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[[quoteright:250:[[VideoGame/MegaMan4 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mega_Man_4_boss_1256.gif]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Can you ''please'' stop punching holes in the flooring!?]]

->''"You must fight your way through without falling off any of the crumbling platforms. Shooting about carelessly is not advised. Taking fire can also be very dangerous. Watch your step and try to remember the locations of the sturdy crates."''
-->-- '''C.Q. Cumber''', ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion''

So you're at the boss, and his weapon doesn't seem that efficient. The last guy you fought had a giant magma cannon, and this guy merely has a hammer that swings so slowly even a ''turtle'' could dodge it in its sleep. WHAM! Ha ha, you missed!

But wait a minute — did that part of the floor just ''crumble away'' and reveal a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} underneath it? And did the boss just do that attack ''again''? Argh! Forget your HP meter, if he takes out the ''floor'', you're history!

This is a SubTrope of the TimeLimitBoss, in which there doesn't need to be any ''actual timer'' counting down to zero — the time limit is measured implicitly, e.g. by how much of the arena remains that the boss hasn't destroyed yet. The more damage he causes, the less room the player has to work with, and if it drags on long enough the player will inevitably fall off the arena entirely and lose the battle anyway. (If there ''is'' an [[TimedMission actual timer]] presented, it is basically irrelevant, as chances are the boss will have finished destroying the arena long before the time in question has expired.)

The difficulty of these bosses is [[UnstableEquilibrium directly proportional]] to how long it takes to defeat them: If you've played the game repeatedly or are quick enough to get a few attacks in early, the boss is hardly a challenge; but if the fight drags on for a long time, he'll become a nightmare to defeat — if it's [[{{Unwinnable}} still possible to defeat him at all]].

The boss may either execute his arena-smashing attack at regular intervals (making the time limit easy to measure) or choose to [[AIRoulette execute it randomly]] (in which case the battle could end quickly or last forever, depending on the RandomNumberGod). For a real LuckBasedMission, try taking on a TacticalSuicideBoss that attacks randomly and isn't vulnerable while they're smashing the arena.

Sometimes the player will have to perform some measure of planning and strategy to beat this boss, to prevent the situation from becoming completely hopeless. For example, the player may be able to direct the boss's attacks to a specific portion of the arena that has been previously destroyed, as a way to protect the intact portions from further damage, extending the amount of time available.

Note that many bosses will become progressively tougher and switch to stronger attacks as the battle wears on; while this trope may overlap, this isn't always the case. For example, if this progression only occurs after inflicting specific amounts of damage, then this is simply because the boss TurnsRed; this trope occurs if this progression takes place ''independently'' of the player's actions.

Compare TimeLimitBoss, StalkedByTheBell, and IncreasinglyLethalEnemy. Contrast BossArenaIdiocy, RingOutBoss, and its close cousin HoistByHisOwnPetard.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Action Game]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Apocalypse}}'' have at least two of the four HorsemenOfTheApocalypse. Plague's final phase has her trapping you on a wide platform and pursuing you, leaving behind an acidic puddle everywhere she goes, and you'll need to defeat her before running out of space. There's also War, who turns into an AdvancingBossOfDoom with a dead end; you must kill it before reaching end of the path.
* In ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'', when you bring the final boss [[OneWingedAngel Nova's]] HP down to one-third, he uses a super attack that causes a meteor to come down directly above you, [[DescendingCeiling lowering your room to maneuver]]. If you touch it by taking too long to win the fight or jumping into it, [[OneHitKill you die instantly]], and have to fight the boss' previous form all over again.
* In the NES ''[[VideoGame/MissionImpossible1990 Mission Impossible]]'' game, there's a boss in a room full of tiles that crumble to nothing the longer the player stands over them, so you need to move constantly. The kick though is if you happen to crumble away a perimeter of tiles, everything in between them also crumbles. This includes ''walking around the entire room''. Although if you can make a perimeter around the boss while he's inside it, it's an instant win.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'': Some of the larger enemies wield giant pickaxes that they attempt to hit you with. Sometimes they'll show up in the more unstable areas and take out chunks of the floor with each hit. They have low enough health that it's rare for them to take out an entire fighting space, but those holes they punch make it much harder for you to move around when you're being swarmed by smaller enemies. Most of whom can hover right over the holes no problem.
