It has come to our attention that you have fallen down one of the many bottomless pits that inexplicably litter almost every platform game ever made.  First of all, let me be the first to applaud you on your performance up to that point.  You were able to make it most of the way through the level without taking a single point of damage and that’s something to be proud of.  In truth, you only made a small, understandable mistake and one that was easy to make (especially considering we designed everything around the pit specifically so that you would fall into it).  However, falling down a pit is a special kind of mistake that warrants the same punishment as several of the other ordinary, bone-headed mistakes that you might make, which is why we had to send you back to the beginning of the level.  We regret that none of the many power-ups that you had been dutifully collecting could save you from this fate.

You made the wrong mistake.

Unfortunately, bottomless pits in platform games are a genre convention that we are powerless to affect and they have to kill you instantly because if they didn’t then the surreal fantasy worlds we create would be marginally less believable (so don’t give us any of that Sly Cooper crap).  It is, for some reason, very important that there be a category of hazards whose consequences are completely divorced from your performance in the rest of the level, and that’s that.

Thank you for playing our game, and we look forward to needlessly frustrating you in the future.

Your’s Truly,

99% Of Console Game Developers