History SuperDrowningSkills / Videogames

* In both the NES and Game Boy versions ''DickTracy'', the self-titled character also has SuperDrowningSkills. Though it only takes a half-point of health in the NES game, it is more severe in the Game Boy version. In the pier portions of stages 3 and 5, Dick Tracy will instantly drown the moment he falls into water.

* The heroes of the ''GrandTheftAuto'' 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. [[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas CJ]], [[GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vic]] and [[GrandTheftAutoIV Niko]], however, ([[GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned along with the two]] [[GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony DLC's main characters]]) avert this trope.

* Having managed to averting the trope in all of the recent GTA installments, it feels like kind of a bummer that Rockstar's western hero, [[RedDeadRedemption John Marston]], instantly dies the very moment any water touches his neck.

* In ''TheSims'', the characters can swim, but cannot climb out of a swimming pool without a ladder. Remove the ladder and they will just keep swimming until they tire out and drown. ''TheSims 2'' HangsALampshade on this: in the Pleasantview neighborhood, you'll see a little text saying Brandi Broke's husband died in a "suspicious pool ladder accident".
** Subverted in ''TheSims 3'' where they can, and usually will, climb out of the pool if you remove the ladder. Played straight in that some sims can now be hydrophobic, and fear their Super Drowning Skills to the point that some freak if they have to take a ''bubble bath''.

* While {{Kirby}} can swim just fine underwater (though he wears a snorkel in more recent installments), if a non-aquatic enemy touches the water, they'll sink like a rock and die.

* Pilots who bail out of their aircraft over water or soldiers who fall off a bridge in the game ''CommandAndConquer'' die ''instantly'' upon contact with the surface (the only exceptions being Tanya and Navy [=SEALs=] in ''Red Alert 2'').

* Although you cannot drown in ''{{Halo}}'' (you're wearing self-contained PoweredArmor), it's shown that Master Chief can't swim either (after all, he weighs 1 ton). He sinks to the bottom of pools in ''[[HaloCombatEvolved Halo 1]]'', and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' has a cutscene of him being knocked into a lake and sinking like a rock. Some areas, such as in ''Halo 3'''s early levels, have bodies of water that insta-kill MC if he so much as touches them, as a form of GravityBarrier. 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.

** This mechanic was carried over into ''SuperSmashBros Brawl'', despite the fact that even the previously mentioned SonicTheHedgehog can swim in Brawl

* Dr. Grant in ''VideoGame/JurassicPark'' for the Sega Genesis would drown and die instantly if he touched the 50 cm deep water on the river level. This could be justified, seeing that falling into a river, even if it's really shallow, can still dangerously drag you, if the current is strong enough. Alas, Grant sinks downwards.

* ''MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero'', has a water level and the whole puzzle is to get through it without drowning, because Sub-Zero can't swim.

* In both ''{{Naruto}}: Rise of a Ninja'' and its sequal ''Naruto: The Broken Bond'', if any of the characters land in water, they vanish in a cloud of smoke and reappear on the shore, usually complaining about getting wet. I guess ninja only need to know how to walk on water, not swim in it.

* Averted in TheElderScrolls games such as {{Morrowind}} and {{Oblivion}} where you can swim and go underwater... Except for some strange physics, for example when you jump in the water the damage you take seems to depend on the height from the ''bottom'' of the water, and not the surface or some approximation thereof. Which means it's still [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat quite risky]] to jump (or fall) into water.

* In the SailorMoon R [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames video game]], falling into the water in the raft stage meant you lost 25% of your total health. [[AdaptationDecay Even Sailor Mercury can drown in water]].

* In ''RedDeadRedemption'', you game over once you go into water past your waist. There's no animation of drowning to accompany or explain it, but later on in the story Marston does say that he can't swim (though it doesn't explain how he can't simple wade back to shore)

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'': ''Battle for Bikini Bottom'' and ''The Movie'' games both give us this. If Spongebob or Patrick so much as ''touch'' water or any liquid that [[UnderTheSea isn't the water that everybody lives in]], they jump out for a quick second back to land (or as close to land as possible). If they make contact with the liquid again... they drown. This can take effect in fountains as well.

* Although you cannot drown in ''{{Halo}}'' (you're wearing self-contained PoweredArmor), it's shown that Master Chief can't swim either (after all, he weighs 1 ton). He sinks to the bottom of pools in ''[[HaloCombatEvolved Halo 1]]'', and ''{{Halo 2}}'' has a cutscene of him being knocked into a lake and sinking like a rock. Some areas, such as in ''Halo 3'''s early levels, have bodies of water that insta-kill MC if he so much as touches them, as a form of GravityBarrier. 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.

