Lava crocodiles? We're in trouble!
Juni: Why is it that every video game has lava in it?
Francis: Technically that's not true. There's no lava in Halo. And in Metroid, it's molten magma.
A stage in a video game, particularly platformers, that takes place in a volcanic area or another area with pervasive heat, such as a flaming tower or factory, a volcanic planet or even a kind of Fire and Brimstone Hell. There are also variants that have a Green Hill Zone or Lost Woods level that is on fire. Almost always features large lakes of liquid lava. The puzzles and challenges in such an area generally revolve around navigating around flames and lava. Generally, the player will be fine as long as he doesn't touch the molten rock, and may be even able to boat across it on some vehicle. Of course, if they do fall into lava, it won't be pretty (Or it could be pretty funny).
The music in these levels tends to be percussion-heavy and angry and/or mischievous sounding, often with a tribal-sounding chant. Usually comes late in the Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography.
May be a volcano located in Prehistoria.
A Sub-Trope of Lava Adds Awesome. Compare Planet Heck. Contrast Slippy-Slidey Ice World. Hailfire Peaks is what you get when you combine this trope and the previous one.
Francis: Technically that's not true. There's no lava in Halo. And in Metroid, it's molten magma.
— Spy Kids 3D: Game Over note
Video Game Examples:
open/close all folders
Action Game
- Kanatia Volcano in Bomberman Hero, especially Magma Lake and Magma Dam; you take damage constantly when in the regular area, but you can avoid damage and regain life by entering little ice crystal zones.
- The old SNES SWAT Kats video game had one of these on the last level, as well. Complete with lava fireballs shooting up in circular patterns to be dodged/avoided.
- The volcano level in Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis.
- Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins:
- Stage 4 is a particularly enraging Lethal Lava Land called Scorch Mountain. The biggest threat here isn't even the lava — it's the frequent earthquakes from eruptions that stun you for 3 whole seconds! These can be avoided by simply flyingnote to stay off the ground, but then there's Pterodactyls to deal with... Thankfully, this Stage has only one part before the boss.
- Stage 4 in the original Ghosts'n Goblins and Stage 3 in Super Ghouls'n Ghosts.
- Stage 2 of Ghosts'n Ghosts has one point where both the floor and the ceiling are swathed in flames.
- Stonefang Mines in Demon's Souls. Home to the Lizardmen, a draconic god, and home to That One Boss: the Balr- I mean, the Flamelurker.
- Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain: Dark Eden, a land twisted beyond recognition in a project of the guardians of nature, energy, and states. And then it starts raining fire... This may not be a case of Convection Schmonvection, since Kain and the creatures there are all unnaturally resilient, and the world's foundations are rather loose by this point anyway. This trope is also used in the Dark World version of Nosgoth seen from Nupraptor's keep.
- The sixth level in Bujingai starts as a series of caverns which eventually brings you into a volcano. And you must reach the top in order to finish the level.
- The MSX2 version of Contra has two Magma Areas.
- Evolva: Levels 6, 7, and 8. There's also a single Lava Pit in level 5, but it's extremely easy to avoid it in contrast to the ones in later levels.
- The first half of the second stage in Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu.
Action Adventure
- Castlevania:
- Symphony of the Night's Catacombs area takes you so below the ground that at one point you go through a lava cavern. However, the lava is just part of the scenery. And then, in the Inverted Catacombs, there's a part with molten ice in the background. It's not water: it's weird.
- Harmony of Dissonance has the Castle B version of the Treasury, which has volcanic backgrounds in the hallway areas.
- Dark Souls has the Demon Ruins and the first half of Lost Izalith, while Dark Souls 2 has the Iron Keep.
- Metroid:
- Norfair in Metroid, Zero Mission and Super Metroid, as well as Magmoor Caverns in Metroid Prime; notably, in many of the games, Samus is affected by the sheer heat until she acquires the Varia Suit. Norfair also appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Sector 3 (PYR) in Metroid: Fusion is an artificially created desert and lava zone. Similar to this is Metroid: Other M's Sector 3, the Pyrosphere. You are required to run through it before you can use the Varia Suit, a first for the series.
- Bryyo Fire in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a variation; instead of lava, you're in various refining and storage facilities for Fuel Gel, a highly flammable, lava-like form of liquid fuel. Most of the puzzles in the area use it in various ways.
- There's the land of Uruk in Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Death Mountain in most games is, besides a mountain area, a volcano area. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the sheer heat of the mountain's interior, Death Mountain Crater, does affect Link unless he has the Goron Tunic equipped.
- The underground land of Subrosia in Oracle Of Seasons also features copious lava.
- The Cave of Flames in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
- Dragon Roost Cavern in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The game also features the Mini-Dungeon of Fire Mountain, which probably would have been a full dungeon had it not been truncated to meet the release deadline. There's also Bomb Island, which is optional.
- Turtle Rock fills this place in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The item obtained in the dungeon is a magic staff that shoots flames, and the boss is a giant fireball with a face.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Goron Mines, with the addition of some electromagnetism thanks to the machinery present, which makes use of the Iron Boots. There is also a lava-heated cavern near Eldin Bridge, and once again the Iron Boots will be required.
- Isle of Ember in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and by extension the Temple of Fire which is located there.
- The Fire Realm as a whole in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Eldin Volcano. Strangely, while falling in lava does only one heart of damage, there's a room were Convection Schmonvection is mentioned: your Exposition Fairy informs you that the walls are so hot you can't continue onwards without taking more damage than you have hearts (note that you can raft down the lava rivers on a floating rock without taking damage). Later this is rendered moot with earrings that protect you from heat (but not fire or lava).
