Gusty Glade

What a tweest!

Roy: No, I am not wandering around this maze on foot. Durkon, cast Control Winds!
Durkon: I, uh... I dinnae prepare it today.
Roy: You didn't— You knew we were going to WINDY Canyon today!!
Durkon: Aye, but I thought it were the Windy Canyon — as in, it were full o' winding passages.
Elan: It is! It's a Windy Windy Canyon!

— The Order of the Stick

An area in a video game where the player's challenge is made more difficult by winds or air currents (visible or otherwise) that blow the character about, interfering with and sometimes aiding their platforming skills. The winds may be localized to specific sections of the level, or may be stop and blow at intervals. The player may have to have to time their actions to take advantage of favorable winds and/or push forward to compensate for hostile winds.

The source of these mighty winds could be anything — an object in the level, a specific enemy, or just natural phenomenon of the area in question. Characters of a metallic or robotic nature may have to deal with magnets for similar trouble.

Get ready for extra challenge if the level has Ledge Bats.

These types of levels often overlap with Level in the Clouds, Levels Take Flight, Funnel Cloud Journey, or Death Mountain.

Compare Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt (the on-ground version), Roaring Rapids (the aquatic version).

Not to be confused with a powerful wind that halts the character's progress through a specific area entirely (that's just another kind of Broken Bridge).

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Examples:

Action Adventure

• Ōkami actually makes this a player power, explained by Amaterasu gaining the powers of the Wind God. The ability is gained in the wind-themed second dungeon, Gale Shrine.
• The Legend of Zelda has this all over the 3D games. Currents (especially circling ones) are a favorite in water levels, while giant fans often show up in wind temples.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: The Shadow Temple is a mixture of this and Big Boo's Haunt. While the latter trope is the majority of the temple, since it is located in the Kakariko Graveyard, this trope falls into place due to some obstacles containing active fans that require the use of the Iron Boots to resist their push, while one, as long as the Hover Boots are equipped, leads Link to the final passage leading to Bongo-Bongo's lair in the heart of the temple. It pops back up again in the Forest Temple section of the Ganon's tower, which seems to be a hold over from early plans for it to have been a wind temple.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: True to its name, the Wind Temple has wind as a major theme, and thus there are several rooms with fans that continuously expel wind for Link to fly higher with his Deku Leaf. Also included is the Wind Temple corridor in Ganon's Tower, which require Link to fight Molgera in a black-and-white Boss Rush to open the tower.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The Forest Temple mixes this with The Lost Woods, as there are outdoor areas where wind blows and puts into work the eolic machinery (in the indoor areas, Link has to use the Gale Boomerang instead). Later in the game, Link visits the City in the Sky, which has lots of gusting winds and fans that help and/or hinder his progress.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: The Isle of Gust features many wind currents as well as wind geysers. It's necessary to work around them to reach the resident dungeon (Temple of Wind).
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: The House of Gales and several similar mini-dungeons feature plenty of fans that blow Link in fixed directions and must be activated or shut off when needed. They also have many puzzles that require Link to use the Tornado Rod to go between floors.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Divine Beast Vah Medoh has numerous fans that must be manipulated and exploited with the Paraglider to solve puzzles. The homeland of Vah Medoh, the Hebra region, generally has lots of updrafts and strong winds blowing around the place, which is probably why the Rito have chosen it as their home. Lastly, there's a Shrine where Link has to make the wind sources bring eolic energy to all fans present in order to complete it, as well as a number of Shrine-styled floors in the Trial of the Sword DLC dungeon where wind perpetually blows upward.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: The Wind Temple is an ancient ark that floats in the skies inside a powerful blizzard, alongside numerous smaller arks. It uses eolic energy to operate, but it has been malfunctioning due to Ganondorf's influence (which also led to the abnormally cold weather around Rito Village). To solve the problem, Link has to guide Tulin across the various parts of the dungeon so the latter can use his gale to power up the turbines that re-activate the main engine. For extra difficulty, the surrounding temperatures are low enough to decrease Link's health unless he either consumes a cold-resisting meal or elixir (for a limited-time protection) or wears a coldproof clothing set (for a permanent one). The boss is Colgera, which is fought in a High-Altitude Battle.
• The seventh chapter of Journey (2012), the Mountain, is this trope. There is less wind when you're revived by the six White Robes and reach the summit then when you're under the snowstorm surrounding the mountain, and running is rare. It's difficult to get past certain parts of it without tombstones and tunnels.
• Ninja Gaiden 2 (the NES version) had the second part of its second level as a high mountain with constantly shifting winds. It's probably the first real difficult level of the game.
• The archery part of the Peasant's Quest on-line game is made more difficult by variable wind speeds.
• In The Flintstones - Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, there's a section in the kitchen level where you go down the drainpipe and fight against the currents.
• Krazoa Palace in Star Fox Adventures is this trope mixed with Temple of Doom. Large eolic devices are installed through the palace, and using those of the central chamber is how you move from one floor to another.
• Ori and the Blind Forest has a few areas where there is a strong upwards draft. Ori can use the glide ability to move upwards using the draft.

