History Main / CorridorCubbyholeRun

* ''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.

* The Speed Buster battle in ''NoMoreHeroes''. Travis has to smash his way into abandoned, ruined houses on either side of a street to avoid blasts from the bag lady/witch's WaveMotionGun.\\
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The sequel's battle against [[spoiler:the returned, EmergencyTransformation 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.
* ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]'' - While escaping from the mines under Ravenholm, Gordon runs across a sort of trolley with a spinning blade mounted on top traveling up and down a set of train tracks. While it poses a legitimate threat to him, it is much more effective at chopping up zombies, so activating it is still the better choice.\\
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In ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2 Episode 2]]'' - The sequence where Gordon must evade the Antlion Guardian by ducking into a series of antlion hatcheries. [[ItGotWorse And then]], the last tunnel (a mineshaft access rather than more antlion tunnels) is barred, and you have to break through before the Guardian catches you... That's when you're happy to still have a SMG grenade.

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

* ''TheLegendOfZelda'' series in various forms, most notably being the very first proper dungeon in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''.\\
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The Forest Temple in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' has a crushing ceiling with small squares cut out of it. I'm ''still'' stuck there.

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Much earlier, when Crono is trying to escape from Guardia Castle's dungeon, he can sneak up on guards when their backs are turned and hide in nooks in the wall when they turn around. Or he can just fight them (they're not very tough) if the bonus healing items for knocking them out aren't too important.

* ''FinalFantasyVII'' has a version of this if you break into Shinra's front door: after hiding behind statues manually to get by guards, Cloud must call Barrett and Tifa across, timing it so they don't get seen.\\
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Used again in the Temple of the Ancients, where there's a hallway with boulders rolling down it every few seconds. Instead of ducking into a cubbyhole, you have to stand still in the right places so that the boulders pass harmlessly over your head (thanks to big pieces that have been cut out of them).

* The "combat" in ''LittleBigPlanet'''s ''MetalGearSolid'' level pack consists almost entirely of hiding in the stage background, popping out when it's safe to take a quick potshot before returning to your cubbyhole.\\
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Also in the Serpent Shrine level, there is a section where you must travel along a passage where a fiery serpent passes through at intervals, except the cubbyholes in this case are in the ceiling and you must grab a winch to pulled up to safety.

* ''SuperMeatBoy'' gets plenty of mileage out of this trope. Sawblades are often the hazard.

* The hallway before the FinalBoss in ''Game/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' NES features Laser Soldiers spawning every 10 seconds. Most of the time they can be avoided, but sometimes you have to fight them, which is a pain.

* ''MegaMan''
** ''[[MegaManX Mega Man X5]]''. Burn Dinorex's stage has a corridor like this, complete with rock barricades. Stray too far from them.
** ''[[MegaManZero Mega Man Zero 4]]'' had a stage where you entered a solar-powered WaveMotionGun through the barrel. Better hide when it fired...
** ''[[MegaMan X6]]'' - ThatOneLevel, Metal Shark Player's stage - the ground is a conveyor belt, some parts of the floor are frozen over with super-slippery ice, and we haven't even gotten into the various Nightmare effects yet.

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

The sequel's battle against [[spoiler: the returned, EmergencyTransformation 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.

* ''ResidentEvil 5'' has a cavernous room with two laser-like sunbeams strafing the corridors. Thankfully, the AI is smart enough to usually keep your partner out of the way, and if you can make it to the right location, you can disable the beams by sniping the Majini operating them.
** Of course, the AI is also DUMB enough to have some enemies stand in the path of said beams.

* {{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 [[WallBanger cross all three sides of the embassy before continuing with storming the embassy.]]

* ''MegaManX 5''. Burn Dinorex's stage has a corridor like this, complete with rock barricades. Stray too far from them, and...
** ''MegaManZero 4'' had a stage where you entered a solar-powered WaveMotionGun through the barrel. Better hide when it fired...
** [[ThatOneLevel Metal Shark Player's stage]] in ''MegaManX 6'' - the ground is a conveyor belt, some parts of the floor are frozen over with super-slippery ice, and we haven't even gotten into the various Nightmare effects yet.
* ''MetalGear Ghost Babel'' has periodic rushes of water in an AbsurdlySpaciousSewer, forcing Snake to take cover.
** Also a viable strategy to avoid The Fury's attacks in ''MetalGearSolid 3''.
* ''MortalKombat: Armageddon'' has at least one in its Konquest mode, where Taven runs down a corridor as fireballs are shot at him.
* The Speed Buster battle in ''NoMoreHeroes''. Travis has to smash his way into abandoned, ruined houses on either side of a street to avoid blasts from the bag lady/witch's WaveMotionGun.
** It's been noted that the sequel's battle against [[spoiler: the returned, EmergencyTransformation form of Letz Shake]] is a variation; it's 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.
* While escaping from the mines under ''HalfLife 2's'' Ravenholm, Gordon runs across a sort of trolley with a spinning blade mounted on top traveling up and down a set of train tracks. While it poses a legitimate threat to him, it's much more effective at chopping up zombies, so activating it is still the better choice.
** There's also the sequence in Episode 2 where Gordon must evade the Antlion Guardian by ducking into a series of antlion hatcheries. [[ItGotWorse And then]], the last tunnel (a mineshaft access rather than more antlion tunnels) is barred, and you have to break through before the Guardian catches you... That's when you're happy to still have a SMG grenade.
* One battle in ''ShiningForce'' (the [[WaveMotionGun laser eye]]) blasts everyone on a fairly narrow bridge every few turns, with a few safe spots.
** Mildly subverted, as the Force -- by that point -- has three aerial units (Amon, Balbaroy and Kokichi) who can just fly behind the Laser Eye and whale on it.

