Colossus Climb: Difference between revisions

It has also become a common [[Video Game Tropes|game trope]], especially during [[Boss Battle]]s. It treats the boss monster as an element of the environment, and designates parts of his body as [[Platform Game|platforms]], to give a clear shot at his [[Achilles' Heel]]. Doing this to a [[Humongous Mecha]] often involves [[Are These Wires Important?|important wires]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* Some recent toothpaste commercial, as explanation for the fifth "dentist of five". As a slight aversion, the vulnerable area is ''the'' [[Groin Attack|vulnerable area]].

* A commercial for Capri Sun V has a young boy being attacked by a Cybear, a giant machine/bear hybrid. The kid manages to kill the 'marauding Ursa Machina' by leaping onto his back with a trampoline and ''stabbing him with the Capri Sun straw.''

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'' has one of these in the Bahamut SIN fight. It gets harder than usual because the monster flies. At the end of the fight is is a scene where Cloud is [[Fastball Special|thrown further and further up in the air]] by a succession of allies until he can finally reach the monster.

* In ''[[Macross 7]]'', a friendly [[Fan Service]] example from [[The Movie]]. One of the giant alien Meltrandi women shares a campfire with the hero and the kid sidekick. The kid has a quite innocent play session in her cleavage (she's at least 30 feet tall, and her breasts are easily the size of beanbag chairs, and the kid is about four years old).

* ''[[Naruto]]'' does this to {{spoiler|the Four Tails Bijuu}} in the Fourth Shinobi War, {{spoiler|in order to free him from Tobi's control}}.

 

* In ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', the trope enabled the more melee-oriented Wolverine to pull his weight whenever the team had to fight the Sentinels.

** That is if someone who had superstrength wasn't around to serve him up a [[Fastball Special]].

* In Issue 20 of Archie Comics' ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'', a [[Giant Mook|giant Foot Soldier]] is unleashed and begins destroying the city. After an initial futile assault is launched on its shins, they climb up in search of a vulnerable spot. Turns out that they {{spoiler|only wind up being a diversion so that a fireman-turned-dragon (thanks to an old curio shop owner's powder) can defeat it.}}

 

* In the movie version of ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'', the hero climbs up on top of a giant bug that's attacking his squad. He blows a hole in the bug's body, drops a large explosive in the hole, and jumps off.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' movie ''The Return of the King'', where Legolas climbs the Oliphant and shoots it in the head with arrows after [[Film/Awesome|singlehandedly wiping out the entire archer platform and sending it to earth]].

* The twins vs. [[Combining Mecha|Devastator]] in ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'' ends up like this.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Shrek]]'' when Puss in Boots attacks Shrek (including an ''[[Alien]]'' style chest burst, no less).

 

== Literature ==

* In most adaptations of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', the Lilliputians use this, as a swarming attack, against the title character.

* The standard attack of the Nac Mac Feegle (six-inch-high [[Violent Glaswegian]]s) in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novels is to clamber up their opponent and headbutt him with an effect like lead shot.

* ''A Rustle in the Grass'' by Robin Hawdon is a [[Mouse World|novel about ants]] told in a [[Heroic Fantasy]] style. At one stage the anthill is attacked by a bird and the ant hero drives it off by climbing up its body to attack the bird's eye.

* The Mechas in [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Empire'', apparently designed by a particularly [[Genre Savvy]] engineer, are nearly impossible to climb on. Our heroes have to get creative to take them out, by pushing on the legs to upset the balance, and then hitting it with two cars. {{spoiler|They find a much, much easier method once they link up with the National Guard in the form of AT-4.}}

** And back in ''Ender's Game'', Ender attacks the virtual Giant in a video game by leaping onto him and [[Eye Scream|digging into his eye.]]

 

* Believe it or not, ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (a show where [[Henshin Hero]]es typically summon [[Humongous Mecha]] in response to a [[Make My Monster Grow]] situation) has done this quite a few times, although it is sometimes regarded as a live-action anime.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* This is standard operating procedure for Elementals in ''[[BattleTech]]''. Elementals are 8' tall [[Power Armor]] wearing [[Super Soldier]] troopers, [[Designer Babies|genetically designed]] by [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|the Clans]] to be anti-Mech infantry. As even the smallest 'Mech is still over 6 meters tall, Elemental teams, operating in groups of five, often enact a Colossus Climb to destroy enemy 'Mechs, mostly to [[Attack Its Weak Point]]. Because of the construction of some types of 'Mechs, which often lack humanoid features like hands, this trope is considered a perfectly sensible tactic instead of a suicide run.

