As I'm playing Quake 2 for some mindless fun, I'm consistently entertained by my character's screams when dying or getting hurt. Maybe it's my "I just want to shoot something" mentality when playing. Maybe it's because I quick saved 15 seconds ago. Whatever it is, I don't mind dying and actually am smiling hearing him die.

The exact opposite happened when I played Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. The death sequence in those games annoyed me and I would get mad at the enemies kicking my corpse saying "Take it!"

What death experiences in games have you found particularly memorable?

Too Human... oh the pain...

Super Mario Bros. The death jingle is the last thing you want to hear.

also...

Snake? Snake?! Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Woo-hoo! Swarm of enemies. Yeah, kill, kill, ki--

Oh. He's falling on his knees. Now his back. Ooooohh... Pretty angel thing (is that a Valkyrie?). Now she's picking me up, and... I disappeared!

Oh, but I just reappeared. ENEMIES! Kill, kill, ki- Argh! He's falling on his knees again. Now he's on his back. The Valkyrie is back... Holy crap, do I have to watch this 30 second animation every time I die?

*Five deaths later* Somebody kill me for reals...

This is a pretty apt description. And remember, no matter how kitted out you get a reverse polarity enemy can still kill you over and over again like this:(

I liked dying enough in the old Sierra adventure games that after my first playthrough, I'd try to die in as many ways as possible to see what the developers had to say (usually snarky and funny) about my failure to be enough of a hero. The four "main" sets of games for Sierra in their earlier years - Heroes Quest, King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry - were all quite lighthearted about dying/getting stuck, especially back in the text-parser days.

More recently, I've enjoyed dying in Heroes of Might and Magic V and VI, since turn based games are never something I get emotionally invested in, so it's a fun puzzle to go back and see how to make things work.

I find most game deaths these days to be very bland. You fall down, you reload, you try again. I kind of miss the old Sierra style, where dying or failing wasn't supposed to be aggravating, and the death text often held a little hint to help you on your next try.

But then, I *am* Old and Cranky.

Max Payne, dying in the dream sequences when running and jumping on those blood trails. Death in a dream? Seriously?

EDIT: I think I misunderstood. This thread was for funny/annoying death animations, not funny/aggravating ways to die in a game. I remove my story. :)

Since Skyrim is all I play right now, getting thrown a mile in the air by a giant is certainly memorable.

All the times poor Faith fell to the street in Mirror's Edge springs to mind. That rushing wind effect as you quickly descend was a bit haunting, made you think about being in that position.

Any Sierra adventure game death back in the day was a jarring and memorable experience. First you laughed at the likely witty death, then you quickly panicked wondering where your last save was. I remember the genie tricks in King's Quest VI particularly, as that little shine in the genie's eye creeped out my 12 year old self.

Off the top of my head:

Fallout definitely comes to mind. Those really stick with you.

The death animations in SOF1 and 2 are really hilarious, in an over-the-top way. Love them, and makes the game so much more satisfying to play. SOF1 is one of the best FPSes ever made IMO, for the reason that it hits all the right buttons.

Mortal Kombat deaths are fun to watch. Doesn't matter who wins.

Luckily, PC games have been saved from the worst of it - I especially found console games to be guilty of this as a kid. Some would would refuse to let you skip the whole "game over" crap and restarting the game took aaages! Of course, PC games were generally not of the sort to need such death scenes. Arcade games especially did.

I remember great death animations but I can't connect them to games : /

The fallout ones were great though. Blowing someone's chest out was my favourite, I had done it so many times to others before. But when I was walking around in my combat suit and my pancar shotgun and bumped into an Enclave soldier and he did it to me. Was quite a shock.

Haha well this isn't about single-player, but in SuddenAttack (MMOFPS), the guy that kills me would sometimes stand around headshotting/dickshotting/stabbing my corpse and I'd try to do the same to him next round, even if it means I get killed messing around.

1. Being eaten by a grue in Zork. I can't say why exactly it was so memorable except that it happened again ... and again ... and again ... and again ... while I was trying to figure out what a "text adventure" actually was.

2. Descending stairs in NetHack while encumbered, while wielding a cockatrice corpse. "You have turned to stone ..."

3. Next NetHack character, fighting enemies with a wielded cockatrice corpse while wearing gloves to prevent self-stoning. Fighting a nymph that steals the gloves. "You have turned to stone ..."

I'm trying to remember if it was Soul Reaver or Shadowman, one of those two I played on the Dreamcast anyway. When you died you didn't die you went to some kind of limbo where you kill things and gather energy to come back. Must have looked great on paper but it was tedious to play.