History Main / SelectiveGravity

** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' has the infamous Mad Space stage where three of the floating land masses have a gravitational field, with meteors orbiting them and all. The [[CameraScrew controls]] on the land masses however...

[[folder:Action]]

While gravity in a game can clearly exist, you and your enemies being susceptible to it, you will find that special objects, [[NoArcInArchery projectiles]], power-ups, rows of blocks, [[FollowTheMoney coins]], entire [[FloatingPlatforms platforms]] and even some enemies can simply levitate motionless in the air with no wings or otherwise believable means of overcoming gravity's supposed pull. This is especially prevalent in space levels. Even objects that are on the ground, lie in a position where they should fall in RealLife, for an example, coins being upright.

** In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', you fight a boss (appropriately) named [[NightmareFuel Nightmare]] who changes gravity on you partway through the fight, changing your jump and movement speed and effectively rendering your missiles useless (unless you get really, really close).

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic 3 & Knuckles]]'' have a bizarre, possibly unintentional variation: if you go to a place where the screen loops vertically and there aren't any slopes or obstructions, it's possible to keep falling endlessly, and you keep constantly accelerating as you do - but because of the way falling is coded, if you fall too fast, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqkjN_M-zw you get integer overflow and start rocketing ''upwards,'']] decelerating rather than accelerating, until you stop completely and it starts all over again.

* Coded from the same engine as Oblivion, VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas has a similar levitating object in its DLC dead money. Complementary Vouchers are holodisks (think giant Cassette tape) that float in mid air if dropped. Unfortunately the complementary voucher is intended to give the player free money every three days, so every Voucher you carry with you to game break and don't spend on vending machine chips is a tactical choice. Players love to combine this glitch with one of the fact that each five millimeter round (intended to be used for the minigun) appears as a rather large ammo crate when dropped. Players can build diving boards, stairs and even houses with these two items.

** ''VideoGame/SidAndAlsIncredibleToons'' also has selective gravity for gameplay purposes. For starters, Sid and Al are the only animals in the game to be affected by gravity. Food and most balls (marbles being the exception) are affected by gravity, but machines aren't.

** Samus' bombs of all things. Jump up, lay one, and witness as it simply floats stationary in midair before exploding. In most games, this odd attribute has led to the [[RocketJump infinite bomb jump]] (IBJ) technique; Samus isn't hurt by her own bombs, but she still gets knocked back by them when in morph ball mode... or knocked directly upwards if she's directly on top of one. Meaning with good placement and timing, you can chain bomb explosions together to continuously gain height, making it one of the key tools for SequenceBreaking in nearly every entry of the series, alongside (the difficult, but often game breaking optional technique) {{Wall Jump}}ing.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', you fight a boss (appropriately) named [[NightmareFuel Nightmare]] who changes gravity on you partway through the fight, changing your jump and movement speed and effectively rendering your missiles useless (unless you get really, really close).
** This boss returns ([[{{Prequel}} or rather first appears]]) in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. Leading up to it are areas where gravity is flipped upside down or increased. Samus' gravity suit nullifies these effects.

Not to be confused with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_gravity specific gravity]].

[[folder:Sports]]
* Happens in ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Basketball]]''. But with a cheat.

[[folder:Action]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Clonk}}s'', animals and objects fall, buildings and the ground itself float happily. Oddly, FloatingPlatforms can still fall apart due to earthquakes.
* ''VideoGame/{{Glider}}'': Only the player's glider is really affected by gravity, which simply gives it a constant falling velocity. Any enemy that appears to be influenced by gravity (e.g. basketballs) is just moving in a fixed pattern.