** However, there are some Inner Sphere infantry units, who are not 8' tall nor clad in armor that can resist 'Mech-scale weapons, who will occasionally try to do this with varying degrees of success. It is possible for simple infantrymen to inflict critical leg damage to enemy 'Mechs this way, and the novels describe at least three instances where a 'Mech was captured or destroyed by infantry making climbs.

 

== Video Games ==

** Inverted at the end of ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', where {{spoiler|Sonic has to save the colossus he's running all over rather than try to destroy it.}}

** In ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'', the boss of Blizzard Peaks is a whale. Smack it open, jump inside to an obstacle course, then smack this weak spot at the end for [[Massive Damage]]. Literally. While most bosses in this game take loads of hits, only 3 times of reaching this spot (different course each time too) is needed.

* In ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', El Gigante must be killed by shooting at him for a while, then climbing onto his back and slashing at the parasite controlling the beast as it emerges. Of course, the player can also just shoot the parasite as well, but that doesn't look nearly as cool.

* Another computer game that features this is ''[[Rayman]] 3: Hoodlum Havoc'', where Rayman needs to run up the villain's arm to reach the magic thing in its back, in the second stage of the final boss battle.

* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', the frost giant Ymir falls under this trope as you must jump in his oversized club to initiate a [[Quick Time Event]]; the only way to hurt him.

** Although you skip the climbing and use cannons to get on top, it's also how you deal with Arcade.

* The Sin battle in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.

** And in it's sequel, the entire final level is taken up by a climb up Vegnagun to get to his head.

* An early boss in ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]] Assault'' needs to be hovered onto with the landmaster tank.

* ''[[X-Men|X-Men 2 in Clone Wars]]'' for the [[Sega Genesis]] does this quite impressively on its second, third, AND fourth levels. Video games typically struggle with portraying one of the X-Men's major antagonists, the colossal robots known as Sentinels; often they are shrunken down to only slightly larger than human so they make a more manageable obstacle for the player. ''Clone Wars'' gets around this by having the X-Men attack a Sentinel maintenance facility while the Sentinels are off-line. You spend two levels fighting your way up scaffolding to reach one of the Sentinel's heads, and one level going ''inside'' a Sentinel and fighting a [[Boss Battle]] against its reactor core, then running partway back down the scaffolding before the facility explodes from the power overload. Parts of two Sentinels' bodies are visible in the background throughout the levels, and they are true to their gigantic depictions in the comic books and television shows.

* Similar to the ''X-Men'' example above, the Super NES adaption of ''[[Star Wars]] Episode V'' (''Super Empire Strikes Back'') had Luke—after escaping his snowspeeder before it was destroyed—climb up an AT-AT's leg, work his way up from the inside, and walk across its backside before fighting the head, all in ''three separate levels''! This contrasts from the movie, where Luke instead tethered to its underside, cut an opening with his lightsaber, and threw a bomb inside to destroy it.

* The boss Eligor in ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]'' is a giant centaur-like creature which can only be damaged if the player hits its eye. This can only be accomplished by destroying the jewels on it's four legs, its two crossbows, finding a way to get under it and behind it without being crushed, and finally climbing up to its back and attacking its eye all while avoiding its various attempts to knock you off again. A certain glyph can skip a large part of this process however.

* Someone has made a special map for ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' that has [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNlFyxcncVc one of these].

* In ''[[Lufia|Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals]]'', Gades' [[One-Winged Angel|true form]] involves one of these. Sadly, there wasn't much to it, and the real challenge came from the rematch with his previous form.

[[Deadpan Snarker|Rayne:]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|I have bowel in my hair...]] }}

* In a unique non-boss example, ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' requires the player to climb atop the eponymous giant mechanical shark of [[Down the Drain|Clanker's Cavern]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Skullkickers]]'', [[No Name Given|Shorty]] defeats the giant worm-thing by climbing it with his axes, chopping his way ''into'' its head and rooting around in there until it dies.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Saturday Morning Cartoon]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]