History Main / AirborneMook

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' had some enemies with the flying status, which meant that you couldn't use melee attacks against them unless they were guns or bows/crossbows. Alternatively, one could just use magic on them without having to open up the inventory all the time.

* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen 4'' has Skypests. Can't shoot them, can only crush them with your pogo stick when they land.

* The eagles in 1983's ''VideoGame/SpikesPeak''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' has several flying, ranged enemy types.
* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have several:

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' features flying space pirates. And, of course, wasps!

* The 2005 version of ''[[VideoGame/Area51FPS Area 51]]'' had the translucent, spherical aliens that floated in the air.

** The Mosquitoes in ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' wil attack you on sight and have a chaingun instead of regular machine gun, but are otherwise the same. Friendly ones could also be summoned by Elizabeth from other dimensions throught the use of Tears.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series:

*** Hyperion Surveyor drones, whose main purpose was to repair the Loaders on the ground and occasionally hit back at you with weak electrical attacks.
*** JET Loader, which was effectively the basic GUN Loader capable of temporarily transforming into a jet and attacking from the air. They weren’t much of a challenge … but same couldn’t be said about the [[MiniMook miniature version]] that came out of some ammo chests. Its reduced health was more than offset by ''always'' having shielding and being much harder to hit.
* ''VideoGame/DarkForces'' had the Imperial probes much like in the films, which flew around and attacked with electric shocks. There also were the Dark Troopers, which spent most of their time in the air due to having jet packs, were tough to kill and were always equipped with heavy weapons.
* Cacodemons, Lost Souls, and Pain Elementals (which [[MookMaker spawn Lost Souls]]) in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' had the Manhacks – small drones deployed by Overwatch, whose only function was close the distance and cut you up while they’re shooting at you. There are also the Combine Choppers and Gunships, though these are either bosses or justified BossInMookClothing.
* The iconic Helghast [[AttackDrone attack drones]] in every ''{{VideoGame/Killzone}}'' game since the second one.

* The Harpies from ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'', and the Flying Kleers, Floaters, Hellchicks, and Levitators from ''VideoGame/SeriousSamII''. They all possess projectile attacks, whether they be fireballs (Flying Kleers), energy projectiles (Harpies, Floaters, Levitators) or ''bats'' (Hellchicks).

* The so-called Electricians in ''VideoGame/YouAreEmpty''. Basically, they were the zombies with helicopter-like blades on their back that would fly dive down and attack you with their arc welder.
* In ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'', the macteras are winged bugs that will either shoot you with pointy projectiles (the mactera spawns), spit globs of sticky goo or cover the map with said goo (the mactera bombers), or downright grab the player and transport them randomly around the map before dropping them after a certain amount of time, or when a fellow player shoots the damn thing. It should be noted these are playing the trope perfectly by having the spawns be able to perform some very efficient evasive manouvers when targeted. The fact the grabber has a tendency to move the captured dwarf in front of other enemies, or drop them from the highest possible point of the map can easily infuriate players against it.

->'''Finn''': They ''fly'' now?!\\
'''Poe''': They fly now.

[[folder: Survival Horror]]

[[folder: Tower Defence]]

** The wasp-like Scornets fly all the time, and Winged Pikmin are needed to fight them effectively.
** The Winged Pikmin can be considered a variant of this under the player's control, being by and large vanilla Pikmin but with wings, allowing them to tackle airborne foes and move directly over obstacles such as walls, cliffs and bodies of water.

** ''Devil May Cry 3'' has the feminine Fallen Angels, which shield themselves from attacks with their white wings. They have to have them shattered while in flight to bring them down to the ground, then defeated before having time to regenerate them.
** Of note are the ''Bianco Angelos'' and '' Alto Angelos'' (White Angels and High Angels in [[GratuitousItalian Broken Italian]]) in ''Devil May Cry 4'', which combined this trope with ShieldBearingMook: their wings could also fold together as a shield.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'' has Para-''anything''. Any enemy in the game can have wings if you wish so. Including Bowser himself.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]

** ''Videogame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', being much more of a platform game than other games in the series, has several. Bubbles bounce around the screen in diagonals and take a ton of hits to kill. Aches and Achemen are bats that swoop down from the ceiling, Achemen turn into a demon when they land and spit fireballs. Mobys are a bird that swoops down out of the sky and beelines at Link once they reach his height. Bago Bagos are a skeletal monster head that take soaring leaps across the screen while spitting stones. Ras are the animated dragon head statues and the LedgeBats of the game. Moas are flying ghostly eyeballs - the orange ones in palaces try to drop fireballs on Link, the outdoor types just try to fly into him. Girobokkus are a slower moving, armored floating eye that are invincible when their eyes are closed. Boons are fast moving dragonflies that rain rocks down beneath them, luckily they're fragile because they're very hard to hit.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', Albatosses slowly fly through a horizontal line (almost always to the left, but the ones appearing at the start of World 6-2 soar to the right), while the Beezos fly faster (to the point that characters can only stand over them for a brief moment). Pidgits use carpets to fly in an oscillating pattern until they aim at the player's chatracter to harm them (in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', they replace Bullet Bills upon completion of the Special World and can fly just fine without a carpet).

