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4[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/super_mario_world_eeries_hurt_mario.png]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:350:They're quite solid for ghosts.]]
6
7->''"The Goomba shuffles sideways toward you and barely touches you with his body. For some reason, that makes you almost die."''
8-->-- ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''
9
10Perhaps [[PlayerCharacter the character]] bruises easily. Perhaps the enemy is toxic. Or the character is obsessive-compulsive. Or maybe, they just weren't able to give the enemies an attack animation.
11
12Either way, ''touching'' an enemy damages—if not outright kills—the player. If you're lucky, you might survive, although you may lose a PowerUp or two. On the plus side, MercyInvincibility usually kicks in at this point. This is part of the reason why it seems like [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything's trying to kill you]].
13
14Often the InvincibilityPowerUp will give ''you'' Collision Damage effects on the enemy. This may even affect minor boss enemies.
15
16This is a very, ''very'' old trope, dating back to ''VideoGame/{{Snake}}'' and specifically its original release as ''Blockade''. It is most commonly seen in the {{Platformer}}; it is rarely seen in the FightingGame or the {{RPG}}. It's also a DiscreditedTrope as many modern platformers have discarded it, at least without justification.
17
18This tends to be a bit easier to believe if it's a vehicle-based shoot 'em up. Flying one of the choppers of ''VideoGame/TwinCobra'' into an enemy chopper is usually about as helpful there as it would be if you took an AH-64 and used it to kiss a Hind. (Hint: not very.) It's just more blatant when it's a human(ish) victim and the enemy really just wanders by it.
19
20It's particularly jarring when the boss attempting to swing its claw at you does the same amount of damage as you accidentally touching the claw. Apparently, attacking doesn't hurt more, just makes you more likely to touch the boss.
21
22This will often happen even if facing an evil twin or otherwise "normal" opponent. This is a favorite tactic of the PersonalSpaceInvader, who takes it up a notch by ''grabbing'' the player character beyond just touching them.
23
24Not to be confused with the real-time model damaging employed in modern 3D games. See also OneHitPointWonder. When this applies to walls, that's DeadlyWalls.
25----
26!!Examples:
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:Action Adventure Games]]
30* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': In the Mysterious Console DLC, Noni takes damage upon making physical contact with enemies as they attempt to move closer to her while firing an abundant of BulletHell weaponry.
31* ''VideoGame/DragonsWake'': Jackalope horns, ghosts and GoddamnBats are some of the things that will hurt you on contact.
32* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has a good deal of this; enemies like birds often appear in large swarms, making it hard not to get hit. However, some bosses don't inflict collision damage at all.
33* Certain enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' and ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'' are covered in a miasma of poison gas/mist that can be removed with ranged attacks. The catch is that they are removed for a short time so you need to get in your shots then move away quickly.
34* ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' and ''VideoGame/EccoTheTidesOfTime'': Ecco takes damage from enemy sea life. Somewhat justified considering jellyfish can have nasty stings and can even kill sometimes. Sharks do have sharp teeth and rough skin and crabs do use their pincers defensively. Also an npc dolphin tells Ecco that all sea life is frightened after the Vortex attack.
35* In ''VideoGame/GobletGrotto'', most enemies still require a ([[StylisticSuck badly drawn]]) attack animation to hurt you, but some creatures like the Policemen, a Bloody Head ghost, an office door in one level or swear words (actual multi-coloured 2D words that slowly move towards you) hurt just through touch. It doesn't help that many of these are completely invulnerable as well.
36* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' plays this straight throughout the game. With the exception of a few [[HarmlessEnemy basically harmless creatures]], the few enemies that don't deal one point of damage when you run into them deal two points instead.
37* Contact with enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' deals armor damage over time. However, thanks to MercyInvincibility and a large health meter ([[RPGElements should you choose to upgrade it]]), it's still possible to simply run through some levels without dying.
38* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has plenty of it. However, it doesn't actually impact your LifeMeter very much, so it would take a ''very long'' time for a bat to kill a player. More annoying than the damage is the potential to get knocked off a ladder or into a pit. The remake features a particularly cruel variant of this: Being in contact with Viy or Palenque will impose a life-draining effect that will kill you in ''seconds.''
39* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
40** In the 2D games, most enemies had the Touch of Death. This largely went away after the move to 3D made clearer attack animations possible.
41** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Link will suffer damage if he touches a monster. However, the Cane of Byrna allows Link to generate a magic force field that not only allows him to inflict this on the enemies, but also protects him from everything up to falling into pits. You'll still bounce (with no damage) off spikeballs, though.
42* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': The [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 first]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake second]] 2D games have this, but went away when the series went 3D with ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Solid]]''.
43* ''VideoGame/{{Postknight}}'' has this. However, ''both'' the player and the enemy take damage, as they essentially trade blows in each collision.