** Likewise, Samus of ''{{Metroid}}'' fame sinks like a rock if she enters any liquid, be it water, lava, or harmful chemicals. While she can't drown due to her power suit the latter two will kill her due the fact that they drain the life bar if she stays in them long enough. She also can't move around very well in most games until she gathers the proper suit upgrade (And some add one that lets her swim in Lava as well) The only time she's been out of her power suit she can't get to any type of liquid to test and see if she drowns.
* Another ubiquitous example is ''TheLostVikings''. Even though most of the liquids are lava, sludge or acid, the vikings can't swim in regular water either. In the sequel, one of them gets cybernetic aqualungs.

* The heroes of the ''GrandTheftAuto'' 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. [[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas CJ]] and [[GrandTheftAutoIV Niko]], however, ([[GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned along with the two]] [[GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony DLC's main characters]]) avert this trope.

* The first NES ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' game have ALL the turtles drown in any contact of water on the ground. As WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd sums it up...

* A similar drowning system is used in some of the two-dimensional ''{{Zelda}}'' games -- until the player acquires a pair of Flippers, usually to keep the player from [[SequenceBreaking going places they shouldn't yet]]. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' non-water-based {{mooks}} die the moment they touch water.

*** ''Game/TrueCrime'' [[TakeThat made light of Vercetti's problem by having little Tommy dolls in the ocean wearing water wings]].

* A similar drowning system is used in some of the two-dimensional ''Zelda'' games -- until the player acquires a pair of Flippers, usually to keep the player from [[SequenceBreaking going places they shouldn't yet]]. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' non-water-based {{mooks}} die the moment they touch water.

* The otherwise indestructible Hulk in ''TheIncredibleHulk: Ultimate Destruction'' appears to suffer from acute hydrophobia -- landing in water will cause the player to instantly lose control of the character as he automatically jumps back to the nearest shore.

* In ''[[JamesBond 007]]: Nightfire'', you can swim in the single player mode (without moving your arms at all, but still). However, in split-screen multiplayer, water equals instant death... even in the same level you were swimming in on single player.

* Although you cannot drown in ''{{Halo}}'' (you're wearing self-contained PoweredArmor), it's shown that Master Chief can't swim either (after all, he weighs 1 ton). He sinks to the bottom of pools in ''{{Halo 1}}'', and ''{{Halo 2}}'' has a cutscene of him being knocked into a lake and sinking like a rock. Some areas, such as in ''Halo 3'''s early levels, have bodies of water that insta-kill MC if he so much as touches them, as a form of GravityBarrier. 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.

* {{Justified}} in ''Splosion Man'' -- the eponymous main character is made of fire. Less justified by the ordinary human scientists, who find water just as instantly fatal.

* The title character from ''Dangerous Dave'' doesn't merely drown upon contact with water but violently explodes in a fireball that hovers above the water's surface. (The same effect occurs when Dave touches fire, yet jumping on the stars in the sky does not harm him one bit.)

* ''Vixen'', an ancient platformer on the Amiga would have the female Tarzan like player drown in a few seconds if she fell into water.

** The NES game series that was [[SpiritualSuccessor modeled after it]], ''AdventureIsland'', did this to Master Higgins in the first game. Subsequent games in the series added [[UnderTheSea underwater levels]], allowing Higgins to swim freely.

* In the NES series ''StarTropics'' and its sequel: ''Zoda'sRevengeStarTropicsII'', the protagonist, Mike Jones, apparently can't swim, as jumping into water instantly kills him.

* ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]'' uses an interesting variant. Gordon can swim just fine, but try to swim in the oceans and [[BorderPatrol leeches will pick the flesh off your bones]] in seconds.

* In the MMORPG {{Aion}}, you play an immortal angelic being who, despite being able to fly, apparently never learned how to swim. Most "lakes" are knee-high pools that you can run through, but you start to drown as soon as the water goes over your head.
** Thankfully ''NCSoft'' seem to be aware of how ridiculous this is and have shown characters swimming in their planned development trailer. There's no date on when this will be implemented, though, and no information on whether characters will only be able to swim in certain areas or not.
* The KingsField games have a non-submergeable hero - made that much worse by his tendency to travel about the world in a first-person viewpoint and the world's equally obnoxious tendency to have open wells and rivers just lying about with no thought given to safety fences. Jumping into the ocean doesn't do you any better. What's more fun is that there are often paths you must take in the shallow water, where the only way to make sure that you don't step off the trail and instantly drown is to practically watch your own feet, leaving you exposed to enemies coming at you from other directions to knock you off your narrow, partially submerged path.
* Played straight in the original ''{{Pitfall}}'', but in the second game, Harry has SuperNotDrowningSkills.
* In ''ChipsChallenge'', water is just another obstacle, requiring the right footwear to navigate. You can walk into the water, and die, one square away from land. Unless you have flippers. That makes it all better.
* Anyone can drown in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' The Burning Earth, even Katara and Aang who can control water.
* In ''DestroyAllHumans'' everyone, both Crypto and his enemies, dies instantly if they fall in water. You can drop cars, trucks, and tanks into what must be fairly shallow ponds and streams all day long, but they just never seem to get full.

