Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

 

* ''Hostages'' (a.k.a. ''Hostage: Rescue Mission''): The snipers of your team need to avoid the search lights from the terrorist embassy as they walk along the street. Almost like there's no back to the buildings they take cover in - and you also need to cross all three sides of the embassy before continuing with storming the embassy.

* The prelude to the Scorpion battle in the first ''[[Spider-Man]]: [[The Movie]]'' game. Also the Shocker one, in which you must advance down a subway tunnel and periodically hide in nooks and crannies to avoid Shocker's shockwaves. If you play as the Green Goblin, you can make it easy by gliding down the tunnel before the poor guy can shoot once.

* Subverted in ''[[Zone of the Enders|Zone Of The Enders 2]]''. Late in the game, you have to go down a corridor where a massive cannon periodically discharges energy which'll send you backwards a hefty distance and hurt you a ton. The subversion is that ''there are no cubbies''. Instead, you have to rip off plates off the wall and ''block'' the incoming waves.

 

* ''[[Cave Story]]'' sort of has this in the Egg Corridor, whose bottom level is occupied by an [[Invincible Minor Minion]] which runs back and forth very fast and causes instantly lethal [[Collision Damage]]. There are a few cubbyholes (some empty, some obligatory, one with a [[Heart Container]]) which can only be accessed by jumping from the bottom of the corridor.

* There's a stretch in a level (it's late in world 3) of ''[[Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure]]'' where the titular Professor must duck through the floor into cubbies in order to dodge rolling boulders.

* Lots of these in ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' - usually swinging blades, [[Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom]], poison darts, or [[Spikes of Doom|spikes that pop up from the floor]].

 

* In ''[[Dreamfall]]'', protagonist Zöe Castillo is forced to complete one of these twice during her infiltration of WATICorp. The first time, she has to avoid guard robots in order to get into the corporation's main labs; the second time, she has to avoid a security assault squadron in order to get out.

* The first ''[[MediEvil (1998 video game)|Medievil]]'' had a mountain with infinite boulders rolling down it, spawned from enchanted gargoyle statues, in the third level. In a bit of a subversion, you can just smash some of the boulders with the club.

* The second boss in ''[[Zack and Wiki]]'' has a [[Breath Weapon]] of the [[Kill It with Ice]] variety, and the player must regularly take cover behind various ice mirrors to avoid getting frozen solid.

 

* In ''Express Raider'''s [[Beat'Em Up]] levels, you periodically have to duck under hanging signs and tunnel portals.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'' has at least one in its Konquest mode, where Taven runs down a corridor as fireballs are shot at him.

* Level 4 of ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]''. You're in a submarine, and torpedoes are being shot at you. Especially irritating because it's also an [[Escort Mission]]; if the moving platform following you doesn't make it to safety, you need to backtrack all the way to the beginning of the sequence and get a new one.

 

* Arguably, any cover-based shooter (especially [[Light Gun]] games) features a more organic version of this trope: the hazard is the enemies shooting at you.

** Especially ''[[Call of Duty]]'', where enemies constantly respawn out-of-view until you reach the spawn point.

* The ''[[Thief]]'' series, due to its emphasis on stealth over fighting, is replete with guards patrolling specific areas at regular intervals, who will raise an alarm if the player doesn't take some kind of cover (shadows, etc.) to avoid being spotted ... ''or heard''.

 

* ''[[Drakengard]] 2'' has a variation in a [[Puzzle Boss]] battle against a Seed of Resurrection: The seed charges and releases [[One-Hit Kill]] energy shockwaves, and the only way to survive is to take cover behind matching elemental crystals surrounding the area.

* The ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' series features these often - Kratos needs to make his way down corridors with hazards including an endless supply of spherical boulders, a fire-breathing statue, a Hydra...

** The sequel's battle against {{spoiler|the returned, [[Emergency Transformation]] form of Letz Shake}} is a variation; it is a circular area rather than a corridor, but the rest of the criteria is there. His main attack is sending a massive shockwave through the entire arena, and if you haven't made it to one of the few stable chunks of ground in the area when that happens, say bye-bye to half your health.

 

* ''[[RuneScape]]'' has one in the quest Icthlarin's Little Helper, where the corridor is two spaces wide and traps that take up one space each litter the corridor. [[Have a Nice Death|Have fun trying to make it past the trapdoors without a guide.]]

 

* East Labyrinth in ''[[Dark Castle|Beyond Dark Castle]]''.

* ''[[Bug!]]!'' had a segment where the titular character had to avoid slowly-growing snowballs rolling down a snow-covered hill.

* ''[[Distorted Travesty]]'' has this in the final level, in the form of the Spinning Color Wheels of Death. At regular intervals (that vary from room to room), wheels in the background would flash a certain color several times. When this happened, you have until the end of the third flash to get to a safe zone of that color, or else suffer massive amounts of unblockable damage. Several rooms are designed such that you have to progress at a specific pace or you will not be able to find the proper safe zone.

