History SuperDrowningSkills / Videogames

* Justified in ''VideoGame/TheSmurfsMissionVileaf'': during the intro, Hefty says that he actually can swim, but is told that the added weight of his Smurfizer will cause him, and by extension any of the other playable Smurfs, to sink to the bottom. Falling in water causes them to respawn near where they fell, sans half a health unit.

* Every ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' (Except for the blue ones) will drown in seconds if they enter a body of water. Olimar has a chance to rescue them, by calling them back to him, but the chance that a Pikmin still drowns is pretty high. Also, the blue Pikmin can help save its drowning brethren. Olimar himself can't drown, since he's wearing a spacesuit. In the games after the first, their aversion to water is shown to be so strong that if some enemies simply splash them with it, it'll send them scurrying about in such a panic that they'll soon ''die'' if you don't calm them down by whistling at them.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', Mario generally has SuperNotDrowningSkills in water levels and can stay underwater forever ([[TimedMission level timer]] permitting). In regular levels, though, water-filled pits are still BottomlessPits. Particularly perplexing are the "island" levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' where he ''can'' swim in the water... but if he goes too deep (below the bottom of the screen) he automatically dies.

** The first ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' game plays this trope straight. Water is nothing but a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} and kills Mario if he falls in. In 2-3, he uses the Marine Pop to go underwater. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' averts this; he is given SuperNotDrowningSkills.

* Lok, even though he is logically stronger than his partner Tak is, has a WeaksauceWeakness towards water in ''VideoGame/TakTheGreatJujuChallenge'', treating it as GrimyWater while Tak can [[SuperNotDrowningSkills swim in it just fine]]. HollywoodDrowning as Lok flails his arms around ensues if you take Lok for a swim.

** The first ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' plays this trope straight. Water is nothing but a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} and kills Mario if he falls in. In 2-3, he uses the Marine Pop to go underwater. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' averts this; he is given SuperNotDrowningSkills.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' featured a non-lethal variation of this: If Bee Mario falls into any body of water (even a raindrop), he'll lose that powerup. The exact same is true with the Cloud Flower from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''.

* An intentional mechanic in ''VideoGame/FallGuysUltimateKnockout'' — if you so much as touch the pool of slime at the bottom of certain rounds, you're instantly eliminated and removed from the stage. (Only Slime Climb makes this clear, since in other rounds with slime, you can't dip your toe in it, you can only fall bodily into the goop.)

** In the video game ''Film/SpiderMan2'', the eponymous character can swim, though the player never controls him while he does so; if the player lands Spidey in the water, the screen fades out then back into him reappearing near where he was when he fell in, complete with voiceover complaining about his getting wet. Especially in one of the heroic deeds you needed to do: saving people from a sinking boat. If you touch water in any fashion while carrying someone, you fail.
** Amusingly, in the PSX/N64 ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'' game, water kills you outright.

* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/InFAMOUS''.

** While this was entirely justified in ''[=InFAMOUS=]'' and ''VideoGame/{{Infamous 2}}'' given Cole's electrical powers, it's also present in ''[[VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon Second Son]]'', despite Delsin's powers having nothing to do with electricity. On the other hand, Delsin doesn't drown; he just treads water until you hit the button prompt to return to shore.

* Averted for the player in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', as [[SuperNotDrowningSkills they can swim indefinitely]]: the biggest danger from being in water is simply being unable to fight back if you draw aggro from a monster (extremely rare as it is for monsters to be close enough to water to follow you out onto it), and you are given an enchantment in ''Stormblood'' that allows you to breathe underwater, opening up sub-aquatic exploration. Some story characters, on the other hand, are noted for being unable to swim -- namely, Alphinaud and Urianger.

** The heroes of the earlier games, who are amongst other things highly skilled speedboat racers, can't swim. This seems to be a common problem in their world, where even the most lavishly appointed swimming pool is about two feet deep. The manuals say oil spill, shark attacks, blah blah blah. [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas CJ,]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vic,]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV Niko,]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned Johnny,]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony Luis,]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Franklin, Michael, and Trevor,]] however, all avert this trope. CJ, ironically, claims at one point to suffer from [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes hydrophobia.]] CJ's girlfriends, as well as recruited gang members, can also swim, which makes it hard to dispose of them once all their benefits/the player's patience are used up. Everyone else in the game drowns in -seconds-. Cops are not smart enough to avoid leaping in after the player, and often [[TooDumbToLive drive trucks straight into the water]].

