View source for Chest Monster/Video Games


{{trope}}

Examples of [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]] in [[Video Games]] include:


==#==

* ''[[The 7th Saga]]'' has Tricks. They're some of the hardest enemies in the game when you fight them, [[Demonic Spiders|and that's saying something]]. They [[Random Drop|randomly drop]] a variety of gemstones, and with some [[Save Scumming]], the player can acquire a hoard of emeralds and sapphires.

==A==

* ? blocks in ''[[Alex Kidd]] in Miracle World'' will sometimes summon [[The Grim Reaper]], who is an [[Invincible Minor Minion]] and hard to evade.

* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery|ADOM]]'' has traditional mimics. They don't look like chests because you don't generally find stuff in chests, just lying around; so they look like stuff lying around, ie. items on the floor. There are a few ways to recognise one. They used to appear on the map even if you hadn't explored that area again to find them, unlike real items, but that was fixed. They also appear as a random type of item symbol in a random colour, so they often seem quite colourful -- most armour and weapons is light grey for metallic, though special attributes on items have made the variety of real items more colourful as well. Finally, even when they don't appear on the map where you can't see them, they appear seemingly out of nowhere when in an area you've already explored; that's not impossible for an item, something could have dropped it there while you were away, but it is unlikely. The best place for them to hide is among the wide variety of stuff in a shop.

* ''[[Athena (video game)|Athena]]'' has annoying and hard-to-kill flying heads hidden in certain blocks.

==B==

* [[Baldur's Gate]] has a single mimic in the entire series. It showed up in the sequel with confusing attacks.

* ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'':
** The first game has literal chest monsters in [[Palmtree Panic|Treasure Trove Cove]].
** ''Banjo-Tooie'' has fake Jinjos called Minjos. They look exactly like the Jinjos, but they will try to attack you if you get near. To add to the confusion, they are often hidden in out-of-the-way places like the regular Jinjos.
** ''Tooie'' also has the boss Mingy Jongo, the robotic [[Boss Subtitles|"Crafty Shaman Impersonator"]] who appears in one of the two identical homes of the friendly shaman Mumbo Jumbo in the last major world. Distinct from the original because he drops the genuine article's [[Hulk Speak]]. Must be seen to believed. The way you can tell the difference between the two is that  {{spoiler|A) Mingy's hut has a Jinjo in it, while Mumbo's has a Minjo, B) There is a fire going in Mumbo's, and, most importantly, C) When you entered Mumbo's hut in the first game, he was always asleep. Mingy has retained this trait, but ''Mumbo hasn't.''}}

* The old Namco game ''Baraduke'' had the blue "Octy" monsters release a treasure capsule which would randomly contain nothing, a gem for score, a friendly alien for the bonus games, a weapon upgrade and an angry Pacmanesque purple monster. Alas, it was require to ''touch'' the capsules to open them, always prompting you to run away after doing so!

* ''[[Beyond Oasis]]'' features these. They're fortunately easy to detect due to them loudly snapping their mouths all the time.

* In the ''[[Bonk]]'' series, some of the Florets contain "Venus Bonk Traps". You can tell a fake one from the real ones because they don't breathe.

* Played literally in the ''[[Borderlands]]'' DLC ''Dr. Ned's Zombie Island'' with the Loot Goon, a Tankenstein with a red gun chest on his back. Killing him let you loot the chest. In a more straight example, in ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx'' several lootable things (weapons chests, dumpsters, etc) had midgets hidden away inside them.

* The ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' series has a [[Chest Monster]] as a recurring enemy named "Mimic", which is a living, breathing [[Mooks|Mook]] chest. In a more straight example, the first two games has actual trap chests with a variety of effects (poison, damage or even reduce HP to 1) who are inflicted on whoever is at the head of the team.

* Literal chest monsters in the Treasure Desert world of ''[[Bubble Bobble|Bubble Symphony]]''. [http://www.vazcomics.org/mamend/png/bubl0131.png Which are also named Mimic.]

* Some "mystery" balls in ''[[Bug!]]!'' will contain enemies or hazards instead of [[Power-Up|Power Ups]].

==C==

* Some chests in ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost|Casper]]: A Haunting 3D Challenge'' have Fatso hiding in them. You have to be ready to quickly get out of the way to avoid harm.
** There are also fake vents Stinky hides in, waiting to give you a [[Calling Your Attacks|"Smell-o-gram!"]] These vents disappear along with him.
** In the basement, Stretch's arm will reach out as you go past certain places. Usually where there's an item to pick up.
*** He's the hardest one to avoid, as well as [[Nightmare Fuel|the scariest]], given the atmosphere.

