Auto-Scrolling Level: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Generally, the gameplay in these levels shifts from exploration towards a more "survivalist" task of avoiding a combination of fixed and moving obstacles. The player must choose between moving forward early, at the risk of running afoul of some not-yet-seen obstacles, or waiting to move later, where he runs the risk of being forced to move by the level's scrolling at moment when the obstacles are more dangerous.

Often you will be mortally crushed if you get caught between the advancing side of the screen and a stationary wall, making the screen boundary a kind of [[Advancing Wall of Doom]]. Only occasionally are these kinds of levels coupled with an ''actual'' Advancing Wall Of Doom, providing some meagre justification for the enforced scrolling. In vertical-scrolling levels, there will be an ever-rising bottomless pit, and solid platforms that fall below the edge of the screen will be consumed by an [[Nothing Is Scarier|unknown]] [[Fridge Horror|force]].

 

 

It's debatable if [[Minecart Madness]] is a subtrope. It takes the concept further by forcing the player to move a fixed speed, and challenges them to jump, duck, and\or attack at the right times.

 

{{examples}}

** The Super Mario Bros. [[Game and Watch]] from the 80's is fixed scrolling, the first example of this trope in the Mario series and maybe even Platformers in general.

** Heck, ''Yoshi's Island'' and ''Yoshi's Island DS'' will have the scrolling screen go in all sorts of different directions, crossing the same part of the level more than once in more than one different direction, and there's no justification of any sort.

** From [[ROM Hack]] ''[[Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity]]'':

*** Sections of Skull Man's stage. It has ''every kind of platform'' from the Mega Man series. Plenty of lives will be lost on those sections.

* Some of the early games in the ''[[Adventure Island]]'' series.

* ''(Wonder Boy III): Monster Lair'' alternates between autoscrolling platform stages and [[Shoot'Em Up]] [[Boss Battle|boss battles]].

* The Tower, The Panic Room, and The Final Challenge in ''[[VVVVVV]]''. [[Spikes of Doom]] appear when you near the top or bottom of the vertically scrolling screen. Also, The Tower is one of the stages available as a [[Time Trial]].

* [[Kid Chameleon]] had a few of these that are [[Advancing Wall of Doom|Advancing Walls Of]] '''[[This Is a Drill|DRILLS]]''', including a cruel one that had a choice of two paths at the end, not knowing where they go. One path leads to a sign saying "TOO BAD" with no exit and you just get squished by it.

* [[Canabalt]] ''is'' one of these.

* ''[[Putt-Putt]] Goes to the Moon'' has the minigame ''Bear Stormin''', which plays this straight for the entire game. This was later recycled as ''Circus Stormin''' in ''[[Putt-Putt]] and [[Fatty Bear]]'s Activity Pack''. [[Surprise Difficulty|Despite being in games made for children, they can get brutally difficult.]]

* ''[[Distorted Travesty]]'' loves this trope, forcing you to race through already sadistically brutal [[Platform Hell]] sections while a wall of instakill spikes follows behind or beneath you so fast a single mistake will force you to repeat the whole section.

* Seen in the doujin game ''[[New Super Marisa Land]]'' by Tasogare Frontier. Which makes sense as it's essentially a Super Mario clone.

* ''[[Klonoa]] Advance'' 1 and 2 have some auto-scroll levels.

* Though not a platform game, ''Devil World'' features this as its main gimmick. The Devils on the edges of the screen move a frame over the maze, trying to crush Tamagon between the frame and the maze walls.

* ''[[Something]] series''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:Video Game Settings]]