History Main / IdleAnimation

* Some games do not approve of the player remaining idle and have a way of "punishing" the gamer, an example of which being the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 LicensedGame of Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck''. If the player has Darkwing stand in one place, Darkwing will first blink and then grin, then turn to the player and glare. Afterwards Darkwing looks up towards the top of the screen directly above where he's standing, and looks defeated right before a safe falls out of the sky and crushes him flat. This results in the player losing a life.

* In ''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum'', when Ai has been crouching for a few seconds, she pulls out a UsefulNotes/NeoGeoPocket and starts playing.

* Conker in ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', if left alone long enough, would juggle, play with a yo-yo, drink a soda, drink something out of a glass (and throw the glass behind him so it shattered), play ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'' on his UsefulNotes/GameBoy, read an adult magazine and comment on it, or ask if there's "anyone out there" or tell himself, "I think he died" or "You'll go blind doing that" in regards to the player. Furthermore, if left in the "Sunny" area (the area with the barn), he would sit down and whistle along with the music.

** By far, ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'' has the most idle animations of any game in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series. Donkey Kong will scratch his armpit, or play a UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS XL with one of four games; ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: New Leaf'', ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'', or ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns 3D'', with music and sound effects from each. If one of his friends is on his back, they each have their own idle animation; Diddy will look around, then cheer on DK while he plays one of his games; Dixie will look around, then groom DK while he plays one of his games, and Cranky will read a newspaper while DK plays one of his games. When one of DK's friends are alone, Diddy will remove his hat and sing, or yawn, Dixie will do a handstand, or play an imaginary electric guitar, and Cranky will clean out his ear with his cane.
*** In the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version of the game, Funky Kong will eat a banana, then wipe his surfboard with the peel, or spin his surfboard on his finger. Donkey Kong also [[RecursiveCanon now plays]] ''[[RecursiveCanon Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze]]'' [[RecursiveCanon on the Nintendo Switch]], and if Diddy or Dixie is on his back, they will play it with him. If Cranky is on his back, DK will offer him a controller, only for Cranky to turn it down and read his newspaper, then smack DK on the head with it when he finds out that DK is playing as him.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' game for UsefulNotes/GameGear plunged either of the eponymous characters into darkness when the player hit pause - showing only their googly eyes on a black screen. Unpausing reveals either Ren scratching his butt or Stimpy adding to his spit jar - after a couple seconds they'll look up at the player in embarrassment and then flash an awkward grin.

** One of the oldest examples is ''VideoGame/BoulderDash'' for the UsefulNotes/Commodore64, where Rockford would look straight ahead and tap his foot impatiently if left idle.

** ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'': When Shantae is at full health and standing still, she'll do a happy little dance. When not at full health or critical she'll breath normally and adjust her top. When nearly dead she'll hold her arm and breathe heavily.

* ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'': When Shantae is at full health and standing still, she'll do a happy little dance. When not at full health or critical she'll breath normally and adjust her top. When nearly dead she'll hold her arm and breath heavily.

* The eponymous ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' tries to flex his muscles, only to find out that he can't breathe after inhaling in too much air, thus gasping it all out.

* Open Surge has plenty of these.
** Surge plays his video game.
** Neon blows a bubblegum bubble until it [[BubblegumPopping pops]] in his FACE. In your FACE, Neon!
** Charge stretches his arms until he [[NightmareFuel cracks his shoulders]]. That's gotta fucking hurt.
** Tux just simply does [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's idle animation]].

** Along with Link's idle animations like stretching, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' had an idle animation for ''water fountain statues'', involving them almost falling asleep. Link also fidgets ''constantly'' when there is no player input, making this an example of a HyperactiveSprite, although Link is a 3D model.

* [[{{Sleepyhead}} Sleeping]]/stretching/relaxing.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' had several sets of Idle Animations depending on Link's age, and sometimes the environment. He will: fidget, glance about, tap his feet against each other, yawn, hike up his belt, swing his blade if it's unsheathed, shiver and sneeze (inside cold areas), or wipe sweat from his brow (inside hot areas). (Put on the Iron Boots and the boot tapping animation becomes particularly funny.) Link may also fiddle with his shield when he has his sword out as well, or gasp for breath when he's low on hearts.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGn2cgQYszY Video for all (or at least most) of them.]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has similar sequences; rather than adjusting his tights, however, he fiddles with his wrist guards. When playing as Wolf Link, Midna has a few cute idle animations of her own: she'll stretch and yawn, look around, stand on Link to look closer, or tap him to get him to move.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', leaving Link sitting down for a long enough period of time will cause him to doze off after a while, until he loses his balance.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', while the idle animations in temperate areas are fairly standard, heading into a cold climate while underdressed causes Link to start shivering, to warn you that you should really put on something warmer before you start taking damage. Standing still after depleting your stamina will cause Link to bend over in exhaustion until it fills back up. And if Link is left idle for long enough while shirtless, he will [[PecFlex flex both of his biceps]].

* Rather than an animation, standing still for a while in ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' caused the character to start singing showtunes. The others got into it in the sequel; one of them throws out random "yo mama" jokes when left alone.

** Tux just simply does [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's idle animation]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'': The title character would glare at the player (shown in the page image above), tap his foot and even lie down if left for a few seconds. In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'', he would jump off the screen after 3 minutes of idling with an "[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere I'm outta here]]!" and [[NonstandardGameOver the game would reset to the title screen]]. Likewise, other playable characters have these as well - though only Tails has one as consistently as Sonic (falling asleep standing up). This trend would be carried across pretty much every game in the series, with ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy Advance 2]]'' replacing the "look up" feature of holding up on the D-pad with instantly going into each character's idle animation. [[HammerSpace It's also probably for the best if you don't think too hard about where Cream gets all those ice cream cones from.]]

* ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' has several varying idle animations for each of the player characters throughout the series.

* All three main characters in ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'' do this. Since in the game you control only one of them at a time, effectively leaving the others alone, you get to see these fairly often.

** Many if not all of the mecha units in ''Tiberium Wars'' and ''Kane's Wrath'' had various idle animations. Special mentions go to the [[ChickenWalker Juggernaut]] pecking the ground with its cannon barrels or the Nod Redeemer spinning its torso around in a crazy fashion.

The animation that is displayed in a videogame when a character, especially a player-controlled character, is just standing around and the player isn't pressing any buttons. A few games may do it when you pause instead. This is done because it avoids having the character stand completely still, which feels odd and creepy because it is unnatural.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', each of the playable races has a "fidget" animation, ranging from just shifting one's weight from one foot to the other (Blood Elf), to glancing warily over both shoulders (Draenei), to rolling apparent kinks out of the shoulders (female Orc and male Night Elf), to [[{{Gainaxing}} hopping up and down ]] (female Night Elf) to alternately standing fully upright and squatting (male trolls, in one of the few moments where you notice how ''tall'' they are). Oh, and male Taurens scratch their asses. Even pets have idle animations -- cats yawn and stretch, wolves tilt their heads back and howl, and a Warlock's Succubus, if left to her own devices, will occasionally swat her own backside.

[[caption-width-right:347:[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Come on, step it up!]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM I'm waiting!]]]]