* In ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin: Defender of the Future'', the final boss is the alien queen's [[WombLevel heart]]. During the fight, blood rises from the bottom. If you don't defeat it quickly, Ecco will drown in the blood. [[JustifiedTrope Which makes sense]], because blood doesn't have air in it, and dolphins, [[TruthInTelevision being mammals, cannot breathe in any liquid whatsoever]].
* ''VideoGame/FroggersJourneyTheForgottenRelic'': As the bear causes more earthquakes during his boss battle, more of the ground will crumble away and cover the arena in bottomless pits. If Frogger falls down any, he will have to start the battle over from the beginning.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': The fight against Ganondorf takes place in the top room of a tower, with Ganon in the middle and you standing on platforms along the edge. One of his attacks will knock some of the platforms down, but the platforms in the corners are permanent. Downplayed, in that falling off simply sends you to the ground below from which you can climb back up.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges'' has the second miniboss do this: it flies around and tries to GroundPound you, knocking tiles out wherever it lands. However, it's not that hard to defeat him, and there's a border of unbreakable tiles.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action RPG]]
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter4'': Say hello to Dalamadur, the only boss in the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series to destroy the arena you are fighting him in to limit your movement. In this series, that is a ''very'' bad thing.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'', Dran, the first boss, will destroy sections of the floor whenever he uses his fire-breath attack. However, the ring of different-colored stone and thin paths within the inner circle are permanent, preventing an {{Unwinnable}} situation. If Toan or Xiao falls into the pits, they suffer heavy damage.
* A common tactic used by endgame bosses in ''VideoGame/PathOfExile''. Many of them have some auxiliary attack that leaves behind an area that deals significant damage over time, and you need to prevent it or at least lure them away or have them overlap with each other. It's particularly nasty with the Shaper, where you have to avoid detonating a volatile orb over the safe zone for his BulletHell attack at all costs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'':
** ''VideoGame/YsIAncientYsVanishedOmen'', every time you hit Dark Fact, a piece of the platform drops out. If you're standing on said piece, you die instantly. If you aren't leveled up enough (in the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 version, that is; in others you'll already be at the {{cap}}), you'll end up with too many holes and become trapped and killed.
** ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'': Ud-Meiyu's common attack is a jumping stomp. This stomp knocks out the floor panels over the deadly lava under the arena.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Adventure]]
* In ''VideoGame/ReturnToZork'', a board-game makes up one of the puzzles. There's two characters: the wizard, who can only move as a knight does (two vertical and one horizontal, or two horizontal and one vertical) and the space that it moves from vanishes. The other character (Cannook) can move to any spot on the board, and attempts to prevent the wizard from moving. If the wizard can't move and there's still more than two spaces (on which the characters are standing), then Cannook wins (as the wizard cannot move). If the Wizard has made all but two of the spaces disappear, the wizard wins (as Cannook cannot move). The first time you play the game, you play as Cannook, and it's startlingly easy to win. The second time you play, you're playing as the wizard, and the difficulty spikes ''very hard''.
** Unless you learn that the wizard can skip a turn, which turns the games into figuring a path that takes you to every spot on the board and skipping whenever Cannook is standing on the spot you need to move to.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Arcade]]
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/SnowBros'' arcade is a very interesting example. There are two giant stone heads on each side of the screen, a small platform surrounded by flames in the middle, and a descending ceiling full of spikes right above that. The heads continuously blow bubbles which can have enemies or power-ups inside, and these pop if they touch the spikes. The player has very little space to move, and the more the ceiling goes down, the faster the enemies can get him… of course, this also means that he can throw many more snowballed enemies at the heads, but he is forced to think and act much more frantically.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Beat Em Up]]
* In the NES version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon II'', the rematch with Burnov in Mission 8 takes place on a floor over SpikesOfDoom that slowly disappears piece by piece.
* The final boss in ''VideoGame/{{Shatterhand}}'' (NES) has a move that breaks away part of the floor, turning it into fire. It isn't an InstantKill, but it does constant damage and you recoil from hits, thus making it part of this trope.