44* ''[[VideoGame/SabrinaTheTeenageWitchBratAttack Sabrina: Brat Attack]]'': Enemies slowly jaunt around and hurt Sabrina by walking into her. They even enforce this by slowly walking after Sabrina when they see her.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Action Games]]
48* Touching enemies & electrical fences in ''VideoGame/AuraAuraClimber'' will cause damage, if not [[OneHitKill kill you outright]].
49* Seen in ''VideoGame/CarBattlerJoe'', but only in the first battle, as your car isn't weaponized yet.
50* All of the ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' series. Worse, you are almost always a OneHitPointWonder, meaning that practically anything even remotely malignant is fatal. I mean, c'mon, you are a [[SuperSoldier super muscloid juggernaut commando]] with muscles all the steroids in Major League Baseball couldn't build -- yet a single poke by the lowliest [[{{Mooks}} mook]] is instant death. Crack out that KonamiCode, people!
51* In ''VideoGame/{{Dodge}}'', the only way for enemies to harm you is to crash into you. This method works equally well [[SetAMookToKillAMook on each other]].
52* In the ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' game for the Master System, Indy takes some damage from bullets and continuous damage from falling. What happens if he touches any enemy? ''[[FridgeLogic Instant death.]]''
53* Everything in ''VideoGame/MagicalWhipWizardsOfPhantasmalForest'' will damage you from any direction for the same amount of damage. It doesn't matter whether it's a dragon, a pumpkin, or the lance of a knight.
54%% (ZCE)* 2D ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' titles.
55* In the original ''VideoGame/RollingThunder'', touching an enemy causes you to lose one of your two hit points. In ''Rolling Thunder 2'' onwards, however, touching an enemy simply knocks you back without any damage.
56* ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer1990'' was NintendoHard because just touching a wall would result in the character's death. Often the lethal parts were indistinguishable from the background.
57* ''Smurf Rescue'' is famous for doing this with, among other things, picket fences and ''tufts of grass''.
58* In ''VideoGame/CarriesOrderUp'', your playing as a waitress running tables at a diner, and bumping into customers results in an angry patron and a lot of broken plates.
59* Inverted in ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'', for some characters including Xing Cai and Pang De, they can generate a green energy field as a special move. When this is on, they move quicker and cause collision damage that will knock down enemies that they walk into. Damage is initially poor, but gets stronger as your character improves.
60* In ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'', if Bub or Bob touches any enemy that is not encapsulated in a bubble, he will die comically and immediately.
61* The ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' NES game, as WebVideo/TheAngryVideogameNerd pointed out. ''Touching a door'' could kill you. In one hit. In a game with a life bar.
62* Anything that moves in the ''VideoGame/{{Glider}}'' games can cause damage on touch ([[OneHitpointWonder almost always killing you]]), which can also result from crashing into many kinds of immobile objects, such as furniture or [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou the floor]].
63* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''VideoGame/MarsMatrix'', in which your ship will simply fly on top of an airborne enemy instead of crashing into it. Due to the game's scoring and weapon powerup system revolving around chaining together cubes that come out of destroyed enemies, this feature is a necessity.
64* In ''Jet Boot Jack'', running into anything from the side, even a moving lift, will result in a violent demise.
65* In the UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame ''Heated Barrel'', even though enemies normally attack by firing guns or throwing bombs, running into one is somehow just as fatal as being shot.
66* Collision damage was enabled only once in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'', specifically for the ''4'' version of the engine. A flying body could collide with another character and deal an enormous amount of damage to them. This led to the unfortunate tendency for officers with powerful KnockBack abilities to accidentally team-kill allies by launching a {{Mook}} into them, as well as players dying instantly because they caught a flying allied soldier with their face. Creator/KoeiTecmo realized that this made certain officers far more powerful than intended and turned certain game modes into near-certain death traps, and removed the damage from bodily impact in later iterations (now such an event merely knocks down anyone hit by a flying body).
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Card Battle Games]]
70* ''VideoGame/ShanghaiEXEGensoNetwork'': If an enemy can go to Shanghai's side of the battlefield, moving onto their panel is going to hurt him, but not the other way around. Some examples are:
71** Cirno, who can coat herself in a spiky ball of ice and land on where Shanghai is at, and stays there for a little while.
72** Yorihime, who has some sword attacks that send her to the panel right in front of Shanghai, which puts her on Shanghai's side if Shanghai's on any column except her rightmost.
73[[/folder]]
74
75[[folder:Casual Games]]
76* In ''VideoGame/{{Duet}}'', the entire point of the game is to avoid touching anything with your two orbs. If you do touch anything, you have to go back to the beginning of a level, and if you're doing a speed run, you're going to lose speed, which takes a while to grow back, so you better not touch anything.
77* In ''[[VideoGame/WithFriends Stampede Run]]'', running into a small obstacle or runner without a take-out move will cause a stumble instead of knocking you out completely. You're fine if you can avoid stumbling again for 5 seconds or so, but if you stumble again the bull that's chasing you during that time will run you over, ending the game.
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:Driving Games]]
81* In ''VideoGame/{{Carmageddon}}'' you just need to ''touch'' the pedestrian to kill them.
