Spoilers ahead: for the puzzle and the movies/games
This page reveals all categories and answers for this puzzle. It also discusses plot details, story endings, and other spoilers for some of the movies/games shown.
easy
Last player standing
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100 players drop in. The zone closes. One survives. The battle royale format became one of the defining gaming genres of the past decade, and these four titles are the games that built and popularised it.
medium
Classic 1v1 fighting game franchises
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Before open worlds and battle royales, the 1v1 fighting game was the competitive format. These four franchises defined how fighting games work: the health bar, the special move, the combo system. Each franchise has been running for more than 25 years.
hard
Essentially a one-person project
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tricky
Title names the character AND what they are
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Each game title includes both the protagonist's given name and their species or creature type. You know exactly who you're playing and what kind of being they are before the title screen fades. The misdirect is obvious: these look like classic 90s animal mascot games. They are. But the real connection is the naming convention, and Ecco the Dolphin breaks the genre assumption entirely.