Chasing Your Tail: Difference between revisions

* Any and all [[Old School Dogfighting]] (real life, in combat flight sims, et cetera) can pretty much qualify, especially since the trope name inspired the term ''dogfight'' (soldiers observing on the ground during WWI commented that planes "looked like they were chasing each other's tails" [or their own tails, depending who you ask]).

** Obviously, the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games. While not as realistic as, say, ''Falcon 4.0'' (the epitome of realism unless using mods or Dogfight mode) or ''Over G Fighters'' (for Xbox 360), they very much encourage this even for guided "fire and forget" missiles, since they have poor maneuverability. The only exception seems to be Quick-maneuver Air-to-Air Missiles (QAAM), which at least in ''AC04'' have the same targeting/lock-on range as the standard missiles but [[Game Breaker|''extreme'' agility]].

** [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''HAWX'' also has the player do this, as the six o' clock position is one of the prime angles to fire missiles. It also has the concept of the All Aspect missile, which is a highly agile missile that can lock on in any direction. Offset in that you have to get within spitting distance to your target before you can pickle it off.

*** ''HAWX'' also subverts it; the ERS system gives you a flight-path you can follow that will, without fail, bring you within optimal firing position of the target, often without hard banking. The catch? It takes longer than doing it yourself, but doing it yourself is legitimately harder, so it's still a feasible option for downing a bandit you just can't seem to tag.

** Shadowcat is without fail one of the earliest mechs you are given. It is quite weak, and has very little support for add-ons or weapons. However, it's the fastest in the game. It's made even more effective in Vengeance when you're given the option of installing a 'tracking beacon' which when fired makes every missile a homing missile.

** Such tactics are [[Older Than They Think]]: see [[wikipedia:Cantabrian circle|The Cantabrian circle]] on [[The Other Wiki]].

** Also from '' Ocarina of Time'' is the King Dodongo fight, which takes place in a small square-shaped hallway with a lava pit at its center. The player must run away from the boss until it becomes vulnerable. (Hunkering down under the Hylian shield works too.)

*** Or you can just stand on an inside corner, and watch as he rolls around you...

** A third example from ''Ocarina of Time'' is the mini-boss Flare Dancer. After its flames are extinguished, the Flame Dancer runs away from the player around the circular room until it can re-light itself.

** The first half of the fight with Skull Keeta involves chasing after the mini-boss before it reaches the end of a path punctuated with fire walls and Stalchildren. If you fail to catch up, Skull Keeta decides that you are too weak to bother fighting and you must re-enter the area to try again.

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', the early-game battle with Revolver Ocelot takes place in a square-shaped room with a hostage and explosive tripwires in the middle, in which the boss persistently runs away from the player. It is necessary to outsmart the boss by stopping and running in the opposite direction (or shooting him while he is reloading).

** In the ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', The Running Man would run away from any direct confrontation and Snake had no hope of catching him, leaving the player to choke on the poison gas of the room. Unless you got bright and placed landmines in the narrower passages, anyway.

** Also in ''Sonic Adventure 2'', the Biolizard does indeed use this attack pattern on a circular path, though the tail is not his weak point. (In fact, he'll chase you with it if you get too far from his head.)

* In ''[[Rayman]] 3: Hoodlum Havoc'', the battle with Begoniax the witch takes place near a cauldron full of a green, bubbling elixir. Begoniax chases you around the cauldron, until you manage to splash some elixir on her; at this point, she turns into a frog, and for a brief time you are the one who does the chasing.

** Not to mention the battles against Bowser in ''Galaxy'', which has him chasing you around a small planetoid until you get a platform to explode under him, at which point you must smack him with a spin attack as he careens around the sphere, usually by going the other way. That's the ONLY way to damage him in that battle.

** And of course, Bowser from ''Super Mario 64''.

* The Ceramic Smile in ''[[Killer 7]]'' will run around the room, attempting to catch you from behind and kill you by detonating. If you turn around, it lets out a cry of panic and runs in the other direction. Its [[For Massive Damage|weak spot]], its heart, can only be hit from the front; the trick is to shoot it while it's screaming.

** The battle against the Boss Redeye involves you fleeing from it and [[Feed It a Bomb|feeding him explosives]].

* Fighting Inuart and his black dragon on your own mount in ''[[Drakengard]]'' is more an exercise in how long you can stand to circle around each other in the air before gaining a clean shot.

* A number of bosses don't chase you around but rather fire in a loop, causing you to have to outrun it.

** ''Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin'': {{spoiler|Legion, when in the center of the arena, it uses laser beams to sweep the area in a circular fashion, forcing the player to stay between the beams.}}

** Hades in the various incarnations of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', at least with his strongest attack.

** This also appears in ''Gunstar Heroes'', ''Contra'', and ''Streambolt''.

* In Burning Rangers, the third boss would run around in a large tube like room, while the player would have to knock off its armour and then hit its core.

* The final boss in ''Psychonauts'' chases Raz around the edge of a circular arena with an instant-kill zone in the centre. The absolute final fight against this boss is pretty much impossible to win with Raz in his normal condition - your only option is to {{spoiler|run away until Raz gains enough power to turn into a giant version of himself, and then turn on the boss.}}

* The ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' series had a lot of these.

* Jackle from ''[[Ni GHTS]]'' into Dreams backed away, throwing cards at you, and you would have to dodge the cards to get to him and throw him out of his mantle.

* A strange version of this can occur in ''[[Bushido Blade]] 2''. The boss in one of the story modes has nearly impenetrable armor, and you spend most of the fight running around in tight circles so you can get a perfect shot at his back while he tries to catch up to you by rapidly turning in place.

* This is a common trope in ''[[Star Control]] 2'', when fighting both the AI and other players. This most often happens when one ship is very slow but well-defended, while the other ship is fast but underpowered. The two ships can spend a long time flying around the (spatially looped) battlefield, staying at very long range from one another while each tries to gain the advantage. Especially annoying when the AI is in the fast ship, as he may go on infinitely. Definitely exacerbated in ''Star Control 3'', where the AI loves to stay as far away as possible. Fortunately, this can lead to collisions with the planet (that might kill a ship or at least seriously damage it), or collisions with asteroids that will change your direction unexpectedly. Also, the slower ship can make a slingshot maneuver around the planet, increasing its speed and making it much harder to evade.

* There's one of these in ''Hexen'', the sequel to ''[[Heretic]]'', when you face a Death Wyvern. While the creature has no specific weak point, between its breath and the delayed explosions caused by said breath, most players will quickly figure out the only practical way to fight it is to take to the air and stay behind it.

* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', the final boss for going straight through Normal missions is Eggman riding on a slot machine on wheels, going around a square circuit, around which you have to chase him.

* In ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'', the fight against Dirge is one of these. The first part is running from Dirge while he chases you. The second part is attacking him. Rinse and repeat until he's dead.

** Also occurs in the mission: Eliminate the Emerald Serenade, with him being on a fixed route as opposed to a small room or circular arena.

* The fight against the Big Bad Wolf in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'''s Karazhan Opera Event has a stage like this: at regular intervals, the BBW will transform one of the raid members into Little Red Riding Hood, removing all of their defenses but making them move at a much faster rate. That player then has to run in a circle around the battlefield while the BBW chases them (since getting hit in that form all but guarantees the player will be one-shotted) until the debuff wears off. Otherwise, though, the fight is a normal tank-and-spank.