Nobody likes a cheater. Unless you are a cheater, in which 𒁃case you probably see yourself as just a simple person trying to live their life in an unfair world. While that may qualify you to be a Marvel villain, that won’t exactly get you much sympathy. Cheating in single player games can–under the right circumstances–be all well and good, but if you cheat online? There shall beไ no mercy.
Game developers seem to feel the same way, as cheat codes have been pretty much unanimously removed from gaming entirely these days. But back in the day, you used to be able to input codes that got you unlimited lives, or more cash, or better weapons. It was especially fun to unlock new levels, thus completely skipping vast portions of the game you paid for. But even then, some developers looked down on you for using these cheats too much, implementing c꧑lever (and sometimes cruel) ways of punishing the player.
Some of these troll tactics were indeed cruel. Whether it be corrupting your copy of the game, giving you no health or totally useless weapons, and even making your character🥀 explode, game developers have thought of it all. Of course, these days developers have less patience, especially when it comes to online gaming. Now,🎀 for better or worse, developers won’t hesitate in permanently banning anyone they believe is guilty of hacking the game.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at 20 games that tꦦrolled the player for cheating, and 10 that outright ban cheaters entirely.
30 𒊎 Troll: Undertale – Dirty Hacker
Undertale is a game all about messing with your expectations. Player choice influences the story subtly throughou👍t th🎉e game, and one of the big ways is whether or not you end your enemies or spare them.
One of those ways is with the game’s files. If you edit them manually, the game will know, and give you the “dirty hacker” ending. The game will end and play the credits like normally, but one of the characters will call you a dirty hacker for cheating, and tell you to “get out of her𝓡e.”
29 Troll: Star Wars: Dark Forces – Lame ꦫ 𓆏
God mode is a powerful che🌞at in video games (at least it was when cheat codes wer♔e still a thing).
Who wouldn’t want to run around as a Jedi end Stormtroopers without taking damage?
Star Wars: Dark Forces, the 1995 first person shooter, let you at least be invisible, but for a price–your🍎 humiliation. To activate the cheat code you had to first type in LA (for LucasArts) and then IAMLAME. In other words, “LucasArts I am lame🎃.”
28 Ban: Fortnit💜e
Fortnite is the♌ most popular game in the world right now, despite it being full of nothing but 12 year old boys screaming insults at anybody trying to play it. Still, despite this, developer Epic Games doesn’t take kindly to cheaters.
Anyone attempt to hack into Fortnite to give themselves an unfair advantage will be banned from the game in an instant. There are countless forums online full of people complaining they got banned for no reason, but we all probably know better. Fortnite players can’t even perfo꧅rm their favorite dance at school anymore, as that too has bee𓆏n of higher education.
27 Tr🌜oll: Game Dev Tycoon – Pirated Out Of Business ♋
Game Dev Tycoon is a simꩵulation about what it’s like 𒆙to run a video game development studio.
Believe it or not, the real life developers of the game don’t appreciate the irony of people pirating their game.
To combat these digital swashbucklers, the developers installed a mechanic that activates on pirated copies that riddles the player’s digital 🤡game studio with piracy problems. Every game made by the player will get pirated, a problem that grows so quickly over time it’ll eventually run them out of business.
26 ไ Troll: SimCity – Quaking In Your Boots 🎉
The original SimCity was a monumental game for its time–a city building simulation game that not o💝nly let you build monolithic cities out of nothing, but also destroy them in fun ways.
It was a game that didn’t take itself too seriously, so it makes sense it will let you cheat and get unlimited money.
But there was a catch. If you used the cheat more than eight times (which you would presumably only do in more than eight playthroughs) you’ll sti💎ll get your🐲 unlimited money, but your city will be destroyed by a massive earthquake.
25 ဣ Ban: Overwatch
Before Fortnite, Overwatch was the hottest thing in the world. Because of its popul𒀰arity, it attracted all sorts of unsavory folks – cheaters, griefers, trolls, an🎉d cat lovers.
Among the many amusing stories of players getting banned there’s , a Symmetra player who got banned after viewers mass reported him and a pla𒐪yer wh🐟o went out of their way to repeatedly troll a popular Twitch streamer of the game. It’s all been part of Blizzard’s notorious efforts to scale back the toxicity of its players.
24 Troll: Gradius III – The Konami Code Betrayal 𓃲
The Konami code is the most famous cheat code in video game history. Who among can’t recite it from memory? Up, up, down, down, jump on your head, pat your tummy, do the Macarena, call your mother for once before she’s getting lonely, lick the controller, B, A. C🦄lassic.
In every Konami game back in the NES and SNES days, this would give you some kind of power up to help you get past those infamously difficult games. Except Gradius III, which would ཧinstead just🃏 make your ship explode without warning. Ouch.
23 Troll: Batman: Arkham Asylum – N🔥o Fly Zone
One might argue Batman: Arkham Asylum is somewhat generous with how it handles pirates. If a bit of code in the game’s script detects that the game was p🧔irated, they’re allowed to just keep playing… with one key difference.
Pirated copies disable Batman’s cape glide ability.
The cap glide isn’t a huge feature in the original Arkham due to the small scale of the world, but there is✱ one area where it’s mandatory to complete the game. Scarecrow fills a room with 🅘toxic gas, and you have to glide over it, something players of the pirated version of the game can’t do.
22 ไ 🎀 Ban: Halo 5
Halo might not quite be the earth-stopping, seismic event it used to be, but that doesn’t mean the franchise still doesn’t have plenty of fans. Just ask anyone playing online with Halo 5: Guardians. The penalt🌸ies for any form of cheating, or even bad beha🍸vior, lead to a ban.
Developer 343 Industries releas♑ed before the game’s launch, and it’s merciless. The list includes things like quitting matches when you’re losing, team ending, excessive online disconnects, and even staying idle for too long. Basically, don’t get on 343’s bad side.
21 ౠ Troll: Serious Sam 3 – Giant S♚corpions
Another game that punished pirates, 2011’s Serious Sam 3 was particularly brutal on pirates. The game would start and let you begin, but almost immediately you were attacked by a giant, pink scorpion that was immortal and ended you in just one hit. Of course, as RockPaperShotgun reporter , that may have led to the unintended consequence of people pirating the game just so they could try and take down the 🀅now legendary beast.