Follow TV Tropes

Following

Lethal Lava Land

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lavalevels.png
Juni: Why is it that every video game has lava in it?
Francis: Technically that's not true. There's no lava in Halo. And in Metroid, it's molten magma.

A stage in a video game, particularly platformers, that takes place in a volcanic area or another area with pervasive heat, such as the insides of an active volcano, a volcanic planet or even a kind of Fire and Brimstone Hell. Other variants include flaming factories or foundries, or a Green Hill Zone or The Lost Woods level that is on fire.

A distinguishing feature of these levels is that the environment is your enemy as much as or more so than the actual foes found here. Large lakes of liquid lava are very common, as are vents or geysers of fire and falling flaming rocks. Fireballs and aforementioned flames and rocks often also shoot out from lakes of lava to add to the challenge. The same lakes can also shoot out pillars of lava. The puzzles and challenges in such an area generally revolve around navigating around flames and lava. The player will usually be fine as long as they don't touch the molten rock, and may be even able to boat across it on some vehicle; however, Metroidvanias and other Wide-Open Sandbox games tend to avert this as a roadblock, requiring you to find an item or power to safely enter the zone without being killed by the sheer heat. Of course, if they do fall into lava, it won't be pretty (but it could be pretty funny).

The music in these levels tends to be bass and percussion-heavy, and angry and/or mischievous sounding, often with a tribal-sounding chant. Usually comes late in the Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography.

May be a volcano located in Prehistoria or a Death Mountain. In such cases, it will typically be a Lava Pot Volcano.

A Sub-Trope of Lava Adds Awesome. Compare Planet Heck. Contrast Slippy-Slidey Ice World. Hailfire Peaks is what you get when you combine this trope and the previous one.


Example subpages:

Other video game examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action Game 
  • Bayonetta: Vigrid's town area becomes this in Chapter III when Fortitudo sets the place ablaze, turning an ordinarily quiet town in to burning ruins with pits of lava. The same chapter has the Catacombs, a more traditional "volcanic cavern" area.
  • Bomberman Hero: Kanatia Volcano, especially Magma Lake and Magma Dam; you take damage constantly when in the regular area, but you can avoid damage and regain life by entering little ice crystal zones.
  • Bujingai: The sixth level starts as a series of caverns which eventually brings you into a volcano. And you must reach the top in order to finish the level.
  • Dante's Inferno:
    • The circle of Greed is one of these, except that the lava is replaced with pits of molten gold. The circle of Violence does something similar with boiling blood.
    • The end of the circle of Anger has lava pits far enough below the playable area to act like Bottomless Pits. This acts as the lead-up to the circle of Heresy. While Heresy places much more emphasis on fire, there are also a couple of lava falls that need to be traversed.
  • Demon's Souls: Stonefang Mines. Home to the Lizardmen, a draconic god, and home to That One Boss: the Flamelurker.
  • Evolva: Levels 6, 7, and 8. There's also a single Lava Pit in level 5, but it's extremely easy to avoid it in contrast to the ones in later levels.
  • Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins:
    • Stage 4 is a particularly enraging Lethal Lava Land called Scorch Mountain. The biggest threat here isn't even the lava — it's the frequent earthquakes from eruptions that stun you for 3 whole seconds! These can be avoided by simply flyingnote  to stay off the ground, but then there's Pterodactyls to deal with... Thankfully, this Stage has only one part before the boss.
    • Stage 4 in the original Ghosts'n Goblins and Stage 3 in Super Ghouls'n Ghosts.
    • Stage 2 of Ghosts'n Ghosts has one point where both the floor and the ceiling are swathed in flames.
  • Jet Force Gemini: The planet Eschebone is entirely volcanic in its geography, though the game also provides two Womb Level stages as, at one point, the current playable character (Lupus in the first visit) has to enter the body of a gigantic worm. Lava is a non-issue for Juno, thanks to his heatproof armor, while Lupus can use his hovering skill to avoid touching lava whenever possible; however, Vela lacks those respective benefits and has to be more careful (especially since there's a part of this world the player has to reach with her to finish the game, and for that she has to deal with this deadly hazard). Lava is present in a limited fashion in other levels, and hide areas meant for Juno.
  • No More Heroes III: There are two missions (each divided into three levels) that take place in mines with several pits of sprawling magma. In them, Travis has to locate seven purple-colored crystal rocks, and use his pickaxe to extract valuable WESN ore from them (one or two of them are usually guarded by mooks, requiring Travis to dispatch them in a traditional fight to resume his job). The catch is that some of the mines' passageways have magma pits where Travis must avoid falling, as that would automatically fail the mission (Travis apparently dies as well, but he's alive and well outside the mine afterwards, only being reprimanded by the Quest Giver for his failure). In addition, some of the pits erupt magma into parts of the walkable ground, hurting Travis if he's touched by them (he'll fail the mission if he's hit by the spit magma three times).
  • Overcooked!: Lava levels show up late-game. They usually feature moving platforms that the chefs must carefully cross to reach different areas, and occasionally fireballs that will knock them out temporarily if they run into them.
  • SWAT Kats: The SNES video game has one of these on the last level, with lava fireballs shooting up in circular patterns to be dodged/avoided.
  • Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy have Fire Planet, set inside an active volcano filled with lava pools and rock platforms. Miss a jump and you lose a life via A Molten Date with Death, though mooks can suffer the same fate.
  • The Wonderful 101: The Lost City of Lowrule briefly begins as a jungle, but soon the team ventures in to an active volcano that is a part of it. This is where most of Operation 005 takes place.

