Video game terms

This page is a list of common video game terms.

Action Screen
The Action Screen (アクション画面) is the screen where the player controls a character to navigate through stages and fight against enemies.

Boss
A boss is an enemy from the game that is stronger than the enemies faced before him. Bosses are faced by the player in the end of stages or certain parts of the story, and a final boss must be defeated in the end of the game. Some games contain optional bosses that the player don't need to defeat to proceed in the game, like PharaohMan.EXE in the first two games from the Mega Man Battle Network series. Some bosses from the series were created in the Boss character contest.

Some games also contain a sub-boss (also known as miniboss and midboss), a boss that is usually weaker than the main boss of the area, or a normal boss that add an extra challenge, like Proto Man in Mega Man 3 and Vile in Mega Man X8.

Checkpoint
Checkpoint is the local point where the player begins the stage when a life is lost, so the player doesn't have to restart the stage from the beginning. In the Mega Man games, the hallway before a boss room is a common checkpoint area. In Mega Man Powered Up, checkpoints are represented by a Retry Flag (リトライフラグ), an orb that releases a flag when touched. In the cancelled game Mega Man Universe, checkpoints were represented by a blue robot.

Currency
A fictional currency is used for several purposes, such as buying, trading, and selling items. Zenny is the currency from the Mega Man games, but P Chips, Screws, Energy Crystals, Refractors, and Bug Frags also serve a similar role.

Enemy
An enemy is a character from a game who is designed to cause damage or hinder the player character in some other way, such as restricting their movement or causing the area to go dark. Most of them can be killed by one of the player's weapons, but others are indestructible and must simply be avoided.

Game Over
Game Over is a common video game event where the player's character is defeated, resulting in the end of the current stage and, in some cases, of the game. This usually occurs when the Life Energy gauge is depleted and there are no Extra Lives left, but on rare occassions it may be caused by other reasons. In most games a screen with the message "game over" is displayed when it occurs.

When the player's character is defeated, some games allows to Continue the game from a certain point, usually from the beginning of the current stage. The amount of continues vary between game, some having unlimited continues and others having none.

Heads-Up Display
Heads-Up Display, HUD for short, is the interface method by which some of the game's informations can be seen by the player during the game, the most common being the character's health.

In addition, the HUD also sometimes refers to the actual visual perspective from various robot characters. A notable example of this is with the ending for Vile Mode, which showcased Vile's perspective after he was hit by X's charge shot, which showed a red-toned background and glitched graphics due to Vile being heavily damaged.

Item
An item is a game object designed to produce an effect when picked up or activated by the player. Most are beneficial, like recovering health and energy, although "power-downs" exist in some games, such as Poison Mushrooms from the Mario series and Eggman items from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Non-Player Character
A Non-Player Character, NPC for short, is a character from the game that can't be controlled by the player.

Save and Load
Long games have a save feature to allow the player to stop and continue later by loading the saved game data.

Password
Passwords were used to record the game's progress in the NES, SNES, and Game Boy Mega Man games. To continue from a specific point, players must insert the right password in the Password Screen. The passwords are made of dots, icons, or numbers, depending of the game.

Stage Select Screen
The Stage Select Screen (ステージセレクト画面) is a recurring screen in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series that allows players to select the stages available in any order.

Sub Screen
Sub Screen (サブ画面), also known by other names and nicknames such as "Pause Screen", is the screen that appears when the player presses a button (usually the "Pause" button) in the Action Screen. In the Mega Man franchise, the screen was originally named Cockpit (コックピット) and only occupied part of the screen. In Mega Man 4 onward it became the Weapon Select Screen (武器選択画面), occupying the whole screen. This menu displays the player's Life Energy, Extra Lives, and allows to change Special Weapons. In later games it also included items and options like Tanks, Sub Tanks, and Escape.

With the inclusion of more items in games like Mega Man 7 and Mega Man IV, the screen was divided into the Weapon Select Screen and Item Select Screen (アイテム選択画面), the two screens being collectively known as the Equipment Select Screen (装備選択画面) in Mega Man & Bass.

In the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series, the screen became the Sub Screen, which is divided into different screens depending of the game: the Status and Options screens in all games; Elf List, Form, EX Skills, and Chips in the Mega Man Zero series; and Item and Mission screens in the Mega Man ZX series. The name Sub Screen is also used in Mega Man Xtreme 2 and Mega Man X: Command Mission.

The Sub Screen is named Menu Screen in Mega Man Legends and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. In Mega Man Legends 2 and Mega Man X7 it is named Status Screen.

Title Screen
The Title Screen, also known as the Menu Screen, is one of the first screens the player sees when starting a game. It displays the game's title and the Main Menu, with the options to start a new game or access a screen to continue the game, like the Password Screen and the Save Data Screen. Additional screens seen after the Title Screen include the Player Select Screen and the Mode Select Screen.

Some Title Screens also contain additional options in the Main Menu, like an Options menu to change game configurations, a gallery, database, challenges, and minigames.