[[folder:Western RPG]]
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', all items work like this. It is possible to make a stack of items, then remove the items on the bottom of the stack to leave the top items floating in midair.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'':
*** The game contains one of the most startling examples: paintbrushes can be picked up, placed into and removed from containers, and so on, but aren't affected by physics. A dropped paintbrush will remain hovering in midair wherever you placed it. This bug leads to some entertaining possibilities for the canny player, such as building stairways to otherwise inaccessible locations and setting up sniper's nests where melee attackers can't reach you. The paintbrushes are particularly dangerous as they are cheap and can be used to sequence break the whole plot.
*** Interestingly, this [[GoodBadBug paintbrush bug]] unintentionally makes up for the fact that the player-levitation spell was not carried over from ''Morrowind''. Naturally, both the spell removal and the inclusion of physics effects for all objects were intended specifically to avert different aspects of this trope.
* Coded from the same engine as Oblivion, VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas has a similar levitating object in its DLC dead money. Complementary Vouchers are holodisks (think giant Cassette tape) that float in mid air if dropped. Unfortunately the complementary voucher is intended to give the player free money every three days, so every Voucher you carry with you to game break and don't spend on vending machine chips is a tactical choice. Players love to combine this glitch with one of the fact that each five millimeter round (intended to be used for the minigun) appears as a rather large ammo crate when dropped. Players can build diving boards, stairs and even houses with these two items.

[[folder:MMORPG]]
* In ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' all computer controlled characters are immune to falling damage. This is to prevent players from exploiting it to kill monsters. Casting levitation on yourself and leading a monster chasing you off a cliff would be too easy.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', some game objects, like ore deposits and treasure chests, have collision properties (you can stand on them), but [[EverythingFades despawn]] after being consumed or after a period of time. This leaves a character who ''was'' standing on them apparently hovering in midair until they make any movement, at which point gravity notices them and they fall normally. Similarly, in older versions of the game, corpses became instantly immobile upon death. If a player died while airborne, their corpse (and later skeleton) would hover at that exact spot in calm defiance of gravity. This can still be observed under certain circumstances.

[[folder:Eastern RPG]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has Cocoon, a giant rock that sits in one place (while being inside the atmosphere of Pulse, the main world) with a civilization on the hollowed out inner walls. The source of light and heat comes from a fal'Cie floating in the center, though there's also big chunk of the shell that was blown off during a war. (Information can be seen [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cocoon_%28Final_Fantasy_XIII%29 here]]) Somehow, water is visibly falling from Cocoon on to Pulse. Considering this is ''Final Fantasy'', it's best to say [[AWizardDidIt a fal-Cie did it]].
* Strangely done in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' with gravity changing abilities. You can flip the gravity in four directions with Luiginary Gravity and even turn it off altogether with the Luiginary Nebula... but only Mario and a couple of things in the environment are affected. Enemies? They just keep mulling along on what was previously the ground without seemingly noticing that they should either be flying off into space or floating in mid air about now.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puzzle]]
* ''VideoGame/TheIncredibleMachine'' series is made of this trope. Every item is basically either affected as normal by gravity, or floats immobile in the air. Whether an item floats or sinks is based far more on [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality gameplay considerations than logic]]: for instance, paint buckets, cats, baseballs, and candles fall; baskets, alligators, 8-balls and lava lamps don't.
** 8-balls obey gravity, it just presses them agains your monitor's surface... The rest of floating things is supposed to be attached to the monitor's surface, apparently. Just imagine a wall-mounted alligator.
** ''VideoGame/SidAndAlsIncredibleToons'' also has selective gravity for gameplay purposes. For starters, Sid and Al are the only animals in the game to be affected by gravity. Food and most balls (marbles being the exception) are affected by gravity, but machines aren't.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' pieces descend into the well and lock into place once they've remained motionless for a half second. A row of the well full of blocks empties out, and then the blocks above it move down by exactly one row. It turns out that there are ways to clear lines and [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/Tetromino_art#All_six_single_floaters leave blocks completely unsupported]]. Only a few games have [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/Line_clear#Sticky "recursive" or "cascade" modes]] that allow groups of such blocks to fall into gaps below them, which allows the sort of chain reaction seen in other games like ''VideoGame/DrMario'' and ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo''.

[[folder:Action Platformer]]
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', you fight a boss (appropriately) named [[NightmareFuel Nightmare]] who changes gravity on you partway through the fight, changing your jump and movement speed and effectively rendering your missiles useless (unless you get really, really close).
** This boss returns ([[{{Prequel}} or rather first appears]]) in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. Leading up to it are areas where gravity is flipped upside down or increased. Samus' gravity suit nullifies these effects.