- Death Mountain once again features this in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Its counterpart in Lorule has magma in its belly but is otherwise covered in ice. Turtle Rock is also the resident "fire/lava dungeon" (weirdly enough, it is located right in the middle of Lorule's equivalent of Lake Hylia).
- Eldin Volcano returns as the hot fiery level for Hyrule Warriors.
- The Volcano world in The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes which also incorporates Mine Cart Madness in one stage as well as the world's boss battle.
- Death Mountain once again has this theme in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You need special elixirs or heatproof armor to traverse it safely.
- Another Red Mountain, this one in Bomberman 64.
- La-Mulana's aptly-named Inferno Cavern.
- The cursed version of the Great Underground Mine in Tomba! 2 which has lava that keeps you from going down into the tunnels.
- Tomb Raider: Atlantis
- FireCage from An Untitled Story is mechanic version of this.
- The Oven from The Addams Family (SNES).
- Volcania from The Adventures Of Rad Gravity.
- The Sandcrawler in Super Star Wars inexplicably has lava in its lower levels, along with a Giant Lava Beast from Nowhere.
- The Scalding Gallows in Darksiders is a fairly minor example. Darksiders II upped the ante by including multiple lava-based dungeons in the first world you visit...
- Sun City, which is located somewhere on the surface of the Sun, in the Futurama video game applies to this trope.
- Hot Daisy and Burn Daisy in Crusader of Centy.
- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse has the Oubliette of Suffering, which features lots of lava to avoid as part of its nature as a Fire and Brimstone Hell analogue.
Adventure Game
- The inner circle of Atlantis in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a volcanic crater with fountains of lava pouring from the walls into the bottom of the crater and a massive god-producing machine in the very center.
- A.I.M. (Artificial Intelligence Machine, or Mech Minds if you're Russian) has the Volcano sector, where one must avoid vapor geysers, electromagnetic fences, ravines, and lava lakes of varying sizes. Not to mention the hostile gliders, who are more powerful than previous sectors.
- The planet Ortega in Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, which has its surface constantly reshaped by volcanic eruptions. It's also lethal to walk around there without first putting on Thermo-Weave Underwear. And even then, a fall into the lava pits below nets you a Have a Nice Death.
- King's Quest: Mask of Eternity: The Barren Region. You WILL get tired of hearing Connor scream when he falls into the lava.
Fighting Games
- The SoulCalibur fighting games often include a stage where the fighters are going at it on a rock floating in a river of lava. A ring-out involves the player falling in with a dramatic splash of flame, and yet they're perfectly fine come the next round.
- In Godzilla Unleashed, the impact of evil space crystals causes Seattle to become one of these, with a volcano erupting next to the city and smothering much of it with lava as well as birthing Obsidius.
- The "Volcanic Rim" stage in Street Fighter IV, which is located in Hawaii, and features an erupting volcano and fighters battling atop solidified lava.
First Person Shooters
- Borderlands 2 has the Eridium Blight and Hero's Pass.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II brings us 'Magma' for part its second DLC pack, which is a Japanese village being destroyed by Lava. Complete with Climactic Volcano Backdrop and lava rivers. Also, the "Green Run" Zombie aps that come with the game also have lava. although unlike the magma multiplayer map, the lava doesnt insta-kill you, but does heavy damage over a few second time span, leading to fast deaths if stood on for too long.
- Evolve had these in its initial stages, but they were eventually cut due to the balancing issues of both making lava dangerous and not making it a One-Hit KO.
- Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has this in the lower reaches of the Lair of the Blind Ones.
- Team Fortress 2 has not only Hellfire, a Mannpower map taking place in a facility right above ravines of lava, but also Hell itself at the very end of a match in Helltower.
MMORPG
- In World of Warcraft:
- Ther's Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, and Shadowmoon Valley (the Outland version; the one on Draenor is a Green Hill Zone). There's also the Blackrock Mountain dungeon complex which, along with including the infamous Molten Core, has what appears to be a volcanic crater right in the entryway.
- The dwarf capital city Ironforge has...well, a giant forge, filled with molten iron, right in the center. One would think the city would be a giant Dutch oven, but you know what they say about that. Back in vanilla it was deadly to fall into, but now anybody can survive for long enough to teleport out from it using your Hearthstone. Classes with healing capabilities and mages with their fire protection can survive indefinitely. And if you don't have any means to teleport out of there, magma becomes a Mercy Slap On The Wrist. At some point they put up invisible walls to keep players from offing themselves in the forges.
- The starter instance of Ragefire Chasm.
- Mount Hyjal in the Cataclysm expansion, the southern and lowest part of the zone has become a Lethal Lava Land due to Ragnaros the Firelord re-emerging to burn the World Tree. Lakes of lava, walls of flame, islands of rock, elemental giants of magma and a rare volcanic turtle. Patch 4.2 introduced the Firelands raid dungeon and the Molten Front daily quest area, which are this trope all over.
- Frostfire Ridge in Warlords of Draenor is a mixture of this and Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
- The Karamja Volcano in RuneScape.
- EverQuest's lavaland is aptly named Lavastorm.
- The planet Oricon in Star Wars: The Old Republic is almost entirely covered by a vast ocean of liquid rock. The small habitable island that players can actually explore is only kept stable by a mixture of advanced technology and sith sorcery.
- In Granblue Fantasy, the Valtz Duchy has several factories built over rivers of lava.
