History Main / DepthPerplexion

** Against the FinalBoss in the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 second game]], both of the giant robot's claws can hurt you if either of them are sticking out beyond the torso - both the one logically in front of Sonic and the one logically behind him - even if they're sticking out only a little bit and not enough for the arms to be angled towards the middle, leaving the player with some tricky timings to make if they don't want to wait for the other moves.

* ''Equinox'' is an early 2D game that simulates a 3D isometric environment. There is a minor DepthPerplexion glitch that can occur in the game due to the graphic layering that performs the simulation. [[http://www.flyingomelette.com/equinox/glitch.html Read here for a good explanation.]]

->''There's even enemies that you can barely see, like this tiny mouse on the fence in the background.'' (The tiny mouse somehow hits Dorothy) ''Like are you kidding me? That doesn't even make sense from a perspective view-point. She's like standing in front of the fence.''

When this trope is in effect, you can throw that thinking out the window. Those GoddamnBats clearly flying in front of bricks that block you will still kill you with CollisionDamage if you get near them. See that thunderstorm in the distant background? It'll kill you if you're in front of it when lightning strikes. If you're lucky, you can use this trope yourself and shoot through walls too, but a lot of the time, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard only the enemies]] get that luxury.

This is like DepthDeception minus the logic. The enemy or object in question isn't actually especially big or small... it just somehow affects you even though it shouldn't actually be crossing your path. It's very common in ThreeQuartersView, and likely to appear in games with [[IsometricProjection Isometric]] and [[SideView Side Views]] as well. Optical illusions such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs Penrose staircase]] make it OlderThanTheNES.

* ''VideoGame/LittleRedHood'' is supposedly in a 3/4 overhead view, but if you jump in front of a tree, your head bumps into the trunk. Another AVGN explanation is at the 11 minute mark [[http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/59650 here.]]

Before the days of 3D graphics, gamers were only concerned with three layers: the background, the foreground, and the "main layer" in between that the player actually resided on. This is the only layer that is supposed to matter. Sometimes the foreground might [[ObstructiveForeground block your view]], and [[BackgroundBoss some]] [[InvincibleMinorMinion guys]] may attack from the background, but that's it.

When this trope is in effect, you can throw all the rules of background vs. foreground out the window. Those GoddamnBats clearly flying in front of bricks that block you will still kill you with CollisionDamage if you get near them. See that thunderstorm in the distant background? It'll kill you if you're in front of it when lightning strikes. If you're lucky, you can shoot through walls too.

The most common instance of this is enemies and bullets (''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard their]]'' bullets) that go through walls by overlapping them. Most gamers just take this for granted, as it has been happening since ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' with Bullet Bills, if not earlier than that.

This is like DepthDeception except with any semblance of logic removed. The enemy or object in question isn't actually especially big or small... it just somehow affects you despite the fact that it logically shouldn't be anywhere near you. It's very common in ThreeQuartersView, and likely to appear in games with [[IsometricProjection Isometric]] and [[SideView Side Views]] as well. Optical illusions such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs Penrose staircase]] make it OlderThanTheNES.

* Many, many ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' hacks come under this if they use graphics not meant for 2D platformers (like isometric ones or three quarters view ones from games like SeikenDensetsu3). Good luck figuring out where the floor is solid and where it isn't in levels like Dark Castle or Dragon's cave in BrutalMario for instance. Or which bosses are foreground and which are background in the same game.

*** Gets even more JustForFun/{{egregious}} in VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl and later, where this is still in play, ''even though the game is now rendered in 3D''. That's right, now you can see what's behind those buildings thanks to perspective, but ''you still can't actually go there,'' even if it looks like you could. For example, there are several places where you can clearly see one tile of space between the north face of one building and the south face of another, but the game will not allow you to walk onto that space.

* ''VideoGame/LittleRedHood'' is supposedly in a 3/4 overhead view, but if you jump in front of a tree, your head bumps into the trunk. Another AVGN explanation is at the 11 minute mark [[http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/59650 here]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'', the Final Boss (Menace) can hit you (for a lot of damage) with a foot that is clearly in the background behind Soma. It even is of a darker shade to emphasize that is indeed in the background. Even worse, there are very many enemies in the game (various forms of Barbariccia, the Valkyries, Demons, the various Mini-Demons, and Gaibon come to mind, most of whom fly, whose attacks and AI can lead them off-screen, where they can easily prepare or launch attacks that you can't even see. Of course they are out of range of most of your weapons and Bullet Souls. Gaibon, for example, breaths fire diagonally downward, and you fight them in tall shafts. Sometimes as many as three at a time. All hiding off-screen, torching you when you try to climb up to them.