    Action-Adventure 
  • Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain: Dark Eden, a land twisted beyond recognition in a project of the guardians of nature, energy, and states. And then it starts raining fire... This may not be a case of Convection, Schmonvection, since Kain and the creatures there are all unnaturally resilient, and the world's foundations are rather loose by this point anyway. This trope is also used in the Dark World version of Nosgoth seen from Nupraptor's keep.
  • Castlevania:
    • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: The Catacombs area takes you so below the ground that at one point you go through a lava cavern. However, the lava is just part of the scenery. And then, in the Inverted Catacombs, there's a part with molten ice in the background. It's not water: it's weird.
    • Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has the Castle B version of the Treasury, which has volcanic backgrounds in the hallway areas.
  • Darksiders: The Scalding Gallows are a fairly minor example. Darksiders II ups the ante by including multiple lava-based dungeons in the first world you visit.
  • Dark Souls has the Demon Ruins and the first half of Lost Izalith, while Dark Souls 2 has the Iron Keep. Dark Souls 3 continues the tradition with the Smoldering Lake, which is a deliberate homage to the aforementioned Demon Ruins, right down to one of the bonfires in the area being named just that.
  • Demon's Souls has Stonefang Tunnel starting from the second Archstone, where a good portion of the level is covered in lava and swarmed with giant fire-shooting bees known as Bugbears.
  • Elden Ring has the aptly-named Volcano Manor, the legacy dungeon containing Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy.
  • Ice Age
    • Ice Age 2: The Meltdown: Sloth Village 03, and especially 04 and 05. The latter two are ones of the most memorable levels of the game.
    • Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Flight of the Pterodactyl
  • The Legend of Spyro
    • The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: The Munitions Forge, built around and within a volcano, is filled with streams and pools of lava and home to swarms of fiery insects, lava-spitting worms, and scorpions who can shoot fiery beams from their stingers.
    • The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon:
      • Parts of the Destroyer, a huge Rock Monster fought in a Battleship Raid, ooze magma and have several pores from which jets of lava are shot out. Its heart is also floating over a pool of roiling lava.
      • The Burned Lands are dominated by rivers and waterfalls of lava, which serve as major terrain obstacles alongside vents that periodically loose gouts of fire into the air.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has the Valley of Death, whose prolonged pathway (which leads to the final dungeon, the Great Palace) is not only filled with lava pits but also flame-like enemies (Moa) that are invisible to the naked eye (the Cross negates that). Lava is also a common hazard in caves and dungeons, more so than anywhere else in the series; every dungeon contains lava somewhere.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Turtle Rock features lava pools in large portions of the dungeon, though the lava is much less "lethal" than most examples. The item obtained in the dungeon is a magic staff that shoots flames, and the boss is a giant fireball with a face.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Starting from this game, Death Mountain is frequently portrayed as volcanically active. In this particular game, the sheer heat of the mountain's interior, Death Mountain Crater, does affect Link unless he has the Goron Tunic equipped. The setting of this trope extends to the local dungeons Dodongo's Cavern (also an Underground Level) and Fire Temple; and it's also present in a lesser capacity in the whereabouts of Ganon's Tower.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games:
      • Oracle of Ages has the fourth and eighth dungeons, the Skull Dungeon and the Ancient Tomb, respectively. The former dungeon, which is shaped to look like a skull by putting together the two floors on the map, is where Link needs to navigate a maze of molten lava pits to find the fourth Essence of Time, which is fittingly called the Burning Flame. For the latter dungeon, parts of this are thrown in along with Under the Sea and Slippy-Slidey Ice World, though the majority of it is Big Boo's Haunt.
      • Oracle of Seasons has the underground land of Subrosia, which features copious lava all around. Also, there's the "sword" floor of the game's last dungeon, the Sword and Shield Maze, which makes it overlap with Slippy-Slidey Ice World due to the "shield" floor being icy.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Dragon Roost Cavern, the first dungeon of the game, is set inside the volcanic heart of Dragon Roost Island, and features lava geysers that can be mounted on by cooling the top temporarily with water. The game also features the Mini-Dungeon of Fire Mountain, which probably would have been a full dungeon had it not been truncated to meet the release deadline. There's also Bomb Island, which is optional, and the Dragon Roost Cavern corridor in Ganon's Tower, which is one of four corridors Link must complete to open the tower (even the tower's main hub is filled with lava).
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: The Cave of Flames combines this with Minecart Madness, as Link has to cross large pits of lava by riding speedy minecarts. There are also rocky platforms that have to be crossed quickly, as they'll sink into the lava shortly after Link stands onto them.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Goron Mines, with the addition of some electromagnetism thanks to the machinery present, which makes use of the Iron Boots. There is also a lava-heated cavern near Eldin Bridge, and once again the Iron Boots will be required. The lava levels are extremely harmful to Link that if he falls in it, it will makes him respawn with lost health (and if he's wearing the Zora Armor, which is vulnerable to fire and ice, it kills him instantly).
    • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Isle of Ember, and by extension the Temple of Fire which is located there. Due to the lava pits, the only way to hit certain switches is by using the Boomerang.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks has the Fire Realm as a whole. The volcano has been dangerously active since the rails started disappearing, so Link has to go to the Fire Temple and defeat the resident monster (Cragma) to eradicate the problem.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Eldin Volcano, and by extension the two dungeons found within (Earth Temple and Fire Sanctuary). Strangely, while falling in lava does only one heart of damage, there's a room were Convection, Schmonvection is mentioned: your Exposition Fairy informs you that the walls are so hot you can't continue onwards without taking more damage than you have hearts (note that you can raft down the lava rivers on a floating rock without taking damage). Later this is rendered moot with earrings that protect you from heat (but not fire or lava).
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Death Mountain once again features this. Its counterpart in Lorule has magma in its belly but is otherwise covered in ice. Turtle Rock is also the resident "fire/lava dungeon" (weirdly enough, it is located right in the middle of Lorule's equivalent of Lake Hylia).
    • The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes has the Volcano world, which also incorporates Mine Cart Madness in one stage as well as the world's boss battle.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Death Mountain once again has this theme. You need special elixirs or fireproof armor to traverse it safely, as the extreme temperatures are fatal for Link and anyone who isn't a Goron. Lava pools and rivers are everywhere, and are difficult to cross safely — water can be swum across and both it and quicksand pools can be crossed by creating ice blocks on top of them, but neither method is possible here. Since the Gorons' Divine Beast (Van Rudania) resides in the core of the volcano, fire protection is a must in its interior as well.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Compared to its appearance in Breath of the Wild, Death Mountain downplays the trope following the Time Skip. Its surface lava has entirely cooled and hardened down, meaning that it's now easily accessible by anyone without need of Fireproof gear or a temporary protection with food or elixirs; however, those planning to enter the newly-discovered caves or the Depths in that region will need protection, as they are just as hot as the mountain as a whole was in Breath of the Wild due to the presence of lava.
  • Metroid:
    • Metroid: The game introduces Norfair, which also appears in the remake Zero Mission as well as Super Metroid. It's a complex network with many lava areas, and averts Convection, Schmonvection because Samus is affected by the sheer heat until she acquires the Varia Suit.
    • Metroid Prime: Magmoor Caverns is a prolonged magma cavern that connects itself with all other areas of the explorable Tallon IV (except Impact Crater and the preliminary Frigate Orpheon), effectively serving as a terminal between locations. The Varia Suit is required to venture through this place without receiving heat damage, but fortunately the powerup can be retrieved shortly beforehand by defeating Flaahgra. Notably, it is the only area without a boss or even a Mini-Boss.
    • Metroid Prime: Hunters: All of planet Alinos is volcanic. Because Samus has the Varia Suit since the beginning, heat never becomes a problem, though lava remains harmful upon direct contact. The most important location here is a sacred vault originally built by the Alimbics; it is there where Samus has to place all Octoliths in order to gain access to the Oubliette, where the Final Boss awaits.
    • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Bryyo Fire is a variation; instead of lava, you're in various refining and storage facilities for Fuel Gel, a highly flammable, lava-like form of liquid fuel. Most of the puzzles in the area use it in various ways.
    • Metroid II: Return of Samus: Contrary to popular belief, the game actually averts the trope, but the remakes play with it differently. In the original version, much of SR388 is flooded within a "hazardous fluid", and as Samus kills Metroids its level will decrease, allowing her to descend into newer areas. However, the game never specifies it's lava, and neither does the instruction manual. The fanmade Another Metroid 2 Remake does portray this liquid as lava, but in the official remake Samus Returns this "lava" is reimagined as an acidic purple fluid; however, in the latter there are still some individual lava rooms within the available areas, requiring Samus to wear the Varia Suit to prevent heat damage. So ultimately, the official remake took a third option and portrayed both ideas.
    • Metroid Fusion: Sector 3 (PYR), a major location of the BSL Station, is an artificially created desert and lava zone. Metroid: Other M has a successor version in the Bottle Ship's own Sector 3, the Pyrosphere; in the latter, you are required to run through it before you can use the Varia Suit, a first for the series.
    • Metroid Dread: Cataris has areas that are so hot from volcanic heat that Samus needs an upgrade to properly traverse them. There are also puzzles that involve redirecting the flow of "thermal fuel" through pipes. In fact, the isolated lava rooms in other areas of ZDR exist because said lava was pumped directly from Cataris (and when the pumped lava is blocked, the planet starts getting really cold).
  • Shantae and the Pirate's Curse has the Oubliette of Suffering, which features lots of lava to avoid as part of its nature as a Fire and Brimstone Hell analogue.
  • Zapper has Raptor Cavern, which features three different lava rivers that Zapper needs to traverse. Two are crossed using fallen stalactites, some of which sink into the lava. The other one has Zapper hop across a fossilized ribcage while dodging lava rocks that periodically shoot out.

