History Main / DepthPerplexion

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' uses ThreeQuartersView but lacks Z-levels--the jump ability instead just makes you momentarily immune to falling through holes in the floor. It's possible to, say, hit an enemy on the ground while swinging the sword at the crest of a jump because Link and the enemy are at the same height on the screen, even though perspective implies that the enemy is below and to the side of Link. This was fixed in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', which use the same engine.
* ''Little Red Hood'' is supposedly in a 3/4 overhead view, but if you jump in front of a tree, your head bumps into the trunk. Another [=AVGN=] explanation is at the 11 minute mark [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwgFmL31RQ here.]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'' had submarines which could only hit other ships; they could hit over land. This is a limitation of the pathing code of both games, although it's made up by the fact that a unit that shoots another makes itself visible (and thus shootable) even if you wouldn't see it normally.
* In the online ''Literature/WarriorCats'' Hunting Game, enemies can travel through tree stumps that you can't get past without jumping over them.
* ''[[VideoGame/WaynesWorldGrayMatter Wayne's World]]'' for the SNES has a level with poles that are clearly in the foreground, but still block players walking on the sidewalk.
* All over ''VideoGame/TheWitness'' in the environmental puzzles. A circle can be made of multiple objects that are lined up just right, then the line being traced can hop around various things that are disconnected from any other angle.

* The first ''VideoGame/WizardsAndWarriors'' game had floating tree stumps in the forest level.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' where you could hide behind the background of certain levels. This is wholly intentional, however.

* In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'', the Final Boss (Menace) can hit you (for a lot of damage) with a foot that is clearly in the background behind Soma. It even is of a darker shade to emphasize that is indeed in the background.

* ''VideoGame/TheUltimateStuntman'': The gliding segments attempt depth by letting you increase/decrease altitude, which changes the sprite's position on the y-axis and size if it's high enoguh, though it's hard to tell at what height other objects are and trying to fly through holes in walls (as you can't go over them) is nervewracking.

* In the ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' franchise, planes can fly over any space, but can't pass through spaces occupied by other units. Even ground units. Even naval units. [[UpToEleven Even submerged submarines.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheWizardOfOz'' for the SNES features some incredible examples. At one point, Dorothy is attacked by a mouse sitting on a fence in the background. You also need to jump on top of a large hourglass to progress, which looks like a background object, considering that half of it is behind a grandfather clock which you can walk in front of.
* In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'', the Final Boss (Menace) can hit you (for a lot of damage) with a foot that is clearly in the background behind Soma. It even is of a darker shade to emphasize that is indeed in the background.
* ''VideoGame/TransformersConvoyNoNazo'' has solid blocks that the player can't shoot or pass through. Enemies fly in front of the bricks, but they still kill you with CollisionDamage if they touch you.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' The Hammer Brothers are late-game enemies, known for being incredibly difficult to pass or defeat. They can jump up and down through blocks. The hammers they throw also ignore terrain.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' where you could hide behind the background of certain levels. This is wholly intentional, however.
* In ''VideoGame/SyobonAction'', you might jump in front of a cloud in the background before developing an irrational fear of clouds.