This is like DepthDeception except with any semblance of logic removed. The enemy or object in question isn't actually especially big or small... it just somehow affects you despite the fact that it logically shouldn't be anywhere near you. It's most common in [[IsometricProjection Isometric]] and [[SideView Side Views]], and optical illusions such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs Penrose staircase]] make it OlderThanTheNES.

* Obvious in ''VideoGame/DeadlyTowers''. The game uses an isometric perspective, but hitboxes surround entire sprites. Many sprites are much taller than they are wide, resulting in hits registered (on both enemies and the player character) even when, logically, no contact should have been made.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' for the NES is a jumble between an isometric 3D view and overhead view, leading to this.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'', Batbrains can fly through walls in the Marble Zone.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames'' had numerous problems with that. For an example, a top part of one of the pillars blocks the player but the bottom part doesn't. Many screens use painted landscapes that have a lot of depth, but the gameplay is strictly 2D as shown [[http://youtu.be/xLxqfmpjB-U?t=6m37s here]].

* In the original ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' games, the player character could only move over objects or be blocked by them; thus, you could not, say, walk behind a skyscraper, even a road could pass behind it, because it's blocked by [[ThreeQuartersView your game perspective]]. This was changed in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' where you could walk behind lampposts.

* Some of the beams in the New York level of ''SamuraiZombieNation'' come from the buildings in the background, but they damage you just the same as the ones in the foreground.

* In the first level of the ShiftingSandLand state of ''TheAdventureOfLittleRalph'', there is a bleached skull that is in the background. Later in the level, there are bleached ribs, also seemingly in the background. Since the first bone seen was a background element, the ribs must be, too. NOT! The ribs are actually SpikesOfDoom that ''impale'' Ralph. This may give players an unwelcome and bloody surprise.

* An InvokedTrope in a puzzle in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar 3''; the puzzle shifts the camera to the perspective of a statue overlooking the area, so that stairs, walkways, aqueducts etc. look like they're connecting to each other when in the 3D world they're nowhere near each other. However, since this is Olympus and the statue is magic, while the effect is active you are able to treat the "illusion" as if it's real, and thus beat the area in ways that would be impossible with normal dimensions.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti. [[note]][[LetsPlay/ProtonJon MOVE FASTER POKEY!]][[/note]]

* VERY evident in ''VideoGame/GatlingGears''. Almost all projectiles exist on one plane, as such, bullets and enemy rockets will "pass over" walls, structures and terrain, no matter what elevation. You can take advantage of this, however.

* This trope is the WHOLE POINT of ''VideoGame/{{Echochrome}}'', where your player character (a little wooden artist's mannequin) can travel across a gap if you couldn't see it.

* As quoted, ''TheWizardOfOz'' for the SNES features some incredible examples. Aside from the mouse, there are grandfather clocks you can go in front of... but the hands on them [[CollisionDamage hurt you]].

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' for the NES is just... wow. It's simultaneously an isometric 3D view and overhead view.

The most common instance of this is enemies and bullets (''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard their]]'' bullets) that go through walls by overlapping them. Most gamers just take this for granted, as it has been happening since ''SuperMarioBros'' with Bullet Bills, if not earlier than that.

* In ''SuperMarioBros.'' there was a cheat code for the Game Genie, STAGEO. It was a true GameBreaker, as it turned every enemy into the DemonicSpiders-esque Hammer Brothers. The Hammer Brothers could noclip through blocks, but it was never actually seen in the vanilla game. The hammers they throw are also able to noclip.

** {{Danmaku}} shooters are the worst, as not only will bullets fly in front of obstacles if present, but also ''in front of your character'', unless they collide with a hitbox. The only way this would work is if the hitbox is actually closer to the player than the rest of the character -- which makes sense if it's a cockpit in a vertically-scrolling shooter, but significantly less so if it's part of a person or a cockpit in a side-scrolling shooter.
** In a surprising version of this, in {{Ikaruga}}, not only do enemy bullets ''not'' do this, but in the second stage, the ''player's'' ship can act as part of the background to avoid certain obstacles. This is because if the ship is lined up perfectly with the one-pixel gap between obstacles, the ship itself will appear to fly under them unharmed.