** The Balloon Zombie. If you didn’t build the AntiAir cactus plant in time, his presence was tantamount to a GameOver.

** Paragoombas are winged versions of the Goombas, another common type of Mook, that first appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''. Yellow ones fly high overhead to avoid Mario's attacks, while dropping Micro-Goombas that stick onto Mario and weigh him down. They also lose their wings when jumped on.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' has both the Fly Guys and the debuting Snufit (a ghostly subspécies of the Snifits). Famously, Klepto the Condor flies in some levels and will take away Mario's hat if he's given the chance to.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Quadrones are the only winged variant of modrons, and often combine this with their proficiency with bows to serve as aerial ranged support for modron forces.

* In ''Anime/OccultAcademy'', the moth-like, eye-glowing "tengu".
* ''Manga/YakuzaGirl'' has the flying Yaguruma Clan.

* In ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} deploys legions of bat-winged parademons in order to deter the heroes. Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} destroy hundreds of parademons in battle, but the aerial demons succeed in slowing the heroes down.
* In ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'', Akatsuki's Zetsu clone army includes a winged variant capable of flying. The Shinobi Allied Forces refer to them as "Flyers". Kurotsuchi prefers to call them "Miserable Sons of Bitches" since their attack forced her to back off on her plans of overseeing the battle from above.

* The Jet-propulsor equipped Stormtroopers from ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. To quote Finn, "They can fly now?"
* The Winged Monkeys from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', creatures with the Flying ability are these. They can only be blocked by [[TakesOneToKillOne creatures with Flying]] or creatures with [[AntiAir Reach]].

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' has the Joker activate an army of toys, including a squadron of tiny attack planes that dive-bomb Franchise/{{Batman}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'':
** Some of the Decepticon Vehicons (also known as Eradicons) have jet forms.
** Then there's the Insecticons.

* Serious annoyance in ''VideoGame/Onimusha'' due to melee-oriented combat meaning a limited number of ranged attack options. This is especially true in ''VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams'' where, unless you're playing as Ohatsu who uses guns, you'll have problem to deal with them, as bow is no longer available. Mages are the worst, as they constanly float out of your range while casting curses on you. The most reliable way is to use [=Lv2/3=] charged Light magic attack.

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts 2}}'': One of the new mental world enemies introduced are Regrets, ugly bug-like creatures that try to drop heavy weights on Raz. Luckily they're vulnerable to you stealing their weights with Telekinesis and [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard throwing them back at your enemies]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' has Cliff Racers, a ''prime'' example of GoddamnBats. They appear all over the game's island setting, make an irritating sound, do little damage yet can make you flinch when they hit you, drop crappy loot, often carry diseases, come in [[ZergRush flocks of three to ten]], and their [[HitboxDissonance hit detection]] leaves a lot to be desired. They are [[TheScrappy so reviled]] that Bethesda took notice and, in later games, it is mentioned that one of ''Morrowind''[='s=] {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s [[TakeThatScrappy drove their entire species to extinction]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcuz}}'', by Website/ArmorGames, has Hornets, which can only be hit mid-jump. Same goes for the bats in the sequel.

[[AC:Fanfic]]

* ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' has many MechaMooks that could fly. These include Pipi, a robotic bird carrying an egg which it drops. If the egg hits the ground, it breaks into eight or so mini-birds, which then fly at Mega Man. Especially annoying are those "things" that live in BottomlessPits which pop out from them as you jump over, knocking you backwards and into the pit. The series' {{Mascot Mooks}}, Metools, have helicopter-propelled variants in Needle Man's Stage Revisited from ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' and Junk Man's Stage from ''VideoGame/MegaMan7''.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' has many MechaMooks that could fly. These include Pipi, a robotic bird carrying an egg which it drops. If the egg hits the ground, it breaks into eight or so mini-birds, which then fly at Mega Man. Especially annoying are those "things" that live in BottomlessPits which pop out from them as you jump over, knocking you backwards and into the pit.

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts 2}}'': One of the new mental world enemies introduced are Regrets, ugly bug-like creatures that try to drop heavy weights on Raz.