History Main / DeadlyWalls

The deadly wall is usually one of a number of things that makes for a NintendoHard space shooter. Sadistic developers may fill later levels in the game with tight passages filled with twists and turns, expecting the player to navigate them while the level continues to scroll forward. Sometimes navigating these passages is much more difficult than dealing with hordes of enemy ships, making one wonder why the BigBad even bothered constructing so many ships when a few maze-like passages (or [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just one big wall]]) would have done a better job.

* The [[SegaGenesis Genesis]] space shooter ''VideoGame/ArrowFlash'' had plenty in the later levels, and is a classic example of a game where they're your biggest threat after you've built up your weaponry (which all goes away if you die). One of the [[TitleDrop Arrow Flash]] moves gives temporary invincibility against them; just don't use it too late.

* The NES ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer'' is an {{egregious}} example of this trope. Like anything, walls will kill him in one hit, but what makes it really bad is the overhead levels, where his surfboard takes up a great deal of space and so much as grazing a wall with the back corner of it will kill him. It should also be noted it's hard to distinguish the walls in the overhead levels making it even more frustrating. And this completely ignores the fact that the Surfer's primary power in the comics is being NighInvulnerable.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' is a more modern example. In this game though, only the very center of the ship can be killed by anything, including walls. In some cases experts can go between a wall and a destructible barrier even when it looks like there is no space between them.
* ''VideoGame/{{R-Type}}''. Partially removed in the last 2 games: only the walls that you'd logically consider to be lethal (such as a large indestructible battleship) kill you when you touch them, but static pieces of scenery only create a shower of sparks when you grind against them.
** Or, in one of the more awesome touches in ''R-Type Final'', grinding against the glass outer wall of a skyscraper leaves a trail of shattered glass.
** Averted in the loosely related game ''Armed Police Unit Gallop''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' games follow this faithfully, and include an interesting take on the speed problem. The Vic Viper starts with the speed of a stunned snail, but speed upgrades are the absolute easiest to get and lets a player quickly boost the speed to whatever they're comfortable with. But speed boosts don't have a maximum upgrade level, so players can easily upgrade it to the point where a single tap will send them careening into a wall if they're not paying attention.
** In some games, like ''Gradius III'' and ''V'', there is a way to decrease speed. The former has a "Speed Down" powerup as an available 7th powerup, and collecting enough speedups in the latter will change "Speed Up" to "Initial Speed," which resets your speed back to normal, which isn't very necessary anyway as ''V''[='=]s maximum speed is tame compared to max speed in other games in the series.
** ''Gradius Gaiden'' has the Guard shield, which protects you from wall collisions. However, it tends to be AwesomeButImpractical because it is a big shield, which means enemy attacks can easily eat through its 3-hit lifespan.
* ''VideoGame/{{Berzerk}}'' featured walls that would kill you no matter how lightly you grazed them. The good news is that the walls were equally deadly to most of your enemies - the robots wandering around shooting at you. The bad news is that [[StalkedByTheBell Evil Otto]] not only wasn't hurt by the walls, he could ''pass through them as if they weren't there at all''. "The humanoid must not escape," indeed. The sequel, ''Frenzy'', made the walls non-lethal, but gave them [[EverythingBreaks other]] [[ReflectingLaser properties]] instead.
* ''VideoGame/SigmaStarSaga'' has the killer walls. It has a very annoying example of not thinking things through with the level design/game gimmick cohesion. The gimmick of the game is that the [[LivingShip ships are alive]] and have a symbiotic relationship with the parasitic armor the hero wears, which causes them to teleport the hero into the cockpit whenever they get attacked - there are 4-5 different ships the Hero could find himself piloting. Problem is, sometimes you end up in a ship that is way '''too''' ''big'' for the tunnel it has wandered into, and you watch helplessly as die.

