Line #64 Main/DeathThrows


1	[[quoteright:192:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DeathThrow_3461.png]] ]]
2	[[caption-width-right:192:[[EpicFail Whoops!]] ]]
3
4	->'''Mario:''' Wait, Wario... What was-a death like?\
5	'''Ghost of Wario:''' Well... You sorta jump up in the air and the music goes, "Do do do-do do do do do do-do."
6	-->-- ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'', [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/mkc2/ "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol, Part 2"]]
7
8	A death animation common to 2-dimensional {{Platform Game}}s especially during the [[MediaNotes/The8bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 8-bit]] and [[MediaNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 16-bit]] eras; in which the dying character flies into the air before falling off screen, often in a "sitting" spread-out contorted pose. This may happen to enemies as well.
9
10	The TropeCodifier is ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
11
12	Compare WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath.
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15
16	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' is the TropeCodifier (pictured above).
17	** The TropeMaker is Mario's second game: ''VideoGame/MarioBros'', and the UrExample was ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior''.
18	** This is lampshaded in a live-action parody on Website/YouTube ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBGRA6HHtY HERE]]) where the characters are in the real world and super-sized Mario is shot to death by a cop. He is thrown off-screen in the classic manner, leaving the cop wondering what the hell just happened.
19	** Happens to the villains too, at least in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' games and first ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' spinoff. In many cases, they actually plummet off screen head first with the comedy sound of someone falling off a cliff.
20	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'': The fireball has his effect on enemies.
21	** Taken even further in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioFusionRevival'', where the bird boss from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' dies by spinning around like a lunatic as it falls off the screen, complete with the same comedic falling sound. You can see the... odd effect in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-cR5hpCqKY this video.]]
22	** Happens to mooks (their sprites are flipped upside down) if they're hit by a fireball (except in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''), vegetable, raccoon tail, starman, cape...
23	** After a long while, this returns in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', now while Mario is flipped upside down.
24	** Also makes a return in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', which is remarkable because they're the first 3D Mario games to apply this trope.
25	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' also does this if you die by losing all your health, making it the first sandbox-style entry in the series to do this--also note that Mario will always be thrown out of whatever enemy he's Captured if he loses his last hit point in such a scenario, so it's not like the enemies have their own death animations. Bowser is an exception, however, as he's the only enemy Mario isn't thrown out of upon dying. If Mario freezes to death, however, he won't be thrown.
26	** In the ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' series games, while Yoshi would normally lose lives by having Baby Mario taken away from him, falling onto SpikesOfDoom will simply result in him spinning out and collapsing, but if he falls into a pit of lava, he will die this way.
27	* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' naturally does this since the prototype of his game's engine was a "Copyright Infringement" knockoff of ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. He bounces off anything else that would kill him during the animation, so if there are a lot of enemies on screen he can bounce around for a while before finally falling off the screen.
28	** There's a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] where, in the later games, saving and reloading during the death throw causes the death flag to be reset but the throw state to be kept - you then fly in an uncontrolled fashion through walls and, if you touch the edge of the level, finish it instantly.
29	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' does this in all the 2D games, including the TwoAndAHalfD ones like ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' and the classic half of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', though his legs are usually spread out each time.
30	* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': Defeated enemies do this. It only happens to the player characters if they've transformed into an animal buddy.
31	** This applies to the Kongs in "VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns" and "VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze" in a rare example of JustifiedExtraLives; the [=1UP=] balloons you collect allows them to float back up to the stage after being subject to this trope.
32	* ''VideoGame/KidIcarus1986'': The instant Pit takes his last hit, he jumps off the stage, and the Game Over screen reads: "I'M FINISHED!"
33	* Franchise/{{Kirby}} does this whenever he dies, [[SpectacularSpinning while spinning]].
34	** While playing as Meta Knight in ''Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land'' and ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', his body explodes and his mask remains behind to fall offscreen in this fashion. Starting with ''Return to Dream Land'', he adopts the same pose Kirby does in these circumstances.
35	** Averted in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' due to it being [[TwoAndAHalfD partially 3D]]; in that game Kirby just spins around before collapsing. A similar animation was also used for ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand''.
36	** Also averted in ''VideoGame/KirbyMassAttack''. Whenever a Kirby is killed, it turns into an angel and attempts to fly away. Quick players can order one of their remaining Kirbies to grab them and slam them on the ground returning them to the land of the living albeit at only one HP.
37	* Whenever the [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Road Runner]] dies in ''VideoGame/RoadRunnersDeathValleyRally'', he turns upside-down with a shocked expression on his face and falls off the screen.
38	** Ditto for the [[WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck Daffy]] [[WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury Duck]] game ''VideoGame/DaffyDuckTheMarvinMissions''. Both games were made by Creator/{{Sunsoft}}.
39	* ''[[VideoGame/BubbleBobble Parasol Stars]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/BubbleBobble Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES)]]'' while [[SpectacularSpinning spinning out.]]
