If there is a crate, I will push it.
-I Am Resident Evil
If Crate did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
- Voltaire
The crate is
extremely common
in videogames. They are a key gameplay element, allowing players to hide from patrolling
Mooks or shelter from enemy fire. They are so widely used that the term "Start-to-crate" shows up in reviews of games, referring to the length of time between starting a game and encountering the first crate.
Crates can often be
broken open to reveal a
Power Up or treasure, though usually only one per crate. (Why did this one food item require a crate just for it, again?) Slid or carried into place, they provide a staircase to otherwise inaccessible areas. And thus three of the basic monkey drives we inherit are satisfied: climbing, finding things to eat and breaking things.
Sometimes the crate bites the hand that bashes it: the explosive filled crate is no friend to the crowbar ... but smiles unto the sniper.
Crates are often arrayed to form a maze or feature in
Block Puzzles. Crates are close friends with Barrels. After hours of looking at big crates in rooms with small doors and/or not a pallet or forklift in sight, one might experience a moment of
Fridge Logic.
Crates are easy to render in 3D: six flat sides that can take a flat texture without causing too much comment. This adds to their popularity with game developers. The first conversation between art department and coder contained the line: "We are really good at cubes."
Unfortunately crates are common to the point of cliché. Many FPS games can be rated in terms of Time To Crate.
Pallets aren't as common as one might expect, even if the scenery includes forklift trucks.
The Empire must have vast armies of slaves who do nothing but manhandle crates around the place.
See also
Die Chair Die,
Exploding Barrels.
Examples:
- The Weighted Storage Cubes in Portal, used to weigh down switches. One unique cube in a late stage, the Weighted Companion Cube, has become quite possibly the best-loved inanimate object in any game ever, to the point of having a trope here named after it.
- It's possible that Portal has a start-to-crate time of zero, depending on how you classify the glass-sided box you begin the game in...
- If that's the case, then the start-to-crate time is actually a negative value, since the crate you start in appears in the background of the main menu, before you even start the game. Valve are truly pioneers...
- Interesting note: the main writer for Portal, Erik Wolpaw, is also the inventor of the "start-to-crate" review system. The Old Man Murray article in which it's introduced is linked above. One wonders how he justifies such a low start-to-crate time in his own game.
- By making a character of the humble crate! The next stage in cratal evolution, or something!
- Most of the early games in the Ratchet And Clank series had dozens of crates that were usually there to be broken for bolts (read: cash). The game also featured red exploding crates, that counted down when Ratchet so much as touched them, and metal crates, which could only be broken by explosives. The third game introduced the multiplier crate, which for a short while doubled the amount of bolts Ratchet got from other crates, enemies, and the environment in general, and the Inferno crate, which turned Ratchet into an unstoppable dual-wrench-wielding engine of destruction.
- Crates in the Super Smash Bros series appear to be broken and get the items inside. One must be careful though as some of them explode. Also in Brawl the crates and barrels are themed to the level and some come with wheels.
- Brawl also has a specific explosion crate that can be triggered early by fire attacks. Charizard and Bowser might want to keep their distance...
- And Captain Falcon for that matter. This troper learned the hard way that you should never falcon punch a blast box.
- Of course, these crates are perfect for characters with longer range incendiary attacks, like Link (bombs) and Zelda (Din's Fire).
- Most villain lair types in City Of Heroes come liberally furnished with crates, the style of which inevitably matches the flavor of the lair (high-tech, warehouse, neo-Fascist base...). The default Mac Guffin when on a "find X" mission is a glowing crate most of the time, at least at the lower levels. Unlike their counterparts in many other games, though, COH crates are invulnerable to all damage and superglued to the floor.
- Lampshaded in The Matrix Path of Neo during a training level in which Neo remarks: "Crates, how original"
- Crash Bandicoot not only saw levels filled with crates, but destroying all of them in all levels are required to reach the full Hundred Percent Completion. In fact, crashing through crates is one of the series' defining gameplay elements, as well as the origin of the protagonist's name.
- Super Mario Galaxy has crates in several levels, which can be broken up with spin attacks.
- Crates are a mainstay in Command And Conquer, although they aren't very common. When moving a unit over it, the owner recieves money or bonus units, or other effects such as improving the units speed, defense or level (after Tiberian Sun). However, there is also a chance for them to explode.
- Generals didn't have these "powerup" crates, but the main resource of the game were crates. The game never details what's in those crates, the content directly translates into money. It also had crates that had U.N. stamped on them that represented foreign aid supplies that gave you a nice cash boost. One of the funner GLA missions had you attacking towns being supplied by U.N. convoys to reach a certain amount of money; you're specifically told to kill the people and destroy their houses to get the supplies hidden there.
- The Half Life series features several crates, mostly empty, although some have items. In Half Life 2, they can even be thrown at enemies with the Gravity Gun. One of the lesser-touted features of the HL 2 engine it the materials system, meaning that broken crate bits float in water, and can often be used as bridges or platforms.
- Crates in Star Fox Adventures tend to be of the "contains one food item" variety. A couple are completely empty.
- Crates are parachuted into the battleground in Worms 2, presumably by the same air force responsible for the air strikes, napalm strikes, mail strikes and concrete donkeys. They give weapons or health, and explode if you shoot them.
- The first level of Oni takes place in a warehosue full of crates.
- Link comes across randomly located crates in The Legend Of Zelda : Twilight Princess, which he can destroy with his sword (or, in wolf form, through basic combat moves) to reveal hearts and Rupees. These crates are found all over the place; there are even crates, for no discernible in-game reason, on small islands in the middle of Lake Hylia.
- Parodied in No One Lives Forever 2, which featured as enemies "Man-Crates", enemy Mooks who have been pressed into crate-shaped form for displeasing their boss. Their attacks consist simply of awkwardly rolling towards you and trying to bite you, while begging you to kill them.
- Episode 2 Map 2 of Doom is essentially a maze made of crates.
