History Main / BossArenaUrgency

* ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'': Some of the larger ememies wield giant pickaxes that they attempt to hit you with. Sometimes they'll show up in the more unstable areas and take out chunks of the floor with each hit. They have low enough health that it's rare for them to take out an entire fighting space, but those holes they punch make it much harder for you to move around when you're being swarmed by smaller enemies. Most of whom can hover right over the holes no problem.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic 2006]]''[='=\s Egg Wyvern tries to emulate this, but it tends to only destroy parts of the arena after reaching certain damage thresholds, [[SubvertedTrope making it]] more of a case of TurnsRed instead.

Note that many bosses will become progressively tougher and switch to stronger attacks as the battle wears on; while this trope may overlap, this isn't always the case. For example, if this progression only occurs after inflicting specific amounts of damage, then this is simply because the boss TurnsRed; This trope occurs if this progression takes place ''independently'' of the player's actions.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/SnowBros'' arcade is a very interesting example. There are two giant stone heads on each side of the screen, a small platform surrounded by flames in the middle, and a descending ceiling full of spikes right above that. The heads continuously blow bubbles which can have enemies or power-ups inside, and these pop if they touch the spikes. The player has very little space to move, and the more the ceiling goes down, the faster the enemies can get him... of course, this also means that he can throw many more snowballed enemies at the heads, but he is forced to think and act much more frantically.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' often features this trope as a form of "soft enrage"[[note]]Unlike a "hard enrage", in which a boss is able to OneHitKill players or instantly wipe the raid after a certain amount of time, "soft enrages" generally don't feature strict time limits. Another variant involves gradually increasing damage that can't be healed through; how long you have depends on your healers' gear, skill and mana levels[[/note]] that applies a time limit to the boss.

** ''Mists of Pandaria'' brought us Jin'Rokh the Breaker, who would target one-quarter of the arena he stands in and fill it with electrified water. Players would then have to move to a clear section of the floor to continue the fight. (Especially annoying if he charges two opposite quarters rather than consecutive ones...)

** The final dungeon boss of ''Shadowbringers'', an EldritchAbomination called Therion, has an ultimate WaveMotionGun attack that covers the entire arena except some tiny little outcrops on the edge. However, every time it executes this attack, one of those outcrops shatters and falls into the abyss, and if you take too long to kill it, you can run out of them. This is made worse by the boss [[AdvancingBossOfDoom charging forward after the first two uses of that attack]] -- while it won't go so far as to push you off the back edge, it still means you lose hiding places faster than you normally would.

** The FinalBoss shot orbs that turned the floor into spikes. At least you do have an item that allows you to walk on spikes... but it lowered your jump height, leaving you vulnerable to his RocketPunch grab move.

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'''s semifinal boss fight has Sonic and Metal Sonic race. If you're too slow, you get hit by the only instant-death laser in the entire Genesis era, and if Metal Sonic wins the race, you're doomed.

** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'''s Egg Viper will, near the end of the fight, start destroying the flooring. This happens when it's taken five hits; before then, you can take as long as you want. After that, though, you'd better have at least two platforms left when you beat it, as it'll make a suicide dive for where you're standing that will destroy at least one of them.
** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic 2006]]'''s Egg Wyvern tries to emulate this, but it tends to only destroy parts of the arena after reaching certain damage thresholds, [[SubvertedTrope making it]] more of a case of TurnsRed instead.

** The TrueFinalBoss of ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic and Knuckles]]'', and some of the 3D games (including the aforementioned ''Sonic Adventure''), are like this. You don't have an actual timer, but you start the fight as [[SuperMode Super Sonic]]. If you run out of rings, you turn back to normal, and in the boss fight, this causes you to die. This makes sense in S&K, as the fight takes place in space, but makes less sense in Sonic Adventure, where you could, hypothetically, run out of rings on a floating piece of road, but the game assumes you fell into the water and drowned regardless.[[note]]Probably because if you're not Super, you can't do jack to the boss, even if you ''did'' coincidentally land somewhere marginally less deadly.[[/note]]

*** Also the second Sonic vs. Shadow fight -- the runway you fight on is ''not'' infinite, and if you run far enough, you'll end up back where you started. Which has plummeted into the Earth's atmosphere roughly 10 minutes ago.

** The first act boss in ''Sonic Mania's'' Flying Battery Zone takes place in a trash compactor that [[TheWallsAreClosingIn periodically closes in]] and crushes the player character if not beaten in time. Interestingly, it's also BossArenaIdiocy, since the boss is initially too high to reach but the trash rises up higher as it gets compacted, allowing the player to get in range of it.

