affects their abilities in the following gameplay. A milder and tamer version of Controllable Helplessness.
Injured Vulnerability: Attacks and other effects only work on weakened targets.
An Interior Designer Is You: A video game that lets you decorate a room.
Intoxication Mechanic: The player character consuming drugs or alcohol hinders the player's ability to play the game.
Item-Drop Mechanic: Defeated enemies drop items, representing their loot.
Last Chance Hit Point: If Critical Existence Failure doesn't occur immediately upon zero HP, but waits for the owner to take one more hit.
Leaning Tower of Mooks: When Mooks stack up into a tower.
Level Editor: Make your own levels—ridiculously easy or fiendishly difficult? You decide!
Level Goal: The way to mark a definitive end to a video game level without a Boss Battle.
Level Scaling: As you level up, so do your enemies.
Level-Up Fill-Up: Go up a level, and your HP fills back up to the max.
Lift of Doom: A Floating Platform that ascends, and as it does it passes through everything but the player character.
Limited-Use Magical Device: An item that allows you to cast spells until it's spent.
Locked Door: You need a key to open the door. No, you can't just knock it down.
Loot Command: A specific command you need to press in order to loot something from a defeated enemy.
Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Game mechanics that let you reattempt chance based elements to get a better result.
Luck Stat: A vaguely described statistic used as a catch-all for various effects.
Maximum HP Reduction: An attack that reduces the target's maximum hit points rather than just their current amount.
Megamix Game: A game that consists chiefly of recycled/remade content from previous entries in the series.
Mini-Game: We interrupt your regularly scheduled plot for an Unexpected Gameplay Change!
- Betting Mini-Game: Let's pause our quest to play craps!
- Fishing Minigame: Toss a line and reel in the big one!
- Game Hunting Mechanic: Hunt wild prey for materials or for fun!
- Hacking Minigame: Hacking into computer systems is for profit and fun!
- Hot Coffee Minigame: No need to call Freud — these characters are in fact making out or having sex.
- Lockpicking Minigame: Set the pins in a lock to open in.
- Mini-Game Credits: The closing company credits double as their own Minigame.
- Persuasion Minigame: Win this minigame to convince an NPC to help you.
- Racing Minigame: First one to the finish line wins!
Minmaxer's Delight: A single ability, feat, or Character Customization option that is very nearly a Game-Breaker. OR a customization disadvantage that can easily be negated altogether.
Mirror Match: Character vs Same Character in a competitive multiplayer game. Are you ready to fight yourself?
Mooks, but no Bosses: A game is full of enemies to beat, but doesn't have any real Boss Battle.
Morale Mechanic: A game mechanic simulating the combatants' morale and fighting spirit.
Multi-Mook Melee: Where you have to fight a seemingly endless stream of Mooks who slowly become tougher.
Multiplayer-Only Item: Items that are either exclusive to the Multiplayer mode (even though they could technically appear in Singleplayer as well), or are useless in Singleplayer.
Multiple Persuasion Modes: The player characters can use different in-game skills to persuade NPCs to help (such as Charm, Intimidate, Bribe, etc.).
Musical Gameplay: Games where the background music is immediately affected by what happens on the screen.
New Game Plus: Way of starting a new game by accessing a previous finished game, allowing you to start with improved stats, new costumes or items won beforehand.
No Bulk Discounts: In games with shops, buying items in bunches never saves you money.
Non-Combatant Immunity: No enemies will try to attack you, or be capable of killing you, until you have the means to fight back.
No Points for Neutrality: Choosing neutral options won't get you as much development as a good or evil option.
No Such Thing as Dehydration: Video game characters don't need to drink.
Not the Intended Use: When the player finds alternative methods to beat the game than what developers intended to allow. Sometimes requires real skill to pull off.
Obvious Rule Patch
Olympus Mons: Cosmically powerful Mon that your teen or pre-teen character can capture and harness.
