Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Lethal Lava Land / Platform Game

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freedomplanetlava2.png

Examples of Lethal Lava Land in Platform Games.

  • Banjo-Kazooie:
    • The original game has two sections in Gruntilda's Lair with lava at the bottom. The first is merely a transient area between major locations (its only notable features are the picture that enables access to Gobi's Valley and a secret cache where Cheato is); but the second is the Grunty's Furnace Fun minigame, set in a Pop Quiz board above a pool of lava to which the duo will fall if they fail to answer questions within certain critical tiles. The game was planned to have a full lava world ("Mount Fire Eyes"), but it was scrapped due to time constraints; Gobi the Camel mentions going to "the lava world", though he finally makes it to the Lava Side of Hailfire Peaks, which is a recycled version of Mount Fire Eyes. The lava chamber in Grunty's Lair was meant to have been the intended entrance to this scrapped world.
    • Banjo-Tooie:
      • One of the main attractions in Witchyworld is a Planet Heck location called the Inferno. It's almost completely overrun in lava, and features a spiral building that has to be climbed quickly to the top in order to reach a Jiggy.
      • Hailfire Peaks is an interesting example. One side is a volcano, while the other side is a Slippy-Slidey Ice World. In the fire side, not only is lava plentiful, but the pool of water located here is too hot to be usable (for an earlier world's sidequest) until a method to cool it down is employed in a later level. Hotheads (fire imps) are common as well, and the interior of the volcano is so hot that the Oxygen Meter of Banjo and Kazooie will start depleting. Both sides of Hailfire Peaks have dragon bosses that lob giant rocks at the duo from time to time until they're defeated. This level was originally intended for Banjo-Kazooie as Mount Fire Eyes, but got pushed due to time constraints.
    • Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge also has a Hailfire Peaks example, putting Grunty's volcanic factory within the last regular stage, Freezing Furnace. It is a volcanic cavern that features a large lake of lava that is fueled from machinery that has been built inside. There's a part of this lake that can only be traversed with a moving platform.
  • Bug!: Arachnia. So named because it's the spider Big Bad's lair, and it is filled with annoying spider Mooks. Besides that, expect loads of flaming rocks, fire ants (literally -- they have fire breath), and instant-kill lava.
  • The Cat in the Hat has Boiler Bonanza, a level which takes place inside of a household boiler and is full of white-hot pipes and searing flames.
  • Commander Keen: The Isle of Fire in the fourth episode (game). It's not a volcanic island, but instead a regular one that happens to be in a perpetual fire due to some fire-made monsters lurking within (Berkeloids).
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day mixes this with Prehistoria in the chapter Uga Buga. In addition to the lava pools found around the dinosaur statue, there's also a sequence near the end where Conker has to race against three thieves in a racetrack made of lava.
  • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: The prehistoric levels are set in a volcanic swamp. Lava is survivable (Crash only loses a life if he isn't being protected by Aku Aku when he touches it), but it's a big inconvenience when he's running away from the dinosaurs that attempt to charge at him (especially since he also has to avoid the patches of grass that slow him down).
  • Disney's Magical Quest: The third level is Fire Grotto, an underground cavern filled with streams of fire blazing about. Mickey (and Minnie in the GBA remaster) get the Firefighter costume after defeating the third mid-boss, allowing them to spew out water from their fire hose to put out the flames as they progress through the world.
  • Donald Duck games:
  • Donkey Kong:
    • Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: Most of the levels in Crocodile Cauldron, as well as one in the game's resident Lost World. However, the lava in these levels is actually just a cosmetic coverup for Bottomless Pits, so you can touch the lava (using cartwheel + midair jump) without it actually harming you, so long as you don't cross that invisible line where you die.
    • Hot Top Volcano from Diddy Kong Racing.
    • Donkey Kong Jungle Beat has no less than four lava levels: Grim Volcano, Ancient Foundry, Lava Cavern and Magma Coliseum. Two of the bosses even take place in a volcanic environment!