* In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', it's possible to shoot between high ground and low ground even if the ground should be in the way. It's also possible to shoot from low ground to low ground when there's a wall in the way.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'' had submarines which could only hit other ships; they could hit over land. This is a limitation of the pathing code of both games, although it's made up by the fact that a unit that shoots another makes itself visible (and thus shootable) even if you wouldn't see it normally.
* ''[[VideoGame/WaynesWorldGrayMatter Wayne's World]]'' for the SNES has a level with poles that are clearly in the foreground, but still block players walking on the sidewalk.
* ''Equinox'' is an early 2D game that simulates a 3D isometric environment. There is a minor Depth Perplexion glitch that can occur in the game due to the graphic layering that performs the simulation. [[http://www.flyingomelette.com/equinox/glitch.html Read here for a good explanation.]]
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' for the NES is a jumble between an isometric 3D view and overhead view, leading to this.
* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'''s most common enemy is a bat (in two sub-types) that flies "in front of" the walls. And it's definitely of the [[GoddamnedBats Goddamned]] kind. And because they are of the same color, they seem to fly BEHIND water and other objects that are behind your character.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Glider}}'' games had balloons, copters and darts that could fly in front of furniture ([[DeadlyWalls deadly to crash into]]) but caused CollisionDamage all the same. The games never had a strong sense of layering (it mostly affected graphics); it's remarkable that the thunderstorms in ''Glider 4.0'' '''don't''' kill you.
* ''Little Red Hood'' is supposedly in a 3/4 overhead view, but if you jump in front of a tree, your head bumps into the trunk. Another [=AVGN=] explanation is at the 11 minute mark [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwgFmL31RQ here.]]
* The NES game ''VideoGame/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' was insane with this, as shown in the picture at the top: Much like the ''Little Red Hood'' example above, the game played out in an isometric perspective, which factored into the collision detection, forcing players to swerve around towers so as not to walk straight into their peaks ''on ground level''.
%%* Seen in ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Super C]]''.
%%The above example is zero-context. Do not uncomment it without expanding it.
* Pretty much the same problem was present in the overworld of ''Mickey's Racing Adventure'' for the Game Boy. The Treehouse Glade in particular is made rather maze-like by your inexplicable inability to walk behind trees.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''
** In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'', Batbrains can fly through walls in the Marble Zone.
** Against the FinalBoss in the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 second game]], the giant robot's claws are to the sides of its torso, but if you try to hit the robot while one of the claws is extended, the claw will kill you.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames'' had numerous problems with that. For an example, a top part of one of the pillars blocks the player but the bottom part doesn't. Many screens use painted landscapes that have a lot of depth, but the gameplay is strictly 2D as shown [[http://youtu.be/xLxqfmpjB-U?t=6m37s here]].
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' uses ThreeQuartersView but lacks Z-levels--the jump ability instead just makes you momentarily immune to falling through holes in the floor. It's possible to, say, hit an enemy on the ground while swinging the sword at the crest of a jump because Link and the enemy are at the same height on the screen, even though perspective implies that the enemy is below and to the side of Link. This was fixed in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', which use the same engine.

* In the ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' franchise, planes can fly over any space, but can't pass through spaces occupied by other units. Even ground units. Even naval units. [[UpToEleven Even submerged submarines.]]
%%* The same happens in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games.
%%The above example is zero-context. Do not uncomment it without expanding it.
* The first ''VideoGame/WizardsAndWarriors'' game had floating tree stumps in the forest level.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rygar}}'' had this issue in the overhead areas. If you jump, your Diskarmor would register a hit on whatever was in the same place on the screen, even though your hero's shadow was about six tiles below. Savvy players could use this trick to easily defeat one of the bosses.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', Fire Imps can throw fireballs in front of blocks, but most of your projectiles get blocked by them.
* This is [[http://kotaku.com/5820692/there-are-unexpected-problems-bringing-old-games-to-the-3ds apparently]] an issue with making 3DS versions of older games. Each sprite has their depth coded into the 3D version, but some objects followed this trope making it hard to tell exactly what its depth was supposed to be. For example, imagine a bullet in an overhead perspective that makes its way from a shooter on the ground to the player in the air; on a flat screen, this can be thought of as the bullet increasing in height (moving towards the front of the screen) as it reaches the player. In reality, it was just programmed as a [=2D=] bullet; no problem until you're trying to code in how close it should be appearing on a 3D screen.

* ''Echochrome'' is Depth Perplexion: The Game. It's all about playing with depth and perspective: if an obstacle can't be seen - say, a gap in the ground that you've put behind a pillar - then it doesn't exist, and your player character (a little wooden artist's mannequin) will travel across it no problem. There are plenty of Escher-like paths to confuse you as well.
* You can't walk behind flowers in pot in a table in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''.

* In the online ''Literature/WarriorCats'' Hunting Game, enemies can travel through tree stumps that you can't get past without jumping over them.

