Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Exacerbating the situation, [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] said, is the seemingly arbitrary placement of the hazards. "I could see why, if you're in a [[Eternal Engine|factory]], you might find yourself jumping around on dangerous conveyor belts moving in different directions," he said. "But why would you have conveyor belts in a [[Big Fancy Castle|castle]]? Or in the middle of a [[The Lost Woods|forest]]?"''|''[[The Onion]]'', [http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28338 "Video-Game Characters Denounce Randomly Placed Swinging Blades"]}}

 

 

In real life, conveyor belts, escalators, moving walkways and similar conveyances are part of certain specialized environments, and serve the function of moving things in a convenient direction. In video games conveyor belts can show up anywhere: in the middle of a forest, in underground catacombs, etc. These belts don't move in a logical direction. They dump pedestrians into bottomless pits. Multiple conveyor belts move in opposite directions to trap players.

* Even the Active Enterprises game ''Cheetahmen'' on ''[[Action 52]]'' managed to contain them. Due to ''Action 52'' being a [[Game Breaking Bug|bug breeding ground]], results were [[Wrap Around|messy]].

* ''[[Code Name: Viper|Code Name Viper]]'''s drug warehouse has them which can lead you to the [[Spikes of Doom|spikes]].

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'', an incredibly annoying boss battle occurs on one.

* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series:

** The final stage of ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' consists almost ''entirely'' of series of conveyor belts (some [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom|Of Doom]], some not).

** A couple fortresses in ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' feature them. They freeze when a POW switch is activated.

* Diagonal ones appear in ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'', in the Terminate Her Too level, with switches to change their direction.

* ''[[Ratchet & Clank|Ratchet and Clank]]'' - Both [[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|the original]] and ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]'' have movement sensitive conveyor belts. When Ratchet's moving on them they sense his direction and move to speed him on his way.

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]]:

** The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD]]'' level Quartz Quadrant contains conveyor belts that scroll with no particular rhyme or reason. There are places where adjacent belts scroll towards each other. The boss of that level makes full use of an '''Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt''' to throw you into [[Spikes of Doom]]. {{spoiler|[[Fridge Brilliance|The conveyor belt is actually the key to defeating the boss, as the belt wears away at the bottom of Robotnik's machine. Sonic simply needs to keep the conveyor belt going, while avoiding the bombs that Robotnik drops from the ceiling.]]}}

** From ''[[Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island]]'', the Gene Gadget stage is filled with these. Much like the Quartz Quadrant example above, that boss also utilizes one of these.

** Scrap Brain Zone from the original ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' for both the Genesis and Gamegear have conveyors, as well as escalators (which were originally diagonal conveyors in the beta).

* ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]'' has a habit of taking this trope and laughing at you with it. Conveyor belts are not all too common in the game, but once you meet them, they make you wish they did not exist. The belts alone are not dangerous, it is the combination of being attacked, risk of getting stoned and landing in a spike pit. Not fun especially since a stoned character takes a crapload of damage from the spike pits.

* ''[[Stinkoman 20 X 6]]'' has a couple, but none are more inconvenient than the ones on Stlunko, the Level 3 boss.

* Bizarrely appears in several levels of the SNES version of ''[[Prince of Persia]]''.

* There were a few in old 8-bit computer games such as ''Infernal Runner'' and ''[[Jet Set Willy]]''. Interestingly, the belts in ''Jet Set Willy'' made the player character ''walk'' them instead of dragging him.

* [[Persona 2]] has the Abandoned Factory which is full of random, still-operating conveyor belts. Some seem to be logically placed in loading areas for moving heavy items to and from storage, while others exist just to provide one-way paths blocking off sections of the factory, teasing you with their presence until you're high enough level to open the doors into those other sections.

* ''[[Shatterhand]]'' in the oil refinery.

* ''Keith Courage in Alpha Zones'' has conveyor belts all over the place in both parts of the last zone for no good reason.

* [[Down in the Dumps|Effluvia]] and [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Telos]] in ''Adventures of Rad Gravity'' are full of these, especially the latter. The former also has a [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]] you have to rescue your [[Robot Buddy]] from.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]