Trigger Happy the opponent, while severe blows to a limb will disable him. The spectacle of two wonderfully animated virtual fighters in beautiful oriental robes shuffling about a cherry-tree garden on their knees because leg injuries mean that they can no longer stand is hugely amusing. The wittiest use of the “health” paradigm yet seen is in Metal Gear Solid (1998), an exploration game that initiated its own sub-genre, the “sneak-’em-up.” The player has access to rafts of guns and bombs, but if she simply runs about firing, the guards will call for reinforcements and quickly go in for a kill. The gameplay necessarily becomes stealthy: guards and security cameras must be avoided wherever possible. In the game, the player controls a soldier, Solid Snake, who can be made to smoke a cigarette. The game provides the mandatory tobacco health warning, and while Snake is puffing away, his health meter slowly goes down. If you smoke for long enough, health reaches a minimal sliver on the bar, but it is impossible in the game to commit suicide by cigarette. This raises an important point. The programmers of Metal Gear Solid have unfortunately not provided the option of smoking several cigarettes at once, or eating a whole pack, which would almost certainly kill you. It
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