Party Game
- Several games in the Mario Party series include a volcanic board sponsored by Bowser, as well as numerous minigames that have lava pools (which usually disqualify any character who falls into them). Notably, the board Magma Mine in Mario Party 9 does not belong to Bowser.
Platformer
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Despite not entirely being this, most fortresses, towers and castles in the 2D games have lava pools, lava bubbles and rotating fire bars. In Super Mario Bros. 3, the mini-fortress in the sky part of World 5 has a lava in the floor and the ceiling.
- The Trope Namer is the seventh course in Super Mario 64, Lethal Lava Land, which is a relatively flat level placed in the middle of a distant sea of lava. Also in Super Mario 64, there's the course Bowser in the Fire Sea.
- Corona Mountain from Super Mario Sunshine. While short, it displays all the elements of a volcano level.
- The spin-off Super Princess Peach has Fury Volcano, which fits this trope to a T.
- World 8 in Super Mario Bros. 3 (where warlike levels are present as well) and all New Super Mario Bros. games (except New Super Mario Bros. 2, in which the lava level is World 6).
- Melty Molten/Hell Prominence Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy. There's also Freezeflame/Ice Volcano Galaxy, which combines Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Lethal Lava Land for an extra annoying time.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Shiverburn Galaxy (which also combines Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Lethal Lava Land), Melty Monster Galaxy and the Bowser Generator levels.
- Although Super Mario 3D Land does not have any directly lava-themed stages, there is plenty of lava in the castle stages as well as in World 8 and Special World 8.
- World 7 in Super Mario 3D World, as well as the last level in World 4 (Lava Rock Lair) and one of the last in World 8 (Grumblump Inferno) are lava-themed. Notably, in certain levels the lava is colored blue instead of red.
- The Luncheon Kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey mixes this with Level Ate, as the "lava" surrounding the area and spewing from the volcanoes seems to be some kind of hot pink broth. For a more traditional lava land, there's the inner core of the Moon Kingdom, and by extension almost the entirety of the Darker Side of the Moon.
- Yoshi's Story has "Blargg's Boiler" on page two followed by "Magma Castle" on page six.
- Yoshi's Island DS has the very aptly named "Yikes! Boiling Hot!", as well as the first extra stage of Yoshi's Island, "Poochy Ain't Stupid".'
- Yoshi's Woolly World has World 2 which combines this with Shifting Sand Land
- Mario Adventure combines this with Underground Level for World 2, Hotfoot Caverns.
- Occurs in the Corona Core level in Super Mario Fusion Revival because the sun is heating up the planet's crust.
- In the Yoshi's Island ROM hack Kamek's Revenge, The start of World 5, Hot Stride and Novaglint Crematory, are this. Later on, in 6-5, Blargg's Boiler is another example.
- Aladdin (Capcom) and Aladdin (Virgin Games) both have Aladdin's escape from the Cave of Wonders as a two-stage sequence of this. The second stage in both games features the Advancing Lava Wall of Doom.
- The prehistoric levels in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped are set in a volcanic swamp.
- Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter features the mining town of Lavasteam, where almost all of the levels feature lava in some form. Approximately two-thirds of the levels are actually in a volcano or cave near a volcano, and are filled with lava lakes and geysers. The other third of levels are set in factories which process the lava into...something, and fit nicely with the Eternal Engine trope. The first few levels are mine-themed and do not feature lava, probably for the sake of variety.
- The Pre-History Channel levels from Gex Enter the Gecko
- Hailfire Peaks from Banjo-Tooie is an interesting example. One side is a fiery volcano, while the other side is a Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
- Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge also has a Hailfire Peaks example, putting Grunty's volcanic factory within the last regular stage, Freezing Furnace.
- The Under-Gas in Little Big Adventure 2. Funnily enough, if you fail enough times in the second level in this sequence, the game takes pity on you and lets you skip it.
- Both The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire and The Sanctuary of Rock and Lava from Rayman 2 apply to this trope. They are also Temple of Dooms.
- A staple Zone type in Sonic the Hedgehog, with many iterations:
- Marble Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog, which is also part Ruins for Ruins' Sake.
- Hill Top Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, also part Death Mountain. The Game Gear version's first zone, Underground Zone, also qualifies.
- Lava Reef Zone from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, later brought back in Sonic Mania. It also counts as an Underground Level.
- Red Mountain from Sonic Adventure, which is also part Death Mountain and looks like it could be Fire and Brimstone Hell.
- Lava Shelter from Shadow the Hedgehog (with Eternal Engine overtones).
- Flame Core and Crisis City from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Crisis City combines this with After the End.
- Hot Crater from Sonic Advance 2 with Eternal Engine elements (noticing a pattern here?). Also similar to Sonic 2 Game Gear's Underground Zone.
- Evil Foundry (especially the Ifrit boss fight) from Sonic and the Secret Rings combines this with—you guessed it—Eternal Engine.
- Deep Core from Sonic Rush Adventure.
- Chaotic Inferno from Sonic Rivals 2.
- Eggmanland from Sonic Unleashed combines this with Eternal Engine and Amusement Park of Doom.
- Molten Mine/The Cauldron from Sonic and the Black Knight. It also has Mordor elements.
- Volcano Valley from Sonic 3D Blast.
- Sonic Blast has Red Volcano Zone, the fan made Sonic Robo Blast 2 also has a level by the same name.
- The Lava Powerhouse and Showdown levels from Sonic Spinball.
- SegaSonic the Hedgehog has Volcano Vault.
- Sonic Lost World has Lava Mountain, which ALSO has Eternal Engine elements.