* The prelude to the Scorpion battle in the first ''SpiderMan: the Movie'' game.
** Not to mention 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.

* ''StreetsOfRage 3'' has one in a subway station, where you have to dodge incoming trains.

* And finally, ''TheLegendOfZelda'' series in various forms, most notably being the very first proper dungeon in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''.
** The Forest Temple in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' has a crushing ceiling with small squares cut out of it. I'm ''still'' stuck there.

* The Death Peak sequence in ''ChronoTrigger'' involves a slippery slope where wind will blow your party off the screen if you don't hide behind trees.
** Much earlier, when Crono is trying to escape from Guardia Castle's dungeon, he can sneak up on guards when their backs are turned and hide in nooks in the wall when they turn around. Or he can just fight them (they're not very tough) if the bonus healing items for knocking them out aren't too important.
* ''{{Descent}} 3'' had an [[ThatOneLevel infuriating sequence]] where you had to fly your Pyro-GL down train tunnels that periodically had trains going through them. It was made worse by the fact that the trains came at you head-on and the timing was extremely strict, making the sequence so [[NintendoHard maddeningly difficult]] that many players gave up then and there.

* FinalFantasyVII has a version of this if you break into Shinra's front door: after hiding behind statues manually to get by guards, Cloud must call Barrett and Tifa across, timing it so they don't get seen.
** Used again in the Temple of the Ancients, where there's a hallway with boulders rolling down it every few seconds. Instead of ducking into a cubbyhole, you have to stand still in the right places so that the boulders pass harmlessly over your head (thanks to big pieces that have been cut out of them).
* It's simple for the DM to build a trap like this in DungeonsAndDragons with the use of fire-spell based traps.
** Obstacle courses for rogues with high dexterity and Uncanny Dodge ability. The "Door opens and you find an arrow heading towards you" kind of obstacle courses

* Just pick ANY game with a stealth element, and there's probably some sort of long straight with a guard patrolling back and forth, just managing to miss the many alcoves in his line of sight.
* Subverted in ZoneOfTheEnders 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.
* Some of the fortresses in ''New SuperMarioBros Wii'' feature spiked, rotating pillars that stab upward/downward/sideways at regular intervals. Naturally, there's always a safe place to stand, but getting there can be a challenge.

* Left4Dead has a strategy that involves everyone on the team dashing from one cubbyhole to the next, dealing with zombies while safely behind cover. Works well, [[BeyondTheImpossible if you can find a well-organized group of random players who all follow orders well]].
* The "combat" in ''LittleBigPlanet'''s ''MetalGearSolid'' level pack consists almost entirely of hiding in the stage background, popping out when it's safe to take a quick potshot before returning to your cubbyhole.
** Also in the Serpent Shrine level, there is a section where you must travel along a passage where a fiery serpent passes through at intervals, except the cubbyholes in this case are in the ceiling and you must grab a winch to pulled up to safety.
* The final mission in 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.]]
* 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. [[HaveANiceDeath Have fun trying to make it past the trapdoors without a guide.]]
* PsiOps : The Mindgate Conspiracy has a boss fight version of this; for the first stage, you're fighting off a powerful pyrokinetic attached to a large machine that enhances her powers, and periodically she goes into overload. The machine lets out a loud warning and heat shields pop out from the floor, and if you fail to hide behind one you'll be incinerated as the room is bathed in flame.
* A common hazard in StarTropics is to have to avoid giant purple boulders by hiding in alcoves in the wall while they pass.
* ''{{Gears of War}} 2'' has you running amuck inside a giant worm while avoiding digestive teeth.

* A great deal of the final level of ShadowTheHedgehog (Eggman's fortress) are like this, especially if you choose to destroy the place and fill it with lava.
* No one has mentioned Metroid Prime 2? The entirety of Dark Aether is a Corridor Cubbyhole Run.

* ''{{Pitfall}} 2'' has at least ten "floors" in a row which entirely consisted of walking across the screen as a bat flew towards Harry and having to run Harry under the bat ''only if the wings were flapping up''.
* East Labyrinth in ''Beyond DarkCastle''.

* An example of this from an [[RTS]]: in [[DawnOfWar 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.

* 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!"

* Almost every single Zelda game does this at least once. I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned already.

See also ByTheWallThatIsHoley.

*** To be fair, the enemies _are_ zombies after all. Clever zombies, but still zombies.

* ''GoldenSun'' springs a couple of of these on the player in the Jupiter Lighthouse.

* ''{{Pitfall}} 2'' has at least ten "floors" in a row which entirely consisted of walking across the screen as a bat flew towards Harry and having to run Harry under the bat ''only if the wings were flapping up''.

* ''CaveStory'' sort of has this in the Egg Corridor, whose bottom level is occupied by an InvincibleMinorMinion which runs back and forth very fast and causes instantly lethal CollisionDamage. The bottom of the corridor is mostly avoidable, except for two cubbyholes which have no other entrance.