* The 2D [[Castlevania|Castlevanias]] have chest monsters that look slightly different from normal chests. ''Symphony of the Night'' has an optional save point boss.
** ''Portrait of Ruin'' has chest Mimics - but no chests.
** The [[Horny Devils|Succubus]] in ''Aria of Sorrow'' disguise herself as Soma's friend and love interest Mina Hakuba, only shedding the disguise (and clothes!) when attacked or you get too near.
** Succubi in ''Dawn of Sorrow'' disguised themselves as Yoko Belnades instead, and didn't bother to shed their disguises before they attacked you - they'd just whip around as you went by and put a boot square in your ass. It then poked fun at the fact that neither disguise [[Paper-Thin Disguise|fooled many players]] by having one room that was just a long hall with multiple pre-disguised Succubi lined up in a row.
** ''Order of Ecclesia'' has fake chests that are even worse due to the abundance of chests in the game compared to other games.
*** They become hilarious when you play Albus Mode. In that mode, all treasure chests are removed except for two kinds: fancy chests, which hold life, magic and heart increasers... and Mimics, now the only wooden chests in the game. It's pretty easy to avoid them in this mode, needless to say.
** ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Symphony of the Night]]'' also had a fake [[Save Point]]. In one room is a real save point (which, in this game, are coffins) and, just across the hall, is another room that looks like a different-colored save point, but will in fact trigger a battle with a succubus.
** ''Vampire Killer'' had trap candles that released slimes when whipped.

* ''[[Cave Story]]'' does it with a killer door in the first dungeon. Not fun to be killed by, but tons of more fun to see your friends not notice its [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|evil red eyes]] and try to walk through it.
** ''Cave Story'' also has unused data for a literal chest monster, as well as animate versions of jars and Save Points.

* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' and ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' had save point monsters.
** As for ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', aside from the actual save points that were monster, at least one other save point triggered a battle because the monsters nearby ''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|heard the "ding".]] ''

* Some of the secret bunkers in the NES port of ''[[Video Game/Commando|Commando]]'' contain [[Death Trap|death traps]] such as [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|snake pits]] or [[Gas Chamber|gas chambers]].

* The final dungeon of ''Contact'' for the DS contains chest monster that sprout limbs, pull out a sword from inside of them, and then proceed to inflict beatings.

==D==

* One of the most frustrating enemies in the PC game ''[[D/Generation|Dgeneration]]'' was the C/Generation, a shapeshifting monster that likes to disguise itself as everyday objects like chairs, power-ups, and the people that you're supposed to be rescuing. They're also immune to your primary weapon.

* Both ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' games had Mimics. There's also King Mimics, which are bigger and stronger.

* ''[[Dark Souls]]'' has them and if you try and open them, they'll devour you instantly. What's worse, they're hiding 6-foot arms and legs inside their chest-shaped "head," and if you attack them they'll unfold their bodies and try to beat you to death, [[Hell Is That Noise|softly giggling all the while.]]

* ''[[Delve Deeper]]'' has Lumber Mimics, which disguise themselves as treasure chests and then attack when your dwarfs try to pick them up. They [[Glass Cannon|have relatively low HP, but high attack power]].

* The original ''Diablo'' and its sequel had destructible barrels with a high chance of containing an enemy skeleton instead of loot. ''Diablo III'' carries on the tradition, as well as having skeletons hide under lootable floor tiles and who knows what else.

* In ''[[Doom (series)|Doom 3]],'' numbered lockers typically contain goodies. However, woe is you if you open locker [[Number of the Beast|#666]].

* The ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' games had enemies that hid in barrels. The most common type would just knock you around, but the ones that hid in TNT barrels were fatal.
** It went further than that in ''[[Donkey Kong Country]] 2''; yellow ones stole bananas from you with each bump, while the black ones with a [[Jolly Roger]] on them will rob you of extra lives.

* ''[[Dragon Age: Origins]]'' has a couple of these in the ruined temple during the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest. Glass phylacteries may also count, if the player has never encountered one before.

* In ''[[Dragon Slayer]]'', treasure chests would sometimes contain [[Shinigami]] that followed you around and prevented spellcasting.

* The ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series, which is the trope popularizer. (The tabletop game ''[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' was the [[Trope Makers|Trope Maker]].) It started the idea of always being a chest.
** [[Dragon Quest VII|VII]] mixed things up a bit with monsters disguised as pots, books, and ''wine bottles''. The only destroyable objects missing a monster were barrels.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' has a [[Chest Monster]] ''boss''.
** ''[[Dragon Quest]] Heroes: Rocket Slime'' has a cute variant of the standard [[Chest Monster]].

* Early in ''[[Dubloon]]'', you get to a room where to get the key, you have to open 5 treasure chests in correct order. Opening in wrong order results in a battle with a skeleton. Also, {{spoiler|the final boss}} is a ''literal'' Chest Monster.

* ''[[Duke Nukem]]'' and ''Duke Nukem II'' had chests that, while not technically monsters, had bombs inside that exploded after the chest was shot. In ''Duke Nukem II'', these could be distinguished from chests containing health items by walking: if you passed in front of the chest, it contained health; if you passed behind it, it was a bomb. Careful level design made this nearly impossible to notice until it was revealed in the hints file for the registered version.
** ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]'' features a variation: the trashcans throughout the game can be broken and they will provide you with power-ups. But later in the game, some of the trashcans contain hidden monsters, and there's no way of telling which ones do and which ones don't until you smash them open...

* ''[[Dungeon Keeper]] 2'' has a trap called the jack-in-the-box. Disguised as a magical item, your imps will try to take it to your dungeon, when it explodes.

* ''[[Dungeon Siege|Dungeon Siege 2]]'' had Mimics that were ''nightmarish''. They were uncommon but unbelievably dangerous. Luckily they did drop a bunch of good loot.

