Lives Indicator

From gameontology
Jump to: navigation, search

In games where the player controls a character with multiple lives, the game often provides a section in its head up display that shows how many lives the player has remaining. As with health indicators, some games only show an indication of how many lives a player has at certain times, such as when a life has been lost.

Examples

Strong Examples

Maximo:Ghosts to Glory

In Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (Capcom, 2001), players have multiple lives available as they guide Maximo through the game. While the game's head up display specifies a location at the top of the screen for the lives indicator, this indicator only appears when the player gains or loses a life. During normal play, the lives indicator remains hidden.

Metal Slug X

Metal Slug X (SNK, 2001) provides players with a persistent count of how many lives they have remaining, immediately underneath the life meters at the top of the screen. Given the high body count of most games of Metal Slug, this persistent indicator proves especially useful to players in managing their life count.

Weak Examples

Bushido Blade

In Bushido Blade, the interface doesn't show a life meter representing the character's health. However, the player could lose in one hit or just get injured.

Diablo 2

In Diablo 2, a player has a health meter, but the penalty for dying is dropping your weapons and armament in the location of your death, along with your gold. Theoretically you could die any number of times once you have nothing left to lose, but progressing through the game mandates that you not die excessively.


Part-Of


References

Capcom, developer. (2001). Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. Capcom Entertainment, Playstation 2 edition.

SNK, developer. (2001). Metal Slug X. Agetech, Inc., playstation edition.