A weaponized form of Ground-Shattering Landing performed by various game bosses. Usually (But not always) through a Ground Pound, they shake the very foundations of the room you fight them in, causing boulders, support girders, or other debris to fall from the ceiling. Some are so skilled at this that they can aim the debris either at the hero, or right on top of themselves so they can throw it.
One wonders how the whole building or cave doesn't collapse and crush the hero and boss. Similarly, you'd expect at some point there would be no more stuff left up there to fall down but that never happens, no matter how many times the boss smashes the arena.
May occasionally show up with smaller enemies as well.
Not to be confused with Load-Bearing Boss. Compare Stalactite Spite.
Examples:
- Abobo's Big Adventure: The Old Man from The Legend of Zelda does this as a boss. After drinking a potion and having turned into a giant, he often stomps on the ground causing debris to fall from the ceiling. Since the stage is in a top-down view, Abobo must stay away from the crosshairs that appear to avoid being crushed by the stone chunks.
- The Nasty Judge, a rather...nasty representation of the Addamses' cranky neighbor Womack, the Final Boss of the The Addams Family Licensed Game makes gavels rain down from the ceiling, thankfully maintaining that justice is blind indeed.
- ANNO: Mutationem: When fighting against Loki and his Mini-Mecha in a abandoned building, he uses the mech to stomp onto the ground and cause debris to fall from above to deal damage while attacking.
- In Akane the Kunoichi, one of the bosses causes spikes to fall from the ceiling in addition to more normal attacks. Dodging is made a little more difficult by the fact that the fight occurs in running water (which carries you along if you aren't moving, meaning that it's harder to just stand in the safe spots).
- One of the alien bosses in Broforce roars, causing ceiling tiles to disappear and blocks to be dropped on the ground.
- Also a common boss attack in the Castlevania series.
- Fairly often, this attack is given to the Creature/Frankenstein's Monster boss. They don't usually jump, instead either stomping the ground, or pounding the wall with their fists.
- This is also a common attack for the Golem enemies. Some will cause boulders to rain down, while the Iron Golem from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon will make gears tumble down, since you fight him in a clock tower.
- Goliath in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia can both drop pieces of the ceiling on you and smash a large chunk of the floor upwards.
- In Chimera Beast, the fifth boss (a lion-boar thing fought in a volcano) makes the place shake whenever it jumps on the wall, causing lava rocks to rain from the ceiling.
- Darkest Dungeon: The Gibbering Prophet and variations, though rather than cause the cave-in himself, he's just fought in a severely decayed building, and he'll "predict" collapsing masonry right on top of your heroes.
- Diablo III: Zoltun Kulle uses a spell called "Cave-In" to make rocks fall on the player. If he's not defeated in 3 minutes, he uses this non-stop until they're dead.
- Happens in DC Universe Online when you and Nightwing/Killer Croc face Bane.
- Donkey Kong:
- The titular ape does this in Donkey Kong for the GBA, and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, stomping on the ground causing junk to fall from the ceiling. Very odd in the final boss battle in Donkey Kong, since you're at the top of a tower, and there is no ceiling.
- Donkey Kong Country:
- The second phase of the final battle against King K. Rool involves K. Rool causing cannonballs to rain down from the top of the Gangplank Galleon.
- In the Game Boy Advance remake, Really Gnawty causes stalactites to fall from the ceiling.
- The very first boss of Dragon Quest IX can do this. Despite all logic, it does as much damage as his regular attack.
- The Himalayas Boss (a yeti) from DuckTales punches the walls and causes large snowballs to fall around the arena.
- EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: Zett is this on top of being a Load-Bearing Boss. He'll occasionally pound the earth with his fist, raining rocks onto the stage from above. Of course, for hero Zophy, he can simply grab one and chuck it back at Zett. Every other player character will have to settle for defensive or evasive maneuvers.
- Happens twice in The Flintstones: The Surprise At Dinosaur Peak. One time with caveman boss and second time when during the final boss battle.
- Tutankhamenattack, the boss of the Temple of Doom stage in Gradius: Life Force, uses falling blocks as an attack.
- Hollow Knight: The False Knight. After you smack it enough, it slams its mace on the floor, causing debris to fall.