==F==

* The ''[[Fatal Frame]]'' series had items that could be picked up marked by a glimmering point of light. During the first three games, they turn out to be very helpful in finding useful items that would otherwise be hidden in the dark environment. And then in the fourth game for the Wii, Tecmo pulls one of these where a ghostly hand would grab the character's wrist and require the player to shake the Wiimote to get loose.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. These are sometimes called "enemy ambush" or "monster in a box", and most of them do give you items upon their defeat, often very valuable ones.
** ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'''s most memorable example is probably that box with the [[Oh Crap|three Mad Ogres]] in it.
** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' had a monster guarding the [[Save Point]] in [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]], right before the final boss.
** The most infamous [[Chest Monster]] has to be Shinryu, a [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]''. Its tougher version in the GBA remake also hides in one.
** While ''VI'' generally has its monsters hiding in boxes (even when its monsters are much too large to reasonably fit), one optional miniboss triggered by a chest is identified as an "angler welk," a gigantic snail-like creature with a chest attached to it like the glowing portion of an angler fish.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' has chests that sometimes are Mimics ([[White Gloves]] monsters) in disguise. They even get a surprise attack on the person that tried to open the chest. Afterwards, they act like a normal enemy and drop loot, which is usually more valuable than the potion or antidote commonly found in those chests (the more valuable chests look different and are never Mimics). They aren't much of a threat either, as they don't have a lot of health and are vulnerable to magic.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' has an ''NPC'' monster in Esthar.
** Mimics also make an appearance in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' as 'monster-in-the-box' enemies (of course, this time the monster ''is'' the box).
** ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' 's [[Bonus Dungeon|Omega Ruins]] occasionally pits you in [[Random Encounters]] with Mimics, which if stolen from will reveal one of their four possible forms. Oh, and this happens, ''you can't escape from battle'' until you defeat it.
*** They do drop a lot of Gil though. You can safely Mug them though, if it's not a real treasure, it'll still die before becoming a Mimic.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', in any area where the treasure chests looked like round pots with four metal legs, some of them would of course turn out to be actual mimics. The game's monster lore provided a long, creative backstory regarding their creation. And then there are the "Crystalbugs", three monsters disguised as '''Save Points''', which were [[Feed It with Fire|impervious to all elements]] and attacked using high-level spells, but fortunately left actual Save Points behind upon their defeat.
** ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' technically doesn't have Chest Monsters. But due to the board-game type mechanics, when you pick up an item or defeat an enemy, other items/enemies will often appear in the stage. So pretty much any time you see a chest, you can be sure opening it will cause an enemy to spawn behind you and attack. They don't even try to hide it in one of the final stages - [[Schmuck Bait|the path to the boss's square is clear and you can walk right up to it and end the stage instantly, or you can open the single treasure chest in the middle of the stage with no enemies around it...not until you open it anyway. When you do, ''four'' enemies appear, all very high level, and ambush you.]] There is no way a player can look at that stage and ''not'' know what's gonna happen if they go for the chest.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has treasure chests and coffers that are normally opened with [[Interchangeable Antimatter Keys]]. Thieves have a special ability to open them without a key, but that creates a chance that the chest/coffer will turn out to be a mimic. There's also a boss battle where you're confronted with three chests. One is an actual chest while the other two are mimics. Choose the real chest and you get the loot without a fight. Try to open one of the mimics and you'll have to fight both of them (or give up on the treasure and beat feet).

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Sealed Sword'', two of the treasure chests in a Gaiden chapter contain fire Mamkutes.

* ''Forever Kingdom'' has two different variants. One sort where a monster comes out of the chest and tries to attach itself to you, causing some sort of status ailment, and another where after opening, the chest will explode, which not only damages the player, but also causes him (or her) to drop all the money that they had been carrying.

==G==

* The Flying Giftbox monster from [[Gaia Online|zOMG]] looks identical to the Magical Giftboxes that have randomly rewarded Gaians with rare items for years. But get too close and they'll attempt to eat you. Flying Giftboxes can talk, and tend to travel in groups. The real threat comes from the Ring Box, which is the [[Metal Slime]] version of the Giftbox. It also looks identical to a Magical Giftbox, but travels alone and does not speak, making it easier to mistake for an actual giftbox if you aren't familiar with their weaker cousins. (Ironically, there actually are Chests, Baskets, and Boxes in the game, and they all are Animated as well, but the only hostile thing they do is refuse to open until all of other the Animated on the screen are dispatched. However, there are certain chests that have Animated pop out of them; you get the reward after they're defeated.)

* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'' has chests throughout the game that you open using keys you pick up along your way. Most of these chests contain food, money, or power-ups. But some of them have a ticking bomb inside them that cause damage to you if you are anywhere near it when it goes off. It also ruins any food or items that are in its range when it explodes, so if you set on off before you collect all the useful things around it you basically have two choices: Run around and collect the things and take the damage, or run away from the area and say goodbye to the items but take no damage. However, these chests are always in the same places, so if you have completed the level before and you remember which ones have bombs in them, you can avoid them or use them to your advantage to attack nearby monsters.

* ''[[Golden Axe (series)|Golden Axe Warrior]]''.