- Gaspar in Ratchet & Clank (2002).
- Donkey Kong:
- Most of the levels in Crocodile Cauldron from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, as well as one in the game's resident Lost World. However the lava in these levels is actually just a cosmetic coverup for Bottomless Pits, so you can touch the lava (using cartwheel + midair jump) without it actually harming you, so long as you don't cross that invisible line where you die.
- Hot Top Volcano from Diddy Kong Racing.
- Donkey Kong Jungle Beat has no less than four lava levels: Grim Volcano, Ancient Foundry, Lava Cavern and Magma Coliseum. Two of the bosses even take place in a volcanic environment!
- World 8 (Volcano) in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
- One island in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has a variant that mixes this with Green Hill Zone, in that it's an African savanna that is being subjected to a pervasive brush fire.
- The End Is Nigh has Golgotha. Surprisingly, the lava is the least dangerous part of the chapter.
- Wario Land:
- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 has Stove Canyon, complete with obligatory moving Lava Wall.
- Wario Land 3 has Cave of Flames. Technically, The West Crater and The East Crater fall under this as well because they are in the volcano, but you don't run into any lava.
- Fiery Cavern
in Wario Land 4 is filled with lava spouts and lavafalls.
- Sweatmore Peak in Wario: Master of Disguise. There's an item called the Sweatmore Hotpants that allows Wario to dive into the lava without taking any damage, but he has to keep an eye on an enemy that can take them away from him, thus forcing him to find another pair of Hotpants before the lava depletes his energy completely.
- Wario Land: Shake It! has Mt. Lava Lava (no connection to the Paper Mario 64 one) and Sneak Peak.
- The old computer game Hocus Pocus had lava on several levels that damaged you while you stood in it, though didn't instantly kill you.
- Area K in Mega Man ZX. On the surface it's a geyser-riddled zone. Once you get underground, however, the difficulty starts setting in.
- Most of the Mega Man series have these levels for the fire-oriented robot bosses, including Fire Man and Heat Man.
- The first has Fire Man, whose stage takes place in volcanic area. 2 has Heat Man, who resides in a geothermal plant. 6 has Flame Man, Sword Man of 8 has a small fire area sequence, 9 has Magma Man and 10 has Solar Man.
- ROM Hack Rockman No Constancy downplays this; what appears to be molten metal in Metal Man's stage are one-hit kills.
- In ROM Hack Rockman 4 Minus Infinity, Mega Man has to deal with two sections filled with lava in Pharaoh Man's level. Fortunately, the lava isn't lethal and just only damages Mega Man.
- Parts of Junk Man's stage in Mega Man 7. Which can be accessed by using Freeze Cracker to freeze the lava.
- The Mega Man X series has the stages of Flame Mammoth (X), Flame Stag (X2), Magma Dragoon (X4), Burn Dinorex (X5), Blaze Heatnix (X6), Flame Hyenard (X7), Burn Rooster (X8), and Mach Jentra (Command Mission). Amusingly, Flame Mammoth's stage becomes a breeze if you defeat Chill Penguin first, as all the lava freezes over.
- Mega Man Legends 2 has the Saul Kada Ruins, which is also a prime source of terror.
- Mega Man Zero 2's factory stage that will be visited twice (!) combines copious amounts of lava with everyone's favorite mechanical menaces. Mega Man Zero 3, meanwhile, features the Aegis Volcano Base.
- Kirby:
- Hotbeat in Kirby Super Star's "Milky Way Wishes".
- Neo Star's 4th level in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
- Magma Flows and the "Fire" Top Ride course in Kirby Air Ride.
- Mustard Mountain in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.
- Vocal Volcano in Kirby: Squeak Squad.
- Lava Landing and Temper Temple in Kirby's Epic Yarn.
- Volcano Valley in Kirby Mass Attack.
- Dangerous Dinner in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
- Endless Explosions in Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
- Red Volcano in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.
- Level 10 in the SNES port of Prince of Persia, where you drop into what seems to be a volcano after falling from the tower in Level 9.
- Planet Scorch in Ristar is a subverted example. While the stage does take place underground, and there are plenty of earthquakes, fire, and other volcanic activity, there is no actual lava to be seen. Still, the stage is hot enough to give Ristar an Idle Animation where he tries to fan himself with his hand.
- The Jak and Daxter series has one in almost every game.
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy has three: Fire Canyon, Volcanic Crater and Lava Tube.
- Jak II: Renegade: The Dig.
- Jak 3: Wastelander: The Great Volcano.
- The first area of Stage 3 in Rocket Knight Adventures features a rising and falling tide of lava that actually has a reflective surface, as if it were water (read: it's not). This is played with shortly, as crystal formations obscure platforms above the lava and Sparkster himself from the player's view, forcing you to use the reflection in order to see the path and make the proper jumps to proceed. Oddly enough, the more conventional lava found in the third area of the same stage hurts a lot, but doesn't instantly kill on contact.
- Sector 4, The Oven, from Jumper Three. Sector 4 in original Jumper also has shades of this, having a red background and a large number of fireballs.
- Volcano Castle, Fire Field, and Lava Flow in Bonk's Revenge. The underground levels also have lava pits.
- Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions for SNES and Game Boy had this as its very first level.
- Arachnia in Bug!. So named because it's the spider Big Bad's lair, and it is filled with annoying spider Mooks. Besides that, expect loads of flaming rocks, fire ants (literally- they have fire breath), and instant-kill lava.
