Bubbly Clouds

What do you mean, this is wildly unscientific? Snowmen this high in the sky are perfectly plausible; it gets cold up there!

"Wow! We're in the clouds! We're floating! It feels comfy, but I just don't quite trust it. Mario, am I sinking? Am I?"

— Goombario, Paper Mario 64

Advertisement:

A video game area that takes place on solid clouds in the sky. The characters may be seeking out a landmass or building in the sky, but they also might just be wandering through a huge field of solid clouds. Naturally, not falling to one's death is the biggest challenge of such an area, which can be made worse by the presence of annoying flying enemies. Fluffy Cloud Heaven is often this in video games. It's interesting to mention that already the first sidescrolling platformer — Jump Bug, released in 1981 — contained solid clouds.

Typical enemies encountered in these levels include aggressive birds, animated clouds and airborne variants of previous enemies.

Compare Levels Take Flight. Solid Clouds is the supertrope. May overlap with Big Storm Episode if the level takes place in stormy clouds.

Advertisement:

---

Examples:

Action-Adventure

• An Untitled Story: CloudRun is unusual in that it is actually one of the lowest lying areas in the game world. It is also pink. Very pink.
• In Jables's Adventure, many above-ground areas have a line of cloud platforms near the top, and even those that don't will lead to a cloudy sky area if you fly off the top of the screen.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Cloud Tops in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
  • The Dark Cloud and Above the Clouds in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
  • The Sky Realm in The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes.
• Snailiad: Lux Lirata from has shades of this.

Card Battle Games

• Baten Kaitos features Diadem. Heck, there's even a castle entirely made out of clouds. Even more relevant in the appropriately named "Cloud Passage" level.

Fighting Games

• The stage Skyworld in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and onwards in the Smash series. Also in Brawl, the Subspace Emissary starts with a few levels which are made out of clouds, based mostly on Kid Icarus.

Advertisement:

Platformers

• Several levels in the Adventure Island series. The sixth island in Adventure Island II was an entire island dedicated to this (even if there were only two levels in the clouds up there).
• Aladdin (Capcom): The Genie stages have some areas with cloud platforms, including one where the Genie determines which platforms you get based on how well you did on the stage so far (with the clouds being the easiest platforms to use)
• The California Raisins: The Grape Escape: The final level is Sky High Records which features solid clouds the Raisin walks on.
• Donkey Kong Land: Chimpanzee Clouds.
• In Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, the second part of the fourth level largely takes place on clouds.
• Kid Icarus: The third world and the final level take place in this setting. Most of the game in the Gameboy sequel takes place here as well.
• Kirby finds himself in the sky a lot, what with his flying ability and all:
  • The Trope Namer is the first game, Kirby's Dream Land. Bubbly Clouds shows up again in Kirby Super Star's Updated Re-release of the original, along with the "Skyhigh" level in the Milky Way Wishes mode.
  • Grape Gardens in Kirby's Adventure.
  • The second level of the icy Shiver Star in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
  • Cloudy Park in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3.
  • Cushy Cloud in Kirby: Squeak Squad. ^note  Note: Do not attempt a final cutter when wielding a Fire Sword in one of these stages. Since fire burns away clouds and final cutter is uninterruptible, the result can only be described as an Epic Fall.
  • Nutty Noon in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
  • Much of Kirby: Triple Deluxe takes place here, in the floating islands known as Floralia.
  • Blue Sky Palace in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.
• Cloud Ruins in Little Nemo: The Dream Master.
• Mega Man:
  • Air Man from Mega Man 2 hides in a sea of clouds and odd blocks with evil faces on them.
  • Snake Man from Mega Man 3 resides in a cloudy tower, full of giant snakes and missiles hidden in clouds.
  • Ring Man from Mega Man 4 waits in a cloudy tower, although it reaches to space and is filled with hippos and spinning Saturns, instead of snakes and missiles. Also, the third section of Dr. Cossack's Siberian Citadel takes place in the sky above the citadel, full of clouds that often obscure the platforms.
  • Gyro Man from 5 has a base full of cloudy areas.
  • Wind Man's (6) has a variation; his level is semi-cloudy, but has more of a Chinese-motif.
  • Cloud Man, naturally. His level in 7 is at a research institute, but clouds are major platforms in this level.
  • Tengu Man's level in 8 eventually gets to the point where there are no more cloud platforms. To continue, Mega Man has to undergo an Unexpected Gameplay Change and fight through a SHMUP section. There are still clouds, but no platforms. His level in Mega Man & Bass is just a regular example of the trope.
  • Tornado Man from 9 has the clouds in the level change from normal, to snow, to rain.
• In Sesame Street: Countdown, the bonus stages take place in the clouds, accessible by riding balloons. There, The Count must solve a math problem to get the number he chose, which can involve simply finding the number hidden in a box, adding or subtracting the numbers to get the right one, or adding or subtracting the number of items in a jar.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sky Sanctuary in Sonic And Knuckles and Sonic Generations, as well as Angel Island from Sonic Advance (though both consist mostly of Floating Continent).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) has Sky High Zone, where it is impossible to tell the difference between clouds which are walkable and clouds which are not. The second act of the stage takes place in stormy weather.
  • Variants on this trope have also been done, like the machinery-based Altitude Limit.
  • Sonic: Before the Sequel has Cloudy Crowd.
• Super Mario Bros.. Mario seems to end up in the clouds quite often. In the standard Mario world layout, this is the penultimate setting before Bowser's Castle. Such worlds and levels include:
  • The end of World 8-2 and entirety of 8-3 in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. The former can only be found by climbing a secret beanstalk (as the rest of the level eventually loops). The latter is a more traditional sky level, and the placement of the cloud platforms as well as that of most enemies make this level one of the most challenging (especially if played with Mario, who doesn't jump as highly as Luigi).
  • World 7 in Super Mario Bros. 2, mostly the first level (as the second is the last one in the game, and takes place predominantly inside Wart's castle). It focuses on featuring a heavy concentration of enemies (including Albatosses that drop Bob-Ombs which break the floor upon exploding), and at one point Mushroom Blocks have to be used to reach the next point (while having to deal with Sparks).
  • The second half of Sky Land in Super Mario Bros. 3 (the first is Green Hill Zone). In addition to large chasms and cloud platforms, these levels see the debut of Fire Chomps (flying Chain Chomps that spit fire and, once they run out of it, approach Mario or Luigi to explode near him) and flying Parabeetles.
  • Rainbow Ride and a couple of bonus levels in Super Mario 64. Much of Rainbow Ride can be accessed while boarding a flying carpet railroaded by a rainbow, though Mario still has to keep an eye on any obstacles the carpet is approaching. The first sky bonus level is notable for enabling the use of the Wing Cap in the other levels in the game, while the second is infamous for taking Mario to the very start of the game if he falls down (instead of simply making him lose a life).
  • The daytime obstacle courses in Super Mario Sunshine, as well as the highest area of Pianta Village. The oddity is that the cloud platforms can be enlarged with FLUDD's water.
  • World 7 in all New Super Mario Bros. games except New Super Mario Bros. 2 (where it's the fifth world, and comes along with a smidgen of Death Mountain). The sub-series introduces a type of white fog that hides items (they can be dispelled with an aerial spin, however).
  • Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy has all the various platforms being suspended in the sky. The third Star mission in particular evokes this. Other levels have clouds, but they are only solid when Mario has the Bee powerup.
  • Fluffy Bluff Galaxy and Cloudy Court Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2. In this game, not only the Bee powerup allows Mario to walk over the clouds; so can the Cloud powerup, which in addition allows Mario to create his own clouds!
  • World 5-5 in Super Mario 3D Land, in addition to the first 3D appearance of Coin Heavens, recurring secret areas within certain levels that challenge you to collect as many coins as possible before leaving.
  • The map of World 6 from Super Mario 3D World, and the levels Clear Pipe Cruise, Pretty Plaza Panic, and The Great Goal Pole. The latter two levels also have strict time limits, so Mario and his friends have to move quickly through the clouds and floating platforms.
  • Cloud Kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey takes place in the skies above another world.
  • This is one of the added settings in Super Mario Maker 2 (it was theoretically possible to invoke this trope with the Airship theme in the first Super Mario Maker, but it required some difficult workarounds), and is present in four of the game styles; in the 3D World one, the designated "sky" themed is based specifically on the Toy Time level present in the original game's World Star). In night mode, gravity is reduced.
  • Giddy Sky from Super Princess Peach.
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Nimbus Land, home of the cloud-shaped Nimbus people.
  • Paper Mario:
    • The clouds over Flower Fields in Paper Mario 64.
    • The Overthere in Super Paper Mario by way of being a Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
  • The top of Mount Brrr in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
  • The second half of world 5 in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and the very obviously named 'In the Clouds' from Yoshi's Island DS.
  • The stage "Cloud Cruisin' " on page three of Yoshi's Story.
  • The stage "Fanciful Fluff and Feathers" which is level 3-7 of Yoshi's Woolly World.
  • Lemmy's High-ate Regency Hotel in Hotel Mario.
  • Mario's Rainbow Castle and Rainbow Dream in the Mario Party series.
  • Peach's stage in the unlicensed Fighting Game Kart Fighter.
  • World 2 in the rom hack Something Else takes place in the clouds. Only three of the levels take place in the tall trees.
• Wario:
  • Above the Clouds in Wario Land 3.
  • The sky sublevels in Wario World.
• Wizards and Warriors: Ironsword: The Wind Elemental level takes place on clouds. You can also get inside the clouds and the boss is a cloud-shaped Eldritch Abomination.

