Vent Physics



Sometimes, Jump Physics aren't enough to give you the vertical boost you need in a video game level. That's when conveniently placed air vents could come in handy—just be sure that they're switched on first. There may also be fans to blow you sideways.

If you're much smaller than the environment, being able to hover over air vents makes sense. In other cases, just trust that the vents are powerful enough to keep you buoyant.

See also Gusty Glade where there are no fans visible. One of the ways to make a Spring Jump.

Action-Adventure Games

 * Grasstown in Cave Story has a number of such fans to help you get up to otherwise out-of-the-way places.
 * The 3D The Legend of Zelda games since Ocarina of Time have used giant fans for this purpose. Wearing the Iron Boots will keep Link from being blown around and even let him advance through the gust. (It's best not to think about what would really happen if you tried this.)
 * The Simpsons: Hit & Run has a few of these to boost you farther than your Double Jump can go. Homer says "I feel like I'm a candy wrapper in an updraft!"
 * Raziel from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver can do this by spreading his wings over air vents. This is necessary for several puzzles.

Edutainment Games

 * Even though it was an educational game about physics, Super Solvers: Gizmos & Gadgets! featured air vents as a way to progress through the platforming sections.

First-Person Shooter

 * In Half-Life, there's one area where Gordon has to turn on a big fan, which will propel him up to the ceiling (yet despite falling up bout 100 feet, he's not hurt). Oddly enough, the boards that block the hole on the ceiling simply fall down when they're smashed, unaffected by the upwards wind.
 * But Freeman's Mind claims that he got the breath knocked out of him upon impact with the boards.
 * "I though you had to be wearing MC Hammer pants and a poncho for that to work!"
 * The HEV suit has springs on its legs.
 * Halo 2 and 3 multiplayer. If a map is supposed to be human in design (as opposed to Covenant), it'll have vents that push you to the next floor. Bungie did this because Ladder Physics are just problematic and silly. The third installment introduced the Man Cannon, capable of launching you forward for about a hundred yards. The Covenant maps have actual gravity lifts instead of vents.
 * In the Supertanker of Deus Ex, JC Denton can ride the updraft of a fan in order to reach two air vents.
 * In Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Sanjuro has to reverse the air flow in Shaft B so that it will slow his MCA as it falls down to a ledge below, then ride another air shaft upward to escape. He has some doubts about this method when Hank proposes it to him. Later on, after Ryo betrays him, he jumps into an air intake tube in order to re-enter a facility.
 * Several areas in the Jedi Knight series use this. In Jedi Academy, Kyle even explains them to Jaden.
 * In the Dystopia map "Silo", Corp deckers can turn on fans while Punks are in the vents to send them flying into a laser grid.
 * Primagen's Lightship in Turok 2 has giant fans that propel you both vertically and horizontally. Getting sucked into one generally results in death.
 * The Wind Tunnels level in Quake. Quake II also had a few air shafts with fan currents, including one instance where you had to deactivate the fan to descend the shaft, lest you get chopped up.

Miscellaneous Games

 * Vent Physics was the defining gameplay mechanic of the Glider games, in which you play as a paper airplane.
 * Ballance has the fans, which work only for the Paper ball and sometimes force you to make some complex maneouvers in mid-air.
 * Air vents are used a lot in level design in Scribblenauts.
 * They can also be used by the player to push faraway items around, making them a Game Breaker.

Platformers

 * Super Mario Galaxy 2 has it.
 * Happened in the Krazoa Palace in Star Fox Adventures. And some doorways in the Cloudrunner Fortress, too.
 * This happens in Sonic The Hedgehog 3 in Hydrocity Zone with fans that are often placed on the bottom of the water. Occasionally you will even encounter walls of fans that blow you uncontrollably in a general direction which may even end up being straight up to the top of the level depending on the grade of slopes in your way.
 * In Shadow the Hedgehog, there are giant fans that blow you up into the air in at least one level.
 * Ditto for Sonic Adventure 2—actual visible fans in Security Hall and invisible air drafts keeping you aloft in one part of Radical Highway.
 * As seen in the page image, this happens a lot in Sonic Rush Adventure.
 * Comes up in several levels in Drawn to Life
 * Very frequent in Bionic Commando. Also quite necessary since the game lacks an actual jump button.
 * Mega Man has encountered vent physics many times. Everybody's favourite example is Air Man, a Mega Man 2 boss who cannot be defeated thanks to the giant fan in his stomach. MegaMan.EXE had a similar encounter with AirMan.EXE in Mega Man Battle Network 2.
 * In 7, there is a boss battle where there are fans giving you that extra height to your jumps.
 * Metroid Prime 3 makes use of this trope for sections when Samus is navigating her way through mazes while in Morph Ball form. The vents themselves often have to be activated with a bomb.
 * The original Metroid Prime also had a very few segments where you navigated underwater mazes in morph ball form, and currents were very important.
 * In Jak III, there are some floor structures in some areas of Haven City that shoot you high into the air...if you're riding a hoverboard.
 * Vents allow Bartman to fly in The Simpsons Game.
 * In Jazz Jackrabbit there are fans of various strengths that will propel you into the air which can be overcome by pressing the down key.
 * Thermal vents are used to fly across some levels of Icycle, with the player often sinking out the bottom of the screen and rising again.
 * The Hospital in Super Meat Boy has several levels based around using fans for movement. There are also a few in the Brutal Bonus Level.
 * In Psychonauts, there are fans, soap bubbles and rotting pieces of meat which are used in this way.
 * Bug! has this in some levels, where the springs are gas vents that propel him upwards.
 * American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns have vents that allow Alice to ride the currents with a Parachute Petticoat effect.
 * These exist in Yoshi's Island DS, where you have to use Baby Peach's parasol to ride the updrafts/gusts of wind across large gaps/past mazes filled with spikes.

Third-Person Shooter

 * You're forced to use vents to cross certain wide gaps and chasms in American McGee's Alice. It's not as easy as it sounds, though; moving someone forward on top of a line of vents is tricky. Especially when there's flying monsters knocking you out of the airflow every 20 seconds.
 * Dead Space has grav-panels that push things up...with enough force to pulp you.

RPG

 * In Pokémon Black and White before going to the Victory Road, you need to pass through a series of doors/gates. To pass you need to prove you have the gym badge and you can proceed. Each room has a theme which resembles the gym type. One of them has no floor, just wind...