One-Hit Polykill: When a projectile goes through its target and can continue to hit more targets.
One Stat to Rule Them All: One of the stats you can upgrade grossly outweighs the others in terms of usefulness.
Only Smart People May Pass: Any barrier that requires the heroes to solve some kind of puzzle or riddle in order to pass.
On-Site Procurement: If you want better stuff, you'll have to find it on the job.
Outside-the-Box Tactic: Certain enemies are vulnerable to tactics that are bizarre or otherwise not intuitive at first glance.
Overheating: Your gun will overheat if you use it for too long, even if you have unlimited ammo.
Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Conveniently located air bubbles to replenish your Oxygen Meter.
Padded Sumo Gameplay: High defensive and low offensive stats for both the player and enemies result in long, monotonous battles.
Palette Swap: Two sprites (characters, monsters, etc.) that are identical except for their color scheme.
Pass Through the Rings: The player must pass through a certain number of rings or other objects within a limited time period.
Path of Most Resistance: When you are presented with multiple paths or options, you should always take the most difficult looking one.
Playable Menu: Fully interactable main menu sequence.
Player Creation Sharing: Players can create and share content with each other within the game itself.
Player Data Sharing: Aspects of one player's single player campaign can be transferred to another's.
Player Death Is Dramatic: The player character's death is played for drama.
Player Versus Environment: A type of video game mode in which the enemies are computer-generated AI, specifically when players can be fought as well outside this mode. Abbreviated as PvE.
Player Versus Player: A type of video game mode in which the player competes against other players of the game. Abbreviated as PvP.
Plot Lock: Something which you should easily be able to pass through, given your abilities, but the plot decrees you can't.
Point of No Return: A place in the story where it becomes impossible to revisit earlier points.
Pop Quiz: A sudden general knowledge quiz regarding obscure facts about the events, characters and monsters in the game universe. Better make sure you pay attention to those trivia if you don't want to replay this section multiple times!
Power Up Motif: A song that plays when a timed powerup is being used. Acts as an auditory cue for how much longer the powerup will last.
Pre-Character Customization Gameplay: The game lets you try out its core gameplay loop before you get to customize your character.
Pressure Plate: A door that's powered by a floor plate that trips when stood upon.
Press X to Not Die: During a cinematic event, you are instructed to press a button to trigger events or dodge attacks etc.
Purely Aesthetic Gender: Character sex (where it can be chosen) makes no difference in player stats.
PVP Balanced: In games where players can fight against each other, classes must be balanced so one type of character is not overpowered.
A Quest Giver Is You: When games let you send NPCs on independent side missions for your benefit.
Reduced-Downtime Features: The game has less downtime between battles.
Regenerating Health: Low on HP? Just take cover for five seconds and your injuries will be healed!
Regenerating Mana: Your Mana meter refills on its own.
Regenerating Shield, Static Health: You have two health meters, only one of which regenerates.
Relationship Values: A usually hidden meter that measures the depth of your relationship to other characters.
Renovating the Player Headquarters: The game lets you expand and develop a central hub area.
Resting Recovery: Put the characters into a dormant state for a certain time to rapidly recover their health/mana/etc.
Ring Out: To win a match held in a bounded area by throwing, forcing, or tricking the enemy into stepping out of bounds.
Rocket-Tag Gameplay: High offensive stats and low defensive stats for both the player and enemies result in quick, unpredictable battles.
RPG Elements: Where a non-RPG is given some aspects of one (menu battles, equipment, levels).
RPGs Equal Combat: The only way to get equipment, skills and levels is to fight things.
Run, Don't Walk: Modern games have characters run by default; walking is more difficult to do.
Rules of the Game: An area of the game with special rules or restrictions.
Scoring Points: It's all about the points, baby! Rack up those zeroes!
- Pinball Scoring: Games that award points in extremely ridiculous amounts.
