LogFAQs > #967373506

Top Tier
Batman: Arkham Asylum - Unquestionably a top-tier game over experience. Customized depending on which villain (or villain's area) you died to, with their last remarks to you always stinging in different ways, from Harley's "Loser! Loser! Loser!" to Bane's need to get in one last hit.
Undertale (get dunked on) - Possibly the best ever example of a game mocking you for dying. Undertale is particularly good at playing with expectations through a couple special death screens, but this one is probably the most infamous because it requires making the stupidest possible mistake in the middle of the game's hardest boss battle. In the context of the game it's hilarious, but even out of context you can tell you're being ridiculed.
Kirby's Dream Land 3 - YES OBVIOUSLY I'M BIASED but man this is so good. All the KDL3 death screens are goofy little crayon drawings, which is great thematically, but they're just so goofy and fun, where Kirby's never so much dead as he is just sort of inconvenienced, but each one makes me laugh. It's legitimately worth intentionally dying to every boss just to see what pops up.
Sega Rally Championship - There are some Game Over screens that mock you on your loss but this is... more of a celebration? Almost like the game is excited you're not playing it anymore. Anyway I've replayed this like a dozen times now and it's great

Upper Tier
Metal Gear Solid 3 (Time Paradox) - Little things like this are what make me want to get more into the MGS series. It's just a very basic death screen at first, and easy to skip right by, but then the game calls you out for killing a character in a prequel that's alive in the sequel, and Ocelot Is Dead warps into Time Paradox. It's funny, clever and kind of dark (and might've hit top tier if it didn't take so long for the letter swapping to go through
Chrono Trigger (Bad Ending) - So I have to assume this isn't what happens every single time you die, right? Out of context on the game itself I'm a little confused as to what's happening, but there's no argument that's it's creepy as hell, and the "But the future refused to change" ending line over what appears to be the apocalypse is terriying
Romancing SaGa 3 (Bad Ending) - Shares a lot of similarities with Chrono Trigger's bad ending. Is this just something 90s JRPGs did? If you die you get a 2 minute animation of the universe getting destroyed? This one gets docked a couple of points for how long the first half goes for, but gets those points back for the decimation of the world map at the end

Mid Tier
Shadow of the Beast - Is this the first game over screen nominated to not have any actual words or confirmation of this being a game over? It's a creepy as hell picture but I also have no idea what's happening here.
Dark Souls - Simple, but effective, and quickly becoming one of the most iconic screens in gaming of the last decade or so (and was one I correctly assumed would be one of the first posted). Pretty much the standard for death screens (even if it kinda knocked it off of other games that did it first and/or better).
Total Distortion - As a death screen to itself, it's nothing special. It's ugly, with just some bad word art plastered over the villain that killed you. But the song is entirely what makes it. It's way longer than necessary, and weirdly jazzy.
Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge - is it... is it trying to sexualize the Game Over screen? That's a first. The biggest thing dragging this down is the "Well, this is awkward...", otherwise it's ridiculous enough that it made me laugh

Lower Tier
Donkey Kong 64 - did this just do the Chrono Trigger "you lost so now everything is being destroyed" and then stop JUST BEFORE the actual destruction??? You made me sit through like 30 full seconds of looped laughter and then I don't even get to see the explosion? What a tease
Theme Park - the 8bit funeral march is cheesy but "You've Blown It." made me laugh immediately
Donkey Kong Country - This is a little tough because this is 4 games worth of screens shown here, and while they have definite similarities, some are better than others. DK and DiddyK looking beat up is a classic, but the DKC3 crib game over doesn't have the same impact. I like the classic DKC death jingle, but as a full package together it just doesn't all click with me
Worms 3D - Man I remember this one. I love Worms but they did not know what they wanted with this sequence. Is it funny? Sure, but goddamn does it go on too long, and what was that at the end, was that the Worm's own soul then attacking it with the harp? Whose decision was this?

Bottom Tier
Banjo-Kazooie - I have no idea what's happening here but I hate it
A Bug's Life - Did that just play an entire like 10 second clip from the movie upon dying, and THEN cut to the actual game over screen, with super dramatic music completely contradicting the tone of both the game and movie? Does that happen every time?? I almost want to give it credit for taking such a perfect movie line and applying it there but as a game design decision that is batshit