82* In ''VideoGame/FZeroGX'', touching certain things in the course scenery will blow your machine up into pieces, even if the object is otherwise non-lethal to the touch or you touch it at a snail's pace.
83* ''VideoGame/PolePosition'', one of the first {{Driving Game}}s, had this in spades.
84* ''Rally-X'' had this. If one of the enemy cars touched you before you collected all the flags, you die.
85* The collision physics in ''VideoGame/{{Trackmania}}'' are especially brutal. In a turn, if you bump the inside barrier you'll often go flying into the other barrier. The cars and track seem to be made from rubber!
86* In ''VideoGame/BumpNJump'', you lose a car when it touches the sides of the road, potholes, and landing right on top of water. Other cars will simply bounce you away if you bump into them.
87* In ''VideoGame/{{Roundabout}}'', touching anything taller than your limo inflicts a point of damage. Pedestrians are also slaughtered in one hit if you touch them.
88[[/folder]]
89
90[[folder:Fighting Game]]
91* In the ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' licensed game on Super NES, you will take collision damage if you try to jump on the enemy.
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
95* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} Battlefield 2]]'' and ''2142'', players can be killed if they are crushed between a vehicle and stationary geometry. Acceptable. However, the same fatal damage is applied if the vehicle is parked, empty and motionless next to a wall, and the player walks in between. The game engine sees that the space between the vehicle and the wall is less than the size of the player, and applies indiscriminate logic. Death can also occur if you are beside a tank, but you happen to touch any portion of the kill zone (immediately beneath the treads) exposed by the ground's uneven surface.
96* The final boss of ''VideoGame/Blood1997'', Tchernobog, will instantly eradicate the player upon contact similar to the bosses found in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D''.
97* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' games [[InvertedTrope inverts]] this with vehicles, which do heavy damage to any enemy they touch while in motion. Running down enemies also does some damage to the vehicle, but this is negligible except for boss monsters or large hordes. Beware, however; some enemies can drive vehicles too, and if they run over a ''player'', it will kill them instantly with no chance for a second wind.
98* Some recent games (usually ones with advanced physics engines) have brought this trope to next-gen gaming. In ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'', for instance, you can take damage from sprinting into any inanimate object. Which leads to the SuperSoldier protagonist dying from collision with a dumpster. In a nice subversion, your enemies are also affected by collision damage, so you can take down a KPA soldier with a well-placed chicken to the face.
99** Super-sprinting into a tree and dying is possibly the most humiliating thing ever.
100* The makers of an obscure FPS game ''Cytadela'' had a brilliant idea to make the main protagonist take damage from collision with ''anything''. Including ''walls''. Yeah. Good luck reaching the end of the level after you've killed all the enemies but are down to one HP -- so you have to navigate the corridors with absolute precision, because one step too much will result in instant game over.
101* In ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces 2]]'', collision damage was applied to the player in ''any'' direction so long as he was moving fast enough; long falls naturally damaged you, but Force Jumping into a low ceiling or running into a wall with Force Speed also did damage. ''Jedi Knight II'' and ''Academy'' did away with this, instead opting to place multiple BottomlessPits in nearly every level.
102* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', if the player touches a boss, he'd be killed instantly regardless of health. However, this only applies at a certain height; at ground level the player would die instantly but if he'd be suspended in midair, by using the Jetpack as an example, while touching any of the bosses from the torso and above no damage would be inflicted.
103** The shrink ray has this property as well. Anyone, Duke or enemy, who has been shrunk will die as soon as they are touched by anyone normal-sized.
104* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
105** In ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', vehicles moving past a certain speed (which is very, very low) do 10000 damage to whatever they hit. [[PlayerCharacter Master Chief]] has 75 shields and 75 health. This was adjusted in subsequent games.
106** Sword lunges at a wall can kill the user.
107** The ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' beta had a form of this, wherein players who set the characters' speed as high as it would go had them running at super-fast speeds and pasting themselves on anything they ran into.
108* ''VideoGame/KensLabyrinth'' has this in full force for you (in addition to many enemies shooting projectiles). The difficulty selection determines whether or not enemies will actively try to ram into you. [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] if you have a blue cloak active, as you can OneHitKill any enemy that isn't a boss. (By the way, this is the only way, other than [[BottomlessPits holes]], to kill the 8-balls and frozen ghost enemies.)
109* In ''VideoGame/NightmareHouse'', the player is encountered by [[LivingShadow shadows]] that do not move. If the player touches them, they lose 5-10 points worth of health.
110* Running into things with an Overdrive ability active in ''VideoGame/{{Section 8}}'' will result in this. However, damage to ''yourself'' when running into things is minimal. Run into an enemy, however, and he instantly dies. [[CosmeticAward And you get an Achievement]]!
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Maze Games]]
114* ''VideoGame/{{Snake}}'': In most editions (going back to the 1976 release ''Blockade''), hitting the wall and/or yourself kills you instantly.