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' games:
** In ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBusterBustsLoose Buster Busts Loose]]'', during the battle with Dizzy Devil in the Acme Looniversity cafeteria, Dizzy's basic attack is spinning through the conveyor belts, which makes the task of [[FeedItABomb feeding him to the point of making him fall asleep]] more challenging.
** During the first battle with Montana Max in ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure Buster's Hidden Treasure]]'', Monty will destroy parts of the floor while riding a geyser and tossing octopi.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fighting]]
* In ''VideoGame/IndiePogo'', the game’s final boss is [[VideoGame/{{Nefarious}} Crow]], whom you fight on the deck of his airship. When attacking you, Crow will occasionally slam down on the deck. The deck will also sustain damage if one of Crow’s bombs hits it. If he does this enough, the floor beneath will break to reveal electrical wiring. You have to beat him before he smashes too much of the deck and makes it impossible for you to stand on it. And just in case you’re wondering, no, the electricity doesn’t hurt him, it just hurts you.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]
* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' game ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]'' uses this in the final duel. Jerec must be defeated before the two statues at the edge of the valley reach the center, or he becomes too powerful.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game]]
* In ''Chains of Promathia'', the second expansion of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', you have the fight against Diabolos. In addition to the standard time limit for any boss fight, you also have to contend with a floor that falls away, except for a number of panels that never do. The pit below isn't bottomless, it's simply filled with giant spiders.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' often features this trope as a form of "soft enrage"[[note]]Unlike a "hard enrage", in which a boss is able to OneHitKill players or instantly wipe the raid after a certain amount of time, "soft enrages" generally don't feature strict time limits. Another variant involves gradually increasing damage that can't be healed through; how long you have depends on your healers' gear, skill, and mana levels[[/note]] that applies a time limit to the boss.
** Professor Putricide in Icecrown Citadel in the 3rd phase of the fight. The room slowly fills with poisonous slime, reducing the amount of space there is to move around.
** The Lich King had something similar in his second and third phases. His Defile ability created pools of corruption that would get larger the longer people stayed in them.
** And from the ''Cataclysm'' expansion: Commander Ulthok in the heroic dungeon Throne of the Tides creates permanent growing void zones on the floor that must be avoided. Groups with low damage will eventually find themselves with nowhere to stand.
** Also from ''Cataclysm'', [[OptionalBoss Sinestra]] summons adds that, when killed, will create voidzones. Any add that is killed in a voidzone will be revived.
** ''Mists of Pandaria'' brought us Jin'Rokh the Breaker, who would target one-quarter of the arena he stands in and fill it with electrified water. Players would then have to move to a clear section of the floor to continue the fight. (Especially annoying if he charges two opposite quarters rather than consecutive ones…)
** ''Warlords of Draenor'' had Blackhand. In the first phase, there was a gradually encroaching ring of molten metal, while in the third phase, there were craters left behind by the slag bombs he put on players.
** Also from ''Warlords'', there's Xhul'horac. Various abilities can create green fel flames and purple void pools that cover the arena. Not only do these abilities cause damage on their own, but if the green and purple areas touch, they will cause an explosion that severely damages the players and clears some of the voidzones.
** In ''Legion'', the second part of the Fallen Avatar fight has the players fighting the Avatar on a rocky platform over a pool of fel lava. The Avatar will use Rupture Reality to destroy parts of the floor until it dies, or until the raid runs out of room and dies in the lava. A key part of this fight is positioning the Avatar so that it destroys small pieces of the platform at a time.
** In ''Battle for Azeroth'' Greed targets players with a debuff that causes them to drop puddles of damaging gold when it ends. These puddles are permanent and spawn throughout the final phase, eventually completely covering the platform if placed incorrectly.