    Adventure Game 
  • A.I.M. (Artificial Intelligence Machine, or Mech Minds if you're Russian) has the Volcano sector, where one must avoid vapor geysers, electromagnetic fences, ravines, and lava lakes of varying sizes. Not to mention the hostile gliders, who are more powerful than previous sectors.
  • Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The inner circle of Atlantis is a volcanic crater with fountains of lava pouring from the walls into the bottom of the crater and a massive god-producing machine in the very center.
  • King's Quest: Mask of Eternity: The Barren Region. You WILL get tired of hearing Connor scream when he falls into the lava.
  • Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon: The planet Ortega, which has its surface constantly reshaped by volcanic eruptions. It's also lethal to walk around there without first putting on Thermo-Weave Underwear. And even then, a fall into the lava pits below nets you a Have a Nice Death.

    Card Games 
  • In Shadowverse, Dragoncraft's default background stage is set inside a volcano, with a floating island serving as the "board".

    Fighting Games 
  • In Godzilla Unleashed, the impact of evil space crystals causes Seattle to become one of these, with a volcano erupting next to the city and smothering much of it with lava as well as birthing Obsidius.
  • The Soulcalibur fighting games often include a stage where the fighters are going at it on a rock floating in a river of lava. A ring-out involves the player falling in with a dramatic splash of flame, and yet they're perfectly fine come the next round.
  • The "Volcanic Rim" stage in Street Fighter IV, which is located in Hawaii, and features an erupting volcano and fighters battling atop solidified lava.
  • Super Smash Bros. has showcased a number fiery stages, many of which are based on locations from the Metroid franchise:
    • Super Smash Bros. 64: Planet Zebes has lava/acid down below that, when it rises, blocks off the lower blastzone and causes those who fall into it to get burnt and launched back upwards.
    • Super Smash Bros. Melee: Brinstar Depths has lava far below the stage. It's mostly cosmetic, due to the height of the playable terrain; the real threat is the stage's rotation due to Kraid's presence.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Norfair's platforms float over a large magma cavern. Waves of magma will occasionally emerge from either side and cover parts of the stage, dealing large amounts of damage to anyone that touches them. The game also has the third phase of Castle Siege (Fire Emblