History ExcusePlot / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever'':

* While the main story of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is definitely ''not'' an Excuse Plot, most of the DLC episodes can be summed up as "[[RuleOfCool Wouldn't it be cool if]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Ike]] fought [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Roy]]? Or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth]] fought [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Sigurd]]?" Then there's the [[BribingYourWayToVictory Golden Pack]], which was made solely for easy grinding and features absurd plots like a group of zombies threatening vegetables or somehow stealing all of your units personal funds. [[OnlySaneMan Only Chrom seems to realize how ridiculous these situations are]].

* ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi Dodonpachi]]'' uses an Excuse Plot until the ending, and even TheReveal is something of an excuse. [[TropesAreTools Still pretty awesome though]]. [[spoiler:"See you in hell!"]] ''Donpachi'' and subsequent games are a {{Deconstruction}} of this trope.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} ShootEmUp ''Banshee'' has a very tongue-and-cheek take on the clichéd scenario of Earth facing an AlienInvasion in the year 1999. The introductory text explains that this Earth belongs to an AlternateUniverse without color television, and that the Styx [[YouKilledMyFather killed our hero's father]] "for refusing to invent the microwave oven."

*** The main storyline begins with a deconstruction. Once the VillainProtagonist duo has accomplished their initial goal of settling their debt to Madrazo -- which happens very early in the plot -- their only motivation for their continued crime spree is pure greed and self-interest...which also solves the problem of GameplayAndStorySegregation by demonstrating just who would casually run people over and steal cars without a shred of guilt.

* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution: Mario Mix'' has a simple plot for the excuse of having Mario characters having a dance off against each other. Waluigi stole the Music Keys, which can give someone the power to take over the world. He gets defeated but then Wario takes his place and after he gets defeated, Bowser steps in as the FinalBoss. Yes, the villains dance off against Mario and Bowser, despite his big frame, can dance pretty damn well.

* It's really a let down for ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' that in interviews the developers talk about how the three factions come to fight against each other, and that none of them are actually evil, and there are reasons for it. But in the game, the story are just background and use as justification for technology/look of the ships, but no campaign. Fortunately, the developers promised a full campaign some time in the future. In fact, it goes ALL the way up until you start playing... they have an opening {{cutscene}} and everything that is narrated by the same TEC character that did the promos - with the set up for the three factions and their conflict... and then, it's just you vs. whoever...
* ''[[VideoGame/GundamVsSeries Gundam Vs. Gundam]]'' has [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam the Devil Gundam]] come to live and take over arcade machines for games representing all of the franchise's 30-year history, forcing the characters to work together and save their virtual existences. No, really.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/MagicalBattleArena'' involves how all magical worlds are connected to a single magical source that lets them exist and how said source is verging on collapse, requiring the BigBad to force several powerful magic-users of different worlds to fight one another so she can select one to act as a BarrierMaiden [[AntiVillain and prevent the destruction of the multiverse]]. This plot only exists to justify why [[{{LightNovel/Slayers}} Lina Inverse]], [[Manga/CardcaptorSakura Sakura Kinimoto]], [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha Takamachi]], and several other {{Magical Girl}}s and female mages [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny are blasting the crap out of one another]].
* Although the plot for ''VideoGame/{{Oneechanbara}}'' is surprisingly interesting, it ultimately boils down to little more than an excuse for attractive girls to kill zombies. [[RuleOfCool Not that anyone's complaining.]]
* ''VideoGame/AtlanticaOnline'' has only a thin thread linking all the quests: Atlantis has disappeared, [[AppliedPhlebotinium Oriharukon]] somehow leaked out and is now screwing up the planet's history, and it's up to you and your fellow Remnants to lead your armies and right every wrong.
* ''Gunz: The Duel''. The actual plot is only a couple of paragraphs, and considering there are no {{cutscenes}}, it's barely noticeable in-game. Made more ridiculous by the fact that it calls itself an {{MMORPG}}. The Korean version has PVE questing and dungeons, but nobody plays this side of the game. Quest mode has you blasting up goblins and other mobs until the map is cleared, and occasionally fighting a boss along the way.
* You must stop the sun and the moon from fighting by... uh... partying? According to ''VideoGame/MarioParty 6'', yes. The original ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' game had all the Mario characters compete with each other to solve major problems in order to determine who is the "Super Star". Again, by partying. It eventually ends with you unlocking a secret board and trying to recover the broken pieces of the Eternal Star, with Bowser trying to stop you at all costs with his minions. Bring out the party.
** You would be ''amazed'' at the cosmic significance of Super Stardom. In ''Mario Party 3'', the Millenium Star (a superpowerful cosmic being born once every thousand years) arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom to determine just ''who'', exactly, is the best at life-size board games.
** Spoofed in ''Mario Party 2'', where the premise is that the cast is putting on a stage production. [[GoKartingWithBowser Even Bowser's just acting]].
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''[[VideoGame/{{Skate}} Skate It]]'', where there's a live-action video of an announcer describing the horrible devastating climate events which have wrecked the world's major cities. The slides he shows are an 'Artist's Impression' of the events, which are drawn childishly and in crayon. Then you go and skateboard around the ruined cities for no real reason.
* ''VideoGame/LyleInCubeSector'': Your cat's been stolen. Go rescue him.
* If you want a truly ridiculous excuse plot, look no further than ''[[http://www.sydlexia.com/quizanddragons.htm Quiz & Dragons]]'', a two-player 1992 Creator/{{Capcom}} QuizGame where you must save the kingdom of Capconia from the BigBad Gordian, obviously a {{Satan}} {{expy}}, who has stolen a mystical seed and used it to enhance his {{mooks}}' wisdom on subjects including, but not limited to, science, geography, and ''television''! The mooks then go around [[ImAHumanitarian eating people]] that get their questions wrong. The sage king has no choice but to send a fighter with a HealingFactor, a wizard who can change quiz categories, an ActionGirl that can take out one or two choice answers, and a [[GratuitousNinja ninja]] that deals twice the amount of damage to take back the Wisdom Seed and save Capconia. And what do you get for saving the kingdom? [[spoiler:Your name on canned soup flavors!]]
* ''VideoGame/GliderPRO'' houses rarely made an effort to provide a justification for the auto-generated opening message of [[StarShapedCoupon "get every star to win"]], though a few such as "[=SpacePods=]" tried to work in a flimsy premise. The game's engine doesn't really allow a different mode of play.
* ''[[VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Super Space Invaders]]'' -- the Amiga port of the arcade game ''Super Space Invaders '91'' -- adds a story wherein some old arcade machines are jettisoned into space in the year 2061, though a ''Space Invaders'' machine broke out of orbit and drifted through space until twelve years later, when an very intelligent alien race got their hands on the arcade machine. Then in 2091, the Invaders, now real and threatening, suddenly show up and proceed to attack earth colonies. After that, you play through was is essentially the same game you've played countless times before.
* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is a very interesting {{deconstruction}} of this trope. The plot at first seems to be a thinly disguised excuse for having you run through a bunch of rooms where you play with the portal gun. With cake as the reward. Then it takes a look at how insane players would have to be to work under such conditions and what kind of psycho would expect them to.
** Played straight in the backstory of [[VideoGame/{{Portal 2}} the sequel's]] [[LevelEditor Perpetual Testing Initiative]] DLC. It goes like this: Aperture Science is almost bankrupt, so Cave Johnson hatches a plan to run a scam spanning TheMultiverse -- send the plans for new test chambers to alternate versions of Aperture on other Earths, each ruled over/managed by an alternate Cave Johnson, get them to construct the test chambers and have them stolen back to Earth Prime. The player is in the role of designer and tester, designing the blueprints for new chambers and running through those that already exist.
* The developers of ''VideoGame/{{Carmageddon}}'' were forced to come up with a literal Excuse Plot to allow the game's release in the United Kingdom, where the full blood version was refused a rating by the BBFC, effectively banning it. To get around it, they swapped the pedestrian sprites for [[ZombieApocalypse legions of the undead]], tinted everyone visible in the starting FMV a bit green, and changed its voiceover to make the same scenes as in the US release appear to be about a vehicular crusade to exterminate the zombies.
* The early ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games suffered from this. However, by ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'', the story and cross-over interactions hit in stride and it's never looked back since.
* The various sub-games in ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero'' all boil down to one of the following: "You have 30 seconds to save the world/defeat all the enemies before sunrise/get back home before the gate closes/guard the sage casting the kill-everything magic".
* Used and humorously {{lampshaded}} in the flash game ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/490081 Super Mario Defence]]'':
-->''"This gives me a plan, a plan so devious it must have been hastily tagged onto the game after it was complete."''
* ''VideoGame/SubTerra'' has ''two'' excuse plots. The one on Creator/SpiderwebSoftware's website is fairly simple: there's a mine, you want to steal the gems, and the miners set traps to prevent you from doing precisely that. The one in the game itself explains the main character as being a scientist with ultimately heroic intentions, but neglects to explain why he needs to collect gems.
* "princess is kidnapped. you must save princess." That's the entire Excuse Plot for ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'', complete with (lack of) capitalization. This is stolen from the old {{UsefulNotes/MSX}} game ''Crusader''.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' is so irrelevant, that the blurbs at the start of the game explaining said plot are randomly selected from a list.
* ''VideoGame/GratuitousSpaceBattles'': There's a war on. Go fight it. Hey, it's called ''Gratuitous'' Space Battles for a reason!
* Other than a short three paragraph summary at the start of the game, ''VideoGame/BananaNababa'' doesn't really have a complex plot. It mainly amounts to a wizard stealing six jewels and now some guy has to kill six bosses in a tower in order to get them all back.
* This trope is one of the (many) reasons why ''Soulstorm'', the third ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' expansion, is so despised. While the previous three campaigns possessed fairly intricate stories with detailed charcters (though ''Dark Crusade'' was pushing it), ''Soulstorm'''s campaign is "a NegativeSpaceWedgie attracts nearly every faction in the galaxy to a single system. They fight".
* ''VideoGame/SplitSecond'': You're on a TV show. Now go race and [[StuffBlowingUp blow as much stuff up as you possibly can]]!

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'': A HuskyRusskie BoisterousBruiser loves fighting tournaments, so he decides to hold one. Then a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere attacks after the championship battle.