- In Hydorah, the end boss of Dunarys is literally a collapsing ceiling. A more traditional example occurs at the end of Cyclades Liberation.
- In Illusion of Gaia, the Mummified Queen does this in the pyramid, but with large stone blocks falling from the ceiling.
- In I Wanna Be the Guy, whenever Kraidgief stomps, spikes and debris from the ceiling fall down towards you.
- In Kirby Super Star, Fatty Whale and Wham Bam Rock both have attacks where they cause rocks to fall from the ceiling, which Kirby can use as projectiles or swallow to gain the Stone ability.
- La-Mulana.
- The Giant's Mausoleum boss, Sakit, causes rubble to fall from the ceiling whenever he takes a step, since he's a giant hundred-foot tall statue. Rubble also falls when he shoots his fist out at you.
- Ellmac, the boss of the Sun Temple, can roar to make stalactites fall from the ceiling in the original MSX styled version of the game. He loses this attack in the HD Remake.
- La-Mulana 2: Surtr will make blocks fall from the ceiling with every step, as well as deliberately cause an avalanche by smashing the wall. These blocks are your only platforms over a lava pit. (In earlier versions of the game, it was a Bottomless Pit, leading to much frustration at the numerous cheap deaths.)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Volvagia can do the same with boulders. The sides of the lava dragon's arena can be climbed on, however, providing a generally safe place to hide when not attacking.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man (Classic): A very common setup.
- Guts Man from Mega Man would jump around, and catch the falling boulder to throw at you. And he does it again as the first Fortress Boss in Mega Man 7.
- Junk Man would also Ground Pound, making debris fall randomly.
- The Power Piston, the second boss of Mr. X's castle in Mega Man 6, pounds the wall to cause a constant rain of rocks.
- Grenade Man in Mega Man 8 would fire a bomb at the wall, causing the place to shake and make rubble fall from the ceiling. Frost Man from the same game could pound the floor and cause the ice blocks above to fall all over the arena.
- Stone Head, a miniboss in Jewel Man's stage in Mega Man 9 shakes the ground to cause boulders to fall.
- Drill Man in Rockman 4 Minus ∞ does this during his desperation attack.
- In the Mega Man Battle Network series, Stone Man, Knight Man, Laser Man, Ground Man, and Gregar all have attacks that cause this to happen, though it's exemplified by the last, as it causes rocks to fall every time it moves on top of having an attack that rains down a ton more.
- Played with in Mega Man Zero 2, Burble Hekelot will shake the room for tiny worm-like mooks to appear, which he, being based on a frog, can eat to become larger.
- Mega Man (Classic): A very common setup.
- Metroid: Samus Returns: The Omega Metroids can slap their tails on the ground, causing boulders to rain from the ceiling. In later stages they combine this with an attack that ignites the floor, dealing damage if Samus lands.
- Paper Mario:
- Paper Mario 64: Tutankoopa does something similar to Mario and his partner. At one point in the fight, it will backfire against him and he gets hit with a fallen piece of limestone from the ceiling.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has Rawk Hawk, who can climb onto the steel bars and shake it, causing things to rain down on you.
- Peter Pan The Legend Of Never Land has Chargy Bargy. Whenever he hits a wall during his boss battle, he causes stalactites to fall down from the ceiling.
- Casandra starts doing this midway through the final showdown of Pico's School, and you have to shoot the debris out of the air so that you don't lose health.
- Pikmin 2:
- Empress Bulblax develops a new attack after its first encounter — her side-to-side rolling attack will, when she rams into the sides of her lair, cause boulders to fall down and crush anything they hit.
- The Segmented Crawbster in the Cavern of Chaos can only be harmed by striking its soft belly, which can only be exposed by goading it into hitting the walls of its cave with its Rolling Attack. However, doing this will also cause a shower of rocks to fall from the ceiling. Gather your Pikmin. Fast.
- Rayquaza is a variation on this in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. After you awaken him, he flies out of Sky Pillar, half destroys the place, and you wonder when you're riding through it the next time in order to catch him why it's still standing. As it is, you fall through the floor if you don't get things just right. The moves Rock Throw and Rock Slide also seem to be based on this trope.
- In the SNES remake of Prince of Persia, the multi-armed Giant Space Flea from Nowhere in Level 17 causes skulls to fall from the ceiling when landing.
