Video game terms

Common video game terms.

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 MegaMan Battle Network series.

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 a extra challenge, like Proto Man in Mega Man 3 and Vile in Mega Man X8.

Checkpoint
Checkpoint is the local where the player begins the stage when a life is lost, so the player don't has to restart the stage. In the Mega Man games, the hallway before a boss room is a common checkpoint area.

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 must simply be avoided.

Game Over
Game Over is a message that appears when the game ends with a negative outcome, usually when the player's character lost all lives and died.

Continue
When the player dies, some games allows to Continue the game from a certain point.

Head-up display
Head-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.

Item
An item is a game object designed to produce an effect when picked up or activated by the player. Most are beneficial, 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
Non-player character, NPC for short, is a character from the game that can't be controlled by the player.

Password
In early Mega Man games, a password is given to continue the game.