Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Gwen:''' What is this thing? There's no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway!

Having large items appear on a conveyor belt that crush down are also common... which makes one wonder what these factories are supposed to be making that require so much repeated crushing to make. It also sometimes appears in [[Womb Level|settings that are within giant monsters]], which could be justified because you're within the monster's digestive tract and that the smashing/pounding things are part of its pre-digestion chewing process.

 

 

A one-stop [[Death Course]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Film]] ==

* Part of the [[Death Course]] parody in ''[[Galaxy Quest]]''.

* In ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' the stamping presses on the conveyor belt of the droid factory qualifies. It also has the bladed kind later on. Also, one wonders how a machine designed to stamp metal plates into a flat shapes actually molds said metal ''around'' his squishy squishy non-robotic arm.

 

* The Argonauts from Greek mythology had to avoid a similar obstacle on their way to Colchis — the Symplegades, a pair of rocks clashing together to destroy ships attempting to cross the Hellespont. This, of course, makes this [[Older Than Feudalism]].

* The Filipino [[Strong Man]] Bernardo Carpio was trapped for eternity between two mountains who had nothing else to do but bounce their bodies together.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''.

** In ''Ghost of Sparta'', there is an underwater section of Atlantis that features these. They cause instant death, thus [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist|setting you back a few seconds]] to right in front of the trapped area.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]: Sanity's Requiem''. Same as above, but less justification.

* The Thwomps in the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games. Oddly enough, though, the Thwomps were cognizant villains, with eyes and a mouth. Usually, rather then constantly moving up and down, Thwomps would see Mario approaching, and slam themselves down when he was near. It would take them a while to raise themselves again, during which time Mario would be able to pass through. Also, depending on which Mario game you happen to be playing, the Thwomps may deviate from their up-down-up-down pattern of moving; the most recent example being ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', in which certain levels had Thwomp-shaped cubes called Tox Boxes actually rolling around the landscape like gigantic dice. These cubes also appeared in the [[Shifting Sand Land]] level of ''[[Super Mario 64]]''.

** The castle levels of ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' also had big crushers and spiked pillars which repeatedly crashed into the floor.

** And probably impossible to pass in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' in one scene, they move up and down faster than you can pass through! Though flipping into 3D reveals you can just walk behind them.

* The guillotine-like crashing blades in the original ''[[Prince of Persia]]''.

** This being said, in ''Hunters'' these are absolutely '''horrible'''. These alone make the second run through the planet that they are on ''[[That One Level|unbearable]]''. Going through not 1, not 2, not even 3, no, '''4''' sets of these. With no checkpoints. And you die instantly if they even GRAZE you.

* Occur every so often in the classic ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games, and one of the few ways in which he can die instantly [[Chunky Salsa Rule|regardless]] of rings, shield, invincibility or even Super form... less common in the modern Sonic games, but that's just as well given the rise and rise of the [[Bottomless Pit]].

** ''[[Sonic CD]]'' has some blocks in Wacky Workbench that ''look'' like these, but will actually just drop you into the area below if you [[Violation of Common Sense|let them "crush" you]]. This is actually necessary to [[Guide Dang It|reach a Robotizer]].

*** There are some real crushers that look almost identical to the fake ones in the later level [[Eternal Engine|Metallic Madness]].

* ''[[An Untitled Story]]'' has [[Super Mario Bros.|Thwomp]]-like enemies which come crashing down when approached. They even come in [[Underground Monkey|three flavours]].

* The first screen of ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' features four spiked walls that quickly zip across about 90 percent of the screen, resulting in the usual [[Ludicrous Gibs|messy demise]] of The Kid if he's not already in the safe 10 percent when that happens.

* In ''[[Miner 2049er]]'', one station has a whole row of these traps to walk through.

* ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' occasionally uses these, such as the final gauntlet in Defend THIS!. In a few levels, such as By Committee in ''Infinity'', the doors can crush you.

* One level of the unlicensed Famicom/NES game ''Thunder Warrior'' has Thwomp [[Expy|expies]].

* The crush pillars in the ''Monty Mole'' series.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Course]]

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Is in The Way]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]