115* ''VideoGame/PacMan''. One touch from a ghost monster causes the title character to shrivel up and evaporate, but with a power pellet, the tables are turned, allowing Pac to chomp the baddies.
116[[/folder]]
117
118[[folder:[=MMORPGs=]]]
119* In direct defiance of the fact that this trope is supposedly not seen in [=RPGs=], ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has one of these: the infamous "frogger" encounter in Naxxramas. Green oozes lazily slink across a hallway. Your party is on one side of them. You and your party need to get to the other side. It's harder than it sounds, since any lag at all will throw off your timing. The frogger hall has claimed many lives.
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:Multiple]]
123* A booster cartridge (like the Game Genie or Knuckles) was once sold for the Platform/{{Commodore 64}} which eliminated sprite collision detection on any game plugged through it into the C64, making the player character effectively invulnerable.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Platform Games]]
127* ''VideoGame/{{Afterimage}}'': The playable character takes damage upon making contact with enemies. However, there are few or specific instances where this is disabled, such as when you read Echoes in the environment.
128* This is rather prominent in ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' and its sequels, even though most enemies have actual attacks and attacking animations. As a matter of fact, in Banjo-Tooie's Terrydactyland level, after becoming a baby t-rex, the bargasaurus enemies won't attack you and you can even talk to them, but, confusingly, they still do contact damage. Another similarly confusing example is that, if you approach Mingy Jongo as any character other than Banjo and Kazooie together and touch him, you will take damage despite the fact that he's '''sleeping'''.
129* In ''VideoGame/BinaryBoy'', you can only get killed through the collision damage of some kind.
130* This happens in the ''VideoGame/BlinxTheTimeSweeper'' series, but it's pretty fairly balanced by the fact that the good targeting system makes it very easy to snipe enemies.
131* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}''. Touch an enemy and you can see Tim [[DeathThrows grimace in pain as he flies off the screen]], though you can also GoombaStomp them [[GoombaSpringboard to jump higher]].
132* The Franchise/{{Castlevania}} franchise:
133** Most games deal damage if enemies are touched: ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'', ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'', ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow''.
134** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', when Alucard first enters the castle, if you fully unequipped your gear, you could use Collision Damage to fly so far back it was possible to skip the room with the Death cutscene and keep all your equipment. This does, however, require a cheat that cuts all stats but Luck (which turns up to 99).
135* If ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' touches an enemy or an environmental hazard, he assumes an agonized facial expression and falls entirely off the screen.
136* In the original ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games this often resulted in a specific death animation. [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 The first game]] had Crash spinning around and falling to the ground, [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack the second]] had Crash turn into an angel, and [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped the third]] would be some comedic sequence that you would always want to watch a second time.
137* ''VideoGame/CrystalCaves'':
138** The game not only uses this, but there are two enemies (a pink snake and a green thing that looks like a jumping cactus) which leave behind corpses when they die, and these corpses still do Collision Damage. In several levels, it is very important that you kill them when they're in exactly the right spot (where you can jump over them) or else they'll block your way, dooming you to take damage.
139** At several points you have boss battles against human characters, and the key to beating them is recognizing that this trope does NOT apply, so you can just run straight past them to dodge their attacks.
140* ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'':
141* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'': In the NES version, you can actually commit suicide nearly the instant you gain control of Mario by running to the left. Mario will die when he touches the oil drum, ''before it's even set on fire''.
142** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': Donkey Kong and his fellow Kongs in the series will typically die if they run into an enemy. This trope can be inverted if you run into them while carrying a barrel, in which case the enemy will be the one to suffer the Collision Damage. In the first game, Diddy carries the barrels out in front of him, while Donkey carries them above his head. If Diddy runs into an enemy head-on or Donkey runs into them from below, they'll lose the barrel but the enemy will die.
143** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' varies it slightly: while everything in the game deals basic collision damage straight-up, there are a few enemies that play an attacking animation when DK or Diddy touches them (such as Tikis biting them).
144* ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' used this trope, which could get really annoying in levels with a ton of jellyfish or sharks all over the place.
145* Averted in ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet''. You'll never take damage from touching enemies, and can run right through them if you so choose. But the enemies often attack fast enough that you still need to be on your toes for them.
146* Almost ''everything'' you touch in ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' will kill you. Even the [[InsistentTerminology apples]].
147* Happens in the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series of games. Simply touching an enemy, even if they're not facing you, gives the same effect as if they were attacking you: a loss of hit points and being knocked back.
148* In ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' touching an enemy will result in a lost heart. In the second title you can slightly avoid this by hitting them with a [[AssKicksYou buttstomp]], an uppercut (Jazz) or a karate dash (Spaz).
149* ''VideoGame/JourneyToSilius'' takes this to its logical conclusion by featuring land mines that don't explode. Touching them just damages you.
150* Ogmo from ''{{VideoGame/Jumper}}'' series is just a suspectable to this as [[SpikesOfDoom getting impaled]], being electrocuted, burned or shot. Deaths by a contact with an enemy (boss or not) are counted as being "bossed".
