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* ''[[Action 52]]'': Apollo, the leader of the ''Cheetahmen'' cast, instead of fighting melee like his companions (and therefore [[Good Bad Bugs|flying]]) uses a crossbow. This gives him a tiny vertical range that is too high for every single enemy in his two stages. Virtually the only thing you can attack with him that doesn't randomly spawn flying at your own height is the final boss.
* Yes and no in ''[[
* ''[[Captain Comic]]'' cannot duck. [[Bellisario's Maxim|You'll need a corkscrew]] to deal with the enemies that are shorter than you.
* ''[[Castlevania]]'': the flying/forehead variety is present at all times in the earlier games, and walking on stairs effectively removes your ability to deal with crotch monsters.
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** ''Eco Fighters'' is probably the only shooter in existence that defies this trope at all times, since all guns can fire in 360 degrees.
** [[Sigma Star Saga]] also mostly averts this trope, since you upgrade to weapons capable of multi-directional fire very early in the game and never have to look back beyond that point.
* ''[[Ghosts
* The original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (
** Somewhat averted with the boomerang, however.
** Later games avoided this by making the sword slash in an arc, and introducing the spinning attack. However, most ranged attacks still only fire four directions.
** Averted in the 3D Zeldas.
* [[The
* ''[[Mega Man (
** It wasn't until ''5'' that the charged shot gained extra vertical spread, finally putting an end to crotch monsters.
** Bass could fire in 7 directions and later [[Mega Man X
** X was a [[Game Breaker]] in ''X7'' because he would actually aim at his target instead of blindly shooting forward. Floor, ceiling, [[Polygon Ceiling|Z-axis]] be damned, you were dead meat once X fired.
** Poked fun at by [http://www.duelinganalogs.com/comic/2006/09/06/dr-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/ ''Dueling Analogs''].
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* The first ''[[Metroid]]'' game only let you shoot horizontally and straight up, and you can't duck. The Wave Beam helped deal with this, but you inevitably needed to replace it with the Ice Beam to deal with the Metroids. The Screw Attack was awesome enough to possibly qualify for a partial aversion for flying enemies, but the only other way to deal with crotch monsters was with bombs. ''Metroid II'' averted this a bit by allowing you to duck and fire straight down if you're in midair, and also improving the Screw Attack so it could destroy small monsters at ground level. ''Super Metroid'' and beyond averted this further by also allowing you to both shoot diagonally and combined collected beams instead of replacing them. The ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' series, being [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]], got rid of this problem entirely.
* ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'': is another example of the flying/forehead variant of this trope, notable if only for the fact that the game's [[Goddamned Bats]] are more deadly than a bazooka blast to the face.
* ''[[
** More to the point: if you're playing multiplayer and your friend picks Oddjob, just declare him the winner and play something else. You could crouch in ''[[
*** ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' thankfully avoided this, because the game automatically aims at stuff lower than yourself. Made fighting short characters like Elvis much easier.
* ''[[Resident Evil]]'': the first two games are a rare example where the trouble lies within the X-axis instead of the Y. Most 3D games of the time (and even now, in this troper's opinion) suffer(ed) from the issue of quickly and effectively dealing with enemies behind you, but the notable lack of a quick-turnaround feature prior to the third game make Resident Evil a particularly egregious offender.
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* ''[[Might and Magic]]'': the 3D games (6, 7, and 8) are a examples of the "FPS games with horrible controls" version of this trope. The Godawful "look up/down" controls were bad to the point of near-uselessness, leaving firing straight ahead as the only viable method of attack. Melee attacks would automatically target anything in range, ranged attacks were usually pretty good about aiming higher at flying enemies, and there were no ridiculously short "crotch monsters" to contend with. Trying to aim at anything more than a foot lower and more than a yard away from you, however, was next to impossible.
** That's why you entered turn-based mode. In regular full-speed mode the [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|AI was given a rather large advantage]].
* It's not until late in ''[[
* [[
** Also [[Handwaved|explained]] by the game - Iji's nanogun is [[Huge Gun Tiny Girl|so large]] she can only hold it properly while standing straight - trying to fire while crouched or airborne would result in the recoil knocking her over.
*** [[Fridge Logic|Which becomes ridiculous]] when you realize that Iji will happily fire a weapon which knocks her over with recoil even while she ''is'' standing. Not to mention that you get knocked over frequently anyway with all the rockets flying around, and that blasting yourself across the room with recoil would actually be ''useful'' in some instances. In fact, it's required to get some of the secrets!
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* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/512407 Madness Accelerant] With keyboard controlls, you can only aim in a few directions. A later version added [[Game Breaker|mouse aiming]] that allowed you to aim anywhere.