- In Jables's Adventure, the final area you explore is Squidville, which is located in a volcano.
- The "Be Prepared" level from The Lion King.
- The second half of Stage 5 in Alisia Dragoon.
- Fire Zone, the third level in Keith Courage In Alpha Zones.
- Entrance of the Guy and Incinerator of the Guy in I Wanna Be the Guy.
- Mafia Town in A Hat in Time is an island city when you first visit it, but it eventually becomes flooded with lava.
- Don't Look Back includes a passage through one of these (appropriately, as the protagonist is descending into the underworld).
- Monster Cave 4 in Wonder Boy In Monster World.
- Something series:
- The first half of Skulls Cave. Mario has to ride on a one-skull raft over a river of lava and he has to dodge obstacles.
- Chateau du Feu, which uses the graphics of Fire Man's level from Mega Man 1
- Intestinal Problem, which also happens to be a Womb Level.
- The 80s arcade game Xain D Sleena, also known as Solar Warrior, features a volcanic planet -named "Guwld Soa" and "Mars" respectively-, where one has to cross a lava lake in the depths of a volcano jumping over stone columns while jetpack-powered enemies attack your character -if you fall into it, you die instantly-. The remaining part of the stage is not much better, having to worry besides of enemies, of geysers that mean instant death too as well as volcanic bombs. Did we mention you have just one power up in the entire stage and that if you die after getting it you respawn in the next checkpoint without the possibility of taking it again?
- The Volcano level in The Smurfs (1994).
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure has a lava cave as its fourth world. Enemies include anthropomorphic flames, devil monsters, and bats. There's even a level where Buster has to climb to the top of the stage as the lava rises.
- The Cat in the Hat has Boiler Bonanza, a level which takes place inside of a household boiler and is full of white-hot pipes and searing flames.
- In The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Console), most of the Raptor's levels and the first of the Rex's take place in the middle of a forest fire.
- Stage 7 in Blaster Master.
- Vectorman 2 has three levels that take place at a volcano; "Fired", "Magma P.I.", and "Turn Up the Heat". The third of these levels involves Vectorman fighting an anthropomorphic fire monster.
- The level Isle of Fire in the fourth episode (game) of Commander Keen. It's not a volcanic island, but instead a regular one that happens to be in a perpetual fire due to some fire-made monsters lurking within (Berkeloids).
- Nihilumbra: The Volcano, which is, well, just that. There's even a massive lava floe that bobs up and down, preventing access to certain places.
- Hot Lava takes the childhood game of "the floor is lava" and runs with it, turning furniture-strewn living rooms, school hallways, and offices into lava-filled virtual parkour courses.
- The The Flintstones Licensed Game for the Sega Genesis has Fire Rock, an active volcano, as the fifth level, which includes One-Hit Kill lava, and a section where Fred has to climb to the top of the volcano as the lava rises. The boss of the stage is a fire dragon that stole Bamm-Bamm's favorite club.
- Conker's Bad Fur Day mixes this with Prehistoria in the chapter Uga Buga. In addition to the lava pools found around the dinosaur statue, there's also a sequence near the end where Conker has to race against three thieves in a racetrack made of lava.
- Ori and the Blind Forest has Mount Horu and its surroundings.
- Cyn-Der's Realm in Snake Pass contains burning coals.
- The Agnisort region in 20XX. A common puzzle involves navigating a selection of conveyor belts that are (of course) pushing you in exactly the least convenient direction.
Puzzle Games
- Meteos has three fields/planets that fit this mold in different ways; worth noting is that they don't always follow the "angry-music" rule. Firim is a fiery planet that's home to pyro aliens and features a rock and roll soundtrack, Jeljel is a magma/brimstone-infested Planet Heck accompanied by an Ominous Music Box Tune, and Hotted is a cube-shaped planet made out of molten and glowing-hot iron where synthesizers play the level's music.
- In Gems of War, the island of Broken Spire is volcanic, and seems to have plentiful lava; whether the resident Lava Wrym is a cause or a consequence isn't stated. The lava doesn't have a gameplay effect, though � it's just for flavour.
Racing Games
- F-Zero GX's Fire Field levels have the tracks suspended (at what appears to be) a few feet higher than the lava. The craft have shields, though.
- Spice Mine Run/Zugga Challenge, Fire Mountain Rally, and Inferno in Star Wars Episode I: Racer. As usual, the lava's heat only damages your racer if you touch it.
- Hill Climb Racing has a pretty basic volcano level.
- Even though Pokémon Dash features lava on several courses, The Pokémon can harmlessly run over it by collecting the right power up.
- Mario Kart has the various iterations of Bowser's Castle, and Grumble Volcano from Mario Kart Wii.
Roguelike
- Act IV of Diablo II is fought in Hell, which is probably as Lethal Lava Land as you can get. However, the lava actually behaves the same as walls and there is no way to step on it.
- Diablo III has lava landscaping in several non-Hell areas, including Leoric's dungeons and the lower levels of Bastion's Keep. You can't fall into the pits, but a typical trap has periodically-erupting lava underneath a grate floor. Don't be standing there when it goes off.
- In NetHack, some of the Quest sub-levels feature lava. And towards the end of the game the player has to pass through four "elemental" levels, one of which is fire, which of course means lava. If you have fireproof water-walking boots, you can stroll around on the stuff, and all those highly flammable scrolls will be just fine.
RPG
- Lava levels appear in some Mario RPGs.
- Thwomp Volcano in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
- Bowser's Flame Pipe in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The activity in here is what allows him to breathe fire.
