Weird video game trend
In the 80's the kidnapped girlfriend was all the rage. However I count three different series where the girlfriend was killed off in the second game: Double Dragon II, Ghouls n' Ghosts, and Ninja Gaiden 2. (She comes back in Ghouls n' Ghosts, though.) Is this sort of like the modern comic book trope of killing off characters to make your story seem more serious? It was just as lame, either way.