Video Game Physics

Chronicled herein are all the little things that cause objects in videogames to work differently from, say, objects in your backyard, for the purpose of being awesome.

See Artistic License – Physics.

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• Air-Aided Acrobatics
  Using fans or wind to jump to normally-unreachable places.
• Air-Dashing
  Bounding off the air to gain lateral momentum.
• Body Armor as Hit Points
  Rather than protecting bodily areas, body armor just gives you bonus Hit Points.
• Boom, Headshot!
  It's always better to go for the head instead of the torso or other larger target.
• Cobweb Trampoline
  A spiderweb is always used as a trampoline.
• Collision Damage
  Just touching an enemy will damage or kill the player.
• Convection, Schmonvection
  Lava and other superheated objects are completely harmless unless made direct contact with.
• Depth Perplexion
  In video games, foreground and background aren't always as separated as they appear to be.
• Directionally Solid Platforms
  Platforms that are solid from certain sides only (most notably, above).
• Edge Gravity
  Where the edge of a platform actively resists the player's motion over it.
• Floating Platforms
  Because it's much easier than building proper structural supports.
• Frictionless Ice
  A place or puzzle where every step on an ice patch makes you continue in that direction, unable to move or stop.
• Gravity Screw
  A Gimmick Level which messes around with gravity in some way.
• Ground Pound
  The player jumps, ducks or crouches in the air, and comes down powerfully onto the ground.
• Ground-Shattering Landing
  Characters who can land with such an impact that it can break the ground beneath them
• Hit the Ground Harder
  Characters who can speed up to beyond fatal falling velocity to completely or partially negate fall damage.
• Homing Projectile
  A projectile that constantly curves toward its target.
• Instant 180-Degree Turn
  A character or an object the player is controlling, can turn 180 (different number in 3D games) degrees in an instant.
• Invisible Grid
  A mainly 3D game mechanic that limits where you can move, jump, and/or land so that you are always on an invisible grid.
• Jiggle Physics
  That amazing programming breakthrough that gives breasts (amongst other things) realistic bouncing animation.
• Jump Physics
  It's very different in a Platform Game than it is in real life.
  • Double Jump
    You jump, then you jump again. No, it shouldn't be possible, but it's fun.
  • Wall Jump
    You know when your parents said you were driving them up the wall? Here's how you actually do it.
• Knockback
  Taking damage results in being knocked aside, whether the attack in question would reasonably be expected to do that or not.
  • Knockback Evasion
    Frequently, a method is provided to completely avoid knockback, even for attacks that should reasonable be expected to knock you aside.
• Ladder Physics
  Ladders in games act strangely, like letting you climb them while having both arms free.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid
  Lava is portrayed as way less dense than it should be.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…
  One must impact the ground to get killed.
  • Falling Damage
    When impacting the ground merely hurts you rather than outright killing you.
• Painfully Slow Projectile
  Bullets, arrows, or sundry other super-fast shooty things will move slowly enough to defend or dodge.
• Parasol Parachute
  An umbrella or parasol used as a parachute. Plus it keeps the rain off!
• Projectile Platforms
  Game physics so abstracted from reality that a character can ride what is ostensibly a projectile without changing its trajectory.
• Ragdoll Physics
  Games that use increasingly realistic physics for all objects, especially dead enemies.
• Recoil Boost
  Firing rapidly in a direction opposite of where you want to go will give you a good push sideways or even upward.
• Reflecting Laser
  Lasers that can reflect off of any flat surface.
• Road Runner PC
  You are always one of the fastest things in the game world.
• Rocket Jump
  Using explosives to propel the player to normally unreachable places.
• Selective Gravity
  Gravity is only applied to some things; others are totally immune.
• Set Swords to "Stun"
  A weapon's lethality is directly proportional to its user's desire to kill. Bladed weapons can cause nonlethal damage.
• Shockwave Stomp
  Where a boss or character can smash on the ground and send out a wave of energy that causes damage.
• Spring Jump
  An ability in video games that sends your character rocketing straight upwards, and is much more powerful than ordinary Jump Physics.
• Springy Spores
  You can use Mushrooms as trampolines.
• Sticky Shoes
  Footwear that sticks to sheer surfaces.
• Tele-Frag
  Trying to teleport somewhere that's already occupied. Leaves a mess.
• Tremor Trampoline
  When an earthquake or violent impact causes characters to bounce about.
• Vent Physics
  Conveniently placed air vents give you the boost you need.
• Very High Velocity Rounds
  You've slowed down time, and while enemy bullets will crawl like molasses, yours go at normal speed.
• Video Game Dashing
  From a complete standstill, you burst forward for a short distance as though you were strapped to a jet booster.
• Video Game Flight
  Video games that actually let your character fly freely about the world.
• Video Game Sliding
  You can pull off a full-on baseball slide from a complete standstill, with enough force to break down a wall. Oh, and you're most likely invulnerable to bullets while doing so.
• Walk, Don't Swim
  Your character can't swim when underwater, just walk around and jump higher, or lower.
• Wall Crawl
  The ability to scale vertical surfaces.
• Wreaking Havok
  Where the coolness of the physics engine conspicuously draws attention to itself rather than meshing with the rest of the gaming experience.

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