- Bowser's Castle in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
- The Barrel Volcano in Super Mario RPG.
- Mt. Lava Lava from Paper Mario. In addition, Bowser's Castle has lava areas, but if you shut off the flow, it cools well enough to walk on instantly. And Rawk Hawk's training area (i.e., the send up of Bowser's castle from SMB) has its lava pits.
- Rumble Volcano in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
- Redpepper Volcano, Redpepper Crater and the bottom of Kiwano Temple in Paper Mario: Color Splash.
- The Karkaton region in Miitopia.
- Final Fantasy:
- Gurgu Volcano from Final Fantasy I.
- The Molten Cave (well, duh) in Final Fantasy III.
- The Underworld in Final Fantasy IV
- Great Sea Trench in Final Fantasy V.
- The Sealed Cave in Final Fantasy VI and, in a looser sense, the burning house in Thamasa. Also, Phoenix Cave.
- Cave of the Gi in Final Fantasy VII.
- Definitely the Fire Cavern in Final Fantasy VIII, which is incidentally the game's first dungeon.
- Ironically, the Gulug Volcano dungeon in Final Fantasy IX contains no lava whatsoever (as it's extinct).
- Ifrit's Cauldron and Mount Halvung in Final Fantasy XI.
- The Feol Warren in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.
- The Volcano in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
- Mt Gulg in Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.
- Roda Volcano and Tubola Cave in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has multiple volcano maps, and most of them are pretty small as maps go. The two aboveground areas of the Neslowe Passage are the only ones that are open by default. You can unlock three more by activating different wells during the Odd Places quest, which spit you out in the Sant D'alsa Bluff, Goug, and the Kthili Sands respectively.
- Chrono Cross has Mt. Pyre. Chrono Trigger's Singing Mountain would have been one, had it not been scrapped.
- Golden Sun has a lava-filled environment is the underground portion of Taopo Swamp. The second game has "Magma Rock", filled with puzzles that involved altering the flow of... you guessed it, magma!
- The cavern leading to the fire temple in Bravely Default. Doubles as That One Level to its excruciating length, strong enemies and treacherous terrain.
- The Romancing SaGa Series used this: Mt. Tomae (RS 1), Komulune Volcano (RS 2), Fire Palace of Aunas (RS 3)
- Tales Series
- Tales of Phantasia has a cave where Claus makes contract with Ifrit and Odin's Tower, where Flamberge can be found, assuming Nymph's rings are equipped on everyone to survive the heat.
- Tales of Eternia has Efreet's Gorge, where even the supreme water spirit of the world isn't able to protect you indefinitely: once Undine's power runs out, you start taking damage instead.
- Tales of the Abyss has Mount Zaleho, a volcano near Daath.
- Tales of Berseria has Mount Killaraus, another volcano which, due to being located far in the north, doubles as Hailfire Peaks.
- The Elder Scrolls
- Morrowind has Molag Amur and Red Mountain. The Molag Amur region is characterized by the presence of lava pools and rivers on the surface. The land is predominantly dark volcanic rock covered with an overlay of ash and cinder. Red Mountain combines it with Mordor and Death Mountain by adding choking disease-spreading blight storms and steep falls. It is also the home of the game's Big Bad.
- Crossing over with Fire and Brimstone Hell, the series has the Deadlands, the Daedric plane of Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Destruction. Crossing over with Mordor, the Deadlands is a bleak and barren realm, containing wastelands of blackened rock, seas of lava, and partially destroyed structures. However, the Deadlands subverts the "fire" part of the trope as, despite the flowing lava all over the place, mortals who visit are said to feel an "unearthly chill" within the realm. You'll spend quite a bit of time here during the main quest of Oblivion.
- The Temple of Pyrynn in Skies of Arcadia.
- The Primitive Cube in Blue Dragon.
- You actually take damage from this level in Odin Sphere if you don't use cooling potions.
- The Bard's Tale has an area actually called "Obligatory Lava Level".
- Mass Effect:
- In Mass Effect, the planet Therum features large lava flows which, of course, the Player Character can stand right next to without difficulty but cannot touch so much as the edge of a tire to without bursting into lethal flame.
- The Mass Effect 2: Firewalker DLC pack includes several worlds full of lava (as you might have gathered from the title). Fortunately, the eponymous hovercraft is perfectly content in even such hostile conditions.
- In a possible homage to World of Warcraft, the dwarf capital of Orzammar in Dragon Age: Origins is apparently set in a volcanic region, as are parts of the Deep Roads apparently at random. Oddly enough, the actual volcano you see the surface side of is quite safe. Aside from the Bonus Boss you can summon there.
- Dragon Quest:
- The Sea Cave in Dragon Quest II.
- Mt. Magmageddon in Dragon Quest V.
- The fire caves leading to Murdaw's Keep in Dragon Quest VI.
- Pokémon:
- Stark Mountain in Pokémon Platinum.
- Mt. Chimney in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes. In Emerald, they even added a cave underneath Mt. Chimney, filled with even more lava, and it actually comes with a lampshade from one of the Team Magma grunts!
- Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 is at it again with Reversal Mountain, at least in White Version. In the other, the area is filled with water. It's no surprise you can find Heatran in there after you get the Magma Stone.
- The Blackthorn Gym in Pokémon Gold and Silver and their remakes has lava inside of it.
- The Ys series has this in most of its games, eg Burnland/Moat of Burnedbless in II, the Ilvern/Alcaino Ruins in III/Oath, Fire Mountain in Mask of the Sun, the Lava Fields of Nelgal in Dawn of Ys, parts of the Ruins of Amnesia in The Ark of Napishtim, etc. In most cases, you can't even fall into the lava, due to Edge Gravity or insurmountable barriers.
