7 Hilarious Anti-Cheat Punishments in Video Games

There’s always going to be cheaters in video games. Whether you use an aimbot, glitch the game in your advantage, or simply pirate the game, cheaters are hard to stop. Thankfully, some developers included anti-cheat punishments to combat these issues. Let’s dive into the best, most hilarious anti-cheat punishments in video games.
7. The Sims

With a game like The Sims, it’s actually encouraged that you cheat. The Sims offers up the best cheats to either offer a substantial amount of money or hacks to decorate more accurately. But what they don’t allow is pirated copies being distributed for free online. The developers created one of the best anti-cheat punishments for this. When opening up the pirated game and triggering the censoring graphic from showering or using the bathroom, the censor pixelated effect will slowly take over the entire screen. What’s even better is that when players contact EA’s tech support because of this issue, they’re exposing themselves to pirating the game.
6. Animal Crossing

While there aren’t that many actual cheaters in Animal Crossing, many players often avoid saving the game before logging off to ensure they get the desired outcome of the game. And before auto-save was a thing, there was a cranky mole that would encourage you to save. Forgetting to save every once in a while wasn’t a problem, and had the mole, Mr. Resetti, pop up on your next load-in and rant and scold. But the more you did it, the longer the lectures were. And if you kept up with the trend, he would even make you type out an apology in Wild World.
5. Fall Guys

For a game that’s supposed to be a little competitive, but overall a fun experience, there are a lot of cheaters. Thankfully, the developers made quick work of the cheaters, creating a hilarious and well-deserved punishment. The Cheater Island is a special map that is specifically designed for players who have been cheating, confining them all in the same map to play against each other. With everyone using cheats on the same map, it became a frustrating battle for the players.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Both in the original and remastered versions of Link’s Awakening, the game included a hilarious anti-cheat punishment for Link if players chose to take advantage of things and steal from a shopkeeper. If players decided to shoplift, throughout the rest of the game, the NPCs referred to Link as “THIEF” in place of his name. And if players stop by the same shop that they stole from, they’re met with a shocking surprise. The store owner greets Link with a lightning blast that instantly kills Link.
3. Grand Theft Auto 5

GTA has a lot of hackers, and while many are perfect additions to the game that aren’t too worrisome, there are some that developers put a stop to. When developers found that hackers were importing a vehicle from the single-player GTA 5 game into the multiplayer game, they made it so that when you try to get into the vehicle, it suddenly blows up, killing the character.
2. The Witcher 3

For players who used a cheat to quickly gain money by killing cows, The Witcher 3 developed a hidden gem to counteract that hack. The hack essentially saw that players killed and looted cows, and could keep up that for a long time, as they respawn quickly, gaining almost an infinite money supply. The Bovine Defense Force Initiative is one of the best anti-cheat punishments, as it’s unleashed when players have killed seven cows, causing a terrifying monster to protect the poor animals that players were tormenting.
1. Call of Duty

Aimbot is a serious problem when it comes to shooters. The frustrating experience can ruin most players’ gameplay, and oftentimes will cause players to avoid a game. Call of Duty had one of the best anti-cheat punishments to avoid this issue. For players who used an aimbot, they simply ensured the cheater’s gun dealt exactly 0 damage. This resulted in various YouTube and streamer videos of players complaining that their weapons weren’t working, even though they weren’t missing a single shot, exposing them as cheaters.