151* Touching {{Mook}}s in the ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series of games results in ''both'' the player and the enemy taking damage.
152** In ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', Kirby has a "guard" technique to reduce or neutralize damage from attacks, including collision damage. Guarding while bosses are contacting Kirby can cause them to [[DeathOfAThousandCuts slowly take collision damage]] instead. This was {{Nerf}}ed somewhat in the DS remake.
153** In ''VideoGame/KirbysEpicYarn'', collision damage is removed altogether, allowing to ride on enemies and bump into them.
154* The [[ThatOneLevel horrendous ostrich-riding level]] on ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' where you had to jump rocks and duck branches or else have the ostrich stumble and therefore logically cause the lion cub on its back to immediately die. Oh, and if you were jumping ''off'' said ostrich's back at the time, the stumble would mean that you touched the ground. And died. Not a good sign, considering you're meant to grow up to be king of this, and the ground is lethal.
155* Be careful when playing ''VideoGame/LyleInCubeSector'', you can easily damage yourself with your own cubes. Wait for them to stop moving.
156* This is a staple element of the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series. Since gameplay of the series is based on shooting enemies, physical contact with enemies is strongly discouraged.
157** In the original ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'', smaller bosses like Ice Man and Cut Man would also take collision damage if they touched you (they even got pushed back), while larger ones like Guts Man didn't.
158** This is one of the main reasons why ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'''s Top Man's weapon is the worst in ''Mega Man'' history in the eyes of many fans. You couldn't get close enough to damage enemies with it without them damaging you also, unless the attack kills the enemy.
159** This also made Spark Shot useless. It stuns enemies in an electric field, but you still take collision damage if you touch them. Too bad, since if you didn't the weapon would be a GameBreaker since you could one-shot every difficult enemy and just run past.
160** The best strategy for winning the Quick Man rematch in ''3'' meant actively trying to get hit by his boomerangs -- which did only minor damage -- so that the resulting MercyInvincibility would protect you from the inevitable collision damage from an enemy much faster than you that would otherwise kill you in 2-3 hits.
161** ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'' allows you to play as the Robot Masters after unlocking them. When you do so, a Wily-built Mega Man copy serves as a replacement boss for your character. And you take damage when you touch him. Hmm...
162** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'': If an enemy can go to Mega's side of the battlefield, moving onto their panel is going to hurt him, but not the other way around. One such example is Sparky-s in the second game, a.k.a Shakey-s, in the 5th game: They attack by traveling across the battlefield in a wave-like pattern and when Mega is touched, it hurts him.
163* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
164** ''VideoGame/Metroid1'': Every enemy, except for the dragons which try to shoot Samus, Skree which try to explode near Samus and the Metroids who try to latch onto Samus, rely on this. The bosses Ridley, Kraid, Fake Kraid and Mother Brain have projectile attacks but can still cause collision damage.
165** Played straight for every game. Bumping into enemies will damage Samus and even some creatures in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' that just wander about minding their own business can damage Samus by mere contact.
166** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': Ridley's sprite is given almost comically diminutive wings that amazingly still provide him with the ability to fly, because if they were the proper size, the impact detection for collision damage would make him impossible to get close to without being struck by them.
167** ''Metroid'' is also notable for including the Screw Attack, a permanent upgrade that lets you reverse collision damage back at weak enemies.
168* In ''VideoGame/Miner2049er'', the justification for the mutant organisms being harmful to touch was that they had absorbed a high level of radiation in the mine.
169* In ''VideoGame/NinjaSenki'', your character is the only ninja in the game unable to deal collision damage. All other ninjas will gleefully damage you on touch, and all their non-ninja allies can do the same.
170* ''VideoGame/SecretAgent'' employed this. A cute fact: the ceiling fans look meaningless decorations, but will deal Collision Damage when jumped into.
171* In ''VideoGame/BartSimpsonsEscapeFromCampDeadly'', touching the escaped lunatic instantly kills you even though he's tied up. Also, in one cave there's a skull you have to shoot to turn it into a 1-up. If you instead touch the skull, you die.
172* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' reverses the equation and smashes through enemies when he's spinning, as long as that enemy doesn't have spikes pointed directly at him for him to run into and take damage from instead.
173** The Sonic Boost move introduced in ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' and brought to glory in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' is a more precise example. Sonic's spin needs to watch the spiky bits of enemies, but the Boost goes straight through every unguarded enemy.
174** The older Sonic games also play this straight, however, to the point that the final boss in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' will kill you if it steps on the very tip of your toes. Apparently, Sonic's oversized shoes can be fatal if pinched.
175** When you fight [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Knuckles]] ''he'' will take collision damage from ''you'' if he lands on you out of a glide (which makes him helpless in normal gameplay).
176** In ''Shattered Crystal'', however, Sonic and pals don't spin when they jump, and take damage from even the non-shielded enemies on contact. Learn to use the Homing Attack to circumvent this issue.