- Mt. Zublo in Breath of Fire III.
- The Magic Knight Rayearth SNES game features such an area.
- The Rapax Rift in Wizardry 8, home of the titular demon-like Rapax.
- The Ring of Fire, and some eye of the north caverns, in Guild Wars.
- The Fire Spring in EarthBound is the last normal dungeon to be unlocked. All the enemies here are represented by flame sprites.
- Fire Mountain in MOTHER 3.
- Eternal Sonata has the Wah Lava Cave, though the only "danger" other than the enemies within is that they might catch a cold from going from one extreme of temperature in the Sharp Mountains to the other.
- In Lords of Xulima there's Vilak, the volcanic homeland of the demons. Without a divine artifact to protect your party, even going near the great lava lake will cause significant damage with every step.
- The Monster Hunter series has three different hunting grounds simply named Volcano (one in each of the first three generations) and the Volcanic Hollow from 4 (revealed to be Sunken Hollow in an active state) as regular locations, and Battleground, Sacred Land, and Ingle Isle as single-area locations reserved for particularly strong monsters. The heat of these areas will slowly drain your health if you don't consume a Cold Drink or equip an armor with the Heat Cancel skill, and the monsters that live in these locations tend to have an affinity for Fire.
- Pandora's Tower has Crimson Keep and Blazing Citadel. They're ancient foundries where the molten metal is processed to make new weapons and armor. Historically, that weaponry was used by the conflicting kingdoms that surround the continent.
- The continent of Cauldros in Xenoblade Chronicles X. Because of the high amount of lava, using a Skell to explore is recommended.
- Undertale has the penultimate stage of the game, the aptly-named Hotland. There's flames, lava and hot air vents everywhere, and the weather is dry enough to give fish-woman Undyne some trouble, though the spiders seem to find it hospitable enough. You can't fall into the fire here, but you can pick up a Frying Pan of Doom.
- In Child of Light, the innards of the sentient mountain Magna consist of lava caverns.
- In The Longest Five Minutes, the party's quest takes them to a volcanic cave near a hot spring resort appropriately titled the "Gates of Hell". In addition to the damage caused by walking over lava, some paths are blocked off by stray flames that can only be extinguished with Clover's ice magic.
Shoot Em Up
- Star Fox:
- A little different, but in Star Fox 64, Solar (the Sun) is a lethal lava land, and the intense heat causes you to steadily lose health. Your team members take damage too, but since they can't be healed mid-mission the level designers made it so they only take some heat damage when their dialogue box is open and the damage stops when fighting the boss, otherwise they'd all be dead one-third of the way through the mission.
- Certain parts of the DarkIce Mines are like this (particularly underground), as well as the Volcano Force Point Temple in Star Fox Adventures.
- The Touhou series finally gets one in the 11th game, Subterranean Animism.
- Burning Heat in Gradius II, the Fire Stage in Gradius III, and the second half of the Volcanic Stage in Gradius IV. The Volcanic stages in most of the games, while they have erupting volcanoes, are more of standard Death Mountain or Underground Levels.
- The Phoenix Mountain/Volcano in Kid Icarus: Uprising.
- In Galaxy Force II, Mission 2 takes place over a lava planet, with fiery plumes erupting from the surface in arcs.
- Chapter 4 (Fire Devildom) in Phelios.
- In Elemental Master, the Fire zone takes place on platforms surrounded a lava sea, with waves of fire shooting up from underneath, along with the occasional volcano spewing rocks across the player's path.
- A different kind of on-rails shoot-em-up but Pokémon Snap had the Volcano Stage.
- Darius II has Zone A (Sun Stage), complete with flaming flying fish.
First Person Shooter
- Marathon has a few of these, most notably "Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" in which you have to wade through lava and stay alive, and "Six Thousand feet Under, in which failure to avoid the lava results in death, along with a few in Marathon Infinity, particularly "Eat the Path" and "Whatever you please," which are both freakin' weird.
- Many levels of Descent involved lava at some point. However, there was at least one level where the entire thing was lava. Being the first game, lava behaved differently.
- The planet Brimspark in Descent II. And yes, the heat of the lava does drain your shields.
- The Stone Rain level in Shadow Warrior.
- Level 6-1 in Medal of Honor: Frontline has a giant blast furnace that you can knock Nazis into and watch them get crisped.
Simulation
- Dwarf Fortress lets you build a Lethal Lava Land. Not only does it give you a useful source of heat for forges and obsidian for building, it lets you drown your foes (or dwarves) in a sea (or river, or waterfall...) of molten rock.
- MySims Agents has the Fire Room, with both lava pits and flame jets. You can't walk or jump into either; the latter is part of the temple's puzzles, and the former just can't be crossed unless there's already a bridge there.
- One of the three final missions for Sky Odyssey takes place in an active volcano. As the player you have to fly in there while it's erupting in order to reach the games final goal. On top of lava plums that you have to dodge, you also need to avoid rockslides and lightning generated by the volcano.
- In MechWarrior Living Legends, the descriptively named 'Inferno' map takes place within an active volcanic caldera. Volcanoes violently erupt off in the distance and in the center of the map, the ambient heat level is enough to kill an unprotected person, and the lava flows will literally melt nearby battlemechs to death in seconds via Over Heating. The battlefield is extremely rocky, cramped, and vision is obscured by dense ash clouds. Flamer uses rejoice on this map, as the ambient heat level makes overheating enemies to death that much easier.