* The ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins (series)|Ghosts N Goblins]]'' series had many of these, including living treasure chests, beartraps, and magicians who turned Arthur into a frog other other creature.
** Spiritual successor ''Maximo'' has mimics which look like treasure chests with giant teeth and wizards hiding in chests which will turn you into an old man or baby if they hit you with their spells.

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', the Mimics actually drop some good items, so it is worth it to in engage them even if you are aware they are traps.
** When first encountered, their huge well of HP is rather annoying, as it takes forever to kill them. this tends to balance out later in the game, when you can kill them rather quickly and easily.

==H==

* The original ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half Life]]'' had its own variation, a ''single'' first-aid station out of dozens throughout the game will explode if one tries to use it. It is conspicuous because it's sparking, but the temptation to heal up (or top off) after an intense battle just previously oft proves too great.

* In the second ''[[Harry Potter (video game)|Harry Potter]]'' video game, the occasional chest will turn out to contain Peeves the Poltergeist instead of useful items. This will not happen until the Skurge Challenge, though, where you're being tested on a spell that can be used to scare him off, so it could be considered part of the training. There's also a gnome in a chest in the Forbidden Forest level.

==I==

* The freeware [[Platform Hell]] game ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' had a killer ''save point'' right before the final boss. It would turn into a regular save point upon being killed.
** It still appears in Impossible mode, which is supposed to have no save points. The save monster disappears after being killed, but there's a 1 frame delay in which it's a normal save point that can actually be used. [[Good Bad Bugs]], indeed.

==K==

* ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]'' has Mimicuties, Underworld mooks disguised as treasure chests that sprout legs and start kicking you when you try to open them. They hit incredibly hard, move very quickly, and take more hits to defeat than nearly any other enemy in the game, making them [[Demonic Spiders|extremely troublesome to deal with]].

* ''[[The King of Dragons]]'' has teethed monstrous chests posing as normal ones, awaiting to jump at you when in close proximity. Fortunately, they aren't really hard to deal with.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' features this in the very last dungeon: You have to run from chest to chest to move on, because invisible walls are blocking every other path. Of course, every player has the great urge to open these chests, so a quarter of them are actually filled with [[The Heartless]]. To make matters worse this is the only part of the game where you CAN'T run from random encounters! On the other hand, each of these encounters does give you a good item when you beat it.
** "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories" had a better one- a treasure room called False Bounty. Three chests, but only one has treasure. Open either of the other two, you get a random fight.
** In all three games we have Barrel Spiders and Pot Spiders. Barrels and pots usually dispense health and magic orbs when hit, but come close to these guys and they'll sprout eyes and legs and start attacking you as well as ''blowing themselves up''.
*** [[From Bad to Worse|And then Jafar comes along and conjures up a Barrel Centipede!]] What an asshole!
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' has 'Chest Spiders,' which are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' has the Cymbal Monkey and its stronger form, the Tricky Monkey, which hide in fake treasure chests where one would normally find items.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the browser-based MMO ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', where smashing a barrel in the Barrel Full of Barrels will sometimes result in a combat encounter with a mimic. The narrator even exclaims before the fight "What the? You thought these things could only mimic chests!"
** There's also a mimic you fight who was disguised as "something that looks like a cloak" (for which you pay 5000 local currency units directly prior to engaging in combat); after combat, you use the dead mimic's body to get either a transformation wand or a set of potions and a ring.

==L==

* In ''[[La-Mulana]]'', the Twin Labyrinths has a fake Ankh Jewel that turns into a bunch of [[Goddamned Bats]] when approached. However, a similar bat explosion results when a necessary passage in the Temple of Moonlight is opened up.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'':
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'''s Spirit Temple, you're conditioned for most of the dungeon to believe that "reflecting light onto sun switches = good". However, a handful of these switches release [[Booby Trap|booby trapped]] chests that freeze Link upon being opened and invisible [[Demonic Spiders|Floor Masters]] when tripped. The Fire Temple includes a few ''door'' monsters that fall down on top of you when you try to open them. Also appearing in several dungeons throughout the game are pots that, while not "fake" per se (they often contain the same minor items as normal pots), rise up off the ground and hurl themselves at you.
** Earlier, in 1992, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' features treasure chests that look normal but release Zols when opened. Thankfully, these are somewhat rare.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' do this with skulls (the Dark World's equivalent of rocks) and dungeon tiles coming to life. It also places mines and enemies under some bushes.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass]]'', you can occasionally come across rupees just sitting out in the open. These are attached to an antenna on a Like Like (monsters that look like a giant blancmange with a maw on top) that would pop out of the ground and try to suck you in if you get close enough. These were first introduced as Rupee Likes in the Oracle series.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' there are giant worms which hid under floor tiles and jump up when you cross them. Luckily, they occasionally peek up to look around, and you can wait with the Gale Boomerang in tow.
** ''[[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'' also occasionally has townspeople who turn into monsters after you talk to them. These are fairly easy to avoid, though- just... don't talk to the random townspeople. They very rarely have anything interesting to say anyway.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' takes the familiar Like-Like enemy and makes it infinitely more frustrating by including ones that hide inside pots and burst out to attack you when you get too close. Pots containing them will occasionally shake, tipping you off to the [[Mooks Ate My Equipment|shield-eating menace]]'s presence, but chances are that you'll be either too busy or too eager to get whatever's inside the pot to notice. And then there's the one hidden inside an actual treasure chest. Fortunately, this only happens once.
** There are also the Armos statues throughout the series. Some attack, some don't.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Wind Waker]]'', sometimes small enemies burst out of jars.