[[folder:Sandbox Game]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', only certain types of blocks (sand, gravel; partially, fluid blocks) are affected by gravity. Other block types are not, allowing them to float in midair and creating the well known "Why are the trees floating?" for those new to the game that aren't familiar with how it works.
** Sometimes the blocks that aren't supposed to float might still do so if they were generated that way. Such floating blocks typically fall [[GravityIsAHarshMistress as soon as you do something affecting them]], though.
*** Basically, if these blocks are generated as floating when they're not supposed to, then breaking those blocks will cause their sister blocks to fall down as normal and can cause a chain reaction.
* In ''VideoGame/ThePowderToy'', gravity only applies to powders, liquids, radiation, and some gases.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]
* ''{{VideoGame/Warframe}}'': in the first few tiles of the Infested Hive Ship tileset - your 'frame is clearly on the ground. Those crates clearly are not.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]''[='s=] Death Egg levels, there are switches that reverse gravity and let the player walk on the ceiling; yet they only affect the player and one boss, not any other enemies.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' has the infamous Mad Space stage where three of the floating land masses have a gravitational field, with meteors orbiting them and all. The [[CameraScrew controls]] on the land masses however...
** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Sonic 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic 3 & Knuckles]]'' have a bizarre, possibly unintentional variation: if you go to a place where the screen loops vertically and there aren't any slopes or obstructions, it's possible to keep falling endlessly, and you keep constantly accelerating as you do - but because of the way falling is coded, if you fall too fast, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqkjN_M-zw you get integer overflow and start rocketing ''upwards,'']] decelerating rather than accelerating, until you stop completely and it starts all over again.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', all items work like this. It is possible to make a stack of items, then remove the items on the bottom of the stack to leave the top items floating in midair.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'':
*** The game contains one of the most startling examples: paintbrushes can be picked up, placed into and removed from containers, and so on, but aren't affected by physics. A dropped paintbrush will remain hovering in midair wherever you placed it. This bug leads to some entertaining possibilities for the canny player, such as building stairways to otherwise inaccessible locations and setting up sniper's nests where melee attackers can't reach you. The paintbrushes are particularly dangerous as they are cheap and can be used to sequence break the whole plot.
*** Interestingly, this [[GoodBadBug paintbrush bug]] unintentionally makes up for the fact that the player-levitation spell was not carried over from ''Morrowind''. Naturally, both the spell removal and the inclusion of physics effects for all objects were intended specifically to avert different aspects of this trope.
* Coded from the same engine as Oblivion, VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas has a similar levitating object in its DLC dead money. Complementary Vouchers are holodisks (think giant Cassette tape) that float in mid air if dropped. Unfortunately the complementary voucher is intended to give the player free money every three days, so every Voucher you carry with you to game break and don't spend on vending machine chips is a tactical choice. Players love to combine this glitch with one of the fact that each five millimeter round (intended to be used for the minigun) appears as a rather large ammo crate when dropped. Players can build diving boards, stairs and even houses with these two items.
* In ''Elastomania'', not only do apples typically float in mid-air, but some of them change the direction of gravity when you collect them.
* In ''VideoGame/ThePowderToy'', gravity only applies to powders, liquids, radiation, and some gases.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', you fight a boss (appropriately) named [[NightmareFuel Nightmare]] who changes gravity on you partway through the fight, changing your jump and movement speed and effectively rendering your missiles useless (unless you get really, really close).
** This boss returns ([[{{Prequel}} or rather first appears]]) in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. Leading up to it are areas where gravity is flipped upside down or increased. Samus' gravity suit nullifies these effects.
* In the platforming game ''VideoGame/{{N}}'', the player character is pretty much the only element in the game that gravity applies to - the enemies, terminals, and even [[FollowTheMoney the gold]] all float regardless of gravity.
** Can be partially explained by having stuff mounted on the wall, since the game is strictly 2D.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' pieces descend into the well and lock into place once they've remained motionless for a half second. A row of the well full of blocks empties out, and then the blocks above it move down by exactly one row. It turns out that there are ways to clear lines and [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/Tetromino_art#All_six_single_floaters leave blocks completely unsupported]]. Only a few games have [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/Line_clear#Sticky "recursive" or "cascade" modes]] that allow groups of such blocks to fall into gaps below them, which allows the sort of chain reaction seen in other games like ''VideoGame/DrMario'' and ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo''.
* Gravity Man's stage in ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'' has barriers that change the direction of gravity when Mega Man crosses them, affecting Mega Man and some enemies but not others.
