Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies is my kind of alphabet book. With distinctive illustrations and rhymes, the book tells the story of 26 children and how they died. For example: “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.” I have to admit, I am rather klutzy.

No one in the morbid book bites it from disease; all the children die in bizarre methods like being sucked dry by leeches or being attacked by bears. The concept transfers wonderfully to video games, and the creators at Brentalfloss used The Gashlycrumb Tinies as inspiration to make a series featuring video game character deaths: The Game Over Tinies.

Characters in games meet their ends in a variety of weird ways already: falling, getting squished, or being sliced and diced. Brentalfloss chose 26 targets for their Game Over Tinies and illustrated them in Gorey-esque drawings. They didn’t have to strech much to come up with weird endings. The line-up of amusing deaths feature fan favorites such as Bowser, Ecco, Sonic, and Zelda.

Brentalfloss’ website seems to be down, but you can view the entirety of the Game Over Tinies set to music in this glorious video:

Or get an up-close look at deaths A-F:

You can purchase a 12″ x 18″ print featuring the entire alphabet of video game character deaths at Level Up Studios for $9.99. It’s not exactly a motivational poster, but it will probably help you get through the day.

Can you think of any rhyming deaths for your favorite video game characters? Share ’em in the comments.

HT: io9