* [[Dynasty Warriors]] is a 3D variation: characters can attack in the full 360 degrees... but not up or down. This is a big problem when trying to move down staircases or steep hills.
* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' has a variant: You can attack diagonally, downward. But anything higher than Mario can't be attacked. Not normally a problem, until you've got Lakitu, a [[Demonic Spider]] ''constantly'' [[Mook Maker|spawning Spinies]]. (You can kill him if you stand high enough to hit him, but he just respawns.)
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[La-Mulana]]'', shurikens can only be fired straight left or right, spears straight down, and flares straight up. Throwing knives (and the dagger) do help get rid of crouching enemies, but the other sub-weapons aren't good for general use.
* Non-video game example: [[
* ''[[
* The NES version of ''Super [[Pitfall]]'' allows you to crouch and shoot, but not at the same time. This means certain enemies can only be killed by climbing slightly down a ladder.
* In ''[[
* The cannons in [[Netstorm]] can only fire in the four basic directions, to balance out their high power and long range.
* ''[[Vanguard]]'' allowed 8-way movement, but only 4-way firing. However, this is more generous than most later [[Horizontal Scrolling Shooter|Horizontal Scrolling Shooters]] (but ''Vanguard'' was not a pure [[Horizontal Scrolling Shooter]]).
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* ''[[Contra]]'': all games in the series allow you to aim in all eight directions and shoot while prone, not to mention the famous [[Game Breaker|spread gun]]. You have to be moving to shoot diagonally, though.
* ''[[Zelda II:
* The ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' series as a whole averts this trope by providing the characters with full body attacks, as well as by giving projectiles an effective range of coverage, as well as allowing you to launch the projectiles at an angle from ''[[Donkey Kong Country 2|2]]'' onwards (strangely enough, this ability was absent in ''Returns'').
* ''[[Ice Climbers]]'': a hammer swing will take out anything that's even remotely close to you, and simply jumping will even deal with baddies directly above/behind you.
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** ''Castlevania: Bloodlines'' and ''Chronicles'' too, to an extent; the player character can only hit diagonally or when in the air (as well as downwards in ''Chronicles''), and can't hit straight up at all.
** Most of the [[Metroidvania]] games gave you enough options to deal with enemies to proerly avert this trope, as well.
** Fully averted once more by none other than [[Badass Grandpa|Julius Belmont]] in ''[[Castlevania: Harmony of Despair|Harmony Of Despair]]'', where he can whip in all directions this time, and he has a variety of sub-weapons as well when that doesn't quite cut it.
* In the original [[Doom]], although you can't aim the gun up or down yourself, if you fire at an enemy who is above or below your sights, the game aims the shot towards the enemy. Even if the game didn't do that, you'd still score a hit due to the enemies' [[Hitbox Dissonance|cylinder-of-infinite-height hitboxes]].
* ''Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath, and Beyond'' lets you stop and aim, which can be handy when dealing with enemies that are crouching or standing on a ledge above you. Unfortunately, you ''have'' to stop and stand still to aim like this, in a game where everyone else is aiming for your current position.
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* [[Gunstar Heroes]] allows you to choose between two modes: Fixed Shot and Free Shot. Free Shot gives you a shooting scheme straight out of [[Contra]], whereas Fixed Shot makes you stand still and aim in the direction you press the D-pad while firing.
** Its remake/sequel Gunstar Super Heroes expands on this by assigning those two to separate buttons (instead of making the player pick one) and adding the ability to move freely while continuously aiming in one direction.
* ''[[
* In the tactical strategy ''[[Odium]]'', your weapons' range is arbitrarily limited; this was criticized in several reviews. Melee weapons cannot be used to attack diagonally, and most firearms can only shoot horizontally and vertically as well. The rifle is special in that it can also shoot diagonally, but if an enemy happens to stand a [[Chess
* The titular hero of ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'' can fire his head in five directions while standing, in eight directions while in midair, and diagonally downward or low and to the side while ducking. If a target is within firing radius, it can be hit. The game even gives you overkill with Lotsa Heads, a three-head spread shot, War Head, which automatically fires projectiles in eight directions along with being able to be fired normally, and Pig Head, which cannot itself be fired but which allows you to fire two homing projectiles at a time.
* In ''[[Recettear]]'', one of the adventurers (Louie) averts this by swinging his sword in a wide arc, allowing hum to hit monsters diagonally. Played straight with everyone else, though.
* In ''[[
* ''Hellfire'' allows you to select between forward fire, backward fire, 2-way vertical fire and 4-way diagonal fire.
* ''[[Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup]]'' not only allows you to attack in all 8 directions, but you can aim ranged attacks at pretty much any square within your line of sight, though you generally need to have a clear path to your target for your attack to hit. Of course, this applies to your enemies as well.
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