* Since enemies in ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' take up multiple squares on the battlefield, there are plenty of times when you're blocked by them when it looks like you could just travel behind or below them.
* In the first level of the ShiftingSandLand state of ''VideoGame/TheAdventureOfLittleRalph'', there is a bleached skull that is in the background. Later in the level, there are bleached ribs, also seemingly in the background. Since the first bone seen was a background element, the ribs must be, too. NOT! The ribs are actually SpikesOfDoom that ''impale'' Ralph. This may give players an unwelcome and bloody surprise.
* ''Very'' evident in ''VideoGame/GatlingGears''. Almost all projectiles exist on one plane, so bullets and enemy rockets will ignore walls, structures and terrain, no matter what elevation. You can take advantage of this, however - for instance, targeting air units in the same way as you target ground ones.
* The exact same mechanics apply to ''Naval Warfare''.
* Obvious in ''VideoGame/DeadlyTowers''. The game uses an isometric perspective, but hitboxes surround entire sprites. Many sprites are much taller than they are wide, resulting in hits registered (on both enemies and the player character) even when, logically, no contact should have been made.
* ''Stone of Life EX'' registers a hit when the player's attack sprite hits the enemy sprite, while the game is on an isometric playing field. The player can attack by waving a weapon in front of an enemy sprite.
* The Digipen Game ''[[https://arcade.digipen.edu/downloads/perspective_setup?id=1170&proj=25930 Perspective]]'' is ''all about this''. You can switch from controlling the camera to controlling a character from a 2D platformer, and you can walk from one wall to another in 2D mode.

* In ''Mystery Quest'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem, the bats can and will fly through the ground and other solid objects.

* In ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', E.T. would fall into a pit if he touched it with his head.
* In ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games, some [[PowerCopying copy abilities]] as well as Kirby's inhale can reach behind walls. Whip can reach items behind walls, and a fully charged Spark (starting with ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'') or Plasma will always go all the way across the screen. Using this to your advantage is required in a few of the games' puzzles.
* Part of a puzzle in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII''; the puzzle shifts the camera to the perspective of a statue overlooking the area, so that stairs, walkways, aqueducts etc. look like they're connecting to each other when in the 3D world they're nowhere near each other. However, since this is Olympus and the statue is magic, while the effect is active you are able to treat the "illusion" as if it's real, and thus beat the area in ways that would be impossible with normal dimensions.
* ''VideoGame/MonumentValley'''s core gameplay is based around the same mechanic.
* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', not only can you attack in all eight directions (and projectiles can be fired toward any square on the screen), the game currently has three dimensions [[GoodBadBugs but altitude has no effect on ability to attack]]: a fish in a river and a dwarf on the surrounding cliff face are perfectly capable of exchanging blows so long as they are horizontally adjacent. In adventure mode, you can even attack units ''underground'' if you happen to be directly above the 3x3 tile square that unit in is the center of and have at least one visible target in range.
* An odd variation with the FL-3 "Shark" laser weapon in ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR 2: Project Origin]]''. Rather than [[SightedGunsAreLowTech ironsights]], it uses a LaserSight emitted from the muzzle, replaced with its actual cutting laser when you pull the trigger, to aim it. The problem is that someone apparently forgot how to properly program the weapon to always aim for the crosshair at the center of the screen, so the laser always shoots out straight from the muzzle rather than adjusting based on what your crosshair actually passes over - the end result being that, past a couple feet, the laser shoots out towards the upper left of the screen, requiring you to aim down and to the right to hit targets if they're beyond a certain distance.
* ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'': Remember how getting the more aggressive green Metroids stuck on bits of scenery was viable tactic in the first game? This time around it's turned against you, as several enemy types can pass through material Samus is hindered by, including the Metroids, who are all immune to your fancy shoot-through-walls weaponry. Although larval Metroids are not among them; it seems they are still required to play by Samus's rules until they grow up a little.
* In ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense'', things can get confusing when it comes to flying monkeys like the Ace and Helicopter. Their projectiles can pierce through several bloons in a straight line, implying that the bloons are at the same altitude as them. Yet bloons are also affected by abilities that are clearly on the ground, such as piles of tacks. And the flying monkeys are also clearly flying above them, not low to the ground, since they go over impassable terrain.