    • Donkey Kong Country Returns: World 8 (Volcano) in serves as the final standard world. It is here where the Big Bad (Tiki Tong) is located, and it was there where he was inactive until the volcano's eruption. Features include hovering balls of fire, lava drops, fiery enemies and rivers of magma. Even the minecart and rocket levels have the Kongs deal with geyser-like lava eruptions, and dealing with them requires good reflexes.
    • Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: One island in the game has a variant that mixes this with Green Hill Zone, in that it's an African savanna that is being subjected to a pervasive brush fire. Near the end of the game, the Kongs go through a traditional volcanic level when revisiting the Volcano region of their own island.
  • Don't Look Back includes a passage through one of these (appropriately, as the protagonist is descending into the underworld).
  • Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter features the mining town of Lavasteam, where almost all of the levels feature lava in some form. Approximately two-thirds of the levels are actually in a volcano or cave near a volcano, and are filled with lava lakes and geysers. The other third of levels are set in factories which process the lava into...something, and fit nicely with the Eternal Engine trope. The first few levels are mine-themed and do not feature lava, probably for the sake of variety.
  • The End Is Nigh has Golgotha. Surprisingly, the lava is the least dangerous part of the chapter.
  • The The Flintstones Licensed Game for the Sega Genesis has Fire Rock, an active volcano, as the fifth level, which includes One-Hit Kill lava, and a section where Fred has to climb to the top of the volcano as the lava rises. The boss of the stage is a fire dragon that stole Bamm-Bamm's favorite club.
  • Magma Starscape from Freedom Planet 2 (pictured) is set within Parusa's volcano's interior. As such, the player has to avoid being burnt alive by the molten hot lava as there is a meter displayed that shows how hot the player character is. To avoid this, they must hide behind purple crystalline walls spread throughout the level.
  • Garfield's Nightmare: World 2 takes place in a burning wasteland with active volcanoes. Touching lava spells instant death for Garfield, and some fireballs will periodically jump from it as well. Jumping between pendulums and moving platforms requires good timing to avoid falling down. Some levels also have small volcanic geysers from which streams of fire erupt periodically.
  • The Pre-History Channel levels from Gex Enter the Gecko
  • Mafia Town in A Hat in Time is an island city when you first visit it, but it eventually becomes flooded with lava.
  • The old computer game Hocus Pocus had lava on several levels that damaged you while you stood in it, though didn't instantly kill you.
  • Hot Lava takes the childhood game of "the floor is lava" and runs with it, turning furniture-strewn living rooms, school hallways, and offices into lava-filled virtual parkour courses.
  • Entrance of the Guy and Incinerator of the Guy in I Wanna Be the Guy.
  • In Jables's Adventure, the final area you explore is Squidville, which is located in a volcano.
  • The Jak and Daxter series has one in almost every game.
    • Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy has three: Fire Canyon, Volcanic Crater and Lava Tube. The former and the latter are prolonged passageways where lava flows like a river, so they can only be traversed with a Zoomer (and Jak must keep an eye on the vehicle's heat shield, as failing to gather cooling balloons along the way to lower its temperature will lead to its explosion, killing Jak instantly). The second area is a standard Hub Level like the Sandover and Rock Villages that connects with other areas (including the aforementioned Lava Tube, which in turn leads to the final level in the game); but unlike the other hubs which were Palmtree Panic areas, this one is a perilous magma cavern where a single misstep while jumping between platforms can lead to falling into the hot pit and die instantly.
  • Sector 4, The Oven, from Jumper Three. Sector 4 in original Jumper also has shades of this, having a red background and a large number of fireballs.
  • Fire Zone, the third level in Keith Courage in Alpha Zones.
  • A ton of Kirby games have these, usually as the half-way point or penultimate level:
  • The "Be Prepared" level from The Lion King, based loosely on a scene cut from the film itself in which Simba ventured through a cave filled with steam geysers on his way back to the Pridelands. Due to the level's palatte, the in-game geysers look more like they're made of magma rather than steam. The level even features magma dripping from the ceiling, and sections in which Simba stands on a tiny piece of rock floating across a magma lake, while he's harassed by Ledge Bats the entire way across.