Scratch Damage: You are never invincible - even enemies much weaker than you will still do 1 Hit Point of damage with their attacks.
Screen Crunch: Camera Screw caused by a lack of screen space.
Secret Expanded Epilogue: An extended ending only unlocked by certain conditions.
Secret Final Campaign: Games with multiple character stories has one last story that is made available after beating the others.
Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Games that offer some way to control, trick, or override enemies and make them attack other enemies.
Shall I Repeat That?: When, at the end of a long set of text or dialogue tree, the person with whom you are speaking asks to start the entire conversation over.
Signature Mon: The main Mon that a character uses or is associated with.
Silliness Switch: A game option that raises the game to significantly elevated stupidity levels.
Simple Rescue Mechanic: Rescuing hostages in videogames is as simple as just finding them.
Sliding Scale of Cooperation vs. Competition: How much the players cooperate or compete in the multiplayer mode.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: How well do the themes of the story and the mechanics of the gameplay mesh together?
Sliding Scale of Turn Realism: How games simulate the passage of time.
Smashing Survival: In order to break free of an enemy's grip or shake loose from a trap, you have to smash the buttons, frantically spin the analog stick, or a combo of both. A form of Quick-Time events.
Sniping Mission: When the player is tasked with using a long-range weapon to attack far-away targets.
Spread Shot: Your gun shoots bullets covering wider range.
Springs, Springs Everywhere: Video games are full of springboards and other bouncy things. Boing!
Stance System: The ability to switch to a new set of abilities or attack styles, designed to open up more strategies and combo opportunities.
Stats Dissonance: A character's stats do not convey how they should actually be played in-game.
Step One: Escape: Getting out of a room as the first goal of the game.
Story Difficulty Setting: A difficulty setting specifically catering to players who just want to experience the story.
Story-Driven Invulnerability: Even if you attack the bad guy while chasing after them, you can't actually damage him until the Boss Battle officially begins.
Strong Enemies, Low Rewards: High-level enemies will drop little-to-no worthwhile rewards for the effort of defeating them
Subsystem Damage: When individual body parts can be targeted or damaged, or when physical effects impede your character, such as limping or shaky aim.
Surplus Damage Bonus: When you get rewarded for damaging an opponent beyond its max HP.
Swiss-Army Hero: Sometimes you get many heroes in one.
Tactical Door Use: Shoot it to create makeshift holes? Set up a trap behind it? Blow it with explosives? Throw an enemy at it? There are many ways to interact with a door tactically!
Tank Controls: When a game forces you to move forward and backward separately from left and right.
Teased with Awesome: When a video game gives you awesome gameplay elements only to take them back immediately.
- A Taste of Power: Where you are given a strong character or ability early on, but lose it quickly.
Ten-Second Flashlight: Your flashlight only lasts a few seconds.
Three Approach System: Players can choose from three different gameplay styles.
Tiebreaker Round: An extra round used to break a tie.
Time Trial: A game mode where the game keeps track of how long you've been playing a level and encourages you to beat it as quickly as possible.
Tube Travel: In which you get somewhere by going through a tube.
Turn-Based Combat: When combat in the game is resolved in turns.
Unbroken First-Person Perspective: When a game never breaks from the first-person perspective of its player character(s).
Underused Game Mechanic: A facet of gameplay that is notably underexplored compared to the game's other mechanics.
Unexpected Shmup Level: Whoa, my trusty steed! Forsooth, we must pause to do a Shoot 'Em Up level!
Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: In this game, you have to do stuff that games shouldn't be able to do!
Veteran Unit: An equivalent of a Character Level in Real-Time Strategy games.
Video Game Delegation Penalty: By delegating a certain in-game task or mechanic to the AI or a NPC, you get a less desirable result than when you do it yourself.
Video Game Setpiece: An occurrence that is not part of the game's typical gameplay/engine mechanics (e.g. monsters suddenly smashing down doors).
