Welcome to the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes, a brand new series that will run daily between November 24 and December 25. Join us as we discuss the hazardous ramifications of some of your favorite cheat codes. Today we're losing our heads over Sega's weird obsession with decapitations. Did you know that you can literally remove your head in Super Monaco GP on the Sega Genesis? It's true, and it's part of the newest episode of the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes.


Part of what I've always liked about Sega is that they weren't afraid to go dark. While Nintendo promoted cartoon characters living in colorful worlds, Sega gave their developers the freedom to explore more mature material while simultaneously perfecting a morose sense of humor. This gave us everything from Chakan: The Forever Man to Eternal Champions to Decap Attack, a game in which our hero literally throws his severed head at enemies.

Believe it or not, Decap Attack was not the only 16-bit Genesis game from Sega to feature decapitations. In one of the strangest cheat codes ever injected into a video game, fans of Super Monaco GP were able to literally remove the character's head and display it like a trophy. That's right; one of Sega's earliest 16-bit racing games features a headless driver.

You can pull off this bizarre trick by holding the A, B and C buttons as you cross any finish line. Instead of holding up a trophy, you'll be showing off your severed head. Thankfully, the whole affair isn't as gruesome as it sounds. There's no blood to be found and it's somehow less graphic than what we saw a few years later in Mortal Kombat.

But even if it's not especially gross, I do find the implications of this code to be concerning. Do we really want our race car drivers to be able to remove their head as a gag? Forget the safety concerns of having a loose head bouncing around after a wreck, I worry that this could open up a new type of kidnapping. Who needs to take the whole body when all you need is the head? This is setting up a terrible future where some evil madman is keeping all of our loose heads in jars. I don't care how cool it looks; my head is staying firmly on my body.