Sports Games
- Deep Inferno from Pangya. Complete with pyroclastic flows for "rough", lava pool "water hazards" and lung-clogging ash filling the air. Did I mention this is a golf game?
- Lava Dome in Backyard Football, which has lava on only one side.
Stealth Based Game
- At one point in Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf, you get a time machine that allows you to go to the prehistoric past. This past seems to be this.
Strategy Game
- These levels also exist in the Fire Emblem games, specifically Fire Emblem 7, 8, 10 and 13.
- Starcraft II:
- The game has a level that floods with lava every few minutes. Just to be mean, all the resources are in areas that flood. In a nice touch, the local fauna is programmed to flee to higher ground in the seconds before the lava arrives, except for the Brutalisk, who may be more focused on killing your team than evacuating the flood. One achievement requires you to kill the Brutalisk in this fashion.
- The planet Char is also a Lethal Lava Land in most of its incarnations, except for one appearance in Heart of the Swarm that shows an acid swamp. Lovely place, that Char. Probably the most impressive example is "The Belly of the Beast", which takes place inside a series of tunnels and lava tubes dug into Char's surface. Your job is to plant seismic charges that will flood the whole place with, you guessed it, more lava.
Raynor: Lava and zerg. Two of my favorite things. - Devil Survivor: In later days, one of the areas, initially the Diet Building, becomes "contaminated" and lava-filled potholes will appear. You can't walk in them though. And later, when you fight Jeze-FUCKING-bel, the area in front of her is a lake-turned-lava-pool, and ending a character's turn in it will damage that character's team unless its party is immune to fire.
- Barathrum from Total Annihilation, although this doesn't actually have much effect on game play aside from the fact that you can't build naval units given that the 'seas' are made of lava.
- Shows up pretty regularly in Rock Raiders. And they are much despised because your miners don't seem to realize that cutting corners across lava isn't a bright idea.
- A number of levels in the Dungeon Keeper games feature lava heavily. You can build bridges across it though, and some creatures can walk through it unharmed or fly over it.
- In My Singing Monsters, we have Earth Island, the final natural island that houses Quarrister.
- In Colobot, at least one planet is like this, with freely flowing lava and plenty of Convection Schmonvection to go along with it.
Wide Open Sandbox
- Minecraft has the Nether, in which the only three sources of light are glowstone, randomly burning netherrack, oh, and did I mention the oceans of lava as far as the game can render?
- Subnautica has the Lava Lakes, the Lava Castle, and to a slightly lesser degree, the Inactive Lava Zone that contains the latter and leads to the former. note It probably helps that the entire accessible game world is found within the crater of a giant dormant volcano.
Non-Video Game Examples
Collectible Card Game
- Cald, in all its incarnations in Magi-Nation.
Comic Books
- Swordquest: Fireworld is set entirely in one of these.
- The Brûlcan dungeon in Noob, located in an active volcano.
Film
- Appears with a Lampshade Hanging in Spy Kids 3D: Game Over's in-universe video game.
- Mustafar in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
RiffTrax: Hey. He's riding on a platform, floating on a river of lava. Just like, uh, part of that, uh... what am I...
RiffTrax: Every video game ever made ever?
RiffTrax: That's right. It's just like that part of every video game ever made, ever.
Tabletop Games
- An official expansion pack for the miniature war game Heroscape gives you everything you need to design your very own Lethal Lava Land!
- Some of the planes in Dungeons & Dragons fit this trope, particularly Gehenna, the Elemental Plane of Magma, and some layers of the Nine Hells. As usual, alternate-realities have their own laws of lava-physics to excuse Convection Schmonvection.
Web Comics
- Homestuck's "Land of Heat and Clockwork" combines this trope with an Eternal Engine style level.
- The uncroaking of the Gobwin Knob volcano in Erfworld created a permanent lava lake, impassible to all non-flying units.
Western Animation
- Gatto's Keep from Trollhunters.
- In Adventure Time, the Fire Kingdom. Notably, non-natives can't survive there for long without a magic spell to make them heat-resistant.
Real Life
- The Sun, and many stars in our galaxy are all literal Lethal Lava Land.
- Because Venus lacks plate tectonics, it is thought that every billion years or so, pressure in its interior builds up until a large number of volcanoes erupt all over the planet's surface, replacing nearly all of Venus's surface features.
- Our own planet Earth was like this at least a few times early in its geologic history, and it will again be a lava-covered world once the Sun goes red giant.
- Io, one of Jupiter's famed Galilean moons, is locked in an orbital resonance with both Europa and Ganymede that stretches it, causing extreme friction that stimulates volcanic activity. Io is so volcanically active, that it doesn't actually have a crust, and can replace every one of its surface features in less than twenty years.
- Lava planets, that orbit extremely close to their stars as Kepler-78b
, and being so hot that their lava could have water-like viscosity.
- For (liquid) methane-based life that could exist in places as Titan, Saturn's largest moon, at temperatures of around -200°C where granite-solid water ice replaces there rock and liquid water takes the role of lava, Earth with its oceans of liquid water and clouds of water vapor would be a hellish Lethal Lava Land.
- Hawai'i, the largest island in the US state of the same name, tends to skirt into this due to its constant eruptions. These eruptions are not directly hazardous to most of the island, but do produce significant lava flows which frequently destroy houses and cover the roads. Additionally, a few patches of the island are completely covered in solidified lava - although one can typically find the liquid state not far beneath it.