Action

• The Vent Physics in Glider PRO easily leads to this with the presence of invisible air currents that can push up, down, left or right. "Sky Links" is a first-class example. Glider 4.0 couldn't do quite as many things with vents and fans, but a glider in the same room with an open window would tremble violently.

Driving

• F-Zero (1990) has the Death Wind courses, where a powerful gust pushes your machine (which hovers above the ground rather than using wheels) and causes it to drift in one direction so long as it is in motion.

Fighting

• Super Smash Bros.:
  • The original Super Smash Bros. has the Dream Land stage. Melee, Brawl and Ultimate all have the Green Greens stage, along with a remade Dream Land from the first game (also present in 4. The Subspace Emissary in Brawl has a few areas on the outside of the Halberd whilst it is in the air.
• Several of the Dynasty Warriors games add this element to the Yellow Turban Rebellion stage, as one of the enemy generals is supposedly a sorcerer with power over the winds. Depending on which game you play it's either push your way against the wind or choose the path with falling boulders and flank him.

First Person Shooter

• Jedi Outcast's Cloud City levels live on this trope.
• Heretic had some areas like this.
• The fan shafts in Primagen's Lightship from Turok 2.
• One level of Quake had tubes with wind currents, although no visible source of wind.

Party Game

• Mario Party 3: The Blowhard duel board has a large, sentient ventilation fan in the central junction. When a character passes by it, the fan will blow them upward, switching the position of their partner(s) if there are any. Afterwards, the character can choose to move onto any direction that isn't the one they came from.
• Mario Party Advance:
  • The minigame Forest Jump has a solo player run against a strong gust while avoiding incoming tree trunks, some of which merely roll while others leap. Jumping onto a rolling trunk or passing beneath a leaping one grants points, but their varying size has to be accountd for. The strength and direction of the gust will also vary over time, making evasions more difficult. If a character is hit by a trunk, they'll be temporarily stunned, which increases the risk of the wind pushing them into the pit, ending the minigame. In Shroom City mode, the player has to score 300 points to win.
  • The minigame Flingshot has a solo player launch themselves into a wide chasm with a very large slingshot. Along the way, they can find tornadoes that either boost their height (if they're placed vertically) or distance (if they're placed horizontally). The total distance traveled is determined as soon as the player stops running after touching the ground, and will make up for the final score. In Shroom City mode, the player needs to achieve at least 5000 points to win.