* A partial aversion in the old ''VideoGame/FantasyZone'' series. If you got too close to the ground, your ship would just lower some legs and ''walk''.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}''; if you bang into a wall or enemy, you just get {{knockback}}. However, that knockback may very well send you into an enemy projectile, so be very careful, especially in cramped parts such as Segment 3 Behind and Segment 5.
* Walls in ''SoldnerX'' damage your ship on contact, and the second level is [[PlatformHell Deadly Walls Hell]].
* A Commodore 64 game called ''Star Ranger'' had a whopping six stages that cycled endlessly. The third and sixth were both some sort of tunnel maze with this trope fully active. And in one, if not both, the tunnel involved backward motion ''while it was scrolling''.
* The first game in the ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' series had a lighter version of this : merely scratching a wall would instantly set the player's speed to zero. The following PS1 games handled it a bit better, but then the collision handling became ''[[GoodBadBugs abusable]].''
* ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'' doesn't have these since you are on foot and can just stop before running into a wall, but one chase scene has them similar to Star Fox's mechanics, making you have to dodge walls, bullets and bottomless pits too.
* Floors kill you in the ''VideoGame/{{Glider}}'' games, but walls and ceilings of rooms don't. Cabinets, tables and shelves are effectively Deadly Walls, though, and they can easily appear in maze-like arrangements.
* One level of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' has a version of this. You have to move through walls of brambles in a spiral shape to reach the prize in the center. Hitting the walls at all takes a giant chunk of of your [[CallAHitPointASmeerp life watermelon things]]. Sounds simple, except the bramble walls spin back and forth, making it a great feat to get in and out without dying. Not to mention you do the maze as DK, who has a pretty large hitbox.
** Huge Chunk? It will take a whole watermelon off. And you only get three of those. And technically you can access this maze before you get the third watermelon from Candy Kong. (Since the second one is given to you when you buy the first instrument, and instruments are required to complete the game/access the bramble maze, you can't go in with just one Watermelon.)
** And before that, ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' had some bramble levels. Then again, since the walls are made of bramble (which has a lot of thorns), it's justified in both games.
*** Fortunately, when you're flying with Squawks (When Squawks is carrying Diddy and/or Dixie, NOT when they change into him) the floors do not hurt you.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' had a variation in one level. The player must control a rocket down and then back up a chasm while avoiding running out of fuel. In the second half hitting a wall doesn't kill you directly but it does waste enough fuel that you may not make it to the end.
* Averted in ''SpaceMegaforce'' (aka ''SuperAleste'' in Japan), where walls will only kill you if you get squished between one and the bottom of the screen.
* Likewise, in ''VideoGame/BioHazardBattle'', your LivingShip would only get destroyed if it got squished at the far left of the screen.
* The NES [[PortingDisaster trainwreck port]] of ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' allows you to have a lifebar, but touching the harmless-looking wooden door at the start of the game results in instant death. No acid poured from above, no electricity from the door, just turning Dirk into a skeleton, as the rest of the enemies usually does.

* ''VideoGame/LittleBigAdventure'' was a 3D isometric action/adventure game where the main character would take damage and get stunned every time he touched a wall while running. This could get ''very'' annoying because of the large amount of maze-like villages and dungeons in the game. They fixed this in the second game after lots of complaining from fans.
* The arena/sidescrolling hybrid shmup ''VideoGame/OmegaFive'' is an another aversion of this trope.
* The Japanese game show ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honoo no Challenger'' has an event where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod gives off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], including the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the NeoGeo system with a trackball controller and blasts of compressed air as the penalty for collisions, and a PlayStation game localized by Creator/{{Jaleco}} under the name ''Irritating Stick''.
* Averted in the ancient arcade shooter ''Omega Race'', where the edges of the screen and the box in the center (containing your score and extra life data) had force fields that you could bounce off of harmlessly. Of course, with the abundance of ''other'' things trying to kill you, it didn't ''need'' deadly walls.
* The ''AceCombat'' series uses them pretty heavily, mostly because aircraft smacking into mountains and buildings don't tend to stay in one piece. Particularly noticeable in the obligatory [[ThatOneLevel canyon and tunnel missions]].
* The classic ''Snake''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' actually has the [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim one giant wall]]. Fortunately, there is a power-up that gives your ship a WrapAround ability to avoid it.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Einhander}}'', touching a wall will NOT destroy the [[OneHitPointWonder player's ship]] instantly, but it will if you continue pushing into it.
** ''VideoGame/BorderDown'' does the same.
* ''VideoGame/{{Puggsy}}'' had this for the (thankfully) optional level 'Lunar Jet Pug'. It was a horrible combination of ScrappyLevel, UnexpectedGenreChange, ContinuingIsPainful and of course, OneHitPointWonder. The best part? Oh, you died. Instead of respawning in roughly the same spot with a few seconds of invincibility, we're sending you back to the start. Oh by the way, you now have to do it without the gun you just dropped. Have fun.
* Averted in ''DeathSmiles''. Not only is touching walls harmless, but if you get squished by a wall and a screen edge, you'll simply be safely pushed to where there is open space.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Life Force]]'' for the NES, even a force field will not save your jet if it hits a wall. This is most frustrating when the AutoScrolling picks up speed for a while in Level 4 [[FakeDifficulty for no discernible reason]].