** Tommy Vercetti from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' thrashes and flails most awfully before succumbing. Leaping from roof to roof or crawling out of a flaming upside down car is just fine. This is much more noticeable than in ''GTAIII'' because like Miami, Vice City is roughly 80% beach. Of course, there are supposed to be sharks in the waters surrounding Vice City, but that doesn't explain Vic Vance from the PSP spinoff game, who can swim there fine... until he gets tired (and once he completes enough of a certain side mission, he doesn't have to worry about that anymore).
** Toni Cipriani in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories'', after CJ averted SuperDrowningSkills for the first time in GTA history, plays the trope straight. Falling in any water will kill him as it does with the previously mentioned Claude and Tommy Vercetti.

** While this was entirely justified in ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Infamous 2}}'' given Cole's electrical powers, it's also present in ''[[VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon Second Son]]'', despite Delsin's powers having nothing to do with electricity. Delsin doesn't drown however, he just treads water until you hit the button prompt to return to shore.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' uses an interesting variant. Gordon can swim just fine despite wearing a heavy [[PoweredArmor HEV Suit]], but try to swim in the oceans and [[BorderPatrol leeches will pick the flesh off your bones]] in seconds. Also, several enemies will get stuck in water and die. Curiously, lone headcrabs will drown in seconds, but headcrab zombies seem content to lie underwater indefinitely, regardless of its toxicity.

** Note that the Holy Symbol's ''FanNickname'' is [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the Holy Snorkel.]] The art is very clearly something you'd expect to see in a dive shop rather than a church.

* Although you cannot drown in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' (you're wearing self-contained PoweredArmor), it's shown that Spartans can't swim either (after all, they weigh over half a ton). The Chief sinks to the bottom of pools in ''[[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved Halo 1]]'', and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' has a cutscene of him being knocked into a lake and sinking like a rock. This makes a certain amount of sense until you notice that if you are killed and your corpse lands in water, it will float gently down the river (apparently dead Spartans can be used as flotation devices). Some areas, such as in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'''s early levels, have bodies of water that insta-kill Spartans if they so much as touch them, as a form of GravityBarrier. However, oddly enough, one instance of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''[='s=] first playable level has you able to walk around in a large pool of water for as long as you want, with only minimal effects to your vision and speed. You can even run after schools of fish.

** The infected lack the survivors' speed penalty in shallow water, they too possess severe reactions to waist-deep water. This made very confusing as newer players always learn the hard way in Swamp Fever that even if they are still in "ghost mode" and they don't technically exist yet, attempting to traverse waist-deep water again causes instant death.

* Averted for the player in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', as [[SuperNotDrowningSkills they can swim indefinitely]]: the biggest danger from being in water is simply being unable to fight back if you draw aggro from a monster, and you are given an enchantment in ''Stormblood'' that allows you to breathe underwater, opening up sub-aquatic exploration. Some story characters, on the other hand, are noted for being unable to swim -- namely, Alphinaud and Urianger.

*** Enemies approach this to various degrees. Lizalfos can swim indefinitely, while Hinoxes can swim for a while but eventually drown. Bokoblins, Moblins, and [[DemBones Stal-type monsters]], however, can neither swim nor float; if they enter water that's deep enough for Link to swim in they will instantly drown and die.

* In the 2003 game of ''{{VideoGame/The Hobbit|2003}}'', if Bilbo sets foot in any water over two inches deep, he dies. (Tolkien explicitly established in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' that most Hobbits never learn how to swim.) Rather than making it a form of InsurmountableWaistHeightFence, the developers saw fit to [[FakeDifficulty create entire levels based on waterfalls, rivers, cataracts, whirlpools, and the like.]] Given that the game was an unabashed ''Zelda'' clone made this more jarring, as you can swim in most of those games.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' on the NES. Really only came into play on the Freedom Island part of the map, and some of the underground caverns.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'':
** It was actually written into the story that Raz and all his family were [[GypsyCurse cursed by a psychic to die in water]]. Getting too close to water causes a giant watery hand to reach out, grab Raz, and pull him under to his death. One world even includes a cardboard hand coming out of an equally cardboard "ocean" during a stage play, drowning Raz in fake water.

