Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,897
edits
Collision Damage: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 6:
Either way, ''touching'' an enemy damages - if not outright kills - the player. If you're lucky, you might survive, although you may lose a [[Power-Up]] or two. On the plus side, [[Mercy Invincibility]] usually kicks in at this point. This is part of the reason why it seems like [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything's trying to kill you]].
Often the [[Invincibility Power-Up]] will give ''you''
This is a very, ''very'' old trope, dating back to the original ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' and even to ''[[Space Panic]]'' at least. It is most commonly seen in the [[Platformer]]; it is never seen in the [[Fighting Game]] or the [[RPG]]. It's also a [[Discredited Trope]], as many modern platformers have discarded it.
Line 18:
Not to be confused with the real-time model damaging employed in modern 3D games. See also [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]].
{{examples}}
=== Action Adventure Games ===
* In the 2D ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' games, most enemies had the Touch of Death. In the 3D games, most enemies didn't.
* Touching any of the Heaven Smiles in ''[[Killer7]]'' can prove fatal to characters low on health. This is a [[Justified Trope]], however, because they all explode on contact.
Line 27:
** Which you will have to do sometimes if you want to get the alternate "Pacifist" ending.
=== Action Games ===
* ''[[Silver Surfer (video game)|Silver Surfer]]'' was [[Nintendo Hard]] because just touching a wall would result in the character's death. Often the lethal parts were indistinguishable from the background. Especially odd, because the Surfer is one of the most powerful and nearly invincible characters in the [[Marvel Universe]].
* All of the ''[[Contra]]'' series. Worse, you are almost always a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], meaning that practically anything even remotely malignant is fatal. I mean, c'mon, you are a [[Super Soldier|super muscloid juggernaut commando]] with muscles all the steroids in Major League Baseball couldn't
** Except in the original Japanese versions, where you get three hit points per life. Since, like, forever. The option's never even once made the transition. If the Konami Code still works in the Japanese version of Contra, that'd be like having 90 lives!
* 2D ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' titles.
Line 37:
* Everything in ''[[Magical Whip: Wizards of the Phantasmal Forest|Magical Whip Wizards of Phantasmal Forest]]'' will damage you from any direction for the same amount of damage. It doesn't matter whether it's a dragon, a pumpkin, or the lance of a knight.
=== Arcade Games ===
* Anything that moves in the ''[[Glider]]'' games can cause
* The ''[[Dragon's Lair|Dragons Lair]]'' NES game, as [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] pointed out. ''Touching a door'' could kill you. In one hit. In a game with a life bar.
* Averted in in the 2D shooter ''Mars Matrix'', in which your ship will simply fly on top of an airborne enemy instead of crashing into it. Due to the game's scoring and weapon powerup system revolving around chaining together cubes that come out of destroyed enemies, this feature is a necessity.
* In ''[[Bubble Bobble]]'', if Bub or Bob touches any enemy that is not encapsulated in a bubble, he will die comically and immediately.
=== Driving Games ===
* ''[[Pole Position (video game)|Pole Position]]'', one of the first [[Driving Game]]
** [[Truth in Television]] — Have you ever seen what happens when open-wheel race cars bump into each other at 200+ mph?
* In ''[[F-Zero]] GX'', touching certain things in the course scenery will blow your machine up into pieces, even if the object is otherwise non-lethal to the touch or you touch it at a snail's pace.
* The collision physics in ''[[Track Mania]]'' are especially brutal. In a turn, if you bump the inside barrier you'll often go flying into the other barrier. The cars and track seem to be made from rubber!
=== First-Person Shooter ===
* In ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'', vehicles moving past a certain speed (which is very very low) do 10000 damage to whatever they hit. The Master Chief has 75 shields and 75 health.
** Sword lunges at a wall can kill the user.
Line 64:
* The final boss of ''[[Blood]]'', Tchernobog, will instantly eradicate the player upon contact similar to the bosses found in ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]''.
=== Maze Games ===
* Even older than the ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' example is ''[[Pac-Man]].'' One touch from a ghost monster caused the titular character to shrivel up and evaporate, but with power pellet, the tables turned, allowing Pac to chomp the baddies.
** Speaking of ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', in the NES version, you can actually commit suicide nearly the instant you gain control of Mario by running to the left. Mario will die when he touches the oil drum, ''before it's even set on fire.''
=== MMORPGs ===
* In direct defiance of the fact that this trope is supposedly not seen in RPGs, ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has one of these: the infamous "frogger" encounter in Naxxramas. Green oozes lazily slink across a hallway. Your party is on one side of them. You and your party need to get to the other side. It's harder than it sounds, since any lag at all will throw off your timing. The frogger hall has claimed many lives.
===
* A booster cartridge (like the Game Genie or Knuckles) was once sold for the [[Commodore 64]] which eliminated sprite collision detection on any game plugged through it into the C64, making the player character effectively invulnerable.▼
▲== Platform Games ==
* A specific platformer example is - what else? - ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', where even the lowliest [[The Goomba|Goomba]] could kill you by running into you. Getting hit with a power-up active cost you the power-up but let you keep going. [[Inverted Trope|And then]] there's the [[Invincibility Power-Up|Starman]] powerup....
* All ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' titles.
Line 82 ⟶ 79:
* A more amusing example was perhaps ''Super [[Metroid]]'', where Ridley's sprite was given almost comically diminutive wings that amazingly still provide him with the ability to fly, because if they were the proper size, the impact detection for collision damage would make him impossible to get close to without being struck by them.