* ''WaynesWorld'' for the SNES has a level with poles that are clearly in the foreground, but still block players walking on the sidewalk.

* ''IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' for the NES is just... wow. It's simultaneously an isometric 3D view and overhead view.

** Also seen in ''[[{{Contra}} Super C]]''.

* In the first ''SonicTheHedgehog'', Batbrains can fly through walls in the Marble Zone.
** Against the FinalBoss in the [[{{Sonic2}} second game]], both of the giant robot's claws can hurt you if either of them are sticking out beyond the torso - both the one logically in front of Sonic and the one logically behind him - even if they're sticking out only a little bit and not enough for the arms to be angled towards the middle, leaving the player with some tricky timings to make if they don't want to wait for the other moves.

* In the ''NintendoWars'' franchise, planes can fly over any space, but can't pass through spaces occupied by other units. Even ground units. Even naval units. [[UpToEleven Even submerged submarines.]]

* ''{{Rygar}}'' had this issue in the overhead areas. If you jump, your Diskarmor would register a hit on whatever was in the same place on the screen, even though your hero's shadow was about six tiles below. Savvy players could use this trick to easily defeat one of the bosses.
* ''SuperMarioBros2'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti. [[note]][[LetsPlay/ProtonJon MOVE FASTER POKEY!]][[/note]]

*** Gets even more {{egregious}} in VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl and later, where this is still in play, ''even though the game is now rendered in 3D''. That's right, now you can see what's behind those buildings thanks to perspective, but ''you still can't actually go there,'' even if it looks like you could. For example, there are several places where you can clearly see one tile of space between the north face of one building and the south face of another, but the game will not allow you to walk onto that space.
* In the C64 version of ''{{Rambo}}'', the ''tops'' of palm trees would block your path and had to be blown to smithereens with explosive weapons if you were to pass. All the while non-explosive projectiles from your and your enemies' weapons freely travel through everything.

* Many, many SuperMarioWorld hacks come under this if they use graphics not meant for 2D platformers (like isometric ones or three quarters view ones from games like SeikenDensetsu3). Good luck figuring out where the floor is solid and where it isn't in levels like Dark Castle or Dragon's cave in BrutalMario for instance. Or which bosses are foreground and which are background in the same game.
* In ''Mystery Quest'' for the NintendoEntertainmentSystem, the bats can and will fly through the ground and other solid objects.
* An InvokedTrope in a puzzle in GodOfWar 3; the puzzle shifts the camera to the perspective of a statue overlooking the area, so that stairs, walkways, aqueducts etc. look like they're connecting to each other when in the 3D world they're nowhere near each other. However, since this is Olympus and the statue is magic, while the effect is active you are able to treat the "illusion" as if it's real, and thus beat the area in ways that would be impossible with normal dimensions.

* The "shoot through walls" variety is [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the ''{{Metroid}}'' series, where Samus can only shoot through walls if she has the Wave Beam, which explicitly has the ability to penetrate solid matter.

* ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' is an early example of a game where your bullets go through walls.
** The series and its spin-offs sometimes flip-flop about it. In ''VideoGame/MegaMan and Bass'', Bass can't shoot past walls with his buster unless you equip a certain item. ''VideoGame/MegaManX 5'' and ''X6'' made most basic projectiles unable to pass walls, yet in ''X5'' X's charged shot with the Falcon Armor can pierce both enemies and solid walls. One game later, the armor gets broken and Alia barely fixes it, so among other things the charged shot looks exactly the same but can't penetrate anything.

* In ''StarCraft'', it's possible to shoot between high ground and low ground even if the ground should be in the way. It's also possible to shoot from low ground to low ground when there's a wall in the way.
** ''{{Warcraft}} II'' had submarines which could only hit other ships; they could hit over land. This is a limitation of the pathing code of both games, although it's made up by the fact that a unit that shoots another makes itself visible(and thus shootable) even if you wouldn't see it normally.

* ''SuperMarioBros 2 US'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti. [[note]][[LetsPlay/ProtonJon MOVE FASTER POKEY!]][[/note]]

* The Digipen Game ''[[https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25930 Perspective]]'' is ''all about this''. You can switch from 3D to 2D modes, and you can walk from one wall to another in 2D mode.