  • The Under-Gas in Little Big Adventure 2. Funnily enough, if you fail enough times in the second level in this sequence, the game takes pity on you and lets you skip it.
  • Looney Tunes games:
  • In Lost Home, the fourth and final world is a volcano. Although the first few levels of the world are simple Underground Levels, the later ones begin to feature lava, which gradually becomes more prominent as the player progresses.
  • In The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Console), most of the Raptor's levels and the first of the Rex's take place in the middle of a forest fire.
  • In McKids, Hamburglar's Hideout, the sixth and final world, takes place in an underground lava cavern.
  • Area K in Mega Man ZX. On the surface it's a geyser-riddled zone. Once you get underground, however, the difficulty starts setting in.
  • Most of the Mega Man series have these levels for the fire-oriented robot bosses, including Fire Man and Heat Man.
    • The first has Fire Man, whose stage takes place in volcanic area. 2 has Heat Man, who resides in a geothermal plant. 6 has Flame Man, Sword Man of 8 has a small fire area sequence, 9 has Magma Man and 10 has Solar Man.
    • ROM Hack Rockman No Constancy downplays this; what appears to be molten metal in Metal Man's stage are one-hit kills.
  • Mega Man Zero 2's factory stage that will be visited twice (!) combines copious amounts of lava with everyone's favorite mechanical menaces. Mega Man Zero 3, meanwhile, features the Aegis Volcano Base.
  • Nihilumbra: The Volcano, which is, well, just that. There's even a massive lava floe that bobs up and down, preventing access to certain places.
  • Ori and the Blind Forest has Mount Horu and its surroundings. Just to get inside the volcano, you need to cross Horu Field, an area of burning forest with areas of burning ground and sulfur pools just as deadly as the lava flow at the base of the mountain itself. Once you get inside Mount Horu, you need to drain off the lava in order to open paths deeper into the volcano.
  • Portal Runner: The final prehistoric level involves Vikki and Leo reaching an exit portal located on the side of an erupting volcano.
  • Level 10 in the SNES port of Prince of Persia, where you drop into what seems to be a volcano after falling from the tower in Level 9. Convection, Schmonvection is played straight despite the heat-wave graphical filter.
  • Gaspar in Ratchet & Clank (2002).
  • Both The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire and The Sanctuary of Rock and Lava from Rayman 2: The Great Escape apply to this trope. They are also Temple of Dooms.
  • Planet Scorch in Ristar is a subverted example. While the stage does take place underground, and there are plenty of earthquakes, fire, and other volcanic activity, there is no actual lava to be seen. Still, the stage is hot enough to give Ristar an Idle Animation where he tries to fan himself with his hand.
  • The first area of Stage 3 in Rocket Knight Adventures features a rising and falling tide of lava that actually has a reflective surface, as if it were water (read: it's not). This is played with shortly, as crystal formations obscure platforms above the lava and Sparkster himself from the player's view, forcing you to use the reflection in order to see the path and make the proper jumps to proceed. Oddly enough, the more conventional lava found in the third area of the same stage hurts a lot, but doesn't instantly kill on contact.
  • In ROM Hack Rockman 4 Minus ∞, Mega Man has to deal with two sections filled with lava in Pharaoh Man's level. Fortunately, the lava isn't lethal and just only damages Mega Man.
    • Parts of Junk Man's stage in Mega Man 7. Which can be accessed by using Freeze Cracker to freeze the lava.
    • The Mega Man X series has the stages of Flame Mammoth (X), Flame Stag (X2), Magma Dragoon (X4), Burn Dinorex (X5), Blaze Heatnix (X6), Flame Hyenard (X7), Burn Rooster (X8), and Mach Jentra (Command Mission). Amusingly, Flame Mammoth's stage becomes a breeze if you defeat Chill Penguin first, as all the lava freezes over.