* Shooting certain walls in ''[[Legendary Wings]]'''s Lucky Stages generates enemies.

* In ''[[Lufia]] II''. Red and blue chests are both mimicked, to annoying effect in the game's bonus dungeon. Both are distinguishable from the genuine article by their coloring being slightly off, but the blue mimics are much harder to pick out than the red ones, and if you get caught by one, unless you've really geared and leveled up well (read: went in with more than a few items from, well, blue chests and/or gotten really lucky), [[Demonic Spiders|your ass is pretty much grass.]]

* ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]'', as well as fake doors and ghosts attacking from various hiding places, has Jarvis, who's quite literally a jar monster. Approach the jar looking for treasure, cue mini-game and mini-boss battle.

==M==

* ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' has monsters called [http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/index.php?title=Mimic Mimics], which look exactly like chests in the dungeon they appear in. Every room (or section of corridor) with more than one chest means that all but one is a mimic. And the [[Mind Control Device|fomor scrolls]] they commonly drop are [[Money Spider|quite lucrative]]. Unlike most examples on this page, these mimics are ''fun'' to encounter!

* ''[[Magic Sword Heroic Fantasy]]'' has several trap chests scattered on the stages, which either explodes in a wave of fire pillars, releases a group of monsters or summons a shower of rocks upon you; all of which do considerable damage.

* ''[[Magicka]]'' has chest monsters in the Challenge mode, though their disguise is a bit illogical since the game has no ''real'' treasure chests. Like most things in the game, they were only added as a [[Reference Overdosed|referential joke]].

* Played with by the "Trashure" enemy from ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]''. The enemy looks like a treasure chest on the overworld. However, the player is not fooled because 1. it has eyes and moves around 2. treasure in this game comes in blocks, not chests. It's a great enemy to fight as it opens up at low health and Bowser can use his vacuum to suck in a ''lot'' of money. However, it [[Metal Slime|tends to run away often]].

* The ''[[Mario Kart]]'' series features Fake Item Boxes as a recurring item. They differ from regular item boxes only in that their signature "?" insignia is upside down. However, in the DS version, they also show up clearly different on the minimap, and after 64, are colored red.
** They could however, be nasty surprises if well-camouflaged in a group of regular item boxes, even making racers other than the victim suffer as they would waste item boxes during the recovery time.

* Even ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' is not immune.
** ''[[Mega Man and Bass]]'' has literal Treasure [[Chest Monster|Chest Monsters]], in Pirate Man's level. There are also legitimate chests containing the CDs needed for [[Hundred-Percent Completion]].
** ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' has the Vitaful, which looks like one of those capsules you pick up to fully replenish your health, only purple in coloration. They also stop flashing before they reveal their true nature, which happens when you get too close.
** A few [[1-Up|One Ups]] in the later levels of ''[[Mega Man 9]]'' are actually Metools in disguise. To make matters worse, it appears among a real one-up and some other goodies in an [[After Boss Recovery|After Spike Gauntlet Recovery]] area. They're less likely to fool you when they appear in Endless Attack, since it's a mode where you only get 1 life.
** ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'' had false treasure chests that would fire bombs at you when you opened them. Some even grew legs and started running! To add insult to injury one particular chest looked like it would be something you could money farm off of, it would stand up and generate a massive amount of refractor shards and dump them right in front of you...try to get them without the vacuum though and it would try to sucker shoot you with a single bomb!

* ''[[Metroid]]'':
** In ''Metroid Fusion'', an X parasite mimics one of the Chozo statues that traditionally power Samus up. Two more X mimic missile and energy tank [[Power-Up|Power Ups]].
** In ''Super Metroid'', several Chozo statues come to life and try to kill you after you take their power ups from them. It's not clear if this is a result of the Chozo's becoming more warlike as they were forced to fight the Space Pirates, or if it's a trap set up by the Space Pirates specifically to try to kill Samus.
** ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'' has Arachnus, an optional boss disguising itself as an item held by a Chozo statue. It can only be harmed by bombs and yields the Spring Ball after killing it.
** The Boost Ball power-up in ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3: Corruption'' leads you to a boss battle against the Defense Drone when you approach it. You do get it after the battle, though.

* ''[[Minecraft]]'''s popular Aether Mod introduces Mimics to the game, chests in boss dungeons - mixed with "normal", loot-filled chests - coming to life and attempting to bite the player when opening is attempted.

* ''[[Mother 3]]'' has just one chest monster, but a few boxes in a haunted castle that don't contain enemies as such, but do contain ghosts that cause a specific status ailment.
** Other boxes are even more pointless: some boxes set off fireworks, others cause little drum licks to play, and a few simply ''fart at you''. To this, the game only responds: "...Ah. Lucas opened the present". Incredibly enough, there was a hot spring in the box!" [[Bigger on the Inside|Considering the fact that you have to get in a hot spring to be healed by it]]...
** Also, the lethal-on-contact Ultimate Chimera in a bathroom.
** Among the monsters there are also door mimics, slightly different from real doors.
** There's also a [[Lethal Joke Character|Men's Room Sign]] enemy, which imitates a...[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|men's room sign]].  {{spoiler|Up until it pulls out PK Starstorm.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Mystic Ark]]'', in which not only are most mimics friendly, but they'll apologize when mistaken for a chest.

