History MediumAwareness / VideoGames

* VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth has Eltnum from the VideoGame/MeltyBlood franchise star as a guest fighter. She is essentially a walking fourth wall break with a superiority complex during dialogue, and an inferiority complex during monologues, that takes every opportunity to remind her opponents of her status in the industry, confusing and exasperating them in the process. Special mention goes to her first interaction with Hyde:

* Oh my, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''... It starts when the Arms-Tech president forgot Meryl's codec frequency, but reminds Snake that there's a screenshot on the back of the game's CD case that shows the correct number. Snake notices that the BackgroundMusic has stopped playing, and shortly after Psycho Mantis talks with you about the savegames on the memory card of your UsefulNotes/PlayStation. There are ''many'' more examples, like in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' when [[spoiler:Snake returns to the location of the first game.]] Otacon informs him that he has reached the point where he has to change to CD #2, but then remembers that the [=PS3=] uses Blu-Ray and changing the disc is no longer necessary.

* ''VideoGame/EatLeadTheReturnOfMattHazard'' is all over this trope.

* Medium Awareness is a running theme in Creator/HideoKojima's works: For instance, one of funniest moments in his previous game ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'' occurs when the main character's RobotBuddy hears a faint ticking sound in an empty warehouse, and tells him to turn up the volume on his TV to hear it. Naturally, the sound is coming from a bomb, and the player character dashes out of the building just as the bomb goes off, leaving his ears ringing... obviously, his RobotBuddy quips, because he left the sound turned up on his TV.

* Oh my, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''... It starts when the Arms-Tech president forgot Meryl's codec frequency, but reminds Snake that there's a screenshot on the back of the game's CD case that shows the correct number. Snake notices that the BackgroundMusic has stopped playing, and shortly after Psycho Mantis talks with you about the savegames on the memory card of your UsefulNotes/PlayStation. There are ''many'' more examples, like in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' when [[spoiler:Snake returns to the location of the first game.]] Otacon informs him that he has reached the point where he has to change to CD #2, but then remembers that the [=PS3=] uses Blu-Ray and changing the disc is no longer necessary.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' Snake states that he had to use "First Person View" to spot an object. Apparently he normally has a third-person view of his surroundings.
** There are several instances of this trope in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' when you reach the Arsenal Gear. At some point, the colonel says you have been playing the game for too long.

* ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'': If you choose "Stealth" in the [[spoiler:Relentless Bounty Hunter/International Rescue Operation]] route, it will lead you to [[NonStandardGameOver Fail Screen]] because when Henry attempts to sneak below the Toppat guard, the guard will notice the ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'''s UI of "Sneak increased to 42".

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' one of the tips on Sturgeon's wall advises the player not stay up all night playing the game. Also, if you hit Orca 999 times in the sword training minigame, he will ask if your left index finger is numb (from L-targeting him).

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' features a bit of this. Near the end of the mission "Emergency Situation", the boss winds up fighting the default player character from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'', all of their voices regard him as a WorthyOpponent in an unsurprised deadpan, and when two of them show up at once, the Boss asks why and Kinzie says that it's the multiplayer character. At the very end, the Boss wants to stay in the simulation to fight a [[EliteMook Warden]] because "I still have an empty slot in my power menu, I wanna fill it with something!"

* ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' have you enter your real name partway through the game, for reasons that become clear and brilliantly pulled-off near the end.
** Another instance in ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'' involves gameplay tutorial. When characters take damage in combat, their HP gauge counts down to the appropriate number one point at a time, rather than subtracting it all at once. One result is that, if a character receives mortal damage he/she won't die until it counts down to 0, so if they're healed during that time, they'll be ok. When a character explains this to you, [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits he calls it your HP meter at first]] and then back-pedals, saying "uh..I mean your life force."

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' is this. In the side-scroller games, [[IdleAnimation he will get very impatient and give the player an annoyed look if the player does nothing]]. In the 360/[=PS3=] versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', he will watch his score for the stage get tallied up. In the Wii version of ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', he will call either Captain Jelly or the Frigate Orcan the BBBE[[note]][[Main/FunWithAcronyms Best Boss Beating Ever]][[/note]] and can destroy the scores in an attempt to obtain extra lives. In ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', he responds to the question "What is your end goal?" with some LiteralistSnarking: "Eh, it varies. [[LevelGoal Sometimes it's a spinning sign, sometimes it's a big ol' ring.]]"

* The fighting game based on ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' features the character Hol Horse, whose partner has a Stand named The Hanged Man that can only materialize through reflections. In one of his super moves, Hol Horse shoots the screen so The Hanged Man can attack his opponent through the broken glass.

** There's also the NI character Asagi, whose shtick is this. After losing her original game due to being a BonusBoss in ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', she now goes around the NI multiverse trying to pull a HostileShowTakeover on all the games she feature in. This is usually heavily confusing to the games' actual protagonists, who don't understand what she's on about.

* The Mojo stage of the Sega Genesis ''VideoGame/XMen1993'' game gives the player a time limit to reach the end of the stage. Once there, the player receives a message that he needs to reset the computer core to escape the level. This puzzle is solved by hitting the Reset button on the Genesis.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' is this. In the side-scroller games, [[IdleAnimation he will get very impatient and give the player an annoyed look if the player does nothing]]. In the 360/[=PS3=] versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', he will watch his score for the stage get tallied up. In the Wii version of ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', he will call either Captain Jelly or the Frigate Orcan the BBBE[[note]][[Main/FunWithAcronyms Best Boss Beating Ever]][[/note]] and can destroy the scores in an attempt to obtain extra lives.

* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series in general gleefully demolishes the fourth wall at every opportunity, but there's one notable part in ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor The Thousand-Year Door]]'' where a doppelganger [[GrandTheftMe steals your identity and voice]], and you have to guess his name in order to get it back. If you already ''know'' his name ([[spoiler:Doopliss]]) from a previous playthrough or by looking it up, you would think that you could just enter it into the name-entry screen and [[SequenceBreaking sequence break]] the chapter, but the doppelganger has ''[[InterfaceScrew removed one of the letters needed to spell his name from the text entry screen and hidden it]]'', so you need to go track it down first before you can give the correct answer.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' 4, as the Koopa Kids explain the rules for the "Darts of Doom" minigame, one of the Koopa Kids mentions the A button, whereupon the other one adds: "A! That's the green one!"

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' is this. In the side-scroller games, [[IdleAnimation he will get very impatient and give the player an annoyed look if the player does nothing]]. In the 360/[=PS3=] versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', he will watch his score for the stage get tallied up. In the Wii version of ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', he will call the Rotatatron the BBBE[[note]][[Main/FunWithAcronyms Best Boss Bashing Ever]][[/note]] and will destroy the scores in an attempt to obtain extra lives.