Warp Zone: A secret area of a video game that allows you to magically teleport to another level, possibly offering you a choice of levels.
Whack-a-Monster: A burrowing enemy that is only vulnerable when it pops out of the ground.
When All Else Fails, Go Right: Application of the Genre Savvy concept that the goal is generally to the right of the starting point.

Common non-gameplay-related tropes

30-Day Free Trial: Offering the game free for a limited time so that new players can try it out.
Ad Reward: Offering players to watch ads to gain some sort of in-game advantage.
Addressing the Player: Once you enter your name, the game brings it back later as part of the plot or gameplay.
Adjustable Censorship: An option in the game to change how much mature content the player will encounter.
Announcer Chatter: Announcers in video games can be funny, but also annoying.
Back from the Brink: The story begins with the enemy about to kill off the players, then you have to fight back.
Better as a Let's Play: People prefer to watch other people play and react to a game rather than play it themselves.
Borrowing from the Sister Series: A game creator borrows a feature from one of their series to use in another, minimizing the risk of adding something completely new at the risk of making the series mechanically similar.
Canon Identifier: Multiple Player Characters are given different titles to distinguish them from one another.
Canon Name: A character which is named by the player is given a "real" name in subsequent adaptations.
Catastrophic Countdown: Once a Time Bomb is set, the whole area starts joining in. Even before the boom.
Character Portrait: Important characters in some RPGs may have pictures of them display during dialogue.
Chromatic Rock Paper Scissors: Each element in a rock-paper-scissors-based game, is tied to a certain color.
Clairvoyant Security Force: Certain guys seem to psychically know when you are trying to steal something and immediately appear from wherever they were to stop you.
The Computer Shall Taunt You: A character in the game taunts you.
Concealed Customization: Customization such as tattoos and piercings is wasted by costumes that cover the character's face/body.
Coup de Grâce Cutscene: After you defeat a boss, a cutscene shows you delivering the final blow.
Crate Expectations: Crates are everywhere in video games and serve all kinds of different purposes.
Cruelty Is the Only Option: You have no choice but to be cruel in order to continue playing.
Cutscene: Non-interactive sequences inserted into the action of a game.
Death Cry Echo: When a character is killed, they give off a dying scream, which is repeated (getting fainter) like an echo.
Defeat Means Playable: Once you defeat a character, you can then play as them.
Destructible Projectiles: Projectiles can be taken out by hitting them with an attack.
Dialog During Gameplay: The character you control has conversations with other characters as you're walking around instead of during a cutscene.
Dueling Player Characters: You must fight a character you have previously controlled in a single-player game.
Empty Room Psych: What do you mean this room really is empty?
Enjoy The Story, Skip The Game: A game which features both gameplay and story, but the gameplay is largely overlooked in favour of the story.
Excuse Plot: A bare-bones plot that's only there as a justification for the gameplay.
Exposition Break: A break in the gameplay to provide you with exposition.
Fackler Scale of FPS Realism: A scale that measures how close First-Person Shooter games are to real-world shooting and combat.
Foreboding Architecture: Games which allow you to predict when enemies will appear based on the room or visuals you're seeing.
Gameplay-Guided Amnesia: Because the character knows things the player doesn't, sometimes the character gets amnesia to excuse the explanation to the player.
Gay Option: In many games where the player character can engage in an optional romantic relationship, there's the possibility of choosing a homosexual date.
Heroes Prefer Swords: In an RPG, the main character always uses a sword. Even if the size of the sword is bigger than them.
Hide Your Children: In violent video games, there will be no children at all anywhere in the game, or they will be impervious to harm.
Hitscan: Since bullets travel really fast, they really travel instantly to their destination in a straight line, right?
I Can't Reach It: Characters refuse to do or 'can't' do something that is clearly within their means.
I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Whoever or whatever the local law enforcement may be, attempting to fight it is futile. They're either downright invulnerable, or endlessly respawn.
