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Stage-long [[Interface Screw|Interface Screws]] and [[Stock Video Game Puzzle|Stock Videogame Puzzles]] could also be considered Gimmick Levels.
{{examples}}
* ''[[Earthworm Jim (
** The first game, along with several genre changes, featured levels where you lost your power suit and had to crawl around as an earthworm, a level where you were in pitch blackness, and could only see the eyes of the hero and his enemies, and the first part of the final stage had you slow-fall (by using your head as a helicopter) down a long, narrow spiked chasm. The Bungee-Jumping level, and the Bathysphere portion of the Water Level border more on You-know-what.
** ''Earthworm Jim 2'' had many other variations, such as a level where you play a blind cave salamander swimming through an intestinal tract (and briefly [[Pop Quiz|answering nonsensical questions in a mock quiz-show]] at one point), a level where you have to burrow underground with your modified gun, an isometric shooter level where you push a crate of dynamite tied to a balloon so you can use it on the level's boss and one where you inflate your head to float upwards through the level. The ''Earthworm Jim'' series is known for its surreal craziness.
* The ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' series had more and more of these as it went on. The first one had some gimmick levels, but they were mostly in the minority. The second was roughly half-and-half (half gimmick levels, half non-gimmick levels), and by the time the third came out, the non-gimmick levels were in the minority. Some of the more memorable examples are: A mostly swimming level where your left/right controls are reversed while in the water, a level with significantly decreased gravity, a level where through the entire thing an offscreen enemy is shooting at you, a [[Scrappy Level]] where lightning is constantly trying to strike you, and a level where a hungry fish is constantly following you and have to feed normal fish enemies to him to keep him from attacking.
** The [[Game Boy]] [[Gaiden Game]], ''Donkey Kong Land III'', averts this by having no gimmick levels at all, possibly due to engine limitations.
** In ''[[
* Every ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' game so far has had at least one "Freaking Huge Spiderball Maze" that the player must navigate.
* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] II'' sometimes had stages where the walls were invisible.
** The original had a whole ''world'' of invisible-wall stages, though only a small chunk of said stages actually had invisible walls.
* Any ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' level with bumpers and plungers (e.g. [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2
** Possibly the most extreme version of this is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFI6WdTiVs Wacky Workbench] from [[Sonic the Hedgehog CD
** The last level of ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles
** All of the ''[[
* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' examples:
** World 6-2 of ''[[
** World 5-3 of ''[[
** ''[[Super Mario World (
** ''[[
** ''[[
** Similarly, ''[[
** The sequel, ''[[
* ''[[Metro 2033]]'' has the "Child" level, where a kid is riding on your back, making your look controls drift strongly. By the way, there are ''still'' plenty of mutants around, and they ''still'' want to eat you.
* The ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3'' had plans for a a level where the cast rode on motorcycles; this was scrapped during development, but through cheat codes the level can still be partially accessed.
* ''[[Future Wars]]'', an adventure game, ends with two lengthy arcade sequences instead of further puzzles.
* The middle section of ''[[Indiana Jones and
* ''[[Rayman]]''
** A level with a first half where you can't stop running and its second half where the controls are reversed.
** There is, in addition, the level with the clearly evil clone that followed your every move several seconds behind.
* Quite a few examples across the [[Final Fantasy]] series:
** There were a couple of "miniature dungeons" in ''[[
** ''[[
*** Multi-party battles. Different mechanics for them. In the first half of the game, if you die, you return to the beginning with one hit point for everyone, and the real goal is to keep the enemies from reaching Terra or Banon. In the second half, one party has to hit switches for the other party(s).
*** Fanatic's tower, where you can only use magic. Did we mention many enemies have auto-reflect? [[Demonic Spiders]] ahoy!
*** The Zone Eater, a [[Womb Level]] complete with a rising and falling ceiling with holes in it. If you get crushed, it's a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. Lots of those in ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
** And that is just the (official) tip of the iceberg of uses of the game's engine and powerful editor, which people have used to create all sorts of games. One of them, Defense of the Ancients, has become a game of its own.
* While most [[World of Warcraft]] bosses have somewhat unique combination of abilities very few manage to get to the level of "gimmicky". The list for Wrath of The Lich King:
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** [[Mad Scientist|Profssor Putricide]] - one of you has to turn into a monster and eat up the poisonous goo he splatters around.
** Valithria Dreamwalker - you have to deal with numerous mooks while ''healing'' her (with massive buffs for your healers).