* The official plot of ''VideoGame/RType'' is "Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire!" Later games elaborated on what the Bydo are and why they are attacking, but the games in general still amount to this.

* While the original ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' trilogy did feature a cast of memorable, unique characters, the plots generally boiled down to "Hey, look, there's a bad guy doing a bunch of bad guy things! Now go kill everything in your path while collecting gems and X type of collectible!" Averted with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' reboot. Of course, whether or not this was a good thing is ''[[BrokenBase still]]'' [[BrokenBase up to debate]].
* ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'' deserves special mention: The BigBad kidnaps Ryan's girlfriend. He makes you face all the gangs in the city, including "evil bosses" (Yes, he actually calls them "evil bosses".) But the real hero is [[GameBreaker Karma Jolt]].
* The freeware game ''[[http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=3740 Stair Dismount]]'' has a plot involving a superhero who needs to prove that he incurred physical damage in order to [[HeroInsurance pay for the widespread mayhem he inadvertently caused while saving the day]]. This is surprisingly deep for a game about [[VideogameCrueltyPotential shoving a ragdoll down a flight of stairs]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'' gives your character the following to-do list: Acquire a lantern, kill Sauron on floor 99, kill Morgoth on floor 100.
* ''VideoGame/NetHack'': [[MacGuffin There is an amulet at the bottom of this dungeon]]. What it does and how it got there are irrelevant. You need to find it, then return it to your god [[GodJob in exchange for immortality]]. Go.
* ''VideoGame/{{Columns}}'':
** Being a puzzle game, it can't help but fall into this trope.
** The first game has some blurb in the instruction manual about it being a game played by jewel traders in the Near East or some such.
** ''Super Columns'' for the UsefulNotes/GameGear had a plot about getting an amulet back from an evil merchant. You get past her minions by challenging them to the titular game.
** ''Columns [=III=]'' had your character as an AdventurerArchaeologist attempting to find the treasure of the Pyramids. You battle bats, skeletons, scorpions, and mummies... once again by playing a PuzzleGame.
* Parodied by the ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' minigame ''[[ShoutOut Lost Viking]]''. The premise is that a Viking fighter is lost and needs to find its way back to Vikingville, but needs to watch out for the evil [[AscendedMeme Terra-Tron]]. "[[IntentionalEngrishForFunny HE DOES NOT LIKE YOU!]]"
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'', previously called "Blizzard Dota" and "Blizzard All-Stars", is a MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena that was originally a mini-game for Starcraft II but is now a free-to-play standalone game. It features player-controlled hero characters from various Blizzard games fighting it out in a crossover of several franchises. An early trailer mentioned some backstory involving two gods in dire need of some entertainment who kidnap the heroes from their respective universes. The announcer in the trailer then states outright that "these heroes are forced to fight to the death in an endless battle with no purpose other than ladder points!"
-->'''[[Franchise/{{Warcraft}} Thrall]]''': Wait, what? What do you mean there's lore in this game? You guys actually paid someone to write a story about [[VideoGame/StarCraft Raynor]] meeting VideoGame/{{Diablo}}? Isn't this precisely what fan-fiction is for? I didn't approve any of this!
* [=MOBAs=] in general run on this, because of the lack of story integration. ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' can be summed up as "disputes are settled by elites because having another full-scale magic war will destroy the world," and even then, newer champions are given less and less justified reason for joining the League in the first place. (Riot recently "fixed" this problem of having an excuse plot by…mass-retconning the excuse plot, leaving the game with no plot whatsoever.) ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' is basically "A coalition of man and beast vs. Demons and a few traitors that are trying to take over the world." Even ''VideoGame/DotA2'' is just "two factions unconditionally hate each other and are fighting over territory."
* VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: No, not the game itself. FFXIV has an amazing story. However, the PVP battlegrounds definitely have an excuse plot. It is a major plot point that the 3 Grand Companies (factions) are allies. The PVP battleground story is basically "Yes, we're allies. But there are these ruins that each of the companies wants to get to first, so we're fighting over those. Want to come help?" Even the NPC acknowledges that it is a HandWave just so the game can have PVP.
* ''VideoGame/ChipsChallenge'' had a storyline as an excuse for its puzzles. [[KidHero Chip]] wants to join a club, and all the levels take place inside a magic clubhouse which serves as the entry test.
* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':
** The [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand first Kirby game]]'s plot is: "[[KingKoopaCopy King Dedede]] has stolen all the food in Dream Land, beat him up and get it back!". ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' subverts this by making you think it's just about Dedede causing trouble again. [[spoiler:[[NotMeThisTime He's not!]]]]
** ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad'' actually [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] this quite a bit. The story starts as an Excuse Plot involving stolen cake but shifts gears after the first world. The actual plot is about a treasure chest containing an [[SealedEvilInACan ancient being]], the titular gang of mice trying to use it to gain wealth, Meta Knight's attempt to prevent anyone from opening it, and Kirby [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally releasing it]]. Kirby spends the most of the game in relentless pursuit of his cake, completely oblivious to the larger plot and anything else that happens.
** The majority of the plots of the subgames in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' are MonsterOfTheWeek. However ''The Great Cave Offensive'' has a plot that can best be summed up as "Kirby fell down a hole, might as well look for treasure on the way out, amirite?"
*** The UpdatedRerelease has a subgame giving you control of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Meta Knight]]. Basically, he's out to kick the stuffing out of ''everybody''; at the end, you find out it was to earn a [[MakeAWish wish]], which was for him to fight [[WorthyOpponent the greatest warrior in the galaxy]] and beat the stuffing out of ''him''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'':
** The first game reputedly had a complex, layered story to explain why you wanted to kill everyone from ostrich farm to military base, but buried it to streamline the slaughter. The only real explanation given is that the town you live in wants you dead, and even then it's more likely that you're just crazy and need an excuse to kill.
** In ''Postal 2'', it's plainly obvious that the "plot" is nothing more than excuse after excuse to run around committing mayhem. Your missions each day include tasks like buying milk at the store, and returning a library book.
* ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'' has a plot involving gangs and genetically enhanced soldiers. It's really an excuse to tear up a city with your super heroic gunslinger. And for some reason, the creator of the genetically enhanced soldiers is not just a mad scientist, but a devil worshipper?

* ''VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever'':
** The plot for ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomClashOfSuperHeroes'' goes like this: [[ComicBook/XMen Onslaught]] does evil things. Use characters from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse and Creator/{{Capcom}} to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu beat him]].
** In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'', Ruby Heart summons the heroes of the Marvel and Capcom universes to stop Abyss.
** In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', it's ComicBook/DoctorDoom [[VillainTeamUp teaming up]] with [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Albert Wesker]] and gathering villains from both companies to take over both Worlds. That said, they are giving a little more effort than in ''2''.
** ''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom'' is even worse: Characters live in TV Land. They beat up each other. The end.
** ''Ultimate All-Stars'' elaborates a bit: [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/{{Okami}} Yami]]]] pulls multiple characters from both sides into a mishmash of dimensions; They beat each other up until they realize what happened, then go to settle the matter in the final boss fight.
** Averted with ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', which is the first ''Capcom Vs.'' game to have an actual Story Mode.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'': Freak accidents involving Shao Kahn and Darkseid fuse the two {{Big Bad}}s into a Bigger Bad named Dark Kahn and consequently, cause the ''Mortal Kombat'' and DC universes to merge together. The inhabitants of both worlds believe those of the other to be invading their own and thus (surprise, surprise) [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny they beat up the everloving shit out of each other]], which said Bigger Bad amplifies by infecting everyone with UnstoppableRage because, yes, he admits to loving nothing more than the kombat when you confront him at the end.
* In ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'', the plot is something about collecting fruit to restore the Happiness Tree and save the adults who have been zapped with some kind of spell.
* The InteractiveFiction game ''For A Change'' has quite a lot of plot, but it gets a mention for its iconic intro.
-->The sun has gone. It must be brought. You have a rock.

* ''Wario'':
** ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' in all games in the series can be summed up as "Wario wants to get more treasure and money by beating up the enemies that get in his way while coming into world saving situations by complete accident." The latest game actually makes the intro and ending completely optional movies that can only be watched from the media room after seeing them once.
** ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' is another example, in that the plot has hardly anything to do with the gameplay, with said gameplay being 3-5 second micro games, and said story being short random adventures of Wario and friends.
** ''Snapped!'' is actually more excusable than the preceding -- all of the story can be found in the opening.

* ''VideoGame/CongoBongo'' was a 1983 Sega arcade game that had more than a little in common with ''Donkey Kong'', but the plot, if you could call it that, was much lamer. After the mischievous ape gives the hunter a hotfoot while asleep, the hunter is willing to risk life and limb chasing down the big ape, avoiding wild animals and dangerous terrain to get even - by giving the ''ape'' a hotfoot.
* ''VideoGame/RetroGameChallenge''. You get sucked back in time to play 8-bit video games with a young [[{{Otaku}} gamer geek]]. Good luck, and [[CatchPhrase keep on kickin']]!

* ''VideoGame/MoleMania'': For whatever reason, a farmer with a huge island and ''more subordinates that outnumber the legions of hell'' decides to kidnap the wife and children of a mole. As the mole you then go through multiple areas of the island with some fun puzzles, complete bosses like a kangaroo, a legion of hedgehogs, and ''the sun itself''. And in the end, the ''farmer'' somehow is an ImplacableMan that gives up on his own terms when you beat his challenge.
* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'': Don't let your enemies take your super suit. Also, protect Princess What's-Her-Name, cause they're after her for some reason.

* Online Flash game ''Powerfox'' has a little "plot" window during the opening screen that explains the story: "Powerfox, you need to rescue the world!" "Yeah."

* In ''Videogame/DinerDash: Flo Through Time'' - The plot is as follows: A broken microwave sends Flo and Grandma through time. And apparently a lot of their customers since we have teenagers and jerks talking on cellphones in the middle ages...
* ''VideoGame/DeadlyTowers'' uses a ridiculously long OpeningScroll to explain that the plot involves a prince about to come of age who has to defeat a devil threatening his kingdom by burning down the seven towers of the devil's castle.
* ''VideoGame/{{Canabalt}}'': Run and jump across the rooftops to escape... something. The background featuring HumongousMecha stomping through a wrecked city show that you don't want to be around here, but that's all you get.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' had a very dull story, essentially being a tournament to find the greatest fighter in the world. This has been improved in later games, though, and ''Tekken 6'' has a hugely developed storyline.
* ''VideoGame/BlastCorps'': A carrier is carrying defective nuclear warheads. They leaked, necessitating setting it on autopilot to head straight to its destination regardless of what's in the way when a single impact could set the nukes off and cause nuclear winter. Your job is to [[StuffBlowingUp destroy every obstacle in its path.]] Even after you avert the nuclear crisis, you are then called back into action to destroy more buildings because a damaged space shuttle needs to make an emergency landing and it's in the middle of a town. After that, you are called to go to the Moon to clean up debris left there by mankind [[LampshadeHanging and your team knows just how silly the whole thing is, but they go along with it anyway.]] Just more excuses to blow stuff up and no one is complaining.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** Apparently, the in-game plot was kept to a minimum in the Genesis games so that Sega of Japan and Sega of America would be free to make up mutually contradictory backstories, tailored to their target markets. Then came the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' games and the addition of an actual plot to the series (and with it, the Western backstory was almost entirely rendered CanonDiscontinuity).
*** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'': An evil scientist is turning cute forest animals into robots; stop him!
*** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'': Evil scientist is doing it again; stop him, with the help of a mutant fox!
*** ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'': Evil scientist has duped an echidna into helping him; stop both of them!
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheFighters'': 8 characters compete against each other in a tournament for 8 Emeralds in order to power up a one-seat rocket ship to space to stop the evil scientist.
** ''VideoGame/SonicLabyrinth'': Eggman slowed Sonic down with heavy boots. You must go through his labyrinth to remove them.
** ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' deliberately aimed for a much more simplistic plot with the general conflict, in order to serve as a "jump-on" point for newcomers to the series (i.e., Team Sonic's story consists of stopping Eggman from using his ultimate weapon). The only exception is Team Dark's story, due to the subplot involving Shadow.
** The first two games of the ''VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy'' consists of "Dr. Eggman is up to his old tricks again!"). The third game's opening cutscene is this (Eggman actually does use the emeralds, and splits the world into seven zones), but as AllThereInTheManual states, there's more to the plot than meets the eye.
** ''VideoGame/SonicRivals'' series: The first game's plots consists of Eggman ([[spoiler:later revealed to be Eggman Nega]]) planning to turn the world into a card and the four characters must fight each other in order to save the world. The 2nd game's plot is a little more detailed - something about Eggman capturing all the Chao to feed to an Iblis-expy called the Ifrit- but by and by the "plot" is mostly characters insulting each other for no particular reason.
** ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' can be summed up as this: "Time and space is being distorted by an unknown being! Sonic, go team up with your past self and save your friends as you save the world and explore areas you encountered years ago!"
* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'': You are a [[FeaturelessProtagonist space mercenary]] who is hired by an unscrupulous space mining corporation. Apparently the AI controlling their [[RecycledINSPACE space]] [[UndergroundLevel mines]] has [[AIIsACrapshoot gone rogue]] and you need to travel to each mine, destroy the robots, destroy the reactor, and [[CollapsingLair get out safely]]. Made even more ridiculous because the [[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids supposed "mining robots"]] include a [[DemonicSpiders "drilling" bot]] with an under-mounted chain gun and robots that dig with homing missiles. As the game progresses the makers lose all pretense of designing "mining" robots and explain the [[SpikesOfVillainy spike covered]] [[ChargedAttack fusion shooting]] monstrosities as a "top secret military test."

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''. There is a village. The village is under [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Attack of the 50 Foot Monster]]. Since you are a newbie hunter yourself, you have to start with the small ones. Here's your {{BFS}}. Interestingly, while ''Monster Hunter: World'' has a fairly intricate storyline featuring colonization, environmentalism, and quite a bit of CharacterDevelopment, ''every'' conflict in said storyline is still resolved by you going out and killing assorted monsters -- it's all just a justification to get the actual monster hunting right to the forefront.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair''. Franchise/{{Castlevania}} has once again risen... inside a book. So the book brings the heroes to life to destroy the castle. Inside a book.

* ''Jojo's Fashion Show: World Adventure''. Before each level there's a couple of lines of an incredibly boring story about some stereotypical bitchy fashionista drama, w/e. Other than the story being about fashion designers who are going on a world tour, and the game being about you designing outfits to fit different styles from around the world, it's entirely irrelevant. The level titles are ostensibly based on the story, but they have little bearing even on that.
* {{Lampshaded}} in the online game ''Fancy Pants Adventure 2''. "You must go in after him! For justice! For humanity! For World 2 to have a plotline!"
* ''VideoGame/SlimeForestAdventure'' exists to [[EdutainmentGame teach the player Japanese]]. Everything else is subordinate to that goal.

* ''VideoGame/TheFirstFunkyFighter'' has a beautiful lady kidnapped as your main reason to punch suckers out of a massive bunch of wacky crocodiles and sharks!!

* ''VideoGame/CastleCrashers'': "Four princesses have been kidnapped! [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience You there, color-coded knights!]] [[SaveThePrincess Go rescue them!]]"
* ''VideoGame/FatalRacing'' (''Whiplash'' in the US): The top eight car manufactures hold CarFu races every year. The winning company enjoys a massive boost in sales. Represent your company well.
* ''VideoGame/LetsGoFindElDorado'' has a pioneer family decide at the last second to look for the fabled city of gold, instead of taking the Oregon Trail.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/IvyTheKiwi'' can be summed up in its entirety as "a baby bird has been separated from her mother."
* ''Night Walk'', an economic British game about walking through graveyard with zombies. The description [[http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2010/12/ashens-nightwalk/ must be seen to be believed.]]
* The plot of VideoGame/WarriorsOfMightAndMagic is present but extremely shady and hard to get (at least in some versions). You work your way through a series of unrelated dungeons (including a village inhabited by Orcs, a golem-infested maze, a dungeon city full of goblins and minotaurs and zombies, a temple of demon worshippers and a dark temple-prison inside a volcano) in order to remove a mask. [[spoiler: Which happens at 3/4 of the game, leaving you with no reasons why to invade the temple.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fury3}}'' does have a plot--rogue bionic warriors are rising again to take over the galaxy (or maybe universe, it's never specified)--but in general, all a player needs to know is that you go to random places on random planets and shoot everything that moves. Except for trees.
* Creator/{{Jaleco}}'s ''City Connection'' had one of the cutest plots ever. You're a tourist who stole a huge load of paint from a hardware store in New York, and the police have just put out an APB on you. The only way to shake them is to paint every inch of the Big Apple's single-lane, three-level highway system. Along the way you have to either avoid the cop cars or shoot cans of oil at them and ram them, as well as not hit any of the enormous cats or roadblocks that show up out of nowhere. Once you're done with New York, it's on to various other cities around the world with increasingly screwy single-lane three-level highway systems.
* In RealLife, the games made in computer camp game design classes for kids follow this trope. The games aren't usually meant to be sophisticated enough to have cutscenes and the like. It's just gameplay, with a small backstory added with a "show the game information" command.
* In the flash game ''VideoGame/GunBot'', the "plot" is being made up on the spot by a developer who was so busy with making the game that he forgot to add in a plot, deciding to just make it up as he goes along. This is the reason why a robot has a bug for a little sister.
* ''VideoGame/CatacombAbyss'': "You arch rival '''Nemesis''' has summoned the dark forces of the underworld to destroy all that is good." That's about it. There's some other background information to be found, but it's mainly about the creepy places you'll be going to, which are in themselves a large part of what this game series is all about.
* It is actually surprising to learn that ''VideoGame/LinearRPG'' does actually have a plot. It's kind of [[VisualPun in the background]].

* In ''VideoGame/MagicalWhipWizardsOfPhantasmalForest'', two apprentice wizards somehow end up in the eponymous forest. Time to beat up a bunch of monsters and dragons to escape!
* The freeware shmup ''VideoGame/{{Hydorah}}'' has only bare hints at a plot. Apparently, there's some sort of alien empire ruled by an evil god named Hydorah that is attacking. But half of what little dialog there is (16 lines counting the post credits scene) makes no sense, and some of the missions don't even involve fighting the Hyodrans/Meropticonians/whatever at all.
* In ''VideoGame/TempleRun'', you steal the idol. The demon monkeys start chasing you. Now run. (Good luck.)
* ''VideoGame/MeatBoy'': You are a cube of meat/skinless boy. Suddenly, a fetus in a tuxedo wearing jar suit kidnaps your girlfriend (who is made of bandages). Go rescue her. There's also Buzz saws, lots of them.
* ''The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout'': Bugs Bunny's fan club is celebrating his 50th birthday, but his jealous ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' co-stars don't like this and do everything they can to obstruct his way to the party.
* ''Hoard''. You're a dragon! Burn kingdoms! Steal treasure! Kidnap and ransom princesses! Dodge the evil knights trying to kill you!
* ''The I of It''. The intro goes as following - "Once upon a time there was an I and a t. 'Bah', said the t, and left. 'Where is t?' I was wondering, and started the quest."
* ''VideoGame/AlienHallway'': There are aliens in the hallway. Aliens are bad. Shoot them. That's all the plot you need.
* ''VideoGame/DarkOrbit'': It's a bunch of years into the future. Humanity has left Earth and colonized the stars, but needs resources. Three mining companies have formed. They can't get along. Here's your ship. Join one of the companies and kill everybody not in it. Where did all the aliens come from, and why aren't the corporations more worried about killing them than each other?
* The prologue to the Flash game ''[[VideoGame/RobotWantsSeries Robot Wants Puppy]]'' in its entirety: "In Zeta Sector, Morgox the Unborn has conquered all of civilization and spread his dictatorship to every corner of the galaxy, ruling with an iron tentacle. / But on Delos IV, a rebellion is forming. Ordinary people are rising up to stand against tyranny. Meeting by cover of night, they plot to cripple Morgox's fleet from within. The attack is set in motion simultaneously by confederates working in stardocks across the sector... / Meanwhile, in a completely different galaxy, thousands of light years away, Robot wants puppy. / By the way, his tentacles are literally iron. That wasn't some kind of metaphor."
* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution: Mario Mix'' has a simple plot for the excuse of having Mario characters having a dance off against each other. Waluigi stole the Music Keys, which can give someone the power to take over the world. He gets defeated but then Wario takes his place and after he gets defeated, Bowser steps in as the FinalBoss. Yes, the villains dance off against Mario and Bowser, despite his big frame, can dance pretty damn well.
* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona'':
** The plot of ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' is explained as Teddie setting up the tournament and inviting all the characters to see who is the best Persona user. Oh, and some of the characters from ''VideoGame/Persona3'' want in on the fun too. [[spoiler: Except not. The Teddie who set up the tournament is an impostor (as is the commentator, Rise) and the real one has gone missing. That Teddie is the shadow of a girl who was thrown into the TV, and the tournament is her dungeon. And the P3 characters are there investigating the theft of one of Aigis' sister units...]]
** For that matter, ''VideoGame/Persona4DancingAllNight'' is just so players can watch their preferred waifu or husbando get their groove on. Like ''Arena'' before it, though, a legitimate plotline eventually emerges about [[spoiler:an idol who committed suicide and an EldritchAbomination trying to trap humanity in a LotusEaterMachine]].
** ''VideoGame/Persona3DancingInMoonlight'' and ''VideoGame/Persona5DancingInStarlight'' play this the straightest. Yu's actions in ''Dancing All Night'' provoke a pissing match between Elizabeth and Caroline/Justine about whose guest would have solved the crisis more easily, leading to a dance-off that S.E.E.S. and the Phantom Thieves get dragged into.
* ''VideoGame/SnowboardKids''. What little plot there is in the first game is AllThereInTheManual. ''Snowboard Kids Plus'' has cutscenes or the prologue and everyone's endings, though, and in ''Snowboard Kids 2'', there are cutscenes before and after each course.
* Pretty much the point of the Mission Mode from ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam''. It had several out of character moments just for the sake of fighting. For example Zechs Merquise's mission involves destroying every mecha that fires energy just to prove melee is the way to go. Master Asia wants to beat up every under age pilot as some kind of hardcore psychologist. A girl can also invite the player to beat up her own older brother Judau Ashta as a punishment. Even couples fight for ridiculous or unexplained reasons.
* In ''Find Mii'', the little adventure game that comes with the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}'s VideoGame/StreetPassMiiPlaza, your main Mii is the ruler of a kingdom. Monsters break into the palace and kidnap him/her. Use Streetpass to recruit heroes and go rescue them. The sequel uses the exact same plot, aside from adding a prince and princess to the list of royals who need saving.
* The point of ''VideoGame/TimeGal'' is that a villain named Ludo is traveling through different time periods in order to make himself ruler of the world in his own era. the heroine is a young lady named Reika who is traveling through time to stop him. [[AllThereInTheManual None of this is mentioned in-game.]]
* The UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game ''Arcturus'' has 22 in-game pages of plot involving the development and destruction of at least three intergalactic civilisations, with Earth set to be the fourth. It's quite a phenomenal backdrop and story to justify the fact that, underneath it all, the game is actually just [=4x4x4=] tic-tac-toe.

* ''VideoGame/AoOni'' is a survival horror game, which can be boiled down to "dodge the Oni, solve puzzles, escape". While version 1 puts more into developing a reason for the characters' being there (Takuro was curious about the place, so his three friends went along with it, dragging two underclassmen along for the ride to see how they'd react), subsequent versions do away with the two underclassmen, and settle on curiosity as a suitable reason (version 6.23 reveals it was [[spoiler:Takeshi]] who had convinced his friends to enter the mansion instead).
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has an extremely bare bones plot where you take part in several kinds of heists to make a lot of money. For the player, it's all about shooting cops and stealing the loot of the level. The sequel's web-series expands on it a little, with Bain explaining that everything is just [[TrainingFromHell "practice runs"]] for [[TheCaper the ultimate heist]].
* ''VideoGame/BloodCrusher2'' randomly generates its storyline for each playthrough, meaning the player can fight [[CommieNazis Communist Nazis]] on the Moon.
* ''VideoGame/SpaceHarrier'', in the manual for the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Sega 32X]] version, describes a scenario in which Harri, last of the Sentinels of Dragonland, picks up a JetPack from the wreckage of a battle with the evil forces of Valna, wonders WhatDoesThisButtonDo, presses it and is suddenly flying. Almost none of this is referenced in the game itself.
* The plot to ''{{Rastan}}'' is not only practically irrelevant but inconsistent between versions. In the original UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame, he's winning a bounty a princess placed on a dragon. In the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem version, he's out to [[SaveThePrincess rescue her]]. In the UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} version, he's defending his land against an EvilSorcerer. The {{Non Linear Sequel}}s don't help sort matters out.
* ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' had a number of tie-in games where the intention was obviously to educate kids about certian themes and ideas. Most of them also had a "plot" that mainly served to motivate the field trip and give the player a sense of purpose.
* ''VideoGame/EnduroRacer'' was an early Sega motorcycle game where you zip through twisty, rock-strewn, jump-filled roads for no clear reason. If you reach the end [[NintendoHard (NOT an easy task)]], you're rewarded with this revelatory info: "'Enduro' is a symbolic journey through life via the media of a race. The results are insignificant and what really counts is competing. Of particular importance are the lessons to be learned concerning one's self from the various encounters you experience along the way. There is no victor or loser in this test of endurance; the only thing that really matters is that you make a commitment to begin the long and trying trek. This game is then dedicated to all of the 'life riders' who have started out on the solitary trip to find their own individual limits. Last but not least, may we sincerely congratulate you on a perfect run." Well, at least that last line make sense...
* Creator/{{Tecmo}}'s ''Gemini Wing'' had a ridiculous plot in the manual of the Western computer versions, in which all the civilized alien races decide to invade Earth because of some journalist wrote the headline "DIE MUTANT ALIEN SCUM."
* While the main story of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is definitely ''not'' an Excuse Plot, most of the DLC episodes can be summed up as "[[RuleOfCool Wouldn't it be cool if]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Ike]] fought [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Roy]]? Or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth]] fought [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Sigurd]]?" Then there's the [[BribingYourWayToVictory Golden Pack]], which was made solely for easy grinding and features absurd plots like a group of zombies threatening vegetables or somehow stealing all of your units personal funds. [[OnlySaneMan Only Chrom seems to realize how ridiculous these situations are]].
* Young Joseph's JBA plot in VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture. Alessi made you young again. Have fun pounding the other heroes til you kick Alessi's arse. Justified in that he was essentially a bonus character (based on the 1930's Joseph from JBA's second story). Joseph and Alessi never meet in the manga.
* ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux'': You're a duck (or two ducks) whose owner has been captured by a wizard. Go save her.
* ''VideoGame/CondemnedCriminalOrigins''. You're an FBI agent. A serial killer just shot and killed two cops with your gun and, based on [[SarcasmMode that rock-solid evidence]] and [[HollywoodLaw despite your complete lack of a motive]], you're now a wanted man. Your only option is to fight through a horde of CrazyHomelessPeople to find the real killer.
* Played with heavily in [[VideoGame/{{Deadpool}} the Deadpool game]]. There ''is'' an actual plot involving Mister Sinister trying to destroy humanity and the X-Men recruiting Deadpool to help them stop him, but Deadpool doesn't care about the plot at all. [[NotInThisForYourRevolution He's much more interested in just having fun and is only getting involved because of a personal quarrel with Sinister.]] In the end, the game's story is more about Deadpool and his [[AmbiguousDisorder bizarre psychosis and]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} way of viewing the world]] than it is about fighting Sinister.
* A character's intro in ''[[VideoGame/RomancingSaga Romancing SaGa 1]]'' and ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3''. serves as an Excuse Plot to set the chosen protagonist off on a journey to defeat evil forces and hunt treasures that, most of the times, [[AbortedArc do not concern their stories]]. While some characters do have special episodes and quests, the point of the games is to let the players freely build their own teams and do multiple quests that will eventually lead to saving the world from {{Big Bad}}s.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dweep}}'' is a puzzle game about controlling a character with the goal of getting him to a specific place. This gameplay can, of course, accommodate many possible simplistic "plots". In the game, the character is a purple WaddlingHead and his goal is to reach his children, and that's about all the story there is.
* Lampshaded in ''Werebox 2'' by the intermission cartoons which portray game company staff trying to come up with a basic plot for the game only to conclude that a "crappy physics puzzle game" doesn't ''need'' to have a storyline.
* In ''Spooky Bonus'' strange things are happening in Old Town. A newspaper headline along these lines and a brief glimpse of a crypt with a green light coming from inside are all the introduction you get to a fairly standard match-3 game.

* The plot in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheChalice'' serves little more purpose than to send the party out to slaughter things.
* VideoGame/OffspringFling's plot is given in short storyboard cutscenes and pop-up messages, but they are entirely optional and the gameplay can be understood just as well without them.
--> ''Offspring Fling is a game about a poor forest creature that has misplaced all of her children. She'll have to fight her way through over 100 levels of action puzzle platforming to get them all back home. There's danger around every corner, but she wont rest until her family is safe again.''
---> --Game description
* ''VideoGame/{{Karnov}}'': "Get the map that leads to treasure" was the plot of the UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame. The Famicom version, which had a different FinalBoss, also had original cutscenes that had Karnov be on a MissionFromGod and made no mention of any treasure; these cutscenes were entirely removed from the US localization.
* ''VideoGame/TheAngryVideoGameNerdAdventures'', intentionally styled after an 8-bit NES game, has an equally flimsy plot - the Nerd and company are sucked into a shitty game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}'': there was some kind of war that left a lot of space stations hollow and useless, yet inexplicably outfitted with perfectly intact exteriors and no serious structural damage, and you're basically bouncing between them on an administrator-for-hire basis.
* Lampshaded in the very ''title'' of one of the ''VideoGame/AdventureTime'' games, ''Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW!''
* ''Videogame/TreadMarks'' has a paragraph-long backstory about how the artificially intelligent battle tanks decided to run off to the woods and [[WarIsGlorious shoot each other for fun]] and [[MultiTrackDrifting race each other]] with live ammunition on the track. Aside from that, there is no plot or story.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Something}}'' is to retrieve the plot stolen by Ballser. It turns meta when Mario reads the sheet with this description.
* ''VideoGame/CatPoke'': You're a little girl who can't go out because it's raining. The most fun you can have at the moment is butt-poking [[GottaCatchEmAll all nine]] of your cats. Might as well!
* ''VideoGame/{{Meteos}}'' presents its 'match three' gameplay as the sake of all planets being at risk from the evil planet Meteo. While this isn't so bad, the Star Trip mode's story of 'a spaceship has been sent to sort all this out and destroy Meteo forever' is just an excuse to have a gameplay mode that isn't the regular kind.
* ''VideoGame/SkySerpents'' is about a kid who wants to beat his father's record of having slain 14 sky serpents. You're told that in a brief intro, and then it's onto the battles.
* ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime'''s plot is this; Krang has stolen the Statue of Liberty. When the Turtles try to get it back, Shredder sends them into a time warp that bounces them from one point in history to another. Other than that, it plays like any other beat 'em up.
* In the beat 'em up ''VideoGame/MadStalkerFullMetalForce'', all you need to know is that there is some [[AIIsACrapshoot evil supercomputer]] that was locked away in an old warship and it hacked the military network while sending out these giant mechas called Slave Gears to wreck Artemis City. Now get [[TheHero Hound Dog]] over there and kick some ass! The updated PC Engine CD port of this game, however, gave the almost non-existent a much bigger narrative, aided by anime-styled cut-scenes.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalChase'''s plot basically centers around a CuteWitch who accidentally set free a bunch of devils from a forbidden tome, and she must seal them back or else her teacher will turn her into a frog.
* The original ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64'' was this, the plot being that the characters were toys being played with by their owner (ie. Master Hand), which was just an excuse to have "your favorite Nintendo characters duke it out". ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'' hints at this vaguely (with the dolls replaced with trophies), along with no plot for its Adventure Mode other than "brawl your way through Nintendo worlds and fight Bowser at the end". ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' averted this with its own Adventure Mode, ''The Subspace Emissary'', only for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU 3DS/Wii U]]'' to return to the Excuse Plot format, this time being "characters from various worlds do battle/are invited to a tournament" as told through its trailers.
* The ''VideoGame/MentalSeries'' has this as the premise for all of its games. You're in a mental hospital/city/the woods/a circus/a bigger city being hunted! Get out of there!
* In ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfLomax'', an evil wizard named Evil Ed turned lemmings into monsters and Lomax has to save them. There isn't even any actual explanation about the story in the game itself ([[AllThereInTheManual only in the manual]]). You just go around, defeating enemies and going through worlds that are hardly connected to each other (Lemmingland, [[BigBoosHaunt horror world]], TheWildWest and SpaceZone), culminating with you fighting against the game's FinalBoss that you saw earlier only on the world map shown between levels.
* ''VideoGame/GothamCityImpostors'' is about a bunch of trigger-happy vigilantes calling themselves the Bats fighting the equally trigger-happy Jokerz, all serving as an excuse for frantic multiplayer FPS action.
* ''VideoGame/VinylGoddessFromMars'': You're a scantily-clad babe on her way to a BMovie convention until a meteor storm crashed your ship on a strange planet, now go find your stuff quickly before it's too late to get the to convention!
* Here's our story in ''VideoGame/{{Gruntz}}'': the orange gruntz were having fun with their toys. Then one of them found some mysterious giant buttons on the ground. Pressing them opened a strange gate with a portal in it. At this moment, they were attacked by blue gruntz. In a desperate effort to save themselves, orange gruntz jumped into the portal, and blue gruntz followed them. Cue them having to go through numerous puzzles to come back home.
* ''VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice'': Most of the campaigns qualify, however Kai's has everyone explicitly mentioning that playing a game of dice will move the plot forward.
* ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'': Jason's pet frog got loose and jumped onto a box of radioactive waste that just happened to be sticking out of a hole in the ground in his back yard. After the box and frog fall down the hole, Jason jumps in after them, landing in a vast underground mutant-inhabited world where he immediately finds a super-advanced tank just sitting around. Now Jason has to go fight the mutants to get his frog back.
* ''VideoGame/RevengeOfTheSunfish'' parodies this with the text used to justify some of the truly bizarre {{Unexpected Gameplay Change}}s:
-->"YOU JUST GOT An INTENSE CRAVING FOR DIRT. YOU NEED TO EAT DIRT [=InORDER=] TO SAVE THE [=HUMAn=] race. You are our last hope. EVERY thing counts on you and your dirt eating."
* In ''Penguins' Journey'' you need to guide a bunch of escaping penguins from a "penguin farm" in the jungle to their original home in the icy wastes by building bridges with different-shaped tiles.
* ''Spanky's Quest'' has a rather silly plot. Spanky the monkey is going on a picnic and walking through the forest when suddenly bricks start to rain down all around him. He finds himself trapped by a WickedWitch, who also makes the fruits in Spanky's knapsack sprout arms and legs and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou try to kill him]].
* The plot of the original '[[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 Mortal Kombat]]'' is this, before the movie and sequels tossed in all that Outworld balance between realms schtuff; An evil sorcerer is running a deadly tournament, with a four-armed monster-man as the reigning champion. Go there, compete for your own reasons, and take home the win.
* Creator/{{Epyx}}'s ''VideoGame/TempleOfApshai'' series barely has a plot and hardly needs one -- [[DungeonCrawling go into the temple, fight the monsters, and grab their loot.]] What more do you need?
* Parappa's story in ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'' pretty much consists of him and his friend searching around the town trying to find a good guitar. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation There isn't even any attempt to connect the story with the gameplay]], both of them having absolutely nothing to do with each other (or even any characters in common besides Parappa).
* ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament''. You are playing a futuristic BloodSport. Kill everything that moves, try not to die, here is your rocket launcher.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftOrcsAndHumans'': Orcs have invaded from a portal into another world. If you're the orcs, burn the human capital to the ground. If you're the humans, kill the evil wizard who summoned the orcs. ''Warcraft II'' isn't much better (outside of the [[AllThereInTheManual manual]]), but this is properly averted by every subsequent game.
** ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'': [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday A magical tavern appears in random places in Azeroth]], picking up heroes and villains from across time and space. [[GoKartingWithBowser They play card games together]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', in its early stages, was about you, a space ninja, going around and beating up an oppressive empire, a bunch of profit-worshiping merchants, and a plague of infested members from both other factions. As the game has updated and gone further into beta development, however, it has slowly started moving away from this trope and created a genuinely interesting story about the Tenno and Orokin, and the deadly consequences of both on the solar system.
* ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi''. The snake god Orochi has brought the warriors of Three-Kingdoms-era China and Sengoku-period Japan together in the same universe to challenge him. Sure, whatever - all we care about is getting to have the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors together at once.
* All your trope are belong to ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''. The opening cutscene of the UsefulNotes/PCEngine version is rather different from that of the infamous UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version.

* The first game in the ''VideoGame/DeadlyRoomsOfDeath'' series is basically, a king's dungeon is full of monsters and he's paying you to kill them so his prisoners can receive their torture in a clean and safe environment. However, the second game takes the question of why the dungeon is full of puzzles built around the monsters, and turns the quest for the answer into a KudzuPlot spanning two more sequels, a prequel, and several DLC level sets.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', in its early stages, was about you, a space ninja, going around and beating up an oppressive empire, a bunch of profit-worshiping merchants, and a plague of infested members from both other factions. As the game has updated and gone further into beta development, however, it has slowly started moving away from this trope and created a genuinely interesting story about the Tenno and Orokin, and the deadly consequences of both on the solar system.
* ''VideoGame/TitanFall'': Something about Earth and corporations - HEY! Robots!

** Averted in the [[VideoGame/Borderlands2 sequel]].

* Most games in the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' series. The basic plot for these games boils down to this: Friend/Relative X has died and left Player Y with Farm Z. Now go farm on it and steal the village women. The ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' spinoffs vary from this slightly, where the protagonists have LaserGuidedAmnesia... and therefore need to farm and kill goblins.
* ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'':
** In the second game, it is never stated why the war is taking place, although one map hints to it being about oil, but no info as to why the USA is fighting China too.
** Battlefield 3's attempt at a serious plot is so generic and cliched that one wonders if the game is better served without a campaign at all. To elaborate: the villain is given no backstory or even a general motivation for why he wants World War III. The CIA believe that the Russians are going to nuke America for no reason other than they're Russian. Three Russians have full knowledge of a terrorist attack on French soil and yet tell nobody and mow down wave after wave of innocent French policemen to stop the terrorist attack. [[spoiler: They fail anyway.]] The sequel reveals that [[spoiler: war happened anyway, therefore making the whole game a ShaggyDogStory. This might have been a fairly unique twist- how many video games end on a full-on DownerEnding with no MultipleEndings?- if anybody actually dwelled on this, as none of the characters from the third game turn up in the fourth bar three, all of whom [[BackForTheDead die in the same level they're introduced]] in and never mention previous events.]] Oh, and there's something about a coup in Iran but it's never explained beyond one line.
* Similarly, neither of the games in the ''Bad Company'' subseries offers even the slightest explanation for why the United States is at war with the Russian Federation (yes, ''[[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia Russian Federation]]'', not Soviet Union, so communism can be ruled out), much less why the latter is projecting forces all over the Western Hemisphere in the second game.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall 2'' fits this trope to a T, with a plot that that goes from exploding an island to making bananas tasting like curry.
* An interesting example of a video game Excuse Plot that is ''not'' an excuse for the gameplay is the ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' series, where the time-travelling plot seems to be an excuse to make one giant super-{{pastiche}} of numerous story genres, such as western, horror, cyberpunk, and noir among many others.
* ''Franchise/TombRaider'':
** ''Unfinished Business'' is four bonus levels made with the original ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' engine. Since the designer had no resources to make cutscenes or a new artifact for Lara to find, or any means of telling a story in-game, the player just starts, plays the four levels, and then they just... end. Lara achieves nothing. It's still great fun though. The actual plot is AllThereInTheManual (or online, as the case is).
** The later {{Gaiden Game}}s ''Golden Mask'' and ''the Lost Artifact'' also apply, although they do try and integrate their story a little, and Lara is rewarded with the [=titular=] item.
** While most of the other games at least have some plot behind the locations, even if it's very small, ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' essentially uses this trope too, as, right until the last levels the plot is so slim it essentially amounts to "there are four artifacts located in four separate parts of the world; are you a bad enough gal to find them?"
** Why is Lara breaking into [[spoiler: the church of All Hallows]] and why does she need to find a bunch of secret, completely unrelated areas first?
* In ''VideoGame/BadDudes'', the premise of the game was that the US had recently been hit by a wave of ninja crime, and the White House was their latest target. (As the arcade version phrases it, "RAMPANT NINJA RELATED CRIME THESE DAYS... WHITE HOUSE IS NOT THE EXCEPTION...") This is only really referred to in the opening cutscenes, and the primary goal of the PlayerCharacter was simply to beat everyone up.
* ''VideoGame/SmashTV'''s storyline about an [[DeadlyGame kill-or-be-killed game show]] is largely an excuse to shoot things and rack up points. There ''are'' piles of cash and prizes to be won, and a grand prize (although you get that ''before'' facing the final challenge), but it's not clear how exactly these are implemented...how many "year's supply of meat-s" does one man need, anyway?
* The NES ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}}'' games. Eventually, it became clear that Capcom was having difficulty coming up with new excuses for their latest MissionPackSequel. To elaborate more, starting with ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'' the plot would almost always be [[spoiler:a new villain trying to TakeOverTheWorld would show up, until it would just turn about to be Dr. Wily again.]] ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan5 5]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan6 6]]'' both did the same exact plot, although ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan7 7]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan8 8]]'' changed it up. ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan9 9]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan10 10]]'' went straight back to the old [[spoiler:"it's something else, but then it turns out to be Wily again"]] formula, where it seemed to openly embrace the idea and played the "twist" [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs.]] Fan games followed suit by either doing likewise, changing it up a little, reversing it outright or not having Wily present at all.
* ''Punch Quest'': One day, Punchzerker was sleeping on a hammock between two trees, when an apple fell on his head, and he was knocked to the ground. Looking about, he saw an orc smelling flowers. "No one punches me!" said Punchzerker, racing forward determinedly. Meanwhile, Smashkyrie had been sitting atop the trees, feasting on apples. It was her apple which hit Punchzerker in the head. "Did someone say punch?!" Smashkyrie exclaimed, but it was too late. Punchzerker had breached the fortress nearby, vowing to punch everything in sight. Bravely, she stormed the fortress, following the sounds of punching.
* ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi''. The snake god Orochi has brought the warriors of Three-Kingdoms-era China and Sengoku-period Japan together in the same universe to challenge him. Sure, whatever - all we care about is getting to have the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors together at once.
* The ancient Windows puzzle game ''[=Maxwell's Maniac=]'' was based off a genuine physics thought experiment, known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon Maxwell's Demon]]; the premise being that a magical being could observe individual molecules and sort them to reverse entropy. [[spoiler:He can't.]] This is ubiquitous in shareware games, to the point where it seems like authors compete to come up with the silliest one.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' is essentially "Have a rocket and a few astronauts. Now go into space." All the FlavorText for ship parts and mission contracts adds is "Everyone else is bad at going into space." You don't need to know why toy companies and canning factories need mineral scanners in a specific polar orbit of Moho.

* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' is basically an excuse for busty schoolgirl ninjas to fight each other, use cool "Hidden Ninpo" super-moves with a variety of elemental effect, and take ClothingDamage to showcase even more fanservice. There's a semblance of a story to the first game on [=3DS=], and its sequel on that system actually does have a theme of ToBeLawfulOrGood for the "good" ninjas, but the majority of titles in the franchise are strictly Dynasty Warriors-style gameplay with tanker-loads of fanservice. If that wasn't enough, Akane from ''Dead of Alive'' is a [=DLC=] character in the latter games.
** This is actually lampshaded in the last two entries, ''Estival Versus'' and ''Peach Beach Splash.'' The former keeps the DW-style gameplay, but the latter is literally just an excuse to have a wet t-shirt contest with the girls and varying kinds of water guns.
** This reaches [[UpToEleven its apex]] in ''Peach Ball''; Haruka's experimental potion in the local arcade winds up infecting five of the shinobi, who proceed to act like animals, so they must be restored by an assistant striking their bodies repeatedly with vibrational force, using the titular Peach Ball (which has [[ContrivedCoincidence the right size for a pinball table]]).
* ''VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}'' actually has a somewhat complex plot: The starship ''Arkanoid'' is destroyed by (something) and you escape in the ship ''Vaus'', This leads to bouncing a ball off the ''Vaus'' to destroy blocks because ''Vaus'' is "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkanoid#Plot TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE]]" [--mumble mumble mumble--] DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT "DOH". Well, yes.
* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}: VideoGame/RavingRabbids'' and its sequel: After an opening {{cutscene}} of obscenely high quality, it's all a bunch of unconnected {{minigame}}s.
* ''VideoGame/AlienSwarm''. You're drafted into the army to defeat a swarm of aliens and search for survivors.

* ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament''. You are playing a futuristic BloodSport. Kill everything that moves, try not to die, here is your rocket launcher.
* Videogame/NaziZombies takes this UpToEleven, with stories about ancient [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi experiments,]] TimeTravel, the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, and at one point, ''an old-west era American town that somehow teleported into the middle of Angola following simultaneous Zombie and Nuclear Armageddons.'' Of course, we all know it's just an excuse to shoot loads of zombies in whatever location the developers think is most interesting.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', which has the required ZombieApocalypse {{backstory}}, but it's never really explained, and the developers admitted they didn't want to put in any more plot than that. It's just one big "slaughter anything that's not you or teammates before it slaughters you," with only a few hints in design and dialogue about the characters themselves (though that is slightly expanded outside the game, which mostly focuses on the survivors than the zombies). Yahtzee described the plot thus: "'Here are some zombies' pretty much sums it up." The wall graffiti found in safehouse exists to provide some background info on the setting as well as possible hints about the infection's origins (more so in the sequel).
* ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}''. You're in purgatory. Shoot everything until it stops moving. When it does, the exit opens up (also, Purgatory is really just [[RuleOfCool every cool environment]] the designers had time to come up with, regardless of whether it makes any sense to have a modern military base next to an ancient Persian palace).
* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'':
** ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'': You are thrown into deathmatches by some sadistic gods. As the game's manual put it: "Frag everything that isn't you."
** Every Quake game, usually featuring some sort of AlienInvasion that must be repulsed. [[VideoGame/{{Quake}} The first game]] vacillated on whether "Quake" was ''the enemy or the hero''. Except perhaps ''IV'', in which the plot actually has some relevance. ''II'' tried as well, but the plot was little more than very basic cinematics in between levels.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior'' starts out with you taking down Zilla's men when they try to do a ContractOnTheHitman on you for leaving Zilla Enterprises, but then has you taking them down to avenge Master Leep and save the world. The [[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 2013 remake]] averts this, having a much more involved storyline.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':
** The plot is an explanation for why two armies are at permanent war. Some other information can be found in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]]. For a while, this was the entirety of the game's {{canon}}:
--->"Nine mercenaries have come together for a job. It's the middle-ish part of a century a lot like the one we just had. A simpler time. There are three TV stations, one phone company, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and two holding corporations that secretly control every government on the planet]]. Each corporation administers its half of the world with a multi-disciplined army of paper pushers. For any problem lacking an obvious bureaucratic solution, mercenaries like these are contracted to address the situation through a massive application of force."
** The Excuse Plot for Soldier/Demoman War? Kill more of the other side so you can get the super secret extra unlockable: [[spoiler:a pair of boots that shield you from RocketJump damage]]. (InUniverse, it's because RED Demoman and BLU Soldier became friends and the Administrator 1) didn't want to risk sensitive information being shared among her peons and 2) REALLY doesn't like friendships.)
** With each successive major update, the absurd, tongue-in-cheek backstory of the game has become more elaborate. (The producers note that it's developed the most detailed story of any Creator/{{Valve}} franchise, even more than the plot-oriented ''VideoGame/HalfLife''.) It now involves attempts at achieving {{Immortality}} through technological advancements, family feuds over inheritance, and a [[{{Unobtainium}} mineral element with fantastic properties]] capable of making Australia into the world's dominant power. That, however, is all on the ''[=TF2=]'' website. Load up the game and it's just "work with your teammates, achieve your objectives, shoot everyone dressed in the other color."

* Ditto for ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi Dodonpachi]]''; even TheReveal is something of an excuse. [[TropesAreTools Still pretty awesome though]]. [[spoiler:"See you in hell!"]] ''Donpachi'' and subsequent games are a {{Deconstruction}} of this trope.
* All your trope are belong to ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''. The opening cutscene of the UsefulNotes/PCEngine version is rather different from that of the infamous UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version.
* The official plot of ''VideoGame/RType'' is "Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire!" Later games elaborated on what the Bydo are and why they are attacking, but the games in general still amount to this.

* From ''[[VideoGame/CrystalQuest Crystal Crazy]]'''s instructions: "Although it might be possible to think up some contrived scenario like you're a ship raiding somebody else's crystals while some nasties try to stop you, it wouldn't really be worth it."
* The Kid, protagonist of the freeware game ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'', wants... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin to be The Guy]]. [[NintendoHard Good]] [[PlatformHell luck]], [[KidHero kid]], [[EverythingTryingToKillYou you'll]] [[OneHitPointWonder need]] [[FakeDifficulty it]].
* Freeware game ''[=PixelShips=]'' justifies the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''VideoGame/{{Defender}}'' gameplay with... nanotech, or something. Jeff Minter's ''Andes Attack'' [[AllThereInTheManual justified similar gameplay]] with good aliens fleeing bad aliens by landing on Earth and living with the ancient people there. One of the aliens got bored, and used a timescoop to collect "a UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} and a study Kempston joystick" from the future to play games on. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately]], the bad aliens picked up the RF transmissions from this, and attacked Earth. Plot was never important to Llamasoft games.
* ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'': The King of All Cosmos went on a drunken bender and knocked all the stars out of the sky. You're his son and you have to fix it by gathering balls of roughly equivalent size and mass as replacements.

* ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' has actually been considered to be an outright parody of an Excuse Plot: Conker gets drunk at a pub, wanders off into the night, wakes up hung over in a place he doesn't recognize, and sets off on a quest to get back home. [[spoiler:Meanwhile, the Panther King schemes to kidnap Conker because a red squirrel is the exact height needed to replace the King's broken table leg, which he uses to hold his milk. The plot later thickens as it is revealed that the King's right hand scientist has been ''incubating'' an Franchise/{{Alien}} life-form in the king's stomach, and his attempts to capture Conker are to ensure that the King ''won't go without his milk.'']]
* Every single bit of plot in ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' is just an excuse to let you go and mow through enemies with your gun. [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Contra: Rebirth''.
* Jon Ritman freely admits of ''VideoGame/HeadOverHeels'' that he "made the whole game up then added the bullshit in the last fifteen minutes".
* One of the earliest examples: ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', from 1981, although this only partly counts, since it was one of the first attempts to make an actual story in the game.