Platform

• Beeny has two levels that take place during rainstorms. The rain comes with strong winds that constantly push Beeny to either the left or right for the entire level as she tries to climb up the tree branches.
• Bread & Fred: Windy Winds is naturally filled with powerful air currents. Most of these rise and wane at regular intervals, necessitating precise timing in order to use their force to your advantage.
• Donkey Kong Country
  • There's the Trope Namer Gusty Glade in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, which combines wind with mildly difficult platforming. Most of the difficulty comes from adapting to the wind gimmick. Then there's Windy Well, which uses the wind to suspend or raise the player through the air. Finally, there's Animal Antics, where you have to fly through a maze of thorned brambles while winds push you from side to side. As Donkey Kong Land 2 is largely based on Donkey Kong Country 2, it also features wind levels.
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has a couple of levels with ocean current. In some sections, the player has to try to swim against the current, and in others, the player has to swim with the current and avoid being pushed into enemies.
  • One of the levels in Bright Savannah in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has the Kongs deal with a streak of violent cyclones and several objects (including enemies) flying because of the strong wind gusts in the environment. Lightning strikes are also present as a harmful hazard.
  • Donkey Kong '94, Area Six, which happens to take place on an airplane.
• The final level of Battletoads, "The Revolution", introduces an enemy type whose main attack is to blow the player character off the screen, forcing the player to cling to a metal pole until the enemy leaves.
• Garfield's Nightmare: The first level of World 3 (which takes place in the skies) features fans that, when turned on, blow a wind that is strong enough to push Garfield upward or sideways (depending on the position of the fans and where they're blowing). While most fans prove beneficial for Garfield to reach new places, others are detrimental to his progress and thus have to be turned off by pressing switches. The level also has small tornadoes that must be avoided.
• Mega Man:
  • Certain enemies in Air Man's level blow you backwards. They don't really push you into danger, but if you get blown far enough back the enemy will respawn with full health when you advance again. Air Man himself can also push you back, making it hard to get past his tornadoes to get a clear shot at him.
  • The rain in Toad Man's stage in Mega Man 4 has this effect. This obstacle is repeated in Tornado Man's level in Mega Man 9, and a section of the opening stage in Mega Man & Bass.
  • Parts of Cloud Man's stage in Mega Man 7, as well as the boss himself.
  • Pump Man's level in Mega Man 10 has underwater currents as well.
  • Launch Octopus' level in Mega Man X has two fights with Anglerges, which are submarines that either suck in or expel water to push X around. The second fight is made more difficult by having deadly spike pits.
  • The floating ruins level in Mega Man ZX also have one, with winds blowing against you to slow you down. There are also tornadoes that make you float.
• The spring breeze-themed level of Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream, The Wild Wind.
• Songs for a Hero: Strong winds appear in both the fifth and sixth levels, normally dragging the Hero to his doom and implied to be controlled by the bosses of their respective biomes. At the final phase of level 5, they get so strong the last few enemies are fought while inside of a tornado.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels does this in some overworld levels, often as a means of making the jump timings more difficult. The good news is that the wind always blows east, so it never dampens the jump's height or the run's speed as long as Mario or Luigi is moving to the right.
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii: One level in World 2 has strong winds, but it blows coins, too.
  • Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden Galaxy, located in the fourth dome. The wind is essential to fly between planets without a Launch Star.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 has winds in some levels, particularly Cloudy Court Galaxy, but they're there to help you by pushing your clouds along rather than impede you.
  • In Super Mario Maker 2, levels that are set in the desert during night will have wind blowing periodically. The rate and direction will depend on the game style: In the Super Mario Bros. style, wind blows west every few seconds; in the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, it blows east every few seconds; in the Super Mario World style, it alternates between blowing west and east; in the New Super Mario Bros. U style, it permanently blows east. It is not possible to have night mode in the Super Mario 3D World style, so the trope is averted there.
  • Yoshi's Island DS: Various levels have fans that blow wind upward. Baby Peach can take advantage of them to help Yoshi hover in the air with her parasol.
  • A Super Mario Thing has the level "Currents". Another Game Mod, S Mario, has the final castle, which has RANDOM wind physics. Yes, you get the joy of being pushed left and right with no indication at all in a level at Platform Hell difficulty.
• The Legendary Starfy:
  • In Cupid Village of the fourth game, some areas have Kumo Ojisan, who will occasionally blow gusts of wind to the left or right to hinder Starfy and Starly. To avoid this, they have to stand behind barriers until the wind dies down.
  • The second challenge level in the fifth game does this with geysers.
• Challenge level 2-5 in the Wii version of A Boy and His Blob gives you only the Parachute to work with, and has you navigate a series of narrow passages full of wind... which also happen to be full of floating mines.
• Kirby games have lots of them and typically several can be found in every game.
  • Kirby's Adventure: Some levels in the game include winds, like the airship section in one level.
  • Kirby Super Star has also several areas like that.
• The Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers NES game featured giant fans that blew you around in one particularly annoying level.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has Wing Fortress Zone in the Genesis version, and Sky High Zone Act 2 in the Master System and Game Gear versions.
  • Windy Valley from Sonic Adventure serves as Sonic's second action stage, Tails' first, and E-102 Gamma's third. Sonic's section begins with him running through the lower parts of the valley until he reaches a tornado, which he must find his way out of, ending with him running through the upper parts of the valley to get the Purple Chaos Emerald, which forms the entirety of Tails' section. In Gamma's section, Gamma travels through the lower parts of the valley to seek out and destroy E-103 Delta. Running through the strong winds will help you get across the large gaps over them.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, there's a giant air current in the middle of Wild Canyon. Knuckles has to jump into it so it can propel him to the upper parts of the level.
  • Sky Canyon in Sonic Advance 2 has fans that pop up. Some will blow wind in Sonic's direction and pushes him more easily to top speed; others will blow wind against Sonic and will stop him in his tracks, preventing him from running further. However, Sonic can use it to accelerate to top speed without anything getting in his way, then turn around and zoom back at blistering velocity.
  • Sonic Riders has helpful winds in the form of turbulence (in the first game at least; the name was changed to "slipstreams" in the later two games), half pipe-shaped winds left behind by a fast-moving opponent. Rather than blowing you around, entering turbulence accelerates you and also allows you to do tricks; in certain places, doing tricks in an opponent's turbulence will even propel you up to a higher shortcut route.
  • Sonic and the Secret Rings has hindering wind in Levitated Ruin; it is incredibly strong wind to not only rob Sonic of his speed, but pushes him backwards slowly even at maximum speed. Sonic needs to use alternate techniques to get by, such as the Homing Attack and the Speed Break.
  • Sonic Generations has the Classic Sonic act of Crisis City, where the last 1/3 is platforming within a fiery tornado (don't touch the centre!) which pulls you towards it, with you fighting against the pull to reach the end.
  • Act 1 of Oil Desert Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2.
• Sector 7 in Jumper Two had wind that blew at 4-second intervals.
• In Purple, the player can encounter blowing winds in World 5.
• LostWinds and its sequel on WiiWare uses this as the entire game idea. You use winds to move around your character, throw rocks into doors to break them, kill enemies by lifting them into the air and slamming them back onto the ground...
• Chateau du Vent in Something. The wind tries pushing Mario to the left, which makes moving to the right much more difficult, especially with obstacles in the way.
• Anemone Beach in Crusader of Centy. Paying attention to the changing wind directions here is vital for assisting with jumps.
• In Vectorman, the sixteenth and final level (just before the final battle with Warhead) involves Vectorman being carried upwards by a giant tornado. In the sequel, Vectorman 2, in the eighteenth level, the tornado is relegated to the background, but still constantly pushes Vectorman to the left. There is a transformation Vectorman can pick up in that level that briefly turns him into a tornado. As sort of a Call-Back, the original game's level is called "Twist and Shout", and the sequel's level is called "Shout and Twist".
• In Theta vs Pi 7 the desert levels had strong winds which would blow through in gusts and if you weren’t firmly planted on the ground would either throw you into an enemy or into the quicksand (there were flags you could watch for a clue when they'd change). Adding to the cruelty, enemies were apparently immune to the wind.
• Celeste has Chapter 4, the Golden Ridge, which is full of wind currents that blow horizontally, either requiring Madeline to work through them or use them in her favor. Chapter 7 additionally has wind currents that blow vertically.
• Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?: The Sequel has the Nethervalley as one of the selectable stages, listed as a place where evil winds blow. The main obstacle is weathervanes that can point either west or east, activating once Hero Prinny is close enough. The more arrows in that direction, the harder the wind blows, which will affect your movement and jumping capabilities. Uniquely, there is also a weathervane with an X on it, which cancels the wind.

