Finishing move

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Finishing moves in video games are player character moves that often involve the violent and gory death of the enemy it is performed upon. The most (in)famous examples of these types of finishing moves are the "Fatalities" of the Mortal Kombat franchise, which involve attacks ranging from decapitation of a defeated opponent to even eating them whole and spitting out the bones.

Other games featuring finishing moves include Cardinal Syn, Samurai Shodown, Mace: The Dark Age, Killer Instinct, God of War, BloodRayne, Eternal Champions, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Kasumi Ninja, BloodStorm, Ultra Vortek, Time Killers, Way Of The Warrior, Unreal Championship 2, Primal Rage, Weaponlord, Gears of War, and The Warriors.

Finishing moves or the equivalent thereof also frequently appear in Console RPGs as well. Examples include "Limit Breaks" in Final Fantasy VII, "Purify Weird Soul" in Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, or "Deathblows" in Xenogears.

[edit] Uses and iterations

Animality – Finishing move in Mortal Kombat 3 that had the winning character turn into an animal to finish off the defeated opponent.
Babality – A finishing move from the Mortal Kombat series that turned the defeated opponent into a baby. It was one of several finishing moves featured in Mortal Kombat II that didn't result in death.
Brutality – A finishing move featured in some ports of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The winner performs a large combo on the defeated player, causing them to burst into an explosion of blood and bones, generally more than actually found in a human body (including several ribcages and skulls).
Cinekill – Unique finishing move from Eternal Champions for the Sega CD. It showed an FMV movie of the defeated opponent being finished off by the Eternal Champion. These were the most difficult moves to pull off in the game.
Crazy Death Blow – a finisher featured in the World Heroes series for the Neo Geo, it was a desperation move that could only be pulled off when the players life bar was critical. Does not result in death of the opponent.
Death Blow – When dealing the finishing move on an enemy in No More Heroes, an arrow is displayed on the screen. The enemy can be finished off by swinging the Wii Remote in the direction of the arrow, resulting in decapitation, vertical bisection or horizontal bisection at the waist.
Death Move – a generic finishing move term used in Kasumi Ninja and certain other Mortal Kombat clones.
Desperation Move – A generic term for a move much like the Crazy Death Blow usually associated with SNK games.
Destruction/Scrap – A set of finishing moves from One Must Fall 2097. The player must first perform the Scrap move which will damage the opponent's machine, then follow with the Destruction move which will kill it.
Execution – In the Manhunt series, there are three different styled "executions" to be performed: hasty, violent and gruesome. The execution used is determined by how long the player holds the action button while creeping stealthily upon an unsuspecting enemy. Other variations of these moves include "jump executions," where the player drops from higher elevation than the opponent, finishing them, and "environmental executions," such as pushing an enemy face-first into a live fuse box, using telephone cords to strangle an enemy or beating an enemy to death in a toilet.
Fatality – A self explanatory term most popularly coined by its appearance in the Mortal Kombat series. Defeated players are killed in numerous bloody, often overly elaborate ways, ranging from having their hearts ripped out to being torn apart limb by limb, or even being eaten by a giant dragon.
Final Smash - Although not strictly speaking a finishing move, by collecting a Smash Ball in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the player can use a special attack that usually does serious damage. The attacks are character specific and have varying effects.
Friendship – A finishing move introduced in Mortal Kombat II in response to the criticism over the previous game's violence. Performing a friendship has the winning character show a sign of good will towards the defeated character, such as signing them an autograph.
Hara Kiri – A non-traditional finishing move featured in Mortal Kombat: Deception where the defeated opponent could kill themselves instead of allow being killed or being hit by the winning player.
Humiliation – A finishing move featured in Killer Instinct that did not kill the opponent, but resulted in the defeated player's character dancing.
Hyper Combo – A powerful signature attack made use of in the Marvel Vs. series, that consisted of either a multiple-hit move or an energy-based attack (or in some cases, both) which could be used when the player's super meter was full. Other attacks, such as the Shun Goku Satsu required 3 levels of super meter power to be used. The effect of winning a fight with one was similar to a Super Combo Finish, only with the name of the attack used appearing on screen.
Instant Kill – An instant-defeat move from the Guilty Gear series. After entering a special mode, which forbids the use of tension-based techniques, the player is capable of executing a special, often slow or easy-to-avoid move, which, if connects, will reduce the enemy's lifebar to zero, making a flashy "DESTROYED" emblem appear. If the move misses, the player's tension bar is lost.
In Kingdom Hearts 2, it is impossible to kill a boss without using a finishing move. These could take the form of magic, combo finishers, or other moves such as reaction commands, but normal attacks do not kill bosses.
Mercy – A finishing move in Mortal Kombat 3. Rather than killing the opponent, it gave them a very slight increase to their health bar after defeat, allowing the round to continue. Players were required to perform a Mercy and then defeat their opponent again in order to perform an Animality.
No Mercy – The term used for finishing moves in the arcade game Killer Instinct.
Nudality – Featured in the arcade game Tattoo Assassins. The opponent's clothes disappear, showing him or her nude, though the hands cover the genitals.
Overkill – Another term for a finishing move involving the winning character slaying the other, it's been used as the defining term for finishing moves in such games as Killer Instinct and is the name of the background fatalities from the Eternal Champions series. In programming terms for the Doom source code, the resulting death and animation from a rocket blast or BFG splash damage is called an Overkill defined by damage received going over the set amount of hit points of the character. Gibbing or fragging are more popular terms used by players.
Poopality – A parody finishing move featured in Ultra Vortek for the Atari Jaguar, it literally had your opponent turn into a pile of feces and featured fart noises for a few minutes.
Sunder – A special finishing move featured in the arcade fighting game BloodStorm, it involved cutting the opponent in half but not killing them right away, it is different than most finishers because it isn't an instant kill and the torso is still controllable.
Super Combo Finish – First appearing in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, winning a round with the equally new super move (after filling a super meter) resulted in a Super Combo Finish, which awarded bonus points and a flashing screen.
Sync-Kill – In Dawn of War, units that defeat another unit in close combat will usually perform a violent killing animation. This ranges in complexity depending on the given units. Similar kills are planned for Dawn of War II.
Totalled! – A sort of a finishing move in the Vigilante 8 vehicular combat series. The text "Total it" will appear on the screen after winning the opponent and the player has a chance to give the opponent the final blow with a character specific special weapon or using a special combo.
Vendetta – Finishing moves unique to each character in Eternal Champions for the Sega CD.

[edit] Trivia

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The fighting game called Weaponlord for the SNES and Genesis featured a unique combo based finishing move system. It required the player to string together normal combos with finisher combos which included: decapitation, debraining, disembowling, skin head and many many other bloody moves. The possibilities were nearly endless for any skilled player to pull off but the skill level needed also kept the moves difficult for beginners to pull off. This kind of system was later adapted for Mortal Kombat Armageddon's Kreate-a-Fatality system that some players felt was lacking and lazy on Midway's part.
Primal Rage stirred up the campaigns to ban video game violence when a mother saw her son perform Chaos' Yellow Shower finishing move. Ironically, since this move features the performer urinating on his defeated opponent, the offensive nature of it has little to do with violence itself. It can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3aNlTkiTGo
This rating scale replaced the earlier Sega-exclusive VRC rating scale.