177** In ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' even touching the completely ordinary humans causes damage.
178* This trope is prevalent in all of the ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' games, ''VideoGame/Shantae2002'', ''VideoGame/ShantaeRiskysRevenge'', ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'' and one of the few modern games to play it completely straight. Monsters can hurt the player character on contact, while most of the time it's Shantae herself, but also the other playable characters as well (Like Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops in the "Friends To The End" mode in ''Half-Genie Hero''.
179** In ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'', naturally if you touch the body of the evil Risky Boots during your boss battle with her, she will damage you. However, in the [[VillainEpisode "Pirate Queen's Quest"]] [[DownloadableContent DLC]] for the game you [[VillainProtagonist play as the villain]] Risky Boots as she goes on a PerspectiveFlip quest to achieve her wicked goal. You battle the bosses from the main game, but when you get to the point in the game where you would normally face Risky Boots, you battle [[HeroAntagonist Shantae]] instead. In this scenario ''touching'' Shantae when controlling Risky Boots causes damage to Risky, which is [[{{Irony}} the exact opposite]] of what happens in the main game. Hero or Bad guy, damage from touching enemies doesn't discriminate.
180** ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndTheSevenSirens'': The Crystal Crab Monster Card gives Shantae the ability to break jugs by walking into them, instead of using an attack to damage and break them instead.
181* In ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', even the lowliest [[TheGoomba Goomba]] could kill you by running into you. Getting hit with a power-up active cost you the power-up but let you keep going. And the [[InvincibilityPowerUp Super Star]] powerup lets you turn the tables.
182** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', there was the stop watch item that can be obtained after grabbing five ripe vegetables, which [[TimeStandsStill stops all the enemy action]] around Mario and friends. However the enemies can still damage them on touch, so don't get reckless.
183** In ''VideoGame/WarioLand'', Wario can stun or kill most enemies just by bumping into them, without harming himself. However, most of these enemies either have [[TheSpiny spiky protection]] or carry sharp weapons, which ''do'' harm Wario if he touches them. The trick is to attack them from an unprotected side (usually from behind or below).
184** This is also averted with the character of Nabbit in ''VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU''. Unlike Luigi and the Toads, he takes no damage from any normal enemies, just lava pits and instant kill obstacles, with the side effect of not being able to get power ups (like the enemies from the game). It lets him break many, many levels.
185** This trope is Played with in the Luigi's Mansion games. While the main enemies, the ghosts, don't deal damage to Luigi via direct contact, other enemies, like the spirit balls, mice, bats, crows, and spiders, do.
186** In ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', if a tiny Goomba runs at Mario, he will not take damage but will be knocked back as if he has; the tiny Goomba, on the other hand, will die on contact.
187** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'' adds some justification with new enemy animations such as Goombas biting the player character when they get close. However, it also leans towards the nonsensical with one situation; during your first encounter with Bowser Jr there will be a point during the battle where he will make you gigantic in size, and he will become very small. At this stage of the boss fight he is about as tall as your foot and realistically you should be able to just squash him underneath it. However, if you happen to touch his very tiny body you will still be the one to take damage from him.
188** Hilariously lampshaded in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc59X7xS2ts the Japanese commercial]] for the ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' and Mercedes-Benz cross promotion. A realistically-proportioned, badass-looking Mario steps out of the car and his foot nudges a Goomba, resulting in a panicked look on his face as the classic 8-bit death theme plays.
189** In ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'', the game instructs players to use the walk mechanic to sneak by Calm enemies (always found [[CatchingSomeZs sleeping]]) without waking them up. Unfortunately, collision damage rules still apply to ''sleeping'' enemies, rendering this mechanic [[UselessUsefulStealth useless]].
190** Being based around traditional Mario platform games rather than the turn-based [=RPG=] gameplay of ''[[VideoGame/PaperMario the parent series]]'', ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' has the player characters take damage from touching enemies, with considerable KnockBack.
191* The ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' games (at least the non-Rabbid titles) have this.
192* Played with in some of Creator/{{Taito}}'s older games:
193** In ''VideoGame/TheFairylandStory'', Ptolemy doesn't die if she stays on her enemies' heads (until they jump, anyway) and can actually use them as means of transportation.
194** In ''VideoGame/TheNewZealandStory'', only enemies with spikes could kill the main character by touching him.
195* Happens in the entire ''VideoGame/WonderBoy'' series except ''VideoGame/MonsterWorldIV'', where only enemies that look painful (on fire, for example) hurt to touch.
196* ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'': It applies to some of the enemies too if they collide with different enemies.
197* ''VideoGame/ThetaVsPi7'' both plays this straight and discussed to the point of lampshading. It seems to be automatically in effect with enemies as some sort of rule of the universe [[spoiler: (and disappears if they become allies)]]. Apparently it makes interspecies relationships difficult.