** Are you a bad enough plumber to save [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle our princess in another castle]]? started to get averted in later games, though, when the Mario series started to make [[VideoGame/PaperMario witty caricatures of themselves]]. before being played completely straight again starting with the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series (Though some titles like the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series still make fun of the plot device every now and then.)

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' usually averts this, but there are some exceptions.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': [[BlindIdiotTranslation "MANY YEARS AGO PRINCE DARKNESS]] [[SpellMyNameWithAnS "GANNON"]] [[BlindIdiotTranslation STOLE ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH POWER. PRINCESS ZELDA HAD ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH WISDOM. SHE DIVIDED IT INTO 8 UNITS TO HIDE IT FROM "GANNON" BEFORE SHE WAS CAPTURED. GO FIND THE "8" UNITS "LINK" TO SAVE HER."]] They actually tried to justify the DismantledMacGuffin premise by stating that the Triforce of Wisdom was required to defeat Ganon. No explanation as to ''why''. The only indication is that if you enter Ganon's fortress without the completed Triforce, the room immediately after the entrance will have an old man who says "[[BlindIdiotTranslation ONES WHO DOES NOT HAVE TRIFORCE CAN'T GO IN]]" and prevents you from going further. Okay, it's understandable that the NES had limitations, but it's still just a bit unsettling that the real reason you need the completed Triforce is, essentially, "Because I said so!"
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords'' (not to be confused with ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'') is basically your typical ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' plot with ''The Legend of Zelda'' characters. Just substitute Link for Mario, Zelda for Peach, and Vaati for Bowser. And just like Bowser in later ''Mario'' games, [[StalkerWithACrush Vaati even wants to marry Zelda!]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTriForceHeroes'' plays out like a much DenserAndWackier parody of the typical ''Zelda'' plot. Beyond the opening cutscene and the finale where you resolve everything, there's barely any plot there.

* ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'':
** Supposedly, the game is about a war between the Sentinel and the Scourge. Ignoring the [[LittleHeroBigWar Big Hero Little War]] issues, it is little more of an excuse to get a bunch of heroes into teams and beat on each other while trying to reach the InstantWinCondition. There are some bits of {{backstory}} in the item descriptions, but that is all we really get to know about the world's past.
** At one point, main developer Icefrog added a third "neutral" faction to "spice things up", he went as far as making a convocatory to allow players to write the backstory for the characters in the neutral faction. Sometime later, when he was running out of space for placing new heroes he simply deleted the neutral faction and relocated the heroes back into the two main factions, he didn't even brought up the issue, not like anyone cared anyway. [[note]]It should be mentioned that this tied into a feature that required Scourge Heroes to only play on the Scourge side, and Sentinel Heroes to only play on the Sentinel side. But since nobody cared about "lore accuracy", and most players played on a mode that removed that feature, which is part of what led to removal of both "Neutrals" and the "only play on your lore side" feature, we come right back around to Excuse Plot territory.[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'':
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'': Crocodiles have stolen your bananas. Get your bananas back. Cranky Kong had to point this out.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongLand'': Cranky and the Kongs arguing if its predecessor sold because of graphics or gameplay, Cranky tells Donkey and Diddy to save the banana horde again on Game Boy.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'': Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by crocodiles. Are you a bad enough monkey to rescue Donkey Kong?
** ''Videogame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat'': DK wants to be King of the Jungle, so he tracks down and beats up all the biggest animals he can find, claiming their territory until he eventually meets up with the Cactus King, who had brain washed the game's bosses. Not that Donkey cares, he just beats the king up to prove he's the baddest Gorilla in all the land. The [[UsefulNotes/NintendoWii Wii]] UpdatedRerelease rectified that last bit by changing the plot from "DK (is a {{Jerkass}} and) pummels everyone to absolute pulps to prove his superiority" to "Some big, weird animals from distant lands have stolen your bananas. Get your bananas back."
** The original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' game - "Some big, weird animal from a distant land has stolen your girlfriend. Get your girlfriend back." The big weird animal in this case being Donkey Kong, and Mario has to do the saving, so maybe Donkey Kong as a Jerkass makes a bit more sense?

* ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'':
** The Pigs stole the Birds' eggs to eat, and you have to recover them by flinging the Birds with a slingshot at the Pigs' buildings to defeat them.
** ''Angry Birds Rio'' has a slightly more complex plot, the main Birds are captured by bird smugglers and taken to Brazil, and they have to save the other locked Birds and defeat Nigel and his minions.
** ''Angry Birds Space'' has the same plot as the first one, but [[Main/RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]!
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsGo'': The pigs are having a race for cake, the birds come by and see the cake too and also want it. Thus joining in on the racetrack.
** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsEpic'': Same as the first game again, but rather than use a slingshot this time, everyone's {{LARP}}ing for some reason instead.

* Many of the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games rely on "the protagonist needs money!" as an excuse to do missions.
** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' it doesn't even make sense. Claude is betrayed by his girlfriend and is out for revenge. However you will quickly get more money than you'll ever need by just doing main missions, which in the context of the story doesn't bring you any closer to Catalina. Claude could have easily just waited for the bridges to open, asked around town for info on Catalina, then hunted her down.
** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', Tommy was attacked during a drug deal he oversaw for Sonny Forelli, costing Sonny a huge sum of money.
** For the most part averted in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', however during Catalina's missions, Carl remarks that he "seriously needs the paper." It's not made clear exactly how money would help him.
** Even the otherwise good character Victor Vance ends up doing criminal work to help his family in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories''.
** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', [[TheMillstone Roman Bellic]] blows all his money on gambling or gets in debt with criminals, forcing Niko to get more.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'':
*** The main storyline begins with a deconstruction. Once the VillainProtagonist duo has accomplished their initial goal of settling their debt to Madrazo -- which happens very early in the plot -- their only motivation for their continued crime spree is pure greed and self-interest...which also solves the problem of GameplayAndStorySegregation by demonstrating just who would casually run people over and steal cars without a shred of guilt.
*** The Rampages parody the trope. The player must kill as many of a certain character group (gang members, soldiers, etc.) before the time runs out, but unlike with earlier games in the series where the Rampage just starts up, this time they're [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration reframed]] as Trevor having a psychotic episode, [[AxCrazy going on killing sprees]] [[HairTriggerTemper over very minor insults]].
*** In general, GTA V plays with the trope almost every possible way before the end, with subversions, lampshades, straight examples, etc. The characters' motivations vary widely depending on the mission, from the comically thin (e.g. the aforementioned Rampages) to ones that are not excuses at all (e.g. a corrupt government agent forces you to do his dirty work).

* ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'' was designed with this in mind. You're an unnamed misanthropic psychopath who hates the world and everyone in it; go slaughter every innocent person you see.
* In ''Mosaic: Game of Gods'' the God of Chaos is trying to destroy the world because a flower shattered when he touched it and you, the Goddess of Order, have to save it by putting mosaics back together.
* The creators of ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' admit that the plot, which involves the eponymous Cuphead and his brother Mugman losing a bet with the Devil and having to hunt down the Devil's other debtors, is just an excuse for the game's [[BossGame string of boss fights]].
* There is a plot involving a BigBad named Elheil trying to summon otherworldly monsters in ''VideoGame/SummonersWarSkyArena''. However, the main storyline is easily and quickly completed, and most players would forget that it even exists.
* A fangame series called ''VideoGame/HappyTreeFriendsAdventures'' has most of its games' plots summed up as this: A princess bear is kidnapped by [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]], go rescue her. The only exceptions are the spinoff games (except for the Game Boy-styled {{Retraux}}, which uses the same main plot as the main (numbered) games).
* ''VideoGame/{{Kritika}}'' opens with an epic background story about an evil alchemist winning the trust and support of the entire population of Kirenos, before establishing a reign of tyranny under his rule. It is then followed by a brief background story for the character class that the player have picked. None of these background information is ever mentioned in the game again.
* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in the erotic WebGame ''Corruption of Champions''. The sexy encounters are, of course, the main draw of the game, and the main plot thread is just slight enough to qualify for this trope - HornyDevils from another dimension have opened a portal near your home town, and a champion must be sent through it each year to keep them in check on their home turf; are you a bad enough dude(ette) to end the threat once and for all? However, the background plot is very engaging, and the gameplay mechanics make it easy enough to ignore the juicy bits if you're not really in the mood for them.
* The UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} ShootEmUp ''Banshee'' has a very tongue-and-cheek take on the clichéd scenario of Earth facing an AlienInvasion in the year 1999. The introductory text explains that this Earth belongs to an AlternateUniverse without color television, and that the Styx [[YouKilledMyFather killed our hero's father]] "for refusing to invent the microwave oven."