** Also from ''Battle'' is Lady Ashvane on Mythic difficult. She performs a slam ability which leaves a circle of razor sharp coral which damages anyone standing in it. On lower difficulties the patch fades, but on Mythic it persists and gradually cuts down on available safe space.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''
** The final boss fight of the ''Stormblood'' expansion, Shinryu. While initially, the arena is quite safe to stand on, once the boss starts his second phase, he pulls the players onto an entirely ''new'' arena of three-by-three squares. While the middle square is indestructible, any of the other squares hit twice by his tail-slap (which hits ''two'' squares) will be destroyed. Two problems arise from this; firstly, it's entirely random where Shinryu will decide to strike with his tail, meaning you can have two entirely fresh sections take damage, one take damage and one crumble, or both crumble; ''and'' the fact that a great many of his attacks have a very wide range, meaning that occasionally, dodging can become outright impossible. To make matters worse, one of his attacks has a radius ''much'' wider than a single square, and is a knockback, fully capable of sending the party falling to their doom.
** The final dungeon boss of ''Shadowbringers'', an EldritchAbomination called Therion, has an ultimate WaveMotionGun attack that covers the entire arena except some tiny little outcrops on the edge. However, every time it executes this attack, one of those outcrops shatters and falls into the abyss, and if you take too long to kill it, you can run out of them. This is made worse by the boss [[AdvancingBossOfDoom charging forward after the first two uses of that attack]] — while it won't go so far as to push you off the back edge, it still means you lose hiding places faster than you normally would.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'':
** The fight against Dread Master Tyrans in "Dread Palace" takes place on a suspended platform. He has an attack called "Simplification" that puts a debuff on a PlayerCharacter, which when it expires, causes the floor tile under their feet to disappear after a few seconds. You need to run this away from the party before it expires, and then get off the tile before it disappears. If you fall off, you'll take some FallingDamage that may be enough to kill you.
** Soa in "Eternity Vault" causes the floor to collapse twice, each time creating a platforming puzzle to follow him down to the next stage of the boss battle. If you miss the next platform, or if one of them falls out from under you, the FallingDamage is guaranteed to kill you.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Platform Game]]
* The first boss of ''Amazing Princess Sarah'' destroys a floor every three attacks, and the last floor is over a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}.
* In the 3rd ''VideoGame/ApeEscape'' game's true FinalBoss, Specter does this to you, passively. Why? To have you drop out of your super form.
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/BeardBlade'' when you battle Titan Din, a lava Krakken. Titan Din attacks by destroying the stone platforms in the area trying to make you fall in lava, but each time you damage him, a new platform appears so you can jump on. The entire boss battle have you trying to damage it before it destroys too many platforms.
* ''VideoGame/CurseCrackersForWhomTheBelleToils'':
** One of the bosses in the [[BrutalBonusLevel Cursed Book]] will keep destroying the blocks on top of a Malice-covered floor, which will instantly kill you if you touch it, urging you to defeat it before you no longer have a safe place to stand.
** The post-game quest has a second boss fight against [[spoiler:Leer, but this time you're playing as Bonnie]]. It takes place in a room with a platform surrounded by lava that [[spoiler:Leer]] will keep destroying parts of, and you have to defeat her before the whole floor is gone.
* Midway through the second fight against Dogadon in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', he throws a tissyfit and stamps repeatedly on the platform you're fighting on. In response, it starts to sink into the lava. If you're too slow to finish the battle, you're toast. Literally.
* In ''VideoGame/EpicMickeyPowerOfIllusion'', during the battle with [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Jafar]], Jafar will use his snake form to destroy platforms held by Genie hands. This example is slightly subverted, considering it is a Nintendo 3DS game where you can re-draw the hands to make the platforms re-appear.
* ''Franchise/MegaMan'' examples:
** In ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'', one of the attacks from Mothraya is to punch holes in the floor using its spike. Though it won't destroy the entire flooring, the added threat of BottomlessPits certainly will not make the battle any easier.
** ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'' apparently thought we missed this gimmick and combined it with perennial ThatOneBoss the Yellow Devil. This game's version, the Block Devil, forms itself out of wall and floor tiles (with nothing below them). It gives back the tiles after a while, only to relocate and repeat the process.
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX2'', when Wheel Gator TurnsRed and starts executing his drill attack, whatever sections of the wall he hits are ground down into damaging spikes, which gradually prevents you from climbing the walls to evade his other attacks.