* Handwaved in ''NieR'': water is scarce, so nobody wants to touch and risk polluting what little they have, which means no swimming lessons. Doesn't quite explain why Nier manages to drown in knee-deep water, but it's a start.

* ''PopulousTheBeginning'' followers can drown in the sea, rivers, swamp and occasionally dry land.

* In ''VideoGame/MickeyMania'', Mickey takes damage from just touching the water in the ''Lonesome Ghosts'' level, even once it's started to recede and he can jump to the surface. It does stop damaging him once the water level is below his head, though.

* Sadly, EpicMickey suffers from this as well. In the cartoon segments, getting in contact with water (such as from a moat or a fire hydrant) produces the same effect as getting burned from the paint thinner blotting Oswald's ruined world.

** Also in ''[[CrashBandicoot3Warped Crash 3]]'', Coco has been shown to swim if her jet ski blows up. FridgeLogic kicks in at ''CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex'' where falling into deep water ''causes her to instantly panic and drown''. The worst part? Most of Coco's levels in that game are filled with water.

* ''Drakkhen'', a very very old Amiga game from the late 80's (and ported to the SNES in 1991). It takes place on a perfectly square shaped continent that is bordered by a vast ocean to the south, and one region contains a ludicrous number of lakes and rivers, which makes it very vexing to navigate because your characters will sink and die in any water in a matter of seconds.

* In ''Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'', Croc, who is a crocodile, gets injured if he touches water, unless it's the right sort of water, then you can swim in it (you enter a special level).

* Perhaps the most ridiculous example is ''{{Frogger}}'', where the main character -- a frog -- died on contact with water. Some versions {{handwave}} this by saying the currents are too fast and strong for the poor frog. Later installments in the series say it's due to a childhood accident in which he nearly drowned.

* In ''{{Prince of Persia}}: Warrior Within'', the Prince is never shown to actually swim, as there are no pools deep enough in the Fortress, but the enemies, being composed of the Sands of Time, will instantly die and dissolve when exposed to water. This includes the seemingly unstoppable Dahaka, though he does try to defy the laws of nature. The only downside of this is that you get no weapons or Sand from a 'drowned' enemy, but can still use this to your advantage if you enter the Garden Tower with a proper sidearm, and throw the attacking enemies in the central pool (they won't step into it on their own, the AI is good enough).

** CJ's girlfriends 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.

** One example of when this trope should have been used is in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', in which it was originally possible to make the game {{Unwinnable}} because you jumped across a moat you shouldn't have crossed yet.

** The first two Thief games even drew the line between enemies drowning themselves and Garrett actually making them drown by knocking them unconscious and then leaving them in water. He could swim carrying unconscious bodies without having them die, possibly through means that are [[KissOfLife best not thought too much about]], but dumping an unconscious body into a pool would eventually cause it to drown, and you'd fail the mission if Garrett wasn't allowed to kill anyone.
** Instant drowning became a bug in one of the first game's missions. When you had to rescue the high priest of the Hammerites, he would instantly die if he contact water. The intent of the mission was to use the raft, but the game would sometimes detect water contact if you placed him on the raft while it was moving.

*** Amusingly, in the PSX/N64 Spider-Man game, water kills you outright.

*** In ''CastlevaniaIII'' he swims about as well as everyone else - which is to say he sinks like a rock.

** Most {{Sierra}} adventure games were very unfriendly in this regard. Laura Bow and Roger Wilco also had their fair share of either drowning deaths or being attacked by something living in a body of water anytime they got close to it.

** This actually was a major weakness of the Trigens in ''FarCry'', the previous CryEngine game. It was excusable then because [[{{Handwave}} they were weird mutants who conceivably played by their own rules]], whereas the enemies in ''Crysis'' are supposed to be human soldiers.

* Stranger can swim with ease in ''{{Oddworld}}: StrangersWrath'', yet knocking an enemy into water will cause them to ''dissolve'', clothes, weapons, and all. The only thing that survives is the Moolah they're carrying (which is always equal to their "dead" bounty, for some reason.) Storywise, it does bring up a few interesting points. 1) There are so many outlaws in the Mungo River Valley because said river is dried up, 2) The reason Sekto is making so much money selling bottled water is because no one wants to drink water with ''dead outlaw'' in it, and 3) [[spoiler:The Dam breaks at the end of the game, filling up the river... while also flooding the Clakker towns and outlaw hideouts.]] Strangely, only {{Mooks}} seem to be affected, though you never have the opportunity to shove a boss into the water in game.