==N==

* In ''[[Nethack]]'', mimics are most commonly found in shops, which makes a nasty trap for lower level characters. They rarely ever imitate the correct item type, making for a fun little minigame of "find the odd symbol out" with, say, an ! (potion) icon in a rare book shop full of + (spellbooks). Won't help in a general store, however.
** Unless they mimic, say, the stairs up or down. Or the ] symbol ([ is armor, but ] is unused).

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' had a funny one, either in one of the expansion packs or the official mods.
** ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of the Underdark'' has an odd example. Instead of attacking you, it steals all your gear. You have to destroy it to get your stuff back, and it's immune to all your attacks. It's basically a harmless but annoying [[Puzzle Boss]].

* In the Xbox 360 game ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] II'', boxes are scattered all over the place, which usually give you some kind of health boost or extra essence. But every so often, it contains [[Goddamned Bats|zombie fish]] which can seriously hurt you if you're not careful. This is actually carried over from the first game in the series, back on the Xbox.

* The Mimics in ''[[Nox]]''.

==O==

* Such creatures are briefly encountered in the [[Ghost Ship]] portion of ''[[Ōkami]]''. Fortunately, their coloration and [[Elemental Powers|a certain wind power]] can give away their disguise.

==P==

* ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' had chest monsters only in the [[Bonus Dungeon]], the Chrysler Building. They didn't appear in the boxes until around the 30th floor or so and once found, you couldn't escape. Unless your armor had super high defense, you may not survive the encounter.

* The Hurt Plants of ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' look like Heart Plants. But while Heart Plants provide you with Heart Points, Hurt Plants initiate battles with you.
** [[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door|The sequel]] featured a parody of this trope by including large black chests holding slumbering evil spirits. [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Every time you opened one the spirit inside would place a curse on you,]] [[Cursed with Awesome|but the effect would invariably end up being a useful in-game ability.]]

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' featured the Dragon machine gun, which had a secondary mode that allowed you to turn it into a proximity mine. This was tons of fun in deathmatches. ("Hey, I think I'll stroll over here and grab this gun...What the...!?")

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' hides [[Bonus Boss]] [[The Grim Reaper|Reaper]] in random treasure chests while playing through a [[New Game+]]. Thankfully, it's kind enough to give you an ambiguous warning when you try to open it.

* ''[[Phantasy Star]] II'' has a dead-end room in the final dungeon where a single treasure chest blocks your path. After navigating a maze dungeon with powerful monsters, one would imagine this implies the part where you get the final ultimate item you can use to reach or defeat the final boss; however, it turns out to be one doozy of a Chest Monster... {{spoiler|The game series' recurring [[Big Bad]], as well as the second-to-last boss of the game - Dark Force.}}
** In the original ''[[Phantasy Star]]'', the treasure chests dropped after [[Random Encounters]] were occasionally boobytrapped to explode or shoot an arrow when they were opened.

* ''[[Pokémon]]''. The field sprites used for item balls are identical to the [[Mon|Mons]] Voltorb and Electrode. Said Pokémon have a nasty tendency to explode before you can KO them.
** This completely stopped making sense in Generation III. Prior to that, the sprite for item balls and the Voltorb/Electrode were just balls with red and white hemispheres. From Gen. III onwards, the sprite is very clearly a Poké Ball shape with a button in the center, which both Voltorb and Electrode lack.
** On the route just east of Fallarbor Town in ''Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald'', dimples in the layer of volcanic ash can mean one of two things; a hidden item, or a disguised Ninja Boy who will leap out, say something ridiculous, and proceed to poison all of your Pokemon with the inevitable Koffing.
** Item Boxes in ''Colosseum'' and ''XD'' are square in shape, so Genius Sonority knew they couldn't use the old Fake Item Ball trick from the games. They still included their own brand of [[Paranoia Fuel]] with ceiling-mounted Cipher Peons, which were placed in otherwise empty hallways and love to drop in your path when you desperately needed to get to the healing machine they were most likely guarding.
** Foongus and Amoongus - mushroom mons with Poké Ball designs on their caps - are these in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', as Voltorb and Electrode aren't native to the region. The worst part, their Ability (Effect Spore, a carryover from Gen III) can give negative status effects to any enemy who hits them! Their 'Dex entry suggests they evolved their cap design in an attempt to fool their prey; [[I'm a Humanitarian|this is less likely to fool the Pokemon than it is to fool the trainer.]] At least they're slow, unlike Voltorb and Electrode, so if you want you can run away. Unless you want stick around to catch or defeat one they're not a huge deal.
** Sudowoodo from Gen II pretends to be one of the trees that you're supposed to use Cut on. Instead, you have to water it because they're Rock-types. Used again in ''Emerald's'' Battle Frontier.

* In Level 12 of ''[[Prince of Persia]] 2'', there's a sword lying on the ground at one point, which you may think is a weapon upgrade, but when you approach it, it [[Flaming Sword|bursts into flames]] and attacks you. Run!