* Averted in ''VideoGame/InTheHunt''. Your submarine can safely touch the walls.
* The refueling tunnels in ''Parsec'' for the TI99.
* The Genesis space shooter ''Arrow Flash'' had plenty in the later levels, and is a classic example of a game where they're your biggest threat after you've built up your weaponry (which all goes away if you die). One of the [[TitleDrop Arrow Flash]] moves gives temporary invincibility against them; just don't use it too late.
* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' had a level with an interesting twist where you drove a sort of underwater lunar-lander style vehicle, basically a glass globe with rockets attached, through twisty passages. It was hard to control, but one knock against the wall doesn't kill you; instead it causes cracks in the glass. The glass can get pretty beaten up before finally shattering (and killing you), resulting in some tense and hilarious situations, especially with the time limit.
* ''VideoGame/NightStriker'' has background obstacles that are walls or act like walls. The damage is justified because you just crashed into them!
* In ''VideoGame/{{Scramble}}'' and ''Super Cobra'', crashing into buildings and terrain was deadly. The base levels forced players to go through some very narrow passages.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'', the notorious Turbo Tunnel is a high-speed maze of one-hit-kill walls, some flashing at the edge of the screen to warn of their approach, others deposited on the ground by flying rats. The seventh level (and the second level of ''Battletoads'' for the GameBoy) had deadly barriers the height of the screen with small gaps to fly through.
* This is the point of ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'', a game where you control a triangle spinning around a hexagon and try to avoid walls that converge in on the hexagon.

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-> "Imagine if I were to draw a maze on a sheet of paper. I'm asking you to draw a line from the beginning of this maze to the end. You can't run into any dead ends and you can't touch any of the lines. Now while you're trying to do this, ''[[AutoScrollingLevel I'm moving the maze to the left]].'' It would drive you fucking nuts."

** And before that, ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry 2'' had some bramble levels. Then again, since the walls are made of bramble (which has a lot of thorns), it's justified in both games.

** ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' had a variation in one level. The player must control a rocket down and then back up a chasm while avoiding running out of fuel. In the second half hitting a wall doesn't kill you directly but it does waste enough fuel that you may not make it to the end.

* Likewise, in ''{{Bio-Hazard Battle}}'', your LivingShip would only get destroyed if it got squished at the far left of the screen.

* The Japanese game show ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honou no Challenger'' has an event where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod gives off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], including the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the NeoGeo system with a trackball and an air compressor, and a PlayStation game localized under the name ''Irritating Stick''.

* Averted entirely in ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}''; if you bang into a wall or enemy, you bounce off unscathed. The game is [[BeamSpam by]] [[MacrossMissileMassacre no]] [[MoreDakka means]] [[NintendoHard easy]], [[EverythingTryingToKillYou though]].

* In ''Devil World'', the ordinary maze walls weren't harmful, but the walls laid over them at the screen edges were.

* There is a Japanese game show where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod would give off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], which included the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the NeoGeo system with a trackball and an air compressor, and a PlayStation game localized under the name ''Irritating Stick''.

* ''LittleBigAdventure'': LBA was a 3D isometric action/adventure game where the main character would take damage and get stunned every time he touched a wall while running. This could get ''very'' annoying because of the large amount of maze-like villages and dungeons in the game. They fixed this in the second game after lots of complaining from fans.
* The arena/sidescrolling hybrid shmup ''Omega Five'' is an another aversion of this trope.
* There is a Japanese game show where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod would give off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], which included the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. At least one of the video games spawned off of this concept was localized under the name "Irritating Stick" (and an arcade game, no less!).

** Fortunately, when you're flying with Squawks (When Squawks is carrying Diddy and/or Dixie, NOT when they change into him) the floors do not hurt you.

* ''CrystalQuest'' used this in a sneaky way: the only deadly walls in the game are on the [[LevelGoal exit gate]].

* This is the point of ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'', a game where you control a triangle spinning around a hexagon and try to avoid walls that converge in on the hexagon.

* One level of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' has a version of this. You have to move through walls of brambles in a spiral shape to reach the prize in the center. Hitting the walls at all takes a giant chunk of of your [[CallAHitPointASmeerp life watermelon things]]. Sounds simple, except the bramble walls spin back and forth, making it a great feat to get in and out without dying.

** And before that, ''DonkeyKongCountry 2'' had some bramble levels. Then again, since the walls are made of bramble (which has a lot of thorns), it's justified in both games.