- The final boss of Purple, as one of his attacks, can drop the hammer and cause blocks to fall from the ceiling.
- In Quackshot, during the final battle with King Garuzia, King Garuzia will throw his sword at either the left or the right walls, creating a quake that causes blocks to fall on Donald from above.
- Plant 42 in the original 1996 Resident Evil. Since it can't reach you with its tendrils if you stand far enough away, the plant's movement will shake the ceiling and drop large chunks of plaster on your head while you shoot at it, forcing you to use stick-and-move tactics.
- Runescape has Stomp, a frustrating Dungeoneering boss. It wouldn't be so bad if the debris that falls didn't block off the items you need to prevent him from healing a third of his health.
- Sonic the Hedgehog is by no means a stranger to this attack.
- The spiked pig robot boss from Sonic 2 for the Master System/Game Gear would charge at you. If he hit the wall, stalactites would rain down.
- Robotnik's machine in Mystic Cave Zone from the Genesis version would burrow in and out of the ceiling, causing a rain of stone. The rocks were harmless, but the stalactites would hurt you.
- You face off with a drill bot with a very similar pattern in Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- The Wacky Workbench boss in Sonic the Hedgehog CD is an interesting case. Robotnik's machine blasts through the ceiling above, dropping debris down that you ride up to the next floor - which has a hole in it from where Robotnik broke through. The third time he does this, he doesn't actually make it through the ceiling, but his drill breaks and the spikes rain down along with debris, and riding up to the ceiling reveals his machine got stuck in it.
- Eggman's machine in Ice Mountain Zone in Sonic Advance remains on the ceiling, pounding it to rain stalactites down on you. Since you're stuck in water too deep to jump out of, you have to jump on the sinking stalactites to be able to reach Eggman, and get a breath.
- Crush from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! will perform a Ground Pound attack every time he's attacked by Spyro; dodge it and rocks will rain down, at which point he'll look up at the boulders bouncing off his head. This process is repeated seven times, despite the fact that you should have run out of ceiling a while back.
- The giant yeti in Spelunky can knock ice blocks loose from the ceiling simply by roaring.
- In Star Wars: The Old Republic, when you fight the recently-freed Darth Revan in an Imperial flashpoint mission, he will periodically use the Force to drop large boulders onto you from the ceiling of the cavern you find him in.
- In Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure, the first battle against Plucky Duck involves Plucky using a hammer to bring stalactites down from the ceiling. During this time, Dr. Gene Splicer will lower his plane so Buster can jump on it.
- Tokyo Xanadu: The Jormungand will occasionally create earthquakes that can cause rocks from the ceiling to fall onto the arena.
- Voodoo Vince: This is actually the way to defeat the third boss. Because the protagonist is a voodoo doll, the player needs to position themselves under the falling rubble to get struck by it and transfer the harm to the boss. Sounds easy until you account for the fact you're riding a rat that never stops while trying to avoid numerous bottomless pits and shockwaves generated by the boss.
- The very first boss of Wario Land Shake It, Rollenratl does this by shaking the ceiling. Then again, he is holding up the roof... He also eventually kind of realizes the downfall of this tactic when he's defeated and crushed by the ceiling.
- This is one of Ralph's tactics in both the Wreck-It Ralph movie and defictionalized video game.
- In World of Warcraft Magtheridon causes debris to fall onto players during his third stage, when he breaks the walls of his prison.
- Prior to the fight itself Scourgelord Tyrannus forces players to run through an ice tunnel and uses his dragon to try to collapse the roof, dropping giant chunks of ice that hurl players around the tunnel if they connect.
- During the encounter with Tortos, a massive dragon turtle that's fused with the caverns below the Throne of Thunder, stalactites rain down from the ceiling, causing severe damage if they hit players directly and comparatively mild raid-wide damage for players who are close to them.
- Yoshi's Island:
- The original game and Yoshi's Island DS both have this for the Final Boss... except neither battle has a ceiling, and the castle itself had collapsed before then. For the first game, the debris comes from Giant Baby Bowser's roaring causing a Chunky Updraft.
- Don Bongo from Yoshi's Story is an odd version. His stomping around causes dishes to drop from the ceiling.
