Colossus Climb: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A specific exchange between two characters of different size scales, and a way for the little guy to get a leg up.

The smaller character attacks the bigger character by climbing his body, avoiding his [[Mighty Glacier|ponderous opponent]] long enough to attack a [[Attack Its Weak Point|vulnerable spot]]. Can involve climbing on fur, hair and clothing, or can alternately involve invasion ''under'' clothing. The climb may be made easier when combined with a [[Gulliver Tie Down]]. If the attacker is swallowed, this can quickly lead to a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]].

 

 

A milder form has a small child trying to bring down an exceptionally big thug, but it almost never works.

Since most western animation is designed as kid-friendly stuff, this will most often not be done to a female character, and the vulnerable area attacked will not be the ''most'' [[Groin Attack|vulnerable area]].

 

 

 

== 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.''

 

* 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).

* In ''[[Digimon Savers]]'', Masaru and Agumon pull one of these in the final battle against the [[Big Bad]]. It doesn't quite work out as planned (they get nabbed by the Big Bad's [[Combat Tentacles]] once they reach the top), but it's still awesome.

** Kinda subverted by Franky, who just builds a staircase.

* Played twice in [[MAR]] with Jack as the climber in both cases.

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

 

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

*** Often times Wolverine is almost more than likely capable of climbing his way up to take them out head on.

 

** Which, according to Gimli, still only counts as one.

* This is Reepicheep's primary battle strategy in ''[[Narnia|Prince Caspian]]''.

* 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 ==

* ''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.]]

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** 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 ==

* [[Trope Namer]]: The game ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' is an [[Boss Game|entire game of these battles]], with some exploration and platforming in between.

* [http://www.nitrome.com/games/skyserpents/ Sky Serpents] by [[Nitrome]].

* Many of the enemies in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' can be approached this way; anything big enough can be climbed on.

** A subversion happens with Giant Ursula where you don't have to climb since you're all underwater.

** And before that, in an arena, he fights a much bigger giant and defeating him involves weakening him, then performing acrobatics to climb, cripple and kill him.

** Also, previously in ''Warrior Within'', the Prince faced Iron Golems that could only be hurt by slashing at their ankles until they fell to their knees, then climbing up on their shoulders and stabbing them in the neck. For that matter, the Prince's signature move throughout the series is to use his great agility to run up an enemy's torso and vault over them, thus getting into position to wail on them from behind.

*** Later in the same game, Shadow has to grind up a <s>rail</s> "support pipe" on the Biolizard's neck in order to reach its back, where its weak spot was.

* 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.

* Several bosses in ''Steambot Chronicles'' can be climbed (a few ''need'' to.)

** There's also the ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BatLwZXdBw Heavy Metal Mecha-Bowser]'' star later in the game; it involves Mario climbing a massive windup toy of death, complete with spikes, flames and energy weapons and dismantling it as he goes.

* Possible subversion in the console version of ''[[Alien Hominid]]''. When you fight the pudding boss, a downed lamppost leads straight from the ground to the monster's head. If you ever try to climb up the post, it immediately kills you.

* ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' has a big one of these when Dante takes on the Savior in order to rescue Nero. This is combined with [[Womb Level]] as Nero takes it on from within. ([[Fridge Logic|Why does a statue have squishy innards...?]])

** It's a '''[[A Wizard Did It|magical]]''' statue, okay?

** Also in ''Minish Cap'', multiple enemies require you to become tiny and go inside them to defeat them, including at least one form of the [[Big Bad]].

** Two bosses in ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' don't have to be climbed as much as getting high enough to use [[Grappling Hook Pistol|the hookshot]] on their weak point on their back. Cue Link sitting on the boss frantically stabbing said weak point with his sword until he gets shaken off.

** In ''[[Skyward Sword]]'' there's the fight against The Imprisoned, where you need to whack his seal back into his forehead.