198%% * ''VideoGame/ClarencesBigChance''
199* ''VideoGame/MintyFreshAdventure'': Colgate gets hurt if she touches enemies while time isn't stopped. In the psuedo sequel ''VideoGame/FreshMintyAdventure'', Minty likewise cannot touch enemies without being hurt. Unless she uses mints to [[TastesLikeFriendship subdue]] them first, allowing her to use the enemies as a PowerUpMount instead.
200* In ''VideoGame/MiracleGirls'', the playable characters cannot touch enemies unless they are eating candy.
201* In ''VideoGame/GianaSistersDS'', most of enemies like Red Owls, Jellyfishes, Bugs and Worms hurt Giana by bumping into her.
202* ''VideoGame/{{Muri}}'': Touching an enemy hurts Adowa for one [[HitPoints Energy]] and hurts the enemy as well.
203* In ''VideoGame/RabiRibi'', touching an enemy will make Erina take damage, unless she's in the middle of attacking with her hammer. The Pure Love badge makes Erina immune to collision damage from female bosses (i.e. [[ChromosomeCasting nearly every boss in the game]]), and the Fire Orb allows Erina to inflict collision damage on enemies as well.
204* The ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan'' series, ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan1'' and ''VideoGame/TreasureHunterMan2'': When enemies touch the protagonists, they take damage, but the enemies don't.
205[[/folder]]
206
207[[folder:Puzzle Games]]
208* Delivered by Skulls and Armas in ''VideoGame/AdventuresOfLolo'', but all other enemies either have long-range attacks or just can't kill you (directly, anyway).
209* The help file which accompanied the old (and highly addictive) puzzle game ''VideoGame/ChipsChallenge'' in its Windows incarnation attempted to justify this by describing Chip as ''a fragile fellow''. Fragile indeed, as death-bringing enemies included paramecia, bugs and balls.
210[[/folder]]
211
212[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
213* ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'': Ramming into ships will deal damage to both the ship doing the ramming and the ship being rammed, although the ship being rammed will usually receive more damage. Ramming damage is based on the weight, speed and material of the ship, a larger ship travelling faster will deal more damage than a smaller one travelling slower and Ironclads will deal more and receive less ramming damage than wooden ships of equivalent weight and speed. The Dreadnaught is the best ship in the game at ramming, as it is the largest Ironclad in the game.
214[[/folder]]
215
216[[folder:Role-Playing Games]]
217* ''VideoGame/EternalSenia1'': Enemies can hurt Senia by bumping into her, and vice-versa, but the damage to Senia is mostly negligible.
218* The Ultimate Chimera from ''VideoGame/Mother3'' is a perfect example of this trope. Any small physical contact will result in the player and his cohorts instantaneously being mutilated and killed.
219* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' has this for touching any enemy in battle. Aya will suffer ScratchDamage.
220* Certain enemies in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' like chimeras will cause minor damage if you touch certain parts of their bodies, regardless of the state they're in. However, it's frequently accompanied by bad status effects.
221* The Urchins in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' cause instant death to anyone who touches them, but don't have any actual attacks to speak of.
222* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': Equipping a Gummi Ship with Impact Gummies will make it so that enemies take damage whenever they make contact with your ship.
223* Certain Franchise/{{Pokemon}} can have an ability (like Rough Skin or Iron Barbs) that damages any opponent that attacks it with a direct-contact physical attack, or causing a status such as poison (the Poison Point ability). There’s also the Rocky Helmet held item that causes touch damage from physical attacks.
224* In the downloadable Platform/{{Nintendo 3DS}} game ''Witch and Hero'' and its sequel, both the player character and his enemies take damage when anything collides with them, and they take extra damage when attacked from behind. If the knight lands the killing blow on an enemy, he doesn't take any additional damage from attacking it.
225* Most rare monsters in ''VideoGame/SwordOfMana'' deal one point of damage on contact as a passive ability. The effect also momentarily knocks the affected character flat on their back. This is a trait that regular enemies and even most bosses lack.
226* Earlier ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' games have it both ways: getting hit by enemies causes damage, while damaging them involves making the protagonist, Adol, run into them at an angle.
227[[/folder]]
228
229[[folder:Shoot Em Ups]]
230* ''VideoGame/Action52'' is infamous for having spectacularly bad (and [[HitboxDissonance inconsistent]]) collision damage in its shoot-em-up games, to the point where it is arguably their greatest flaw. In ''Streemerz'', even touching money bags causes damage. In ''Atmos Quake'', the flaky collision detection [[KillScreen makes the last stage impossible to beat]].
231* ''VideoGame/HostileWaters'': Colliding into another ship or sub causes you to die and end your game, even if you have lives left. If you do it to another sub, both you and it sink and you get points, but doing so to a ship causes only you to sink. Colliding into mines only makes you lose one life.
232* ''VideoGame/{{NARC}}'' provides a notable reversal of this trope. You actually get more points for "busting" enemies (by touching them for a couple of seconds) than you do for killing them. However, this doesn't apply to all enemies, such as Joe "Dumpster Man" Rockhed.
