Bubbly Clouds - Television Tropes & Idioms

A video game area that takes place on solid clouds in the sky. The characters may be seeking out a landmass or building in the sky, but they also might just be wandering through a huge field of solid clouds. Naturally, not falling to one's death is the biggest challenge of such an area, which can be made worse by the presence of annoying flying enemies. Fluffy Cloud Heaven is often this. It's interesting to mention that already the first sidescrolling platformer - Jump Bug, released in 1981, contained solid clouds.

Named after the stage from Kirby's Dream Land.

Examples:

Mario seems to end up in the clouds often:
- The end of World 8-2 and entirety of 8-3 in the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 (aka Super Mario: The Lost Levels).
- The second half of Sky Land in Super Mario Bros 3 (the first is Green Hill Zone).
- Rainbow Ride and a couple of bonus levels in Super Mario 64.
- World 7 in Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros Wii.
- Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy is probably the most straight version of this trope in the game, with all the various platforms being suspended in the sky. The third Star mission in particular evokes this. Other levels have clouds, but they are only solid when Mario has the Bee powerup.
- Fluffy Bluff Galaxy and Cloudy Court Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2. In this game, not only the Bee powerup allows Mario to walk over the clouds; so can the Could powerup, which in addition allows Mario to create his own clouds!
- Nimbus Land in Super Mario RPG.
- The Overthere in Super Paper Mario. Also Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
- Giddy Sky from Super Princess Peach.
- The last half of world 5 in Yoshis Island, and the very obviously named 'In the Clouds' from Yoshi's Island DS.
- While not the entire level, Coin Heaven in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros 3.
- The daytime obstacle courses in Super Mario Sunshine.
- The clouds over Flower Fields in Paper Mario.
- Lemmy's High-ate Regency Hotel in Hotel Mario.
- Mario's Rainbow Castle and Rainbow Dream in the Mario Party series.
- Peach's stage in the unlicensed Fighting Game Kart Fighter.
Kirby finds himself in the sky a lot, what with his flying ability and all:
- The Trope Namer comes from the first game, Kirby's Dreamland. Bubbly Clouds shows up again in Kirby Super Star's Updated Rerelease of the original, along with the "Skyhigh" level in the Milky Way Wishes mode.
- Grape Gardens in Kirby's Adventure.
- The second level of the icy Shiver Star in Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards.
- Cloudy Park in Kirby's Dreamland 2 and 3.
- And in select stages of Kirby Squeak Squad. Note: Do not attempt a final cutter when wielding a Fire Sword in one of these stages. Since fire burns away clouds and final cutter is uninterruptible, the result can only be described as an Epic Fall.
- Nutty Noon in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
Air Man from Mega Man 2 hides in a sea of clouds and odd blocks with evil faces on them.
- Snake Man from Mega Man 3 resides in a cloudy tower and giant snakes.
- Ring Man (4) also waited in a cloudy tower, although it reached to space and was filled with hippos, not snakes.
- Gyro Man from 5 had a base that fit this trope to a T.
- Wind Man's (6) has a variation; his level is semi-cloudy, but has more of a Chinese-motif.
- Cloud Man, naturally. His level in 7 was at a research institute, but clouds were major platforms in this level.
- Tengu Man's level in Mega Man 8 eventually got to the point where there were no more cloud platforms. To continue, Mega Man had to undergo an Unexpected Gameplay Change and fight through a SHMUP section. There were still clouds, but no platforms.
- His level in Mega Man & Bass was just a regular example of the trope.
- Finally, Tornado Man from 9 had the clouds in the level change from normal, to snow, to rain.
Sky Sanctuary in Sonic And Knuckles, as well as Angel Island from Sonic Advance (though both consist mostly of Floating Continent).
- Although before both of these, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) gave us Sky High Zone, where it was impossible to tell the difference between clouds which were walkable and clouds which were not.
  - Also, hang-gliders.
- Variants on this trope have also been done, like the machinery-based Altitude Limit.
Several levels in the Adventure Island series. The sixth island in Adventure Island II was an entire island dedicated to this (even if there were only two levels in the clouds up there).
Cloud Tops in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
The Dark Cloud and Above the Clouds in The Legend Of Zelda Four Swords Adventures.
Dalaam in EarthBound.
Super Smash Bros Brawl starts with a few levels which are made out of clouds, based mostly on Kid Icarus.
Speaking of the angel, the third world and the final level in the first game of Kid Icarus take place in this trope setting. Most of the game in the Gameboy sequel take place here as well.
Above the Clouds in Wario Land 3.
The sky sublevels in Wario World.
Sky Tower in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
Mega Man Star Force 2 featured Sky Road, which also acts as the Hub Level for a lot of later areas.
Baten Kaitos features Diadem. Heck, there's even a castle entirely made out of clouds. Even more relevant in the appropriately named "Cloud Passage" level.
- Worse in Origins, perhaps? With the Cloudvents, the origin of that bunch of sugary-looking clouds, in that same nation.
In Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, the second part of the fourth level largely takes place on clouds.
The Wind Elemental level in Wizards and Warriors : Ironsword takes place on clouds as well. You can also get inside the clouds and the boss is a cloud-shaped Eldritch Abomination.
Chimpanzee Clouds from Donkey Kong Land.
CloudRun from An Untitled Story is unusual in that it is actually one of the lowest lying areas in the game world. There is also pink. Lots of pink.
The fourth and fifth Might and Magic games, Clouds Of Xeen and Darkside Of Xeen, had these at the top of every tower. If your Levitate spell wore off while you were up there, you'd fall straight through the clouds and take a lot of damage.
The Sky World (stages 6-7) from Forgotten Worlds.
The Genie stages in Aladdin (Capcom) has some areas with cloud platforms, including one where the Genie determines which platforms you get based on how well you did on the stage so far (with the clouds being the easiest platforms to use)
In Jables's Adventure, many above-ground areas have a line of cloud platforms near the top, and even those that don't will lead to a cloudy sky area if you fly off the top of the screen.
Although it's not apparent in the original, Final Fantasy I has the Sky Castle, which takes place in the sky. It's also home to Death Machine/WarMECH.