 

* In ''[[Mario Kart]] Wii'', there's a Bowser's Castle course with an unusual version of this trope: fireballs are being shot straight down a corridor, and the track weaves back and forth through the fireballs' path.

 

* At the beginning of ''[[Time Crisis]] II'''s Stage 1-2, you have to shoot and dodge through a barrage of barrels. Stage 2-2, on a train, involves dodging passing obstacles.

 

* ''[[Dawn of War|Dawn Of War: Winter Assault,]]'' the approach to the Imperial Guard's HQ is guarded by a big frickin' laser that can instantly destroy anything that it hits. One strategy is to cross the firing trench at intervals, fighting through legions of enemies on either side; the other strategy is to destroy the cannon's energy source, which you reach before you're in firing range of the cannon itself.

* ''[[Little King's Story]]'' features an area were you must make one of these while dodging the boss's lethal beard.

 

* In ''[[Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin]]'', there is an Egyptian themed level complete with large boulders rolling down a ramp. You avoid the boulders by reaching one of the high ceilinged alcoves and timing your jumps to hop over the bounders.

* These corridors turn up quite often in [[Boktai]].

* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' features one on Tuchanka. You're running toward a Reaper and must occasionally take cover from its lasers.

 

* The original ''[[Contra]]'' game featured a level with a long corridor in which large red spiked claws drop from above. Some of these have safe zones (with white immobile plate things instead) while others require the player to shuffle back and forth underneath the alternating claws.

 

* In stage 6 of ''[[Thunder Cross]] II'', you travel through an asteroid field while the boss fires a [[Wave Motion Gun]] at you from offscreen. At first, the laser is fired at slow intervals, but later on you will have to use the asteroids for cover in order to survive.

 

* Many games with a stealth element include a long straight with a guard patrolling back and forth, just managing to miss the many alcoves in his line of sight.

* ''[[Metal Gear]] Ghost Babel'' has periodic rushes of water in an [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]], forcing Snake to take cover. Also a viable strategy to avoid The Fury's attacks in ''[[Metal Gear Solid|Metal Gear Solid 3]]''.

 

* In ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', Chapters 3 and 4. First, you have to run a circular through a now-active centrifuge to reach an elevator and leave the area, ducking into large niches in the walls when the arm goes past or being torn to shreds. In the next chapter, you have to run over the outside of the Ishimura and hide behind metal walls to avoid getting splattered by asteroid impacts. Bonus points in both cases because if you take too long, you asphyxiate, while Chapter 3 also has Necromorphs pop up in each cubby.

** Going to one of the ADS cannons to destroy incoming asteroids also involves Isaac running down a long trench while meteors periodically pummel the surface. If Isaac is caught in the open during this, he dies.

** Don't forget the {{spoiler|Licker hallway}}. Sadly the AI ''isn't'' smart enough this time round. Cue frustration.

 

* ''[[Gears of War|Gears Of War 2]]'' has you running amuck inside a giant worm while avoiding digestive teeth.

* One level of ''[[Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy|Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy]]'' forces you (and mind-controlled [[Mooks]]) to run through a particle accelerator, complete with cubbyholes, which fires every now and then. To pass the segment, you must pull several levers, every of which increases the accelerator's firing rate.

* The level "Death of Hope" in ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' uses this frequently, most noticeably when fleeing from Omega Supreme, and when the Decepticons must maneuver through a tunnel that fills up with enormous amounts of heat every so often.

 

* The final mission in ''[[Advance Wars|Advance Wars 2]]''. {{spoiler|you know those lasers you've been dealing with in earlier missions? Sturm has one that hopped up on steroids, fires 3 tiles wide, and deals quite a bit of damage. It doesn't help that the terrain isn't really conducive to avoiding it}}.

* During one battle in ''[[Shining Force]]'', the [[Wave Motion Gun|Laser Eye]] blasts everyone on a fairly narrow bridge every few turns, with a few safe spots.

** Mildly subverted, as the Force at that point has three aerial units (Amon, Balbaroy and Kokichi) who can just fly behind the Laser Eye and wail on it.

 

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]''. The corridor is up the middle of a rising plane with the cargo loader door open. The random obstacles are barrels the enemies (human?) are pushing at you.

* ''[[Ufouria]]'' forces the player to climb a cliff while boulders rain from above. The cliff has a couple of notches in it where the player can wait. Usually two rocks fall, and then there's a bit of a pause... but, at other times, ''three'' rocks fall, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|which is guaranteed to mess you up.]] And if you get hit it's down to the bottom for you.

 

* [[Evil Overlord List]]:

{{quote|63. Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.}}

 

* Played mostly straight in, oddly enough, an episode of the ''[[Thundercats]]''. A drugged Panthro has been dropped down a chasm to die, and survives. The chasm ejects lethal energies at regular intervals, but there are crannies he can fit in that are mostly safe. Panthro thinks, "Got to time them, move between blasts. Thirty-four seconds, I can do this." When he reaches the top, a blast fires early, driving him to remark, "Twenty-eight seconds? That's foul play!"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Course]]

[[Category:Older Than the NES]]

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]