Puzzle

• Some levels in World of Goo have winds.
• In Meteos, Bavoom is a planet with a rapidly moving atmosphere. As a result, the intelligent life that developed on this planet has bodies designed to sail on the strong winds, their lack of legs suggesting they never ever touch down on the ground below.
• Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy: Hoogland features lots of windmills, and is apparently prone to tornadoes. The locals don't even seem particularly rattled, despite the destruction they cause. Layton and his friends eventually discover that the tornadoes are caused by a malfunctioning eolic machine of Azran origin.

RPG

• The first open area in Sol City in the first Boktai game have gusts that increase in power relative to the sunlight. It's ineffective at moving you if there's no sun, but if you are silly enough to have eight bars of sun, it'll knock you around everywhere.
• The Forsaken Lands in Bug Fables have numerous pipes that blow out streams of air that will let Vi fly over much greater distances than she could normally.
• The Death Peak in Chrono Trigger is a windy place; the first challenge is you having to make your way to the top of the screen while the wind intensifies regularly, blowing you off the screen unless you're standing behind a tree when this happens; the second is a thin bridge you have to cross while being constantly pushed down by the winds.
• In Terranigma, there's a boss in Eklemata whose first form takes shape of a yeti which constantly shifting wind in all directions while you avoid blocks of ice.
• Pokémon
  • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2: Mistralton Gym consists of navigating a series of powerful fans that blow you all over the place. You progress by waiting for a lull in the gusting and then moving between barriers that block the wind.
  • Pokémon X and Y: The Kalos Badlands have winds that shift direction (or just dissipate entirely) at certain times of the day. Too bad for the player that the wild Pokémon, all of whom burrow around underground, aren't affected by the winds.
  • Conversely, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's winds (which can pop up almost anywhere) won't affect the player character at all, but will cause lighter Pokémon like Jigglypuff and Hopip to be blown around (unless they're shiny).
• Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has Asgard's minigame against reaching the Garuda. Emil needs to reach the Garuda, but a strong wind is constantly trying to blow Emil off the stoneplate he is on and the Garuda swinging its wings can lead to small tornados appearing and getting into his way, meaning Emil needs to avoid them, all while getting closer.
• Certain areas in Child of Light, such as the grove between the Village of Capilli and the Plains of Rambert, have wind currents that force Aurora to fly in their direction; some are constant, others gust periodically.
• Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan: The Windy Archive, located in Cloudy Stronghold, is a Mini-Dungeon version. It's a library where wind currents perpetually blow south, so the player's party characters have to know where to walk to properly navigate the place and avoid being blown back to the start. Strangely for a video game series that fully exploits the potential of every gimmick seen in each game's dungeons, these wind currents aren't seen anywhere else in the game (not even in the Bonus Dungeon, which otherwise brings back many familiar mechanics seen in previous locations), though their functionality was seen beforehand with the sea currents in the Undersea Grotto from Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (and seen again in that dungeon in Etrian Odyssey Nexus).
• Golden Sun:
  • Golden Sun: The Suhalla desert is under a permanent sandstorm and infested with human-sized tornadoes that turn out to be caused by gigantic frilled lizards, revealed by pouring water/generating water while caught up in one. Getting caught in one without neutralizing it either results in getting sent back to the town at the entrance of the desert, or by finding the desert's secret boss and not fighting it, getting sent to the Bonus Dungeon.
  • Golden Sun: The Lost Age: The aptly-named Air's Rock (a pun on Ayers Rock, since it's also an isolated mountain in the middle of Weyard's Australia) is filled with statues that spit tornadoes that grab Felix and send him across chasms. Some need to be moved to reach different areas or stop blocking the way.

Sports

• Cheekybeak Peak in Golf Story is a golf course that's situated on a mountain, and often has much stronger winds than the first two courses, Wellworn Grove and Lurker Valley. One challenge there has you trying to hit the ball to a target zone in winds that go as strong as 40 yards per second!
• PangYa has wind on every hole, which is a given as it's a golf game. But special mention goes to two specific courses:
  • Wind Hill, in which the wind is not constant like on other courses; there are sections on each hole where the wind changes velocity.
  • Silvia Cannon has cannons that change the wind direction and raise the speed all the way to the maximum of 9 m/s. There's also fans that create what are basically high-speed upward winds, and helicopters that do the same but downward.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Terraria: Oddly averted. There is a wind mechanic in the game and viewing the weather using the weather radio or cell phone items can list it as getting pretty high, with speeds up to 70 mph being fairly common during storms, but the wind itself is purely cosmetic. It affects the movement of clouds in the background, the way that snow, rain, and bubbles move, and the direction of the North Pole's snowflake trail, but nothing else. It has no effect on player movement or even ranged weapon effectiveness. Played straight in the 1.3.3 update: sandstorms now may happen in the desert, blowing in one direction and making it harder to move against it.

Non-Video Game Examples

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: Windy Canyon is a maze of passages with magically enhanced winds to prevent adventurers from flying above. A family of powerful spellcasters use it as one line of defense for their hidden home base.

Real Life

• In real life, this is likely to be the case for Tidally Locked Planets with dense atmospheres. Such planets have one side always facing their star and the other side always facing away, resulting in extreme temperature differences that would in turn cause strong winds.

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