* ''[[
* ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' (and too many 3d platformers to name) have levels where the player has to run away from a rolling object of death and [[Camera Screw|towards the camera]]. Worst. Idea. Ever. The series also had the character riding atop ever-running animals, and vehicle levels. Incidentally, many people consider that when the games moved to Playstation 2 and the amount of Gimmick Levels overrode that of normal levels, the series [[Jumped the Shark]].
* The inverted floating castle in ''[[
* Every single level in ''[[
* The level "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." from ''[[Half-Life]] 2''. Designed primarily to show off your shiny new [[Wreaking Havok|Gravity Gun]] (though it's also a pretty good [[Survival Horror]]-style level). There's even an achievement for beating it using nothing but the Gravity Gun.
* ''[[Diablo]] II'' had the Secret Cow Level. It's [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[
* Supported with some justification in ''Total Overdose'''s technique sidequests. Many of them underscore a technique that's available through the entire game but not necessarily obvious to the player, and by training it through the challenge, the player can incorporate it into story stage environments for more effective combat and better score. Example: Fly on the Wall Challenge requires the player to get X number of headshots while flipping sideways upside down through the air within Y number of minutes, while crowds of thugs storm from either direction of a narrow courtyard. The only way to achieve gold standard on this is to become proficient at sideways walking up a wall, leaping off of it and aiming. This is an enormously powerful offensive and defensive maneuver best learned before the heat of later missions is turned up (plus it's style amplified.)
* Every level beyond the first in ''[[
** In "Revenge of Queen Worm", you don't use the horror monitor, and you have to avoid the worms.
** In "Woodpuppets", you spend about half your time in the stage turned into one of the titular monsters.
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** "Killerman" is a pseudo-whodunnit that takes place behind the scenes of the park.
** "Toy Hunter" has you turn into Cork, the main character of the (fictional) Toy Hunter franchise, and follow his latest adventure by uncovering "story elements" dotted throughout the stage.
* ''[[
* In the first ''[[Marathon
* ''[[Doom]] 2'' had a level that punished you if you stuck around to fight the demons. Moments after the level started, there began a chain reaction of explosive barrels which would kill you if you didn't run straight for the exit.
* ''[[The Immortal]]'' had a level with flame jets emerging from the floor and fireballs shooting from the walls - all relatively easy to avoid on foot - but you couldn't traverse the level on foot. The floor was infested with giant sandworms, so you had to fly on an insanely difficult to control [[Flying Carpet]].
* Pretty much the point of the classic platformer ''[[Jumpman]]'' and ''[[Jump Man Junior]]'' - every single level would have a unique gimmick for you to deal with, from floating platforms to invisible floors to moving bombs to an alien invasion. At least one remake [[Completely Missed The Point]] by turning all the gimmicks into stock objects so they could be reused.
* Every single level of ''[[
* The [[Shoot'Em Up]] ''[[In the Hunt]]'' has the Channel stage, a river running through a city overrun with [[Mecha
* ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' on the SNES was mainly regular platform levels of one sort of another, but halfway through the game it had an American-style football stage where you had to run, jump and tackle your way with the ball to the goal line within the time limit.
** There was also a Tiny Toons sports game on Genesis where each level had a different gimmick. Besides a basic gym, there was a field with spots where the characters could trip, Monty's house would have vehicles hit you, etc.
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* ''[[Jett Rocket]]'' has the Jett Ride level, which takes place on a wave racer course filled with mines. It's also the only non-glitch place in the game you can get the "Speed Run" award, with [[Dungeon Bypass|a little trickery.]]
* [[Spyro the Dragon]] features this in the form of "Speedway" levels.
* In [[Kingdom Hearts]] Re:Coded, every pre-boss level plays as a different video game genre. For instance, in the [[Hercules (Disney film)|Mount Olympus level]], fights are turn-based RPG-style.
* This turns up fairly frequently in the main ''[[Mega Man (
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* A lot of ''[[
** Skull Man's stage is mostly bottomless pits and the only way across them is to use the various gimmick platforms to cross them.
** Pharaoh Man's stage had the pyramid's curse.
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** In Wily Castle Stage 1, Sniper Joe-themed enemies are the only enemies found there.
* The final case of the first ''[[Phoenix Wright]]'' game is a bonus stage of sorts; it wasn't included in the original [[Game Boy Advance]] version. When [[Ace Attorney]] was planned to be re-released for the [[Nintendo DS]], the fifth case was added and it had many new features. For example, players can now dust for prints and closely examine evidence.
* ''[[
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