** A drowning system is used in some of the two-dimensional games -- until the player acquires a pair of Flippers, usually to keep the player from [[SequenceBreaking going places they shouldn't yet]]. One example of when this trope ''should'' have been used is in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'', in which it was originally possible to make the game {{Unwinnable}} because you jumped across a moat you shouldn't have crossed yet.
** Link fares no better in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', where falling into water pits will kill him instantly. The only body of water he can walk into is that leading to the Sea Palace (fifth dungeon), and he still needs the Water Boots from another dungeon to do it. Water similarly acts as BottomlessPits in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames''.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', Link can transform into a Goron. The game states that since Gorons are basically living rocks, they sink like one. With the Deku Mask, Link can skip across water a few times, but if he runs out of skips before touching dry land again, he sinks like a rock.
** Link of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' can't swim indefinitely; if he's still in deep water when the on-screen timer runs out, he will ''drown.''
** Likewise, Link of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' can swim only as long as his stamina meter lasts. Though technically he can keep eating stamina-restoring food to refill the meter, sooner or later his food reserves will run out. The same cannot be said for some enemies such as Bokoblins, Moblins, and [[DemBones Stal-type monsters]]: water that's deep enough for Link to swim in will kill them on the spot.
** In ''Link's Awakening'', ''The Wind Waker'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', non-water-based {{mooks}} die the moment they touch water.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Phantom Hourglass]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', falling into water is the same as falling into a pit or lava. How Link forgot how to swim between ''The Wind Waker'' and ''Phantom Hourglass'' is a mystery.

* The heroes of ''VideoGame/NeopetsTheDarkestFaerie'' can't swim in anything above knee-deep. However, in most levels it's impossible to tell the difference between a creek and a raging river. In addition, there are some places where falling into the water will just knock off some of your health, and some places where it will kill you outright and send you back to your most recent save point. Again, there's no way to tell the difference between the two until it happens.

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an "unsatisfactory" mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!
** This trope also applies to the co-op robots in the [[VideoGame/{{Portal2}} sequel]]. Instead of just dying, they [[HollywoodDrowning flail in the water for a second]] before [[StuffBlowingUp exploding]]. This is again [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as they're robots who were not designed to be waterproof, and may in fact have been designed ''not'' to be waterproof so that the testing hazards remain effective.

* ''Videogame/TeslaTheWeatherMan'' has Tesla take damage whenever he falls into water. This is {{Handwaved}} by pointing out that he's wearing lots of electrical gadgetry.

* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' handles this several different ways. With a special gadget (O2 mask, etc.), Ratchet can swim [[SuperNotDrowningSkills indefinitely]]. In certain levels (poisonous water, lava, etc.) he has SuperDrowningSkills and sinks instantly. In still other levels with "normal" water, to force a certain path, entering the water will cause Ratchet to be quickly [[BorderPatrol devoured by a fish]]. As of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'', Ratchet has apparently developed super drowning skills: he instantly sinks with a gurgling noise if he touches any water. This is despite the fact that he could swim in previous games, and the fact that he still pretty clearly has his oxygen mask (he uses it in an outer space level).

** In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'', going into water as Coco has the same effect as doing so with Crash, but she can ordinarily tread water just fine in contrast to him. She'll still drown in the rising water in "Tomb Wader", but not if she falls into the narrow pits on the floor when the water level lowers. She also seems to avert ElectrifiedBathtub, as she's not killed by her laptop shorting out.
** In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'' not only do Crash and Coco drown in Water if they fall into them, but Tawna an ActionGirl also drowns and so does Dingodile, Dingodile's case is especially baffling as he is supposed to be half-crocodile, and Corocidles are supposed to be excellent swimmers. It is unknown if Dr Neo Cortex would drown because the only time he falls into water in the game he gets frozen solid in a block of ice, not drown. Dr Neo Cortex probably would drown if he had water levels but he doesn't so it is unknown if he can and would drown.

** In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4It'sAboutTime'' not only do Crash and Coco drown in Water if they fall into them, but Tawna an ActionGirl also drowns and so does Dingodile, Dingodile's case is especially baffling as he is supposed to be half-crocodile. It is unknown but if Dr Neo Cortex would drown because the only time he falls into water in the game he gets frozen solid in a block of ice, not drown. Dr Neo Cortex probably would drown if there were water levels but he doesn't so it is unknown if he can drown.

** Likewise, Link of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' can swim only as long as his stamina meter lasts. Though technically he can keep eating stamina-restoring food to refill the meter, sooner or later his food reserves will run out.

* Averted for the player in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', as [[SuperNotDrowningSkills they can swim indefinitely]]: the biggest danger from being in water is simply being unable to fight back if you draw aggro from a monster. Some story characters, on the other hand, are noted for being unable to swim -- namely, Alphinaud and Urianger.

** Link fares no better in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', where falling into water pits will kill him instantly. The only body of water he can walk into is that leading to the Sea Palace (fifth dungeon), and he still needs the Water Boots from another dungeon to do it.