** It gets even worse when you visit the water planet Aquanet, and Pommy comments on how an underwater town must be full of treasure, but because Bomberman can't swim, they can't go check it out.

* In the Wii game ''[=~Dewy's Adventure~=]'', the hero will die instantly if he falls into water. The ridiculous part? The hero is literally ''made of water''. That's like having a human character who dies instantly upon contact with ''meat''. Arguably, one could say that the main character loses himself in the water, thus resulting in his "death".

* ''ReignOfFire''. Entering ANY body of water will cause your vehicle's health to drop like a rock. Perhaps the humans couldn't find any steel anymore so they instead build tanks out of bread that's been spray-painted black? This is even WORSE when you consider getting wet is the only way to stop yourself from dying in seconds if you get lit on fire, and since you're fighting ''dragons'' and all the whole time, you get lit on fire a LOT.

** The raptor fares no better, and you are at least [[LampshadeHanging warned that "raptors cannot swim"]] in the intro to the naturally water-filled sewer level.

** That entire game was full of {{Scrappy Level}}s. And when you fell into water (or off a bottomless pit), you were often treated to a hilariously bad FMV sequence showing your ice ninja sinking or falling.

** It is actually justified in ''[[SpyroYearOfTheDragon Year of the Dragon]]'', which differentiates between the transparent "swimmable" waters prevalent in the second and third games and the opaque toxic waters that make their return in certain levels. Sometimes the toxic water and regular water are in the same levels!

* {{Justified}} in ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS}}''. Cole probably could swim, but now he's got all his electricity powers, standing in any body of water larger than a puddle will cause him to blow a fuse and die. How long it takes varies depending on whether you stand in a fountain, or jump into the river. On the other hand, small bodies of water (such as puddles) doesn't seem to even annoy him. You can also fry other people standing in the same body of water as you.

* ''BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' has most of the characters drown the instant they so much as ''touch'' water. However, it does offer you couple of [[StealthPun lifelines]] in certain levels--one power-up allows you to ride your EggMcGuffin around, allowing you to cross treacherous terrain (water included), and one {{Mon}} you can find to assist you has the power to swim. Get hit in the water, though, and it's Davy Jones' Locker for you anyway.

* {{Lemmings}} die immediately on touching water. Then again, they also die immediately on [[EverythingTryingToKillYou touching pretty much everything else]]...

* In the [[SailorMoon Sailor Moon]] R [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames video game]], falling into the water in the raft stage meant you lost 25% of your total health. [[AdaptationDecay Even Sailor Mercury can drown in water]].

* In the Creature Stage of {{Spore}}, this seems to be averted at first in that the creatures can swim in shallow water and do not drown, but straying past a certain distance from the beach causes a SeaMonster to pop out and eat them.
* Sadly, {{Epic Mickey}} suffers from this as well. In the cartoon segments, getting in contact with water (such as from a moat or a fire hydrant) produces the same effect as getting burned from the paint thinner blotting Oswald's ruined world.

* ''{{VideoGame/Bug}}!'' had [[SwampsAreEvil Splot]]. Touching the water was ''instant death'', not even MercyInvincibility would save Bug from drowning. Even more egregious- the next level was [[UnderTheSea QUARIA]], and Bug could do fine without any harm whatsoever.

* Handwaved in ''{{NieR}}'': water is scarce, so nobody wants to touch and risk polluting what little they have, which means no swimming lessons. Doesn't quite explain why Nier manages to drown in knee-deep water, but it's a start.

* The eponymous protagonists of the comedy turn-based ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' series can survive grenades, dynamite and point-blank shotgun blasts, but die instantly when contacting water. Most projectiles succumb as well, but a fast-moving bazooka shell can skip across the water.
** [[JustifiedTrope Have you ever seen an earthworm swim?]]
** Have you ever seen an earthworm take a grenade and still go on to come with Mafia threats afterwards?

* In ''PrehistorikMan'', at first the character died in any hole, including water, in [[DeathThrows the same fashion he dies from any damage]]. But in the last levels, after being told you can't breathe in water, when falling into it... No, he doesn't swim either: he just sinks and drowns, but with a "drowning" sprite this time.

* The title character of the freeware game ''[=~Dr. Goo~=]'' and its sequels has Super Drowning Skills.
* Dr. Grant in ''JurassicPark'' for the Sega Genesis would drown and die instantly if he touched the 50 cm deep water on the river level. This could be justified, seeing that falling into a river, even if it's really shallow, can still dangerously drag you, if the current is strong enough. Alas, Grant sinks downwards.

* In Predator: Concrete Jungle, if you fall/jump/lean in the water you instantly die, only to reappear seconds later a few feet away from where you descended to a watery doom.