** Both rounds with the final boss involve floors that aren't always there. The first round's floor is particularly dangerous -- not only will the boss destroy parts of it, you're at risk of doing so yourself with shovel drops.

* ''VideoGame/AlienSoldier'' had "Back Stringer". You fought this GiantSpider on the wings and body of its dinner, a [[http://www.bogleech.com/aliensoldier/as-spiderbattle.gif decapitated giant fly]]. Small destructible [[DemonicSpiders spiders]] would come up from the bottom of the screen and pull the fly down the big spider web (each additional one making it sink faster). If the fly platform disappears off the bottom of the screen, expect to [[GameOver die]] -- you'll keep falling into a [[NonLethalBottomlessPits health-draining bottomless pit]] [[CycleOfHurting OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!]]

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'': The final boss fight against [[spoiler:BigBadFriend Vladimir Lem]] takes place in the rafters of a high ceiling, with him up in the overhang and out of direct reach of Max, who is on the ledge hugging the square top of the tower. His attacks include chucking timed blocks of dynamite at Max -- if Max doesn't get hurt by the explosions they still damage the ledge Max is on, which will crumble away in sections given enough hits and expose a long drop to the ground floor. If Max falls off he instantly dies, so it becomes a race against time to shoot out the supports above him before there's too many holes to be able to dodge away from his dynamite attacks.

* Two stations in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'' -- namely, [[Film/{{Breakin}} Breakdance]] Station and Film/{{Footloose}} Station -- take place on platforms made entirely out of destructible {{crate|Expectations}}s[[note]]In the shape of an iconic ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' squid and a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Blooper]], respectively[[/note]]. Rather than a traditional, singular boss, each of the tests pit you against three waves of increasingly dangerous enemies. Interestingly, this is a rare example where the player's attacks can ''also'' destroy the floor. While this does mean you'll need to be more cautious, it also means you can effectively turn this trope on the enemies, and shoot the floor out from beneath ''them''.

But wait a minute -- did that part of the floor just ''crumble away'' and reveal a BottomlessPit underneath it? And did the boss just do that attack ''again''? Argh! Forget your HP meter, if he takes out the ''floor'', you're history!

This is a SubTrope of the TimeLimitBoss, in which there doesn't need to be any ''actual timer'' counting down to zero -- the time limit is measured implicitly, e.g. by how much of the arena remains that the boss hasn't destroyed yet. The more damage he causes, the less room the player has to work with, and if it drags on long enough the player will inevitably fall off the arena entirely and lose the battle anyway. (If there ''is'' an [[TimedMission actual timer]] presented it is basically irrelevant, as chances are the boss will have finished destroying the arena long before the time in question has expired.)

The difficulty of these bosses is [[UnstableEquilibrium directly proportional]] to how long it takes to defeat them: If you've played the game repeatedly or are quick enough to get a few attacks in early, the boss is hardly a challenge; but if the fight drags on for a long time, he'll become a nightmare to defeat -- if it's [[{{Unwinnable}} still possible to defeat him at all]].

[[folder: Action Game ]]

** The final boss of ''Shadowbringers'', an EldritchAbomination called Therion, has an ultimate WaveMotionGun attack that covers the entire arena except some tiny little outcrops on the edge. However, every time it executes this attack, one of those outcrops shatters and falls into the abyss, and if you take too long to kill it, you can run out of them. This is made worse by the boss [[AdvancingBossOfDoom charging forward after the first two uses of that attack]] -- while it won't go so far as to push you off the back edge, it still means you lose hiding places faster than you normally would.

* The FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'' also shot orbs that turned the floor into spikes. At least you do have an item that allows you to walk on spikes... but it lowered your jump height, leaving you vulnerable to his RocketPunch grab move.

* In ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', the fight against Polar Knight is on a snow covered field with oodles of spikes underneath. Occasionally he digs away at the snow, though random snow drops from the ceiling can cover these back up.

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' against the second Wily Stage boss, Picopico-kun. It only ''appears'' the boss is making holes in the arena, but they're perfectly solid.

[[folder: Western RPG]]
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. The FinalBoss periodically destroys some of the platforms which make up the battle area. However, it never destroys the platform you start out on, completely eradicating any sense of urgency.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} I'', everytime you hit Dark Fact, a piece of the platform drops out. If you're standing on said piece, you die instantly. If you aren't leveled up enough (in the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 version, that is; in others you'll already be at the {{cap}}), you'll end up with too many holes and become trapped and killed.
** A few games later, ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'' gives us boss 3, Ud-Meiyu, whose most common attack is a jumping stomp. This stomp knocks out the floor panels over the deadly lava under the arena.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Ages]]'' has the second miniboss do this: It flies around and tries to GroundPound you, knocking tiles out wherever it lands. However, it's not that hard to defeat him, and there's a border of unbreakable tiles.

* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', the BigBad and FinalBoss Shriek periodically smashes out sections of the arena platform, along with SpikesOfDoom appearing on the edges of the remaining pieces, then destroys what's left once she TurnsRed at 20% HP, turning the fight into a HighAltitudeBattle.

* ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'': The entity/boss creature FORMER leaves holes in the weird rock-platform you stand on when he attacks.

** And from the ''Cataclysm'' expansion: Commander Ulthok in the heroic dungeon Throne of Tides creates permanent growing void zones on the floor that must be avoided. Groups with low damage will eventually find themselves with nowhere to stand.

** The final boss of ''Shadowbringers'', an EldritchAbomination called Therion, has an ultimate WaveMotionGun attack that covers the entire arena except some tiny little outcrops on the edge. However, every time it executes this attack, one of those outcrops shatters and falls into the abyss, and if you take too long to kill it, you can run out of them.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' brings us the final boss fight of the ''Stormblood'' expansion, Shinryu. While initially, the arena is quite safe to stand on, once the boss starts his second phase, he pulls the players onto an entirely ''new'' arena of three-by-three squares. While the middle square is indestructible, any of the other squares hit twice by his tail-slap (which hits ''two'' squares) will be destroyed. Two problems arise from this; firstly, it's entirely random where Shinryu will decide to strike with his tail, meaning you can have two entirely fresh sections take damage, one take damage and one crumble, or both crumble; ''and'' the fact that a great many of his attacks have a very wide range, meaning that occasionally, dodging can become outright impossible. To make matters worse, one of his attacks has a radius ''much'' wider than a single square, and is a knockback, fully capable of sending the party falling to their doom.
** On a less cruel note is the much earlier primal fight Titan, who crumbles the outer ring of his arena multiple times, but does not destroy the entire thing. However, much like Shinryu, he has a knockback attack of his own. While much smaller in radius, if it hits, the player(s) struck ''will'' fall off and die. On Extreme difficulty, the simple "line" attack eventually morphs into one that strikes in six directions at once, making it ''much'' more difficult to dodge.

* In ''Snoopy's Grand Adventure'', during the final battle with the Marble Pianist, whenever the Marble Pianist hits a key, it creates a dust cloud that will hurt Snoopy above that key. However, this is also the method of defeating the Marble Pianist, as hitting the piano key will [[TacticalSuicideBoss also hurt it by macking it crack]].

* In ''VideoGame/EpicMickeyPowerOfIllusion'', during the battle with [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Jafar]], Jafar will use his snake form to destroy platforms held by Genie hands. This example is slightly subverted, considering it is a Nintendo 3DS game where you can re-draw the hands to make the platforms re-appear.

* Known as "soft enrage" in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', as opposed to "hard enrage", essentially a TimeLimitBoss.

** The Lich King had something similar in his second phase, pools of corruption that would get larger the longer people stayed in them.
** And from the Cataclysm expansion: Commander Uthok in the heroic dungeon Throne of Tides creates permanent growing void zones on the floor that must be avoided. Groups with low damage will eventually find themselves with nowhere to stand.

Compare TimeLimitBoss, StalkedByTheBell, and IncreasinglyLethalEnemy. Contrast BossArenaIdiocy and its close cousin HoistByHisOwnPetard.

* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has several.
** [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Spring Yard Zone's]] boss has a spike on its base, and one by one removes the bricks that make up the floor of the arena; this continues until you defeat the boss, or lose all your footing and fall down the BottomlessPit below.

* In ''VideoGame/IndiePogo'', the game’s final boss is [[VideoGame/{{Nefarious}} Crow]], whom you fight on the deck of his airship. When attacking you, Crow will occasionally slam down on the deck. If he does this enough, the floor beneath will break to reveal electrical wiring. You have to beat him before he smashes too much of the deck and makes it impossible for you to stand on it. And just in case you’re wondering, no, the electricity doesn’t hurt him, it just hurts you.

* In ''VideoGame/IndiePogo'', the game’s final boss is [[VideoGame/Nefarious Crow]], whom you fight on the deck of his airship. When attacking you, Crow will occasionally slam down on the deck. If he does this enough, the floor beneath will break to reveal electrical wiring. You have to beat him before he smashes too much of the deck and makes it impossible for you to stand on it. And just in case you’re wondering, no, the electricity doesn’t hurt him, it just hurts you.

[[folder: Fighting Game]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter]]
* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' game ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]'' uses this in the final duel. Jerec must be defeated before the two statues at the edge of the valley reach the center, or he becomes too powerful.