Puzzle Games

• Gruntz has this mixed with Level Ate in the world "High On Sweetz".
• World 6 of Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition.

Racing Game

• Sky/cloud-themed courses are rare in the Mario Kart series, but they exist: Sky Garden in Mario Kart: Super Circuit and Mario Kart DS, Cloudtop Cruise in Mario Kart 8, and the Arcade-exclusive Aerial Road and Sky Arena.
• The Stunt Race FX level Sky Ramp is set on a track in the clouds.

Role-Playing Games

• EarthBound has Dalaam.
• In Faria, once you get the Sky Shoes, you can go up to the Sky World, which consists almost entirely of walkable clouds and Random Encounters. There is no Edge Gravity when walking around up there.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Although it's not apparent in the original, Final Fantasy I has the Sky Castle, which takes place in the sky. It's also home to Death Machine/WarMECH.
  • Final Fantasy IX brings you to Chocobo's Air Garden if you play enough of the Chocobo Hot and Cold minigame.
• Mega Man Star Force 2 featured Sky Road, which also acts as the Hub Level for a lot of later areas.
• Might and Magic : The fourth and fifth games, Clouds Of Xeen and Darkside Of Xeen, had these at the top of every tower. If your Levitate spell wore off while you were up there, you'd fall straight through the clouds and take a lot of damage.
• Miitopia has Nimbus, a land made of walkable clouds with futuristic towers in the background. Some of its areas have an Eternal Engine flavour.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Sky Tower and Sky Stairway.

Shoot 'em Up

• Forgotten Worlds: The Sky World (stages 6-7).
• TaleSpin (Capcom) has two examples. The third level, The Storm Clouds, combines this with Big Storm Episode. The prologue to the stage reveals that Don Karnage and his Air Pirates have planted mines in the clouds, so Baloo must dodge the lightning as it strikes. The Bonus Stages in the same game take place in the clouds during clear weather. In these stages, you play as Kit Cloudkicker, who rides his air foil as he collects bonuses.

Other/Undetermined

• Stage 2 (Clouds Island) of Miracle Girls for the Super Famicom.
• Sky is set in the ruins of a fallen kingdom built upon the surprisingly solid cloudtops.

Non-Video Game Examples

• Brawl in the Family: Strip 237 plays with this, showing Mario reaching a cloud level on a vine to different results, such as him falling through the clouds or getting hit by a plane. Strip 238 does it again by having Lakitu deliberately making Mario believe he’s in Heaven and step on non-solid clouds.
• Dungeons & Dragons, Lair Assault module Temple of the Sky God. The clouds are solid ground. When characters reach the half-way point of the mission, the clouds mostly dissipate, and the ones remaining become electrified (harming those who stand on them).
• In a story set in Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away universe, wizards can cast a spell allowing them to walk on clouds. Any wizard who makes a habit of this had better have a firm grasp of meteorology, though, because it's not a good thing to be far above solid ground when the weather starts to clear up.
• In the Rubbadubbers episode, "Amelia the Babysitter," a land of clouds that represent diapers is the setting for the "if only."