* The Outer Wall from ''VideoGame/CaveStory''. The player character falls down like normal, but the hopping enemies and any powerups affected by gravity fall sideways, against the wall.
* Happens in ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Basketball]]''. But with a cheat.
* In ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit 2'', powerups usually float, but if you hit them with your weapons, they will start to be affected by gravity.
* ''VideoGame/TheIncredibleMachine'' series is made of this trope. Every item is basically either affected as normal by gravity, or floats immobile in the air. Whether an item floats or sinks is based far more on [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality gameplay considerations than logic]]: for instance, paint buckets, cats, baseballs, and candles fall; baskets, alligators, 8-balls and lava lamps don't.
** 8-balls obey gravity, it just presses them agains your monitor's surface... The rest of floating things is supposed to be attached to the monitor's surface, apparently. Just imagine a wall-mounted alligator.
** ''VideoGame/SidAndAlsIncredibleToons'' also has selective gravity for gameplay purposes. For starters, Sid and Al are the only animals in the game to be affected by gravity. Food and most balls (marbles being the exception) are affected by gravity, but machines aren't.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has Cocoon, a giant rock that sits in one place (while being inside the atmosphere of Pulse, the main world) with a civilization on the hollowed out inner walls. The source of light and heat comes from a fal'Cie floating in the center, though there's also big chunk of the shell that was blown off during a war. (Information can be seen [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cocoon_%28Final_Fantasy_XIII%29 here]]) Somehow, water is visibly falling from Cocoon on to Pulse. Considering this is ''Final Fantasy'', it's best to say [[AWizardDidIt a fal-Cie did it]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', only certain types of blocks (sand, gravel; partially, fluid blocks) are affected by gravity. Other block types are not, allowing them to float in midair and creating the well known "Why are the trees floating?" for those new to the game that aren't familiar with how it works.
** Sometimes the blocks that aren't supposed to float might still do so if they were generated that way. Such floating blocks typically fall [[GravityIsAHarshMistress as soon as you do something affecting them]], though.
*** Basically, if these blocks are generated as floating when they're not supposed to, then breaking those blocks will cause their sister blocks to fall down as normal and can cause a chain reaction.
* ''Videogame/{{Clonk}}s'', animals and objects fall, buildings and the ground itself float happily. Oddly, FloatingPlatforms can still fall apart due to earthquakes.
* In ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' all computer controlled characters are immune to falling damage. This is to prevent players from exploiting it to kill monsters. Casting levitation on yourself and leading a monster chasing you off a cliff would be too easy.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', some game objects, like ore deposits and treasure chests, have collision properties (you can stand on them), but [[EverythingFades despawn]] after being consumed or after a period of time. This leaves a character who ''was'' standing on them apparently hovering in midair until they make any movement, at which point gravity notices them and they fall normally. Similarly, in older versions of the game, corpses became instantly immobile upon death. If a player died while airborne, their corpse (and later skeleton) would hover at that exact spot in calm defiance of gravity. This can still be observed under certain circumstances.
* Flavour text from ''VideoGame/HeroicArmiesMarching'' reveals that the Daevas are immune to gravity because of their magic.

* Strangely done in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' with gravity changing abilities. You can flip the gravity in four directions with Luiginary Gravity and even turn it off altogether with the Luiginary Nebula... but only Mario and a couple of things in the environment are affected. Enemies? They just keep mulling along on what was previously the ground without seemingly noticing that they should either be flying off into space or floating in mid air about now.
* [[FollowTheMoney Levitating coins]] are explained as lighter-than-air currency in ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s #7 [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_388_27-science-lessons-as-taught-by-famous-video-games_p2/ Science Lesson As Taught by Famous Video Games]].
* Believe it or not, deconstructed in ''Webcomic/KidRadd''. As in videogames, gravity is not a function of the world, but of the individual object.
* ''{{VideoGame/Warframe}}'': in the first few tiles of the Infested Hive Ship tileset - your 'frame is clearly on the ground. Those crates clearly are not.

* Flavour text from VideoGame/HeroicArmiesMarching reveals that the Daevas are immune to gravity because of their magic.

->'''Q:''' "APPLES DO NOT FALL UP"\\
'''A:''' "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint They're more like giant cherries...]]"