* In ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'', a resident RealityWarper uses "broken perspective strike" as one of her attacks. Her blade comes nowhere near her opponents, but the images for both overlap, therefore the enemies get hit. They are as confused as the reader.
* In ''VideoGame/TheMummyDemastered'', flying enemies can and often do pass in front of solid walls.

* ''VideoGame/WaynesWorld'' for the SNES has a level with poles that are clearly in the foreground, but still block players walking on the sidewalk.

* ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' for the NES is a jumble between an isometric 3D view and overhead view, leading to this.

* ''VideoGame/{{Echochrome}}'' is Depth Perplexion: The Game. It's all about playing with depth and perspective: if an obstacle can't be seen - say, a gap in the ground that you've put behind a pillar - then it doesn't exist, and your player character (a little wooden artist's mannequin) will travel across it no problem. There are plenty of Escher-like paths to confuse you as well.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' there was a cheat code for the Game Genie, STAGEO. It was a true GameBreaker, as it turned every enemy into the DemonicSpiders-esque Hammer Brothers. The Hammer Brothers could jump up and down through blocks, but it was rarely seen in the vanilla game. The hammers they throw also ignore terrain.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' there was a cheat code for the Game Genie, STAGEO. It was a true GameBreaker, as it turned every enemy into the DemonicSpiders-esque Hammer Brothers. The Hammer Brothers could jump up and down through blocks, but it was rarely seen in the vanilla game. The hammers they throw also ignore terrain.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has Pokeys that go right through cacti, even though the cacti block you. And you can stand on top of the Pokeys, as well, "riding" them past the normal cacti.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' where you could hide behind the background of certain levels. This is wholly intentional, however.

* ''Echochrome'' is Depth Perplexion: The Game. It's all about playing with depth and perspective: if an obstacle can't be seen - say, a gap in the ground that you've put behind a pillar - then it doesn't exist, and your player character (a little wooden artist's mannequin) will travel across it no problem. There are plenty of Escher-like paths to confuse you as well.

** This trope was still in effect in ''Ruby'' and''Sapphire'', and it was actually more baffling than before. Whereas in previous games, you knew that you could never walk behind a building as even its roof would block your way, Gen III was far more inconsistent with this. For instance, you could walk behind a building, but its collision data treated it as if it was wider than its graphics depicted it as, so its the highest parts of its walls would block your path even though it was evident that you weren't touching them. For example, by looking at a Pokémon Center's roof one would assume that the building is only one or two tiles long from south to north, whereas the collision data seems to think it's actually three tiles long (meaning that 3/4 of it was solid). And then there was the Cycling Road, a bridge that had areas that allowed the player to walk under it, as well as areas that blocked him or her despite having nothing under them.

* The otherwise excellent ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' suffers from this, in that sometimes, due to the overhead view, it's difficult to tell if a pillar is standing upright or lying down. It can also be tricky to gauge distance between platforms, resulting in several minutes of random wanderings until you accidentally stumble across the solution. Thankfully, it only happens occasionally.

** In the original ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' games, the player character could only move over objects or be blocked by them; thus, you could not, say, walk behind a skyscraper, even a road could pass behind it, because it's blocked by [[ThreeQuartersView your game perspective]]. This was changed in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' where you could walk behind lampposts.
** This trope was still in effect in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', and it was actually more baffling than before. Whereas in previous games, you knew that you could never walk behind a building as even its roof would block your way, Gen III was far more inconsistent with this. For instance, you could walk behind a building, but its collision data treated it as if it was wider than its graphics depicted it as, so its the highest parts of its walls would block your path even though it was evident that you weren't touching them. For example, by looking at a Pokémon Center's roof one would assume that the building is only one or two tiles long from south to north, whereas the collision data seems to think it's actually three tiles long (meaning that 3/4 of it was solid). And then there was the Cycling Road, a bridge that had areas that allowed the player to walk under it, as well as areas that blocked him or her despite having nothing under them.

* Even 3D games can have this. In the Onett stage found in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'', ''Brawl'', and ''For [=WiiU=]'', players are behind the road and are blocked by buildings, yet they get hit by cars that drive on the road, in front of the buildings.