    • Mega Man Legends 2 has the Saul Kada Ruins, which is also a prime source of terror.
  • The Volcano level in The Smurfs (1994).
  • Cyn-Der's Realm in Snake Pass contains burning coals.
  • Something series:
    • The first half of Skulls Cave. Mario has to ride on a one-skull raft over a river of lava and he has to dodge obstacles.
    • Chateau du Feu, which uses the graphics of Fire Man's level from Mega Man
    • Intestinal Problem, which also happens to be a Womb Level.
  • Songs for a Hero: The third act of the third level of the game, One Head Wonder (Vulcão Khiladra in the original) is this, when the Hero goes deeper into the cave and discovers he had fallen into a volcano. The Boss Battle of the biome, against a giant Spider, also involves this setting, with one of the biggest challenges being avoiding falling into the lava and having to damage the spider's legs so she will fall in the magma.
  • A staple Zone type in Sonic the Hedgehog, with many iterations:
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge features the level Lava Fields which has steel kegs that you roll on to cross lava pits and how jellyfish can survive being that near to lava/magma is anyone's guess.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Super Mario Bros.: Despite not entirely being this, most fortresses in this and the majority of subsequent 2D games in the series have lava pools, lava bubbles and rotating fire bars. In later games, there are fortresses where the lava is gradually rising.
    • Super Mario Bros. 3: The map of World 8 (Dark Land) is set in a gloomy area filled with bonfires, but only some levels (namely the three trap levels, the Fortress and Bowser's Castle) have actual lava in them. The remaining levels are based on either Remilitarized Zone or a previous world's biome. Also in this game, the second fortress in World 5 (located in the sky part) has lava in the floor and the ceiling.
    • In Super Mario World, the presence of lava outside castles and fortresses is limited to some cave levels located in Vanilla Dome and Valley of Bowser. In at least one of them, you can ride a Lava Lift (a raft made of white skulls) to sail safely.
    • Super Mario 64: The Trope Namer is the seventh course, Lethal Lava Land, which is a relatively flat level placed in the middle of a distant sea of lava; entering the volcano leads to an underground area filled with lava. Also in Super Mario 64, there's the course Bowser in the Fire Sea, whose completion grants the key that opens the door to the castle's second floor.
    • Super Mario Sunshine: Corona Mountain is the volcanic heart of Isle Delfino, and serves as the game's final level. While short, it displays several elements like burning platforms, lava that can only be crossed with a mud boat, and Spikes of Doom.
    • New Super Mario Bros.: World 8 in all games in the subseries are lava-themed, except New Super Mario Bros. 2 (in which the lava level is World 6). A recurring feature is lava tides that slowly flow to the left, and they're lethal upon contact. In some levels, volcanic debris falls down as well, which is harmful but survivable.
    • In Super Mario Galaxy, Melty Molten/Hell Prominence Galaxy is a lava level placed between two binary stars. There's also Freezeflame/Ice Volcano Galaxy, which combines Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Lethal Lava Land for an extra annoying time.
    • Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Shiverburn Galaxy (which also combines Slippy-Slidey Ice World and Lethal Lava Land), Melty Monster Galaxy and the Bowser Generator levels.
    • Super Mario 3D Land: Although there aren't any directly lava-themed stages, there is plenty of lava in the castle stages as well as in World 8 and Special World 8.
    • Super Mario 3D World has several lava-themed stages. Notably, in certain levels the lava is colored blue instead of red (and such a thing does exist in real life, making this Truth in Television). The lava-themed stages featured throughout the game are as follows:
      • World 2 has Big Galoomba Blockade.
      • World 4 has the Brolder Blockade and the Lava Rock Lair. While the Blockade has you fighting the normal Brolders, Lava Rock Lair is where you first face off with Boss Brolder.
      • World 5 has Backstreet Bustle and the Second Fire Bros. Hideout.
      • All of World Castle (World 7), including the second Brolder Blockade, where a rematch with Boss Brolder takes place.
      • World Bowser (World 8) has Grumblump Inferno.
