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A bad ending occurs when the player finishes a video game but is not completely successful for some reason. For example, in the arcade version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, failure to defeat the game's end boss M. Bison at the 10th and final stage results in an ending where the player character is placed in a machine and his/her power is used to destroy a city. Most bad endings are achieved by being defeated in a certain fight, but some cases are simply glorified Game Over screens.
Generally speaking, in a "bad ending", the player has reached an end-point of the game, and has technically won, but the victory is incomplete, and, in some cases, isn't much of a victory at all. The Sonic games on Genesis and Game Gear are prime examples. A bad ending is earned by failing to gain all available Chaos Emeralds. In the Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, for example, Sonic is trying to rescue his friend Tails from the clutches of Dr. Eggman. If Sonic has 5 Chaos Emeralds by the time he defeats Silver Sonic, Silver Sonic will then yield the 6th emerald without any further dispute. If not, he cannot continue on and must abandon his quest. In the credits, Tails is presumed to be dead). In Sonic CD, Sonic must get all seven time stones, or he cannot earn the good future in the final boss stage, Metallic Madness 3. Also, in the ending movies, the Little Planet reappears tethered to Sonic's world after previously detaching when the last boss was beaten.
A bad ending is similar to a false ending, although with the latter, the player still continues with the story.