Impassable Desert: You can't enter the desert without some important item.
Infallible Babble: Whenever you are given information, it is always correct.
Informing the Fourth Wall: Main characters will talk to themselves about the items they have if the player tries to examine one, or use them in an invalid manner.
In-Game Novel: A full-length novel which can be read inside the game.
In-Game TV: An actual TV show which the player can watch inside a game.
Interactive Start Up: A playable or otherwise interactive part of a game during a Start Screen, main menu or Loading Screen.
Intercom Villainy: A villain uses a remote communication system to talk to the hero.
Involuntary Group Split: The characters are forced by a suddenly falling pile of rock to continue their journey alone.
Irrelevant Importance: An important object that's already been used and hence irrelevant is still prevented from being destroyed or lost by the game.
It's Up to You: It's the main character's job to do absolutely every task of any significance.
Journey to Find Oneself: After the end of a game, one character goes off on their own to wander the world.
Late Character Syndrome: A character who comes to the party too late in the game for the player to want to go through the effort of using them.
Late to the Tragedy: The main character arrives after something horrible has happened, and while they try to escape or investigate, they inevitably learns the whole story.
Loot Boxes: A form of microtransactions—pay money to get a box (or something else) filled with Random Loot.
Long Song, Short Scene: This is a very elaborate song for such a short screentime.
Ludicrous Gibs: Ridiculously overemphasized blood and gore.
Mad Libs Dialogue: The practice of recording lines with blanks in it, which can be filled in later.
Microtransactions: Selling additional game content for real-world money.
Misaimed "Realism": An element of the gameplay that is supposed to make the game realistic, but eventually makes it laughably unrealistic.
Monsters Everywhere: Going from point A to point B is like carving your way through a thick jungle of flesh.
Musical Spoiler: A change in background music is an early indication that something is about to happen.
Mythology Upgrade: Mythological monsters get beefed up over their original descriptions.
New World Tease: You are given a glimpse of a brand new world, but can't do anything there yet.
Nice Day, Deadly Night: Video game levels get more dangerous once it's night.
No-Gear Level: A level or piece of the plot where you've been stripped of your weapons and/or equipment.
No Item Use for You: You can't use certain or any items in certain situations.
No Plot? No Problem!: Forsaking any plot or character development so that the game is purely about the gameplay itself.
Omnicidal Neutral: Games that let you be neither good or evil, but you can take on everybody.
Only Idiots May Pass: The game assumes you've never played it before, and requires you to "find out" about things you may already know.
Painting the Medium: Font, interface changes, or camera or editing tricks convey things about the story.
Photo Mode: When the game gives you tools to take screenshots more conveniently.
Player and Protagonist Integration: Are you talking to your character, or are you your character?
Player Punch: Where the game kills or hurts someone or something for which the player has come to feel emotion.
Play the Game, Skip the Story: A well-detailed video game plot... which everybody ignored in favour of gameplay or the metagame.
Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Instead of a thing exploding with BOOM, it goes "pow pow pow pow pow!"
Previous Player-Character Cameo: In a sequel, the Player Character from a previous game in the series shows up.
Prolonged Video Game Sequel: In video games, sequels often tend to be longer and more expansive than the previous game.
Protagonist Without a Past: Even if, reasonably, their hometown should be on the map, your character might never receive an explicit backstory.
Puzzle Pan: Where the game's camera pans across the correct route in a puzzle before you begin.
Quick Melee: Melee attacks caused by pressing a button, rather than switching to a melee weapon. Usually seen in shooter games.
Racing Ghost: A recording of a previous run that can be raced against in a Time Trial mode.
Random Event: Things that can happen, but where, when, or if they will happen are determined purely by chance.
Random Power Ranking: The tendency of video games to rank personal/phlebotinum power on a oversimplified, seemingly random/arbitrary scale.
Real Is Brown: Games that try to be more "realistic" often seem to paint everything in shades of brown or gray.