      • World Mushroom has Broken Blue Bully Belt, a harder version of World Castle's Boiling Blue Bully Belt.
      • World Flower has Faster Fort Fire Bros. (a harder version of World Castle's Fort Fire Bros.) and the final Boss Brolder fight in Boss Blitz.
    • Super Mario Odyssey: The Luncheon Kingdom mixes this with Level Ate, as the "lava" surrounding the area and spewing from the volcanoes seems to be some kind of hot pink broth. For a more traditional lava land, there's the inner core of the Moon Kingdom, and by extension almost the entirety of the Darker Side of the Moon.
    • Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Deep Magma Bog is an underground lava world where the local Poplins study the geothermal energy. It's unique for not being the last world, since it's not inherently associated with Bowser (though his son still invades the place and has to be defeated) and in fact it has to be cleared alongside the other standard worlds in order to unlock the actual endgame (Castle Bowser). In addition to lava, there are also hot rocks that can be cooled down with water and pentagon-shaped flame jets that have to be put aside by pulling nearby ropes.
    • Super Mario Fusion Revival: This setting occurs in the Corona Core level because the sun is heating up the planet's crust.
    • Mario Adventure combines this with Underground Level for World 2, Hotfoot Caverns.
    • The spin-off Super Princess Peach has the fourth area Fury Volcano, which fits this trope to a tee. Lots of fire-based obstacles like geysers that Peach can stand on with a platform to get to higher areas, deadly smoke that gradually hurts you when you stand in it, and of course pits of lava to brave. Lava Bubbles fittingly make their first appearance here, along with lots of fire based obstacles.
  • Suzy Cube: Suzy Cube explores one in her game crawling with Dastardly Skulls members.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure has a lava cave as its fourth world. Enemies include anthropomorphic flames, devil monsters, and bats. There's even a level where Buster has to climb to the top of the stage as the lava rises.
  • The Agnisort region in 20XX. A common puzzle involves navigating a selection of conveyor belts that are (of course) pushing you in exactly the least convenient direction.
  • Vectorman 2 has three levels that take place at a volcano; "Fired", "Magma P.I.", and "Turn Up the Heat". The third of these levels involves Vectorman fighting an anthropomorphic fire monster.
  • Wario Land:
    • Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 has Stove Canyon, complete with obligatory moving Lava Wall. It is a world that takes place inside an active volcano, so its levels feature lava that can kill Wario instantly upon contact. A relative of the Lava Bubbles, the Bō, appears frequently and is indestructible. Along the way, Wario has to cross bridges (including collapsing ones), climb ladders, jump across tiny platforms (including sinking ones), and ride platform carts to navigate safely.
    • Wario Land 3 has Cave of Flames. Technically, The West Crater and The East Crater fall under this as well because they are in the volcano, but you don't run into any lava.
    • Fiery Cavern in Wario Land 4 is filled with lava spouts and lavafalls.
    • Wario: Master of Disguise: Sweatmore Peak is an active volcano that serves as the setting of Episode 7. There's an item called the Sweatmore Hotpants that allows Wario to dive into the lava without taking any damage, but he has to keep an eye on an enemy that can take them away from him, thus forcing him to find another pair of Hotpants before the lava depletes his energy completely.
    • Wario Land: Shake It! has Mt. Lava Lava (no connection to the Paper Mario 64 one) and Sneak Peak.
  • Monster Cave 4 in Wonder Boy in Monster World.
  • Xain'd Sleena, also known as Solar Warrior, features a volcanic planet — named "Guwld Soa" and "Mars" respectively — where one has to cross a lava lake in the depths of a volcano jumping over stone columns while jetpack-powered enemies attack your character — if you fall into it, you die instantly. The remaining part of the stage is not much better, having to worry besides of enemies, of geysers that mean instant death too as well as volcanic bombs. Did we mention you have just one power up in the entire stage and that if you die after getting it you respawn in the next checkpoint without the possibility of taking it again?
  • Yoshi's Island:

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top