Video games have become one of the most dominant mediums of entertainment around and for good reason. After all, unlike movies and TV shows, video games actually allow you to control the actions of the main character (if not multiple characters) to varying degrees. Gone are the days when Pong and Tetris used to be the onꦓly games worth playing — in the modern landscape, the gaming industry has boomed to the point where numerous AAA titles strive to provide gamers with the most premium and unique gameplay experiences around.

🍒Unfortunately, at the end of the day, video games are pieces of software, and — as is the case with pretty much any form of software — hackers and pirates are always on the prowl💎 to either obtain an unfair advantage or unlock the means to play the game without playing a single penny.

However, the video game industry has become wary of these attacks and unethical actions over the years, trying their best to ensure that these people get what they deserve and don't enjoy any unfair benefits. While most of the measures that the video game industry has taken never really come to fruition, the fact of the matter is that there are moments when some of these safeguards have actually beeꦓn quite creative and effective at the same time, posing as a substantial hurdle for hackers and pirates who get pulled into an incredibly frustrating situation in the process. Here are a few such instances where video games punish hackers and pirates in the most hilarious manner possible.

22 ꩵ ♈ GTA V – Dunce Caps And Car Explosions

Grand Theft Auto V is definitely one of the greatest video games of all time, featuring a level of production quality that was unheard of, ever for the usual AAA title. It is t𓂃he defi☂nition of a classic, and also introduced multiplayer to the series.

However — as꧑ is the case with online play — hacker🌃s tried to ruin the fun for everyone.

Thankfully, Rockstar didn't let this slide. Any hacker who was caught screwing around in the game was either booted to a server with other such players or forced to wear a dunce cap. Meanwhile, the expensive cars that they hacked into multiplayer from s✅ingleplayer exploded the moment they sat in it.

21 ꦜ Batman: Arkham Asylum – The Cape Doesn't Work 📖

Before the advent of the Batman Arkham series, the idea of a good superhero gaming franchise was nothing more than a pipe dream. However, that perception changed entirely once Arkham Asylum entered the scene and shocked the w🥃orld with a groundbreaking combat system — something that most games still try aꦚnd replicate to this day.

The game also had a secret pu𝄹nishment for pirates.

Pirated copies of the game, once detected, would cause Batman's cape to beꦡcome useless. While gamers could still play through a sizeable chunk of the game, the sections where gliding was a necessity would cause no end of problems to these pirates.

20 𒊎 Banjo Kazooie – Use Too Many Cheats And Your Game Pak Is Deleted

Banjo Kazooie is one of the most celebrated 3D platformers of its day, featuring innovative gameplay and a colorful cast of characters that most people still fondly remember to this day. It also featured a way for play🙈ers to cheat — albeit with some major ramifications if the system was abused.

You see, if you perform a certain ch෴eat too many times, Grunthilda will warn you that your Game Pak will be deleted if you continue cheating. Fail to heed the warning... and you'll actually receive this ultimate penalty.

19 ꧅ SimCity – Cheat Too Many Times And An Earthquake Will Destroy The City

The concept of cheating too many times held a penalty in most video games. We've already discussed one such instance before, but the fact of the matter is that age-old games like SimCity also have this... "feature,"🎃 if one can even 𓂃call it that.

As is the case with Banjo Kazooie, SimCity also allows you to cheat as well. However, overusing the money cheat is strongly frowned upon. Iꦯf you use this one too many times, then an ear🐼thquake will straight up wreck your entire hard work in a matter of seconds.

18 Slender: The Arrival – Subverting The Game M🍷ap Is Frowned Upon

The Slender games have become nothing short of redundant, and the fact of the matter is that the hype train for this scary thing ended quite a while back. Just take a look at the horrible critical performance of Slender Man to understand what we're talking about.

Anyway, the game we're talking about in particular is Slender: The Arrival. In this title, there are moments where you might think that subverting the map by exploiting the game is a possibility. However, it's anything but — while trꩲying to do so, you'll fall through the map and get jumpscared by Slender Man asꦇ well, who has some tasteful things to say to you.

17 Animal Crossing 𝐆– Resetti Constantly Lectures You

Animal Crossing is one of the oddest yet most endearing gaming franchises of all time. One of the main reasons why Stardew Valley became such a smash hit was partly because it perfected the formula of Animal Crossing, along with a few much-needed imp🐬rovements to the overall concoc🏅tion.

Anyway, most Animal Crossing games have a save-as-you-go feature. However, t✨his can be subverted if you reset the game after making a mistake. Don't think that you'll get off scot-free tho — a creature by the name of Resetti will constantly hound you, becoming more and more annoying as you continue to hard reset the game.

16 Donkey Kong 64 🍬– Using A Gameshark Makes Donkey Kong Spasm Uncontrollably

Consoles aren't exactly known for letting you mess around with its games, but this wasn't the case a few years back. At that time, the GameShark was a popular tool that let you mess around with games on the N64, to varying degrees of success.

However, Donkey Kong 64 was having none of that. If the game detected that you were using🍒 a GameShark to mess around with the files, then it would straight up cause Donkey Kong to have a seizure and render the 𓂃game unplayable.

15 Tomb Raider I🎉I – The Konami Code Explodes Lara

How can one talk about cheating and not bring up the Konami code? It's one of the most legendary codes for a reason and has remained a staple of pop culture ever since. Too bad then, that it shares its name with a comp🌌any that is pretty much reviled by the majority of video game fans — and for good reason.

The Konami code also made its way into Tomb Raider II, but not in the way you might expect. You see, while it's all well and good to use the cheat, the last step needs to be altered slightly to get all the weapons — which was the original motive of using this cheat. If done incorrectly, Lara w👍ill explode into many pieces and you'll feel somewhat dissuaded from cheating in a vi𝓀deo game ever again.

14 𒆙 Gradius 3 – Use The Konami Code And Your Ship Explodes

Gradius is known to be one of the hardest games of all time, posing a serious challenge to even the most hardcore of gamers. Oh, and since we've already spoken about the Konami code, let us also state that Gradius was the first game ever 🔜to feature this iconic cheat code.

However, it seems that by the time Gradius 3 came into play, the developers didn't want anyone to skip out on the challenge. So, the cheat that n♛ormally gave you extra lives destroyed your entire ship instead.

13 🌠 Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 – Get Locked Into A Server With Other Rage-Quitters

Fighting games aren't exactly known for having fans that are classy in any sense of the word. In fact, one might argue that this community is one of the most toxic in the video gaming landscape. A great example of this would be the players of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.

The game was riddled with a problem where fighters on the verge of quitting would exit the fight at the last second, proving for a very unsatisfactory victory. So, to c🙈ounter this, Capcom decided to program so that these rage-quitters would paꩵir up with other rage-quitters.

Now that's a witty punishment indeed.