* Averted in the ancient arcade shooter ''Omega Race'', which had one screen, no boundaries (the screen edged wrapped), and the box containing your score and extra life data in the center counted as an object you could bounce off of harmlessly. Of course, with the abundance of ''other'' things trying to kill you, it didn't ''need'' deadly walls.

* ''{{Ikaruga}}'' is a more modern example. In this game though, only the very center of the ship can be killed by anything, including walls. In some cases experts can go between a wall and a destructible barrier even when it looks like there is no space between them.
* ''{{R-Type}}''. Partially removed in the last 2 games: only the walls that you'd logically consider to be lethal (such as a large indestructible battleship) kill you when you touch them, but static pieces of scenery only create a shower of sparks when you grind against them.

* the first game in the ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' series had a lighter version of this : merely scratching a wall would instantly set the player's speed to zero. The following PS1 games handled it a bit better, but then the collision handling became ''[[GoodBadBugs abusable]].''
* ''SinAndPunishment'' doesn't have these since you are on foot and can just stop before running into a wall, but one chase scene has them similar to Star Fox's mechanics, making you have to dodge walls, bullets and bottomless pits too.

* One level of ''DonkeyKong64'' has a version of this. You have to move through walls of brambles in a spiral shape to reach the prize in the center. Hitting the walls at all takes a giant chunk of of your [[CallAHitPointASmeerp life watermelon things]]. Sounds simple, except the bramble walls spin back and forth, making it a great feat to get in and out without dying.

* The NES [[PortingDisaster trainwreck port]] of ''Dragon's Lair'' allows you to have a lifebar, but touching the harmless-looking wooden door at the start of the game results in instant death. No acid poured from above, no electricity from the door, just turning Dirk into a skeleton, as the rest of the enemies usually does.
* ''{{Action 52}}'': In Micro Mike, the screen scrolls so fast and Mike is so sluggish it's nearly impossible to avoid the walls. And Starevil and Atmos Quake have shoddy collision detection that kills you from being a few feet away from the walls. Starevil is particularly evil in that the player has to move instantly to avoid running into a deadly obstacle in the ''first second'' of gameplay.

* In ''{{Einhander}}'', touching a wall will NOT destroy the [[OneHitPointWonder player's ship]] instantly, but it will if you continue pushing into it.
** ''Border Down'' does the same.

* In the 8-bit game ''Bubble Ghost'', touching any wall would make the bubble pop. The player-controlled ghost however, is invulnerable.

* In the original ''CastleWolfenstein'', bumping into a wall stuns the player for several seconds. Not particularly lethal unless he's being [[CollisionDamage chased by a soldier]] at the time...

* ''NightStriker'' has background obstacles that are walls or act like walls. The damage is justified because you just crashed into them!

* Floors kill you in the ''{{Glider}}'' games, but walls and ceilings of rooms don't. Cabinets, tables and shelves are effectively Deadly Walls, though, and they can easily appear in maze-like arrangements.

-> "Imagine if I were to draw a maze on a sheet of paper. I'm asking you to draw a line from the beginning of this maze to the end. You can't run into any dead ends and you can't touch any of the lines. [[ItGotWorse Now while you're trying to do this]], ''[[AutoScrollingLevel I'm moving the maze to the left]].'' It would drive you fucking nuts."

* As quoted above, the NES ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer'' is an {{egregious}} example of this trope. Like anything, walls will kill him in one hit, but what makes it really bad is the overhead levels, where his surfboard takes up a great deal of space and so much as grazing a wall with the back corner of it will kill him. It should also be noted it's hard to distinguish the walls in the overhead levels making it even more frustrating. And this completely ignores the fact that the Surfer's primary power in the comics is being NighInvulnerable.

* Floors kill you in the ''{{Glider}}'' games, but walls and ceilings of rooms don't. Cabinets, tables and shelves are effectively DeadlyWalls, though, and they can easily appear in maze-like arrangements.

* ''{{Gradius}}'' games follow this faithfully, and include an interesting take on the speed problem. The Vic Viper starts with the speed of a stunned snail, but speed upgrades are the absolute easiest to get and lets a player quickly boost the speed to whatever they're comfortable with. But speed boosts don't have a maximum upgrade level, so players can easily upgrade it to the point where a single tap will send them careening into a wall if they're not paying attention.

