I was recently replaying SOTN, one of my favorite games of all time. As I died the umpteenth time to a particularly mean boss in the inverted castle, I realized something.
Game over screens suck!
Game over screens were a staple of games even as early as the 1950s, with pinball machines lighting up the phrase with lightbulbs.
Naturally, they became a staple of the arcade scene as well, often followed by a CONTINUE? screen with a countdown, challenging arcade-goers to empty their pockets of sweaty quarters.
So in reflection, I guess game over screens have always sucked for people experiencing them. But when did they begin to become obsolete?
In an arcade, getting a game over literally meant your game was over. There were no save points and you had a finite amount of lives.
When the home consoles came out, many of the games available were formatted the same way. They were essentially arcade games for home.
But even when savepoints and checkpoints were being introduced late in the famicom's life cycle, the game over screens persisted, even though the game was never over!
I suppose the main point of this rambling early-morning post is that Game Over screens are largely obsolete, and usually irritate a player if he has to sit through the same game over screen, press start, wait a few seconds for the main menu to appear, and THEN reload his save.
If you're designing a menu screen flowchart for a game, allow the player to instantly reload their latest save directly the game over screen. This way, instead of a game over screen, it becomes a permanent Continue screen, without the question mark, and you don't grind a player's nerves.
I've noticed that personally, if I am able to instantly reload my save when I die, I'm not nearly as irritated than having to wait 10~ seconds and go through a few screens before reloading my game.
Just something to think about.
-Alex
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