233* In some Creator/{{Psikyo}} [[ShootEmUp STGs]], notably the ''VideoGame/{{Strikers 1945}}'' series, collision damage would only make your ship power down a level instead of instantly kill you like a bullet would. Players could abuse this to milk the appearance of targets containing powerups for extra points during boss fights or to [[DynamicDifficulty control the game's rank]].
234* ''VideoGame/{{Syvalion}}'' have your character, a mechanical serpentine dragon, vulnerable to damage just by touching enemies. Which makes boss battles difficult as the arena they're set is within an enclosed square - trying to dodge attacks will have you bumping the ceiling or walls instead.
235* ''VideoGame/TailsSkyPatrol''. Contact with enemies wouldn't kill you; you would simply spin out of control and begin crash-landing, but you could recover with good timing. Contact with a solid surface, though, was instantly fatal. Which is odd, because flying into ceilings or walls - or, God forbid, ''walking'' - doesn't hurt Tails at all in any other game.
236* ''VideoGame/TriggerheartExelica'' will not penalize your life counter if you collide with an enemy ship -- but you lose medals and can possibly alter your score, difficulty, and ending, just as losing a life can.
237* ''VideoGame/MarsMatrix'' not only averts this, but lets you fly over enemies without any harmful effect.
238* ''VideoGame/MagicalChase'': Running into enemies or obstacles will hurt you.
239* ''VideoGame/CubeColossus'': Flying into enemies or enemies bouncing into you will reduce your shields.
240* ''VideoGame/Robotron2084'': In a game that is one big ZergRush, physical contact between the scientist hero with any robotic entities is fatal.
241* ''VideoGame/PrincessRemedy'': If Princess Remedy touches an enemy, she gets hurt, but the enemy gets hurt too.
242[[/folder]]
243
244[[folder:Simulation Games]]
245* In ''SAS Combat Simulator'' on the Platform/AmstradCPC, upon starting the game, you were immediately swarmed by vast numbers of enemy soldiers. Your "SAS Commando" would instantly die if he touched one of them. (The fact that they also shot at you wasn't helpful either). However, part way through the first level, you could get a jeep powerup. Not only was this "jeep" a virtual tank, that made you immune to bullets, the collision-damage was reversed: now enemies died if they ran into you (even if you were stationary). But if you were hit by a grenade (or completed the level), you lost the jeep. This resulted in the most uneven difficulty curve ever seen.
246* This is a common source of player-character injury in ''VideoGame/TheHunterCallOfTheWild'', as animals don't seem to see your character as an obstacle when fleeing and will try to run through them. Luckily, most animals in the game can't kill you this way. At least, not with one hit.
247[[/folder]]
248
249[[folder:Survival Horror]]
250* In ''VideoGame/DarkEcho'', one touch from an enemy [[OneHitWonder is enough to kill the player]].
251* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', coming into direct contact with the FinalBoss spells instant death by PsychicAssistedSuicide. Fortunately, that boss moves very slowly. Unfortunately, it's a FlunkyBoss who can FlashStep to within a few meters of Isaac if he gets too far away.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:Non-Video Games]]
255* After a brainstorming session with Naruto in ''Fanfic/ADropOfPoison'', Sabaku no Gaara finds a way to improve his taijutsu: he creates [[ThisIsADrill spinning sand gauntlets]] around both arms, capable of disintegrating rocks on contact. Melee fighting was his biggest weakness before, but he's now extremely dangerous to approach.
256* Referenced in the {{sprite|Comic}}/PixelArtComic ''Webcomic/KidRadd''; all enemy sprites have a power called the "Touch of Death". What happens when you bring the Touch of Death into a fighting game? Hilarity ensues.
257* In the "Denryu [=IraIraBou=]" game from the Japanese GameShow ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honoo no Challenger'', the player's objective is to guide a rod through a maze, and touching the [[DeadlyWalls walls]] or anything else within the maze gives an electric shock. Not surprisingly, there are many video games adapted from this (though they don't give players actual electric shocks). The game was in turn adapted from the "wire loop" carnival game, where the player has to guide a loop through a twisting and turning length of wire. Once again, no electric shocks, but touching the wire closes an electrical circuit, which triggers either a light or a buzzer.
258* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Jackal's]] [[HavingABlast Bomb Curse]] can turn anything that physically touches him [[ActionBomb into a bomb]] that explodes violently, which simulates this pretty well if he takes the time to strike something and turn it into a delayed bomb. Natsu gets to witness this firsthand after pounding Jackal's face in something fierce in their first fight, though he figures out a way to neutralize the explosions.
259* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', merely bumping into a [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Pillar Man]] can be fatal, as [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Mark]] finds out.
260* ''WebVideo/TheLonelyGoomba'' was asked in a Q&A video how he can lift things when he has no hands and he replies that [[TheGoomba Goombas]] are telekinetic and it's their telekinesis that kills [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] when he walks into them.
261[[/folder]]

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