** In ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]'', there's the mid-boss of Split Mushroom stage, Tentoroid. The player's on a series of platforms over a spike pit where the miniboss resides, and it'll jump up to destroy a platform while exposing itself to harm. Thankfully, it only takes a few charge shots to destroy, but if you're going for a no charge shot run like a certain [[LetsPlay/RoahmMythril dragon]] and his X-series equivalent LetsPlay/{{Kevvl}} do, it's pretty tough to land enough shots before [[SpikesOfDoom spiky]] doom. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fioXsT65Zq0 Kevvl did pull it off, though.]]
** Subverted in ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' against the second Wily Stage boss, Picopico-kun. It only ''appears'' the boss is making holes in the arena, but they're perfectly solid. Interestingly, [[http://shmuplations.com/megaman/ they were going to be real holes]] until the programmer insisted this would make the fight too hard. (Pity he didn't speak up about the Boobeam Trap that required the use of the Crash Bomber...)
* In Creator/{{Taito}}'s ''Panic Restaurant'', the boss of the refrigerator level is a giant evil ice cream who breaks the ice-cube floor with its cone.
* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', the BigBad and FinalBoss Shriek periodically smashes out sections of the arena platform, along with SpikesOfDoom appearing on the edges of the remaining pieces, then destroys what's left once she TurnsRed at 20% HP, turning the fight into a HighAltitudeBattle. Later patches make it possible to defeat her before she completely destroys the platform.
* ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'':
** When Venuncio traps you in a room with the [[EvilLivingFlames Happy Flames of Death]], the platforms will slowly decay, so you have to finish them off before you have nothing to stand on but the lava.
** The FinalBoss shot orbs that turned the floor into spikes. At least you do have an item that allows you to walk on spikes… but it lowered your jump height, leaving you vulnerable to his RocketPunch grab move.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Purple}}'', the final boss will occasionally send down bolts of lightning that destroy the floor.
* In ''Snoopy's Grand Adventure'', during the final battle with the Marble Pianist, whenever the Marble Pianist hits a key, it creates a dust cloud that will hurt Snoopy above that key. However, this is also the method of defeating the Marble Pianist, as hitting the piano key will [[TacticalSuicideBoss also hurt it by making it crack]].
* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has several.
** [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Spring Yard Zone's]] boss has a spike on its base, and one by one removes the bricks that make up the floor of the arena; this continues until you defeat the boss, or lose all your footing and fall down the {{Bottomless Pit|s}} below.
*** Or defeat the boss, and then [[KaizoTrap carelessly tumble to your death as you go to exit the stage]]. [[YetAnotherStupidDeath Yep.]]
** The boss in ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'''s Sandopolis Act 2 will slowly make its way from the right side of the room to the left. If you take too long, the boss will pin you against the left wall and make the fight unwinnable.
*** Playing as Knuckles? Enjoy the boss moving about twice as fast, which also means that much less time to use his hand as a platform. Actually quite tough, though you can exploit Knuckles' gliding to stunlock the boss once you can get up there.
*** The Carnival Night Act 1 mid-boss encountered earlier in the game also applies, as the elevator you're on gets broken up by the spinning top the boss deploys when you enter the room. You need to hit the boss (preferably when it's not electrocuting itself) to expose it's core for the top to damage it (it only takes four hits rather than six or eight).
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''[='=]s semifinal boss fight has Sonic and Metal Sonic race. If you're too slow, you get hit by the only instant-death laser in the entire Genesis era, and if Metal Sonic wins the race, you're doomed.
*** And while it is very hard to invoke such a thing, this can also happen in Tidal Tempest's boss. As the screen is totally submerged and the only source of air is the barrier around Eggman's machine, if the air barrier is totally depleted, Sonic must defeat Eggman to drain the area of water before he drowns.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''[='=]s Egg Viper will, near the end of the fight, start destroying the flooring. This happens when it's taken five hits; before then, you can take as long as you want. After that, though, you'd better have at least two platforms left when you beat it, as it'll make a suicide dive for where you're standing that will destroy at least one of them.
** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]'''s Egg Wyvern tries to emulate this, but it tends to only destroy parts of the arena after reaching certain damage thresholds, [[SubvertedTrope making it]] more of a case of TurnsRed instead.