* ''{{Berzerk}}'' featured walls that would kill you no matter how lightly you grazed them. The good news is that the walls were equally deadly to most of your enemies - the robots wandering around shooting at you. The bad news is that [[StalkedByTheBell Evil Otto]] not only wasn't hurt by the walls, he could ''pass through them as if they weren't there at all''. "The humanoid must not escape," indeed. The sequel, ''Frenzy'', made the walls non-lethal, but gave them [[EverythingBreaks other]] [[ReflectingLaser properties]] instead.
* The RPG/Side-scrolling shooter fusion game ''SigmaStarSaga'' has the killer walls. It has a very annoying example of not thinking things through with the level design/game gimmick cohesion. The gimmick of the game is that the [[LivingShip ships are alive]] and have a symbiotic relationship with the parasitic armor the hero wears, which causes them to teleport the hero into the cockpit whenever they get attacked - there are 4-5 different ships the Hero could find himself piloting. Problem is, sometimes you end up in a ship that is way '''too''' ''big'' for the tunnel it has wandered into, and you watch helplessly as die.

* A partial aversion in the old ''FantasyZone'' series. If you got too close to the ground, your ship would just lower some legs and ''walk''.
* Averted entirely in the Doujinshi shooter ''{{Hellsinker}}''; if you bang into a wall or enemy, you bounce off unscathed. The game is [[BeamSpam by]] [[MacrossMissileMassacre no]] [[MoreDakka means]] [[NintendoHard easy]], [[EverythingTryingToKillYou though]].

* In ''Life Force'' for the NES, even a force field will not save your jet if it hits a wall. This is most frustrating when the AutoScrolling picks up speed for a while in Level 4 [[FakeDifficulty for no discernible reason]].

* Averted in ''InTheHunt''. Your submarine can safely touch the walls.

** ''Gradius Gaiden'' has the Guard shield, which protects you from wall collisions. However, it tends to be AwesomeButImpractical because it is a big shield, which means enemy attacks can easily eat through its 3-hit lifespan.

* The RPG/Side-scrolling shooter fusion game ''SigmaStarSaga'' has the killer walls. It has a very annoying example of not thinking things through with the level design/game gimmick cohesion. The gimmick of the game is that the [[LivingShip ships are alive]] and have a symbiotic relationship with the parasitic armor the hero wears, which causes them to teleport the hero into the cockpit whenever they get attacked - there are 4-5 different ships the Hero could find himself piloting. Problem is, sometimes you end up in a ship that is way '''too''' ''big'' for the tunnel it has wandered into, and you watch helplessly as die.

* ''{{Parodius}}'' actually has the [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim one giant wall]]. Fortunately, there is a power-up that gives your ship a WrapAround ability to avoid it.

* Averted in ''{{DeathSmiles}}''. Not only is touching walls harmless, but if you get squished by a wall and a screen edge, you'll simply be safely pushed to where there is open space.

* The refueling tunnels in ''Parsec'' for the {{TI99}}.

* The Genesis/Mega Drive game ''{{Puggsy}}'' had this for the (thankfully) optional level 'Lunar Jet Pug'. It was a horrible combination of ScrappyLevel, UnexpectedGenreChange, ContinuingIsPainful and of course, OneHitPointWonder. The best part? Oh, you died. Instead of respawning in roughly the same spot with a few seconds of invincibility, we're sending you back to the start. Oh by the way, you now have to do it without the gun you just dropped. Have fun.

* ''{{Action 52}}'': In Micro Mike, the screen scrolls so fast and Mike is so sluggish it's nearly impossible to avoid the walls. And Starevil and Atmos Quake have shoddy collision detection that kills you from being a few feet away from the walls. Starevil is particularly evil in that the player can be killed by a deadly obstacle in the ''first second'' of gameplay.

-->-- '''WebOriginal/TheAngryVideoGameNerd''' on ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer''

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To add insult to injury, most older consoles such as the NES have digital d-pads. The luxury of an analog stick, where tilting the stick slightly moves the ship slowly, does not exist on these consoles. The combination of these touchy controls with a forced scrolling level filled with narrow twisty passages is enough to inspire plenty of controller throwing moments.

* In ''Life Force'' for the NES, even a force field will not save your jet if it hits a wall. This is most frustrating when the ForcedScrolling picks up speed for a while in Level 4 [[FakeDifficulty for no discernible reason]].

This trope is most common with ForcedScrolling games, especially in Space Shooters in which [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything]] kills you in [[OneHitPointWonder one hit]]. Even if your ship scrolls along at a relatively slow rate, if a corner of your ship so much as grazes the wall beside you, you will violently explode.