* ''[[La-Mulana]]'': {{spoiler|the boss of the Mausoleum of the Giants is immune to ranged weapons (i.e. your subweapons), so you have to wait for it to punch diagonally into the ground, then climb up its extended arm and whack at its face.}}

** 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]]''.

* ''[[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.

** [[Bonus Boss]] The Forgotten One in ''Lament of Innocence'' is a colossal demon, but instead of climbing you fight him from an elevator.

* Used in the bossfight agains the [[Humongous Mecha]] Quadraxis in ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2''. In the phase 2 of the fight, Quadraxis' head separates from its legs and starts flying around the arena. The player must climb the Spider Ball tracks on the legs, boost onto the head, and then lay bombs into the weak spots in order to damage it.

* In ''[[Halo]] 3'', two of the Scarab fights pretty much require you to blast it's legs until it kneels, whereupon the player can jump aboard and fight their way to the glowing weakpoint at the top of the giant robot bug (If you're good/lucky you can defeat it without having to climb aboard, by shooting at it's back until the armor around the weakpoint falls off, but it's tricky). The final battle, against two Scarabs, is much easier because you're in a plane.

* One of the final bosses in ''[[Shantae]]'', the gigantic mechanical Tinkerbot, is a miniature stage on his own. You have to find a way into him without getting killed, and then climb around inside him to find and disconnect all his power conduits.

* ''[[Drill Dozer]]'' has a boss who the player actually has to climb around ''inside'' to find his weak point.

* Most of the fighting against the Flame Leviathan battle platform in the Ulduar raid of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is done with a variety of vehicular weaponry, but the demolishers (catapaults) are capable of launching other players onto its back to destroy its turrets. This is necessary in order to send it grinding to a temporary halt that both resets its continuous acceleration and lets all the other vehicles pound on it for extra damage.

* The Tower Monster level in ''Gargoyle's Quest''.

* One level in the ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' game takes place on an aircraft carrier that transforms into the giant Tidal Wave for the [[Boss Battle]].

* Some of the boss fights in [[Bayonetta]] have boss climbs that are even bigger then the ones in [[Shadow of the Colossus]]

* Snake has to climb all over one of the giant robots in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]].'' It's functionally equivalent to a giant tank mixed with a battleship: the sucker is ''covered'' in guns and if you don't disable at least a few of them, it'll blow you away even as you climb it. In fact, it seems to have been designed specifically to fight off people who would try to climb it.

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

 

== Western Animation ==

* Disney's classic short of ''The Brave Little Tailor'' features Mickey defeating the giant in exactly this way.

** Not to mention ''Giantland'', ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'', and, in a way, ''[[Runaway Brain]]''. Somewhat reversed in ''Gulliver Mickey,'' as ''he's'' the giant. There have also been instances where Mickey has latched onto Pete's back or climbed up him, as in ''Two Gun Mickey'' or in the ''[[House of Mouse]]'' episode "The Broken Thermostat."

* Once on ''[[Chowder]]'', Schnitzel and Chowder had to climb a giant to make a delivery. Not to the giant, to the guy living on top of the giant.

* Naturally, [[Bugs Bunny]] finds himself in this situation - twice in fact, once with [[Daffy Duck]], running into giant Elmer Fudd's ears and ending up behind huge, window-like eyes...then running back down under his clothing, reducing him to ticklish giggles.

* A human face becomes the location of the [[Final Battle]] between anthropomorphic white blood cell [[Osmosis Jones]], voiced by [[Chris Rock]], and evil virus, Thrax, voiced by [[Laurence Fishburne]]. Along with Thrax, Ozzy is ejected out of his host and lands on the upper face of Shane (the daughter of Osmosis's home, Frank, and whom Thrax intends to infect and kill after disposing of Frank). During the battle, they plunge into the murky watery depths on the tip of her sclera, avoid being crushed by her oncoming blinking eyelid, and commence [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME76Sg7J6fk battling on one of her eyelashes].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', Quentyn climbs a dragon and lassos its mouth after his plan A proves completely ineffective.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Saturday Morning Cartoon]]

[[Category:Boss Battle]]