* In ''Psycho Fox'', eggs may contain enemies instead of useful items.

==R==

* ''Ragnarok Online'' has a particularly bone-headed example; it has [[Goddamned Bats|goddamned mimics]]. Of course Ragnarok has treasure chests. They're just usually part of the scenery. There are some proper ones too, though, albeit unusually rare for an RPG of any sort.

* ''[[Ratchet & Clank]] Future: Tools of Destruction'' has these.

* [[Rayman Origins]] features the Tricky Treasure Chest, it actually doesn't attack you nor it's hidden since the game has a special type of level just for it, instead when it sees Rayman & company, [[Genre Savvy|knowing what they're going to do at it]], [[Run or Die|starts running away for its safety]], making some frantically funny levels.

* Stage 5 of the [[TurboGrafx-16]] shoot 'em up ''Rayxanber III'' begins with a bunch of powerups flying towards the player. They turn into monsters when approached.

* Some boxes in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' contain snakes instead of items.

* These things are ''horrible'' in ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]''; the first few you meet a liable to cause a [[Total Party Kill]]. Not only are they about five times as strong as any random monster, but they surprise your party, leaving you unable to fight back for several seconds at the start of the fight! On the plus side, killing them ''always'' gives you a Hunter Coin. The lock on the box appears ''[[Glamour Failure|a little different]]'' from a normal area chest and the box stops opening partway just before the fight.

* Some [[Roguelike]] games take that to similar extremes, and feature monsters that look like empty space. One especially [[Interface Screw]]-y creature is found in ''Zangband'', making itself hard to identify, not only by being invisible, not only by looking like a floor tile even if you can see invisible monsters, but by having the name "It," so that all of its attacks will look exactly like those of a monster you can't see ("It touches you").
** Even worse, It's Monster Chatter {{spoiler|has lines like "It summons Greater Undead!"}}, screwing with the player even more.

* ''[[Rune Factory: Frontier]]'' has the Monster Box (and it's higher-level cousin, the Gobble Box), the classic example of a treasure chest with sharp, pointy teeth. They're rather easy to pick out (you'll notice the lack of a command before you get close enough to set it off), aren't a threat save for their high defense, and, like all other monsters other than bosses, can be tamed to follow you around town and the dungeons and spit out free jewels and metals every three days.

==S==

* ''[[Saga Frontier]]'' featured evil chests that spawned monsters. However, a lot of them dropped awesome prizes when defeated, so if you knew which were booby-trapped, you could grind and then go kick the chest's butt for loot.

* An unusual case of of a monster disguised as a ''harmful'' item, the spike enemies in the Marble Garden Zone of ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]]'' imitates the spikes you see in the level until you get near, after which they show themselves and start shooting. Interestingly, they're actually more ''useful'', as their apparent spikes actually work like a spring. If it's possible for a nonsentient, mass-produced robot to [[Minion with an F In Evil|have an F in evil]]...
** A straight use from that same game is the boss of Flying Battery Zone Act 1, which looks like a normal animal capsule until you press the button on top of it, at which point it sprouts two spikeballs on chains and tries to kill you.
** This trope is played straight is in ''[[Sonic Storybook Series|Sonic and the Black Knight]]'', which features actual chests that can come alive and attack you. However, the game plays a ''really'' mean trick when you first come across them, by placing one ''right in front of a load of fast-moving, spiked balls.'' Up until that moment, the player doesn't know about these chests, so upon coming across it, they'll just proceed to try and plough straight through it. Upon finding it's 'alive' (and losing almost all their rings in the process), the player has lost momentum and must then either jump or force their way clumsily through the balls as best they can, and promptly get knocked out because of losing most of their rings. It really is a case of [[Trial and Error Gameplay]].

* The Mimic Boxes from ''[[Mana (series)|Seiken Densetsu]]'':
** The second and third games of the ''[[Mana (series)|World of Mana]]'' series can have the randomly dropped treasure chests from monsters turn out to be one of these. In both games, they have extremely high attack power compared to normal monsters, but are less dangerous in the former, due to only showing up later on, and can be disabled through use of the Analyzer spell. In the third game, they can potentially appear at ''any'' point in the game, and have a stronger variant that starts showing up later.
** [[Legend of Mana]] has the Polter Box, which looks like one of the game's treasure chests with spikes, eyes, and feet. They do live up to the treasure chest disguise, though, since they tend to drop rare and valuable crystals used for tempering your armor and weapons at the forge.
*** It's also possible to get a Polter Box as a pet, and bringing him along increases your chances of getting rare items from monsters.
** ''[[Children of Mana]]'' has '''[[Stuff Blowing Up|exploding]]''' chest monsters.

* ''[[Shining the Holy Ark]]'' has a particularly nasty example in the form of a Chest Ghost that possessed Soul Steal, likely killing Basso (your party's tank) until you could resurrect him in a church. Not pleasant when you need his attacking prowess for the area's boss.

* ''[[Silver]]'' has animated chests that spring arms and legs (and swords) when you try to open them and attack you.

* In ''[[Spelunky]]'', pots may sometimes contain snakes or spiders.
** [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests|Treasure chests]] may sometimes contain ''a bomb''. Very annoying if you're carrying a damsel.

* Pandorites<ref>Apparantly named for Pandora's Box</ref> in ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' are so brutal they're practically minibosses. They have high attack, defense, magic attack, can sometimes heal or summon, and are immune to just about all spells except for Mario's jump.
** ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' had Zombie Shrooms, which resemble normal restorative items, but come to life and attack the player after a brief delay.

* In ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', that Piano in Big Boo's Haunt can give the unsuspecting player a heart attack, as it suddenly becomes '''extremely loud''' when it wakes up.

* In ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' / ''[[Doki Doki Panic|Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic]]'', the end of level gate in world 7-2 attacks you. Once you defeat it, it acts like a normal end of level gate.

* In certain levels of ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' there are some mini-Goombas that hide underneath and look like normal blocks, until you get close, when they spring up and jump at you. In the NES version you can tell these blocks from the normal ones because they don't "shine". In ''All-Stars'', however, they are indistinguishable until you get close.

* ''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'' has both fake flowers and fake [[1-Up|One Ups]].

==T==

* The ''[[Tales (series)]]''. Justified somewhat by the fact that they give you All Divides, which are one of the games' most powerful items.
** Fakes in ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'' get special mention. They take something like 10 times lessened damage from every attack you can make, including those with fixed damage like Distortion. They also start the battle Poisoned and lose a significant slice of their HP every few seconds. This makes every Fake battle more like a [[Hold the Line]] fight. (Distortion actually is helpful against Fakes, for a different reason - it holds the Fake immobile for several seconds while still allowing it to take Poison damage.)
** ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' has a normal monster in the shape of a treasure chest

* In ''[[Terraria]]'', Mimics will show up in worlds once "hard mode" is unlocked. They're fairly tough, but drop loads of money and (possibly) a rare item when defeated.

* In the Notre Dame level of ''Timesplitters 2'', there are several enemy changelings chained to the wall, disguised as the maidens that you're supposed to rescue. They can be told apart from maidens by closely inspecting their faces, and by the fact that zombies attack maidens, but not changelings.

* ''[[ToeJam & Earl]]'' has mailboxes you can use to purchase gift items. It also has really fast, really tough "mailbox monsters" that disguise themselves as ordinary mailboxes. It's possible, but somewhat difficult, to distinguish between the two by close observation: the eyes of a disguised mailbox monster may appear briefly if you remain idle.

* ''Torchlight'' has the archtypical Mimics, but when they die they tend to drop much better loot than the usual not-trying-to-kill-you treasure chest.

==U==

* ''[[Ultima V]]'', although you can tell there's a chest monster around if the victory music doesn't play after defeating the monsters.
** A few Ultimas had mimics, but the ''Ultima IX'' mimic actually had the body of a chest, on scaly ostrich legs. Tougher than most monsters in the same dungeons, but the rewards for beating them were usually better than what you could find in standard chests.
** Ultima III had killer floors in Exodus' castle, which looked exactly the same as the regular floor, and so couldn't be distinguished from the background either before or after they engaged you in combat. They fortunately weren't very strong, and could easily be defeated after you'd already killed one batch of them, by standing on the treasure chest the defeated floors left. All Ultima III combat when you're standing on a treasure chest, regardless of what's meant to be under the chest, has the standard "woodland" map. Against which things that look like castle floor are somewhat conspicuous.

==V==

* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' puts an interesting twist on the Mimic: In this game, it's actually a giant hermit crab-like creature that uses an actual chest as its shell.

* ''[[Vandal Hearts]]'' has Chest Monsters as well, also called mimics. In the game, a tactical RPG, chests are opened by striking them; naturally mimics are awakened in the same manner. They are indistinguishable from the normal chests until awakened. One [[Bonus Dungeon]] map takes this to the logical extreme, with a map filled with chests, only ''one'' of which is real.

==W==

* ''[[Wario Land]] The Shake Dimension'' has man eating treasure chests in one of the [[Big Boo's Haunt]] type levels, which act like the man eating plants found earlier in the game. Strangely though, these treasure chests actually do contain the items needed in the level, and have to blasted open with a bomb to get the (real) treasure.
** ''[[Wario Master of Disguise]]'' also has [[Chest Monster|Chest Monsters]].

* In addition to having mimics of varying strength scattered throughout, the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' games have a recurring [[Chest Monster]] ''superboss'' called the Black Box that you can only fight after opening every other chest in the game.
** At least in ''[[Wild Arms 3]]'' and ''[[Wild Arms 4]]'' the mimics were indistinguishable from regular boxes giving you some unexpected encounters. The payoff was decent enough to make it worthwhile.

* Wolfenstein 3d had a variation on this concept with some of the exit elevators. You may be given more than one door to choose, and if you pick the "wrong" one, then you find an elevator filled with guards, usually of the most difficult variety. Sometimes, the phony elevator may contain a secret wall that reveals rewards for your effort.
** One level of ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' also has a false exit.

* ''[[Wonder Boy (video game)|Wonder Boy]]'' and ''[[Adventure Island]]'' featured a grim reaper or eggplant monster hidden in some of the eggs, which clung onto you and drained your vitality. At least it doesn't turn you into an eggplant like in ''Kid Icarus''. In ''Wonder boy'' the eggs containing this were spotted, while in ''Adventure Island'' there was no way of telling them of apart.


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