40	** This happens in the North American and Japanese NES versions of ''VideoGame/RainbowIslands''. In contrast, the arcade version has the character hitting the platform he was shot off of and fall backwards from the impact. Others just make him hit midair and fall backwards.
41	* This only occurs with two kinds of death in ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'': falling onto SpikesOfDoom (or other pointy objects like knives or wooden spike traps) and being crushed. Both result in Sackboy jumping forward one gameplay layer (if in the front layer, then out of the gameplay area) before falling out of reality. It gets even more ridiculous with the crushing animation, because he may leap ''right through'' the material that crushed him, and even fall right through the floor. Other kinds of death (electricity, Impact Explosives, etc.) have the expected means of death instead of this. (Electricity causes Sackboy to visibly ''pop'' in the [=PS3=] game, and nothing is shown in the [=PSP=] game before the screen moves back.)
42	* ''VideoGame/PrehistorikMan'' has this. Interestingly, the way drowning is handled ''changes'' late in the game: Initially the character is thrown when he hits the bottom (once you've hit the surface you can't swim or jump out anyway), but after being told water makes you drown, the death animation is changed to drowning.
43	* ''VideoGame/SecretAgent'' leaps off the screen while waving his hands and eyes madly as if he had an epileptic fit.
44	* This is how the deaths of the main character and enemies are handled in ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'', [[spoiler:at least before everting [[LudicrousGibs past X-5]]]].
45	* This is Ogmo's only death animation in ''VideoGame/{{Jumper}}'' games, oddly accompanied by gunshot sound. ''Jumper Three'' replaces gunshot sound with dead Ogmo [[StuffBlowingUp exploding shortly after death]].
46	* In ''VideoGame/{{Frogger}} 2: Swampy's Revenge'' (the sequel to ''Frogger 3D''), the player character gets thrown and smacked against the screen when hit by an enemy whilst on its last life.
47	* Happens in ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' to the OneHitPointWonder protagonist; however, the twist is that just before he falls off the bottom of the screen, the action freezes and you're prompted to press Shift and rewind the action to a point before you died.
48	* Inverted in two ways in ''VideoGame/MischiefMakers''; Marina throws things to take out enemies and her throwing enemies is itself is usually fatal.
49	* In ''Videogame/TheCavernsOfHammerfest'' the main character, a snowman, is knocked off to the bottom of the screen whenever he is hit by something.
50	* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheWizard'', every enemy except the FinalBoss does this when defeated.
51	* The Famicom version of ''[[VideoGame/NutsAndMilk Nuts & Milk]]'' did this with both player and enemies. This was one of those games where reaching the LevelGoal killed all enemies, so every enemy would take a flying dive into the water at the bottom of the screen.
52	* VideoGame/AlexKidd and VideoGame/WonderBoy1 starting with ''[[VideoGame/WonderBoyInMonsterLand Monster Land]]'' float off the screen upon death.
53	* In ''VideoGame/{{Crystal Castles\|1983}}'', when Bentley runs into an enemy, he gives off a speech bubble saying "OH NO" or something similar and flies off the top of the screen.
54	* ''VideoGame/DisneysMagicalQuest'' has the player characters (Mickey, Minnie or Donald) fall off the screen when losing a life. With a different animation depending on the costume they are wearing.
55	* Things get thrown offscreen in ''VideoGame/HomeAlone2LostInNewYorkSNES'' on the [=NES=] and [=SNES=] upon defeat.
56	** On the Game Boy version, enemies drift offscreen when defeated.
57	* ''VideoGame/BalloonKid'' features this if Alice gets hit by a stronger enemy or certain objects (i.e. bears, walruses, spikes, fires, struck by falling stalactites, sparks, getting crushed, etc.) And she spins upon defeat.
58	* The ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}'' series actually averts this, where the OneHitPointWonder characters would get blown backwards and land dead on their back when harmed. All except one-- [[RobotBuddy Browny]] in ''Contra: Hard Corps'' dies this way, "jumping" then falling off the screen with his machinery sparking.
59	* In the arcade version of ''Franchise/DonkeyKong Jr.'', if the title character died, his eyes would bug out and he would fall out of the stage. The latter detail was not preserved in the NES version.
60	* ''VideoGame/{{Amagon}}'' does this turning towards the screen and throwing his hands up, Mario-style.
61	* In ''VideoGame/LittleNemoTheDreamMaster'', when Nemo loses the last segment of his life bar, he starts spinning around repeatedly and drops off the screen after a few seconds.
62	* Happens in the little-known SNES game ''VideoGame/SkuljaggerRevoltOfTheWesticans''. However, enemies will continue to [[BeatingADeadPlayer attack the spot where Storm took the fatal hit]].
63	* Amusingly enough, this is how the little human enemies die when killed by your MiniMecha in ''VideoGame/AssaultSuitsValken''. [[MechaMooks Everything else]] explodes.
64	* In ''VideoGame/AtlantisNoNazo'', getting hit by anything will make you fall off the stage unless you fall into one of the game's many secret warps.
65	* In ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions'', [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] does this instead of [[LiterallyShatteredLives falling apart]] like every other character when he gets defeated.
66	* In the arcade version of ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime'', it was possible for the turtles to throw enemies in such a way that they would come flying directly at the player, hit the monitor glass, and slide off the screen.
67	* ''VideoGame/KidNikiRadicalNinja'' loves this trope. Other than the bosses, every character gets a death throw. Enemies hit by Kid Niki's sword tumble high into the air and disappear through the top of the screen, and when Kid Niki himself gets hit by an enemy, he goes into a rapid somersault and falls off the bottom of the screen.
68	* Happens in ''[[VideoGame/OneThousandAndOneSpikes 1001 Spikes]]''. Variants on it involve your character having a burnt sprite if killed by fire, or purple if poisoned. Amusingly, if you die to something else, THEN get touched by fire during the Death Throw, your flailing body still becomes charred.
69	* During the BossRush of ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', the re-defeated members of the Order of No Quarter are thrown off the screen. [[spoiler: After the fighting is over, it shows them hanging from each other in a ChainOfPeople.]]
70	* In ''VideoGame/RickDangerous'', both Rick and the enemies die facing the screen, flailing their arms as they drop off. The humorous "Waaaah!" sound that normally accompanies this was [[http://www.simonphipps.com/design/rickdangerous.htm provided by the game's designer Simon Phipps]].
71	* In ''VideoGame/{{Ponpoko}}'', contact with anything harmful causes Ponpoko to plummet to the bottom of the screen and land on his head.
72	* Most characters just collapse to the floor when defeated in ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'', but defeating Spade in Sky Battalion causes him to get flung off in this way.
73	* Run the clock out in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLegends'' and watch as poor Sonia Belmont gets ejected off the screen, Mario-style.
74	* While the titular ''VideoGame/{{Bug\|1995}}'' doesn't die this way, the yeti boss of [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Burrubs]] does, by falling off the terrain in a flailing pose. The horned lizard boss of [[ShiftingSandLand Reptilia]] also drops off the scene flailing when defeated.
75	* Happens to Fix-It Felix Jr. if he dies in the Flash version of ''Fix-It Felix Jr.'' In the original, however, his death animation resembles Mario's from ''Donkey Kong''.
76	* This is what happens following a knockout of any character in ''VideoGame/LethalLeague'' and ''Lethal League Blaze''.
77	* Happens for most characters in ''VideoGame/{{Claw}}'', unless they are killed from spikes, liquids or falling.
78	* ''VideoGame/GianaSistersDS'' has the main character get thrown off the screen towards the camera when losing a life.
79	* ''[[VideoGame/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeriesSpooked Sabrina: Spooked!]]'' has Sabrina fall off the screen while [[SpectacularSpinning spinning]] ala ''Kirby'', whenever she loses a life.
80	* ''VideoGame/SailorMoonSGameGear'': Falling into a bottomless pit results in your player character (Usagi or Chibiusa) doing this. Usagi/Sailor Moon even gets a SweatDrop while she falls off the screen.
81	* ''VideoGame/{{Smashroom}}'': If [[PlayerCharacter Smashroom]] runs out of health, he curls up, and then jumps off the level.
82	* ''VideoGame/{{Lizard}}'': If the PlayerCharacter touches an enemy, they will turn into a skeleton and jump off the screen.
83	* ''VideoGame/PankyThePanda'': [[PlayerCharacter Panky]] falls off the screen if he's touched by an enemy/hazard.
84	* ''VideoGame/GhoulGrindNightOfTheNecromancer'': Interestingly, the trope applies to the enemies in this game. They all jump into the air upon defeat.
85	* ''VideoGame/NebsNDebs'': Get touched by an enemy or hazard, and [[PlayerCharacter Debs]] jump up, then down off the screen.
86	* ''VideoGame/SydneyHunterAndTheCurseOfTheMayan'': If [[PlayerCharacter Sydney]] loses all his health, he assumes the usual position, then falls off the screen.
87	* ''VideoGame/VentureKid'': Whenever [[PlayerCharacter Andy]] loses a life, he kind of jumps off the screen while upside-down, [[WingdingEyes with his eyes turned into Xs]].
88	* In ''VideoGame/VengefulGuardianMoonrider'', you can knock human enemies off the screen or [[LudicrousGibs gib]] them. Mechanical enemies explode upon defeat instead.
89	* ''Videogame/PizzaTower's'' Peppino Spaghetti inflicts this on enemies when [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming them]] at high enough speeds, even the massive Pillar Johns. [[BigBad Pizzaface]] turns the tables should he catch Peppino if the latter takes too long during [[CollapsingLair Pizza Time]], crushing him underneath a giant 'TIME'S UP' and sending him flying. This also happens in the intro when Peppino bulldozes through Gustavo.
90	* In ''VideoGame/AntonballDeluxe'', letting the ball go out of bounds in ''Antonball'', falling into a pit, or touching a Ballbuster makes the player jump off the screen.

Context Main / DeathThrows