** ''Metroid'' is also notable for including the Screw Attack, a permanent upgrade that lets you reverse collision damage back at weak enemies.
* Touching [[Mook
** In ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'', Kirby has a "guard" technique to reduce or neutralize damage from attacks, including collision damage. Guarding while bosses are contacting Kirby can cause them to slowly take collision damage instead. This was [[Nerf
** In ''[[Kirby's Epic Yarn|Kirbys Epic Yarn]]'', collision damage is removed altogether, allowing to ride on enemies and bump into them.
* If ''[[Commander Keen]]'' touches an enemy or an environmental hazard, he assumes an agonized facial expression and falls entirely off the screen.
Line 100 ⟶ 97:
* ''[[Braid]]''. Touch an enemy and you can see Tim [[Death Throws|grimace in pain as he flies off the screen]], though you can also [[Goomba Stomp]] them [[Goomba Springboard|to jump higher]].
* Ogmo from ''[[Jumper (video game)|Jumper]]'' series is just a suspectible to this as [[Spikes of Doom|getting impaled]], being electrocuted, burned or shot. Deaths by a contact with an enemy (boss or not) are counted as being "bossed".
* ''[[Crystal Caves]]'' not only uses this, but there are two enemies (a pink snake and a green thing that looks like a jumping cactus) which leave behind corpses when they die, and these corpses still do
* ''[[Secret Agent (video game)|Secret Agent]]''. A minor cute fact: the ceiling fans look just like decoration, but will also deal
* This happens in the [[Blinx the Time Sweeper]] series, but it's pretty fairly balanced by the fact that the good targeting system makes it very easy to snipe enemies.
* Played straight in the entire ''[[Wonder Boy]]'' series except ''[[Monster World IV]]'', where only enemies that look painful (on fire, for example) hurt to touch.
Line 108 ⟶ 105:
* ''[[Ecco the Dolphin]]'', which could get really annoying in levels with a ton of jellyfish or sharks all over the place.
* In ''[[Miner 2049er]]'', the justification for the mutant organisms being harmful to touch was that they had absorbed a high level of radiation in the mine.
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Escape from Camp Deadly]]'', touching the escaped lunatic instantly kills you even though he's tied up. Also, in one cave there's a skull you have to shoot to turn it into a 1-up. If you instead touch the skull, you die.
* In ''[[FHBG]]'', both the player and the enemy take a hit.
=== Puzzle Games ===
* The help file which accompanied the old (and highly addictive) puzzle game ''[[Chip's Challenge|Chips Challenge]]'' in its Windows incarnation attempted to justify this by describing Chip as ''a fragile fellow''. Fragile indeed, as death-bringing enemies included paramecia, bugs and balls.
* Played straight by Skulls and Armas in ''[[Adventures of Lolo]]'', but averted by all other enemies, who either have long-range attacks or just can't kill you (directly, anyway).
=== Role-Playing Games ===
* ''[[Parasite Eve (video game)|Parasite Eve]]'' has this for touching any enemy in battle. Aya will suffer [[Scratch Damage]].
* The Ultimate Chimera from ''[[Mother 3]]'' is a perfect example of this trope. Any small physical contact will result in the player and his cohorts instantaneously being mutilated and killed.
* Earlier ''[[Ys]]'' games played this straight ''and'' inverted
=== Shoot
* The Game Gear game ''Tails Skypatrol''. Contact with enemies wouldn't kill you; you would simply spin out of control and begin crash-landing, but you could recover with good timing. Contact with a solid surface, though, was instantly fatal. Which is odd, because flying into ceilings or walls - or, God forbid, ''walking'' - doesn't hurt Tails at all in any other game.
* In some Psikyo [[Shoot
* Similar to the Psikyo shoot-em-ups, ''[[Triggerheart Exelica]]'' will not penalize your life counter if you collide with an enemy
* ''[[Metal Slug]]'' plays with this. Touch with mooks? Kill them with knife. Touch with tanks? You're dead. Or when they rush you anyway.
** Touching tanks is only lethal when tanks are moving - you're run over. Touching spiky bits also kills you unless you're in a [[Dawn of War|METAL BOX]].
Line 131 ⟶ 128:
** In Atmos Quake, the flaky collision detection [[Kill Screen|makes the last stage impossible to beat]].
=== Simulation Games ===
* In ''SAS Combat Simulator'' on the Amstrad CPC, upon starting the game, you were immediately swarmed by vast numbers of enemy soldiers. Your "SAS Commando" would instantly die if he touched one of them. (The fact that they also shot at you wasn't helpful either). However, part way through the first level, you could get a jeep powerup. Not only was this "jeep" a virtual tank, that made you immune to bullets, the collision-damage was reversed: now enemies died if they ran into you (even if you were stationary). But if you were hit by a grenade (or completed the level), you lost the jeep. This resulted in the most uneven difficulty curve ever seen.
===
▲* A booster cartridge (like the Game Genie or Knuckles) was once sold for the [[Commodore 64]] which eliminated sprite collision detection on any game plugged through it into the C64, making the player character effectively invulnerable.
== Web Comics ==
* Referenced in the [[Sprite Comic]]/PixelArtComic ''[[Kid Radd]]''; all enemy sprites have a power called the "Touch of Death".
** And played with. What happens when you bring the Touch of Death into a fighting game? [[Hilarity Ensues]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Physics]]
▲[[Category:Collision Damage]]
| |||