* The story to ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor2010'''s sequel, ''Warfighter'', is basically "generic Muslim terrorist with about five seconds of actual screen time gets his hands on some vaguely defined "new explosive" which will apparently be very dangerous". The majority of the game consists of loosely connected missions of "following leads", which are pretty much just excuses to fly around the world and blow up vastly outclassed {{Mooks}}; the fact that most of these missions are all VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory means the whole thing will have an excuse plot by definition. For example, one mission randomly has you play as a sniper during the real-life events of ''Film/CaptainPhillips'', but this is totally irrelevant to the plot and is never mentioned again. There's also a subplot about the main character not spending enough time with his wife and kid, but [[RomanticPlotTumor it's totally disconnected to the main narrative]] and ends up going nowhere.
* ''VideoGame/CookServeDelicious'': You have to help a dilapidated restaurant climb through the star ratings by serving enough orders and making enough money. {{Minigame|Game}}s ensue.
* Misa's mission in ''VideoGame/MitsurugiKamuiHikae'' is to stop her friend Suzuka, who has gotten her hands on and become possessed by an evil weapon called the Demon Blade, which feeds on the life force of anyone who wields it until there is nothing left. Misa has to fight demons and evil cyborgs in order to get to her.
* In stark contrast to the rest of the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, the "story" of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' is virtually nonexistent. A scant handful of cutscenes at the beginning and the very end are all we get. There's barely even any ''voice acting'' throughout the main game; the majority of the main characters' spoken dialogue is actually found in the optional audio tapes you collect or otherwise obtain throughout the game.
* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'': A HuskyRusskie BoisterousBruiser loves fighting tournaments, so he decides to hold one. Then a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere attacks after the championship battle.
* In ''The Rosebud Condominium'' "The Boss" wants you to build the tallest tower in the world. Why? Who cares when it's just an excuse to search multiple floors for hidden objects.
* ''VideoGame/JustCause''. Your theoretical goal of "overthrow [thinly-veiled parallel to a real-world dictator]" mostly exists to put you in a small nation and give you free rein to blow up basically everything with whichever new toys the game has seen fit to provide you with.
-->'''[[WebVideo/OutsideXbox Jane Douglas:]]''' That's the story, but to be honest, playing a ''Just Cause'' game for the story is like getting attached to anything destructible on the island of [[VideoGame/JustCause3 Medici]] - that is to say, a total waste of time.
* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'': The plot doesn't unfold until the end of the second hub, where it's revealed that the black vans, wasp-shaped cameras, and "new and improved" Buzz Cola are all being used by [[ThoseTwoGuys Kang and Kodos]] as part of a TV show where they film the antics of the people of Springfield. Then it turns out that the modified Buzz can reanimate the dead, leading to the last hub where the town faces a ZombieApocalypse.
** The plot of ''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'' arcade game by Creator/{{Konami}} makes no sense, especially when you consider the continuity of [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons the show]]. It begins with the titular family taking a walk in Springfield. As they walk in front of a jewelry store, Smithers rushes out of said store after stealing a diamond for Mr. Burns. He bumps into Homer, which causes the diamond he stole to fly in the air, landing in Maggie's mouth in place of her pacifier. Instead of just grabbing the diamond, Smithers abducts Maggie along with it, runs off, and the remaining Simpsons give chase to rescue her. Now, anyone familiar with ''The Simpsons'' knows that Mr. Burns is the richest man in Springfield and even though he'd love to get richer, he wouldn't send his personal assistant to orchestrate a jewelry heist all over a single diamond. And Smithers [[OutOfCharacterMoment isn't so lowly]] that he'd agree to such theft, all while kidnapping a child. That's not even getting into the strange things that happen along the way, one of which is how they ''share a [[DreamSequence dream]]'', which is the setting of Stage 6. This game's weirdness would fit right in with the ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episodes, minus the horror. And most importantly, there's the fact that [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking they were taking a walk and not driving in one of their cars]]!
* ''VideoGame/KaoTheKangaroo'' starts off with the vague excuse of Kao escaping from his cage and then going on a quest to save his kangaroo friends, and then he's thrown into a collection of levels that rarely are connected to each other.
* In the ten-second introduction to ''Cyber Chaser'' the GiantRobot boss sticks its claw in the middle of the road and the title character crashes his car into it, apparently making him mad enough to chase after the thing.
* ''VideoGame/BodyBlows'': Some fighters are battling each other in a tournament hosted by a guy named Max (who is revealed to be a robot). The sequel, Body Blows Galactic, is even more blatant in that it is about two of those fighters from the last game challenging a bunch of aliens to prove who is the strongest in the universe. Averted by the last game, Ultimate Body Blows, due to having no plot at all.
* ''VideoGame/ClarencesBigChance'': Averted. Though the plot isn't very deep, it doesn't just get forgotten immediately after the beginning.
* ''VideoGame/DragonMaster'': In this South Korean-made ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' knockoff, an otherworldly demonic being named [[BigBad Garner]] has kidnapped a woman and you have to fight your way through numerous opponents to confront him and rescue the woman.
* ''VideoGame/ChivalryMedievalWarfare'' is set in the kingdom of Agatha, where the evil (and vaguely communist) Mason Order are trying to overthrow the feudal order, and the loyal and brave Agatha Knights must fight to stop them and keep peace in the... Oh, whatever, just go chop some heads off!
* ''VideoGame/ArthursNightmare'': You're an embittered ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' fan who dreams about having to collect Woogles[[note]]a once-popular toy from an episode of the show[[/note]] in Arthur's house while avoiding its murderous residents.
* In ''VideoGame/AkaneTheKunoichi'', the plot is deliberately simple (you're rescuing someone), and there's no text or speech -- just a short, dialogue-free cutscene at the beginning and another at the end. The fact that Akane is in love with Goro, for example, is just communicated by a rising column of floaty heart symbols.
* ''VideoGame/HasBeenHeroes'': The two remaining heroes from the [[TheTeam Epic Band of Heroes]] and [[SixthRanger a rogue]] are recruited by the king to take his daughters to school.
* ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' has a plot that is [[RecycledScript recycled in every game]] with few modifications here and there. Basically, some evil geneticist/corrupt executive wants to cull the Earth of its humans and creates a bunch of zombies to ravage [[SequelEscalation a mansion/city/the world]], prompting a squad of [[SharpDressedMan sharp-dressed agents]] (part of an organization whose [[WhatExactlyIsHisJob full job description is never really elaborated on]]) to hunt them down. Add in [[{{Narm}} hilariously bad voice acting]] and questionable dialogue choices and you get the feeling that the creators cobbled up a premise as hors d'oeuvre to the ACTUAL meat of the series: a fun rail shooter. Then again, when the main purpose of the series is for players to pay an average 200 yen (around $1.7 as of 2018) for a chance at the game, there's really no reason to come up with a good story.
* ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven Megamix'' has a story that boils down to "Some creature named Tibby fell from the sky and needs to return to Heaven World". All cutscenes after that are just characters asking you to play rhythm games (that are unrelated to the problem at hand, with few exceptions) in order to restore their flow so they can open the next door. Tibby catches on pretty quickly that all problems can be solved by restoring flow.
* ''VideoGame/MrShifty'' is about stealing mega-plutonium from an evil organization. The game never gives you more detail than that.
* The ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' series is very light on plot. Most of it in the first game is simply an excuse to get from point A to point B and kill everything that moves, to the point where Wikipedia has noted that the "plot" can be disregarded without consequence. There's a little more story in ''2'' and ''3: BFE'', but not enough to reach the point where you'd be missing anything by skipping it.
* All of the so called "big three of Build Engine games" were light on plot and can almost entirely be described with one or two sentances.
** ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'': Aliens have invaded earth and are stealing our babes! Are you a bad enough dude to stop them?
** ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior1997'': Japanese ninja with a Chinese name goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after his former boss acted dishonorably, killed his master and now tries to TakeOverTheWorld.
** ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'': AxCrazy Wild West gunslinger goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after his god betrays him and kills his lover and best friends.
* ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'''s plot can be summarized as "[[Franchise/LooneyTunes Elmer Fudd]] commands you to RiseFromYourGrave and rescue his daughter."
* The first and second ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' games have this until very late into the labyrinth. Subverted with the third game, where there ''is'' a deeper story, but you aren't going to get the full details without looking. Averted from the fourth game onward (barring Classic Mode for the remakes of the first and second games), where they have a full story.

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'': An evil scientist is turning cute forest animals into robots; stop him!
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'': Evil scientist is doing it again; stop him, with the help of a mutant fox!
** ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'': Evil scientist has duped an echidna into helping him; stop both of them! Apparently, the in-game plot was kept to a minimum in the Genesis games so that Sega of Japan and Sega of America would be free to make up mutually contradictory backstories, tailored to their target markets. Then came the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' games and the addition of an actual plot to the series (and with it, the Western backstory was almost entirely rendered CanonDiscontinuity).

** Thankfully completely averted for [[EvenBetterSequel the sequel]]. ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' has a deep and engaging plot, a strong cast of characters (including a villain you'll love to hate), and quite a bit of expansion on the few plot points from the first game.

* ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'''s plot can be summarized as "[[Franchise/LooneyTunes Elmer Fudd]] commands you to RiseFromYourGrave and rescue his daughter."

** ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'': Aliens have invaded earth and are stealing our babes! Are you bad enough dude to stop them?

** ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'': AxCrazy Wild West gunslinger goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after his god betrays him and kills his lover and best friends.

* The ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' series is very light on plot. Most of it in the first game is simply an excuse to get from point A to point B and kill everything that moves, to the point where Wikipedia has noted that the "plot" can be disregarded without consequence. There's a little more story in ''2'' and ''3: BFE'', but not enough to reach the point where you'd be missing anything by skipping it.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' is explained as Teddie setting up the tournament and inviting all the characters to see who is the best Persona user. Oh, and some of the characters from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' want in on the fun too. [[spoiler: Except not. The Teddie who set up the tournament is an impostor (as is the commentator, Rise) and the real one has gone missing. That Teddie is the shadow of a girl who was thrown into the TV, and the tournament is her dungeon. And the P3 characters are there investigating the theft of one of Aigis' sister units...]]
** For that matter, ''VideoGame/Persona4DancingAllNight'' is just so players can watch their preferred waifu or husbando get their groove on.

* ''VideoGame/SubTerra'' has ''two'' excuse plots. The one on Spiderweb Software's website is fairly simple: there's a mine, you want to steal the gems, and the miners set traps to prevent you from doing precisely that. The one in the game itself explains the main character as being a scientist with ultimately heroic intentions, but neglects to explain why he needs to collect gems.

** ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' follows this tradition. You wake up on Mars to find it overrun by demons; go RIP AND TEAR through all of them. It's also deliberately invoked by the devs (there are very few actual cutscenes) and even lampshaded by Samuel Hayden. Perfectly illustrated in an early scene in which Hayden sends the player character an urgent radio message in which he begins to explain the plot to the player character... at which point the irritated player character pushes the receiver away and wanders off while he's still talking to find more things to kill.

* ''VideoGame/MrShifty'' is about stealing mega-plutonium from an evil organization. The game never gives you more detail than that.

* ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven Megamix'' has a story that boils down to "Some creature named Tibby fell from the sky and needs to return to Heaven World". All cutscenes after that are just characters asking you to play rhythm games (that are unrelated to the problem at hand, with few exceptions) in order to restore their flow so they can open the next door. Tibby catches on pretty quickly that all problems can be solved by restoring flow.

Here are the {{Excuse Plot}}s in video games.