Recurring Element: An item, character, monster etc. that appears in several games which are otherwise disconnected.
Right-Handed Left-Handed Guns: A weapon used in the right hand, but which seems to be designed for left-hand use.
Save the Princess: Typical early video game plot.
Scenery as You Go: As you walk along a bridge or walkway, it creates itself, allowing you to continue.
Scenic-Tour Level: The game starts with exploration of a small part of the setting while getting a tour of the level.
Shoplift and Die: Stealing from a shop can be hazardous to your health.
Sidetrack Bonus: It can be a good idea to go the wrong way.
Songs in the Key of Panic: Certain events cause a song in video games to speed up.
Space-Filling Path: Rooms always have to have stuff in them, or twist or turn or generally make you spend more time in them than necessary.
A Space Marine Is You: In sci-fi First Person Shooters, starring a member of the military, you will be a mute Space Marine.
Speaking Simlish: A language, generally for Non Player Characters, made up of nonsense sounds strung together like actual words.
Stalactite Spite: Inanimate cones of limestone can see players coming and fall appropriately.
Stat Death: It is fatal to allow a certain stat besides HP to fall to zero.
Story Breadcrumbs: Leaving scraps of information lying around the game world for the lonely player to find and pick up. Also known as environmental storytelling.
Story to Gameplay Ratio: The ratio of how much story and gameplay are present in a game.
Stronger Sibling: In most games, if the Big Bad has a sibling, they will be even stronger than the Big Bad themselves.
Stupidity Is the Only Option: Sometimes the plot makes the main character do idiotic things, even if the player knows not to do them.
Subtitles Are Superfluous: Some games do not have any subtitles for fully voiced scenes.
Suicidal Overconfidence: No matter how much stronger you are than the enemy, they will always attack you without hesitation.
Super Move Portrait Attack: Whenever a video game character uses their Limit Break, a portrait of them or close-up of their face is flashed on the screen just before they proceed to beat the crap out of an enemy.
The Three Trials: The hero must achieve three goals to advance the plot.
This Is the Final Battle: A Stock Phrase spoken just before the battle with the Final Boss.
Title Theme Drop: When the Title Screen theme for a game is played in a certain context within the game itself.
Training Stage: A stage where the players can train freely the moves they will use in the game.
Variable Mix: The running background music has parallel parts that Fade In and out with the rising and falling action level, rather than a set track.
Unexpected Art Upgrade Moment: When video game art upgrades or enlarges its detail to signify a special moment.
Victory Pose: YATTA!
Victory Quote: In a Fighting Game, the winner gives a badass quote to the loser.
Video Games and Fate: Video games tend to be highly linear by their very nature. Some games call attention to this by having fate or destiny be a narrative or thematic element.
Video Game Historical Revisionism: The practice of misrepresenting facts in a historical setting, even when it would make no change to gameplay to be true to history.
Video Game Tutorial: Complementary to new players that are getting the hang of how the controls work.
Video Game Vista: An area or moment, typically from a great height, where the game shows off some Scenery Porn with the implication that the player can or will go there.
Villain Shoes: A part of the story where you get to control the villain.
Violation of Common Sense: Where the game allows you to do something that would be really stupid in real life.
Visible Silence: ... ... ...!
Voice Grunting: Games that either have audible "beeps" while text is scrolling, or short voice clips rather than full voice acting.
The Wandering You: Games that make you walk around a lot just so you'll fight a lot of battles.
War Has Never Been So Much Fun: It's a war game, but it stars cute, colorful characters and there's no blood.
The War Sequence: Stage of a game where the enemies begin to come out in huge droves, usually near the climax.
What the Hell, Player?: When the player does something weird or cruel, another character will call them out on it.
A Winner Is You: An ending sequence that's little more than a single line (that is usually filled with grammatical/spelling errors) and a pixelly picture.

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Alternative Title(s): Video Game Trope

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