*** There's also the final fight with Iblis, at the end of Silver's section. Thanks to the game's hideously broken AIRoulette, it's entirely possible for the boss to not invoke its [[TacticalSuicideBoss tactical suicide]] enough times for you to deplete its health bar before it completely destroys the stage, sending you plummeting into the lava below and requiring you to restart the whole fight.
** The TrueFinalBoss of ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic and Knuckles]]'', and some of the 3D games (including the aforementioned ''Sonic Adventure''), are like this. You don't have an actual timer, but you start the fight as [[SuperMode Super Sonic]]. If you run out of rings, you turn back to normal, and in the boss fight, this causes you to die. This makes sense in ''S&K'', as the fight takes place in space, but makes less sense in ''Sonic Adventure'', where you could, hypothetically, run out of rings on a floating piece of road, but the game assumes you fell into the water and drowned regardless.[[note]]Probably because if you're not Super, you can't do jack to the boss, even if you ''did'' coincidentally land somewhere marginally less deadly.[[/note]]
** Another ''Sonic'' example: the Egg Golem from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', which will repeatedly punch the floor and eventually destroy it.
*** Also the second Sonic vs. Shadow fight — the runway you fight on is ''not'' infinite, and if you run far enough, you'll end up back where you started. Which has plummeted into the Earth's atmosphere roughly 10 minutes ago.
** ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' and ''VideoGame/SonicRushAdventure'''s penultimate fights both end with this. After your FreeFallFight with Eggman/Nega in the former sinks below the clouds, he'll ram his mecha into the stage, destroying it if you don't hit him. After hitting the Ghost Titan enough times in the latter, he'll instead fire [[LastDitchMove two extremely powerful lasers]] [[AdvancingWallOfDoom that close in on you.]] If you don't hit him when he gets close enough, you'll be [[OneHitKill obliterated]].
** ''VideoGame/SonicMania''[='=]s first major boss, the Death Egg Robot, will steadily chase you to the right, deforming the ground. You're supposed to use this to hit it. If you haven't beaten it in about 90 seconds, though, it'll chase you off a cliff.
** The first act boss in ''Sonic Mania's'' Flying Battery Zone takes place in a trash compactor that [[TheWallsAreClosingIn periodically closes in]] and crushes the player character if not beaten in time. Interestingly, it's also BossArenaIdiocy, since the boss is initially too high to reach, but the trash rises up higher as it gets compacted, allowing the player to get in range of it.
** In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', if you take too long while battling Metal Sonic [[spoiler:or Infinite for the final time]], then he will escape and the player will be overtaken by a wave of red cubes.
* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games feature several examples.
** Bowser's boss room in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' has a floor of breakable blocks, except for the solid sides. He repeatedly tries to ground pound on top of Mario, so the player is supposed to make Bowser land on the breakable blocks until he eventually falls through the floor without Mario also falling in. Bowser is also susceptible to KillItWithFire (or hammers).
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'':
*** Reznor, the fortress bosses, are fought on a bridge which, after two hits, rapidly collapses from the middle. To survive, it's imperative to jump on the boss' rotating platform. Unless you're ''really'' fast, in which case the end trigger in which Mario doesn't fall anymore goes off before the end of the bridge (which you'll probably be on) can collapse.
*** The Big Boo which is the secret boss of one of the Ghost Houses can only be defeated by tearing blocks out of the floor of the BossRoom, which creates a danger of falling through.
** In the final battle with him in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', after you score two hits on him, he smashes the platform, turning it into a smaller star-shaped one. Before this point, flinging him off the platform but missing the bombs around the edge will result in Bowser simply leaping back up, which can knock off one of the pieces that would otherwise fall after the two hits.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' has a couple examples.
** ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'' has the boss of Stove Canyon, a giant head that shoots rock boogers out of its nose. It also extends its tongue out to crack the rocks that form the floor, eventually destroying them piece by piece.
** In her second-to-last form, the [[BigBad Golden Diva]] of ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'' starts smashing the floors of her arena. Miss too many chances to damage her, and you'll have nothing to stand on but spikes. Which are painful.
* ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'': The [[BackgroundBoss final boss]] will start off by occasionally dropping boulders near where Yoshi stands, leaving sizable gaps. When he's about to die, he bum-rushes the arena to destroy all platforms and knock Baby Mario out of the saddle while Yoshi plummets. Pretty much screwed either way.
* [[VideoGame/PunchOut Mike Tyson]] destroys your platform in ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy''.
** So does TheGrimReaper in ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheFangame''.
* The TrueFinalBoss of ''[[VideoGame/GargoylesQuest Demon's Crest]]'' throws orbs that steadily turn parts of the walls and floor into damaging spikes. Your character can fly, but midair maneuverability is ''very'' limited.
** On the other hand, in order to encounter this boss, you must first acquire the ability to spit a type of fireball onto wall spikes that makes them temporarily safe to land on, so it's still merely inconvenient rather than inevitably lethal.
* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' examples:
** The fight against Polar Knight is on a snow covered field with oodles of spikes underneath. Occasionally he digs away at the snow, though random snow drops from the ceiling can cover these back up.
** Both rounds with the final boss involve floors that aren't always there. The first round's floor is particularly dangerous — not only will the boss destroy parts of it, you're at risk of doing so yourself with shovel drops.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
* In a rare RealTimeStrategy example, the final mission of ''VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'' has god-like superbeing Amon periodically annihilating parts of the map... namely, the resource deposits you build your bases on. You'd better have mined them out before he gets there, because once they're gone, they're not coming back. Take too long, and you'll have no resources left at all to complete the mission.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Run And Gun]]
* ''VideoGame/AlienSoldier'' had "Back Stringer". You fought this GiantSpider on the wings and body of its dinner, a [[http://www.bogleech.com/aliensoldier/as-spiderbattle.gif decapitated giant fly.]] Small destructible [[DemonicSpiders spiders]] would come up from the bottom of the screen and pull the fly down the big spider web (each additional one making it sink faster). If the fly platform disappears off the bottom of the screen, expect to [[GameOver die]] — you'll keep falling into a [[NonLethalBottomlessPits health-draining bottomless pit]] [[CycleOfHurting OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!]]
* Just before the final boss battle, Don Ramiro of ''VideoGame/MalditaCastilla'' must destroy a giant cauldron that drops corrosive acid globs on the floor. Take too long and the acid will completely corrode the floor and make Don Ramiro fall in the bottomless pit below.
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[[folder:Strategy RPG]]
* ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000RogueTrader'': The final boss of Chapter 1 is a Chaos Space Marine who progressively destroys the shuttles needed for the PlayerParty to get offworld [[spoiler:before the planet becomes a Daemon World]] (he takes the field by [[DynamicEntry crashing straight through the one you arrived aboard]]). You must kill him before he destroys all of them.
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[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]
* While fighting The Beast in ''VideoGame/{{Apocalypse}}'', the pillars that serve as the boss arena collapse one by one as you damage him.
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'': The final boss fight against [[spoiler:BigBadFriend Vladimir Lem]] takes place in the rafters of a high ceiling, with him up in the overhang and out of direct reach of Max, who is on the ledge hugging the square top of the tower. His attacks include chucking timed blocks of dynamite at Max — if Max doesn't get hurt by the explosions, they still damage the ledge Max is on, which will crumble away in sections given enough hits and expose a long drop to the ground floor. If Max falls off, he instantly dies, so it becomes a race against time to shoot out the supports above him before there's too many holes to be able to dodge away from his dynamite attacks.
* ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'': The entity/boss creature FORMER leaves holes in the weird rock-platform you stand on when he attacks, making it harder to dodge without ending up falling into the eternal void below.
* Two stations in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'' — namely, [[Film/Breakin1984 Breakdance]] Station and Film/{{Footloose}} Station - take place on platforms made entirely out of destructible {{crate|Expectations}}s.[[note]]In the shape of an iconic ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' squid and a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Blooper]], respectively.[[/note]] Rather than a traditional, singular boss, each of the tests pit you against three waves of increasingly dangerous enemies. Interestingly, this is a rare example where the player's attacks can ''also'' destroy the floor. While this does mean you'll need to be more cautious, it also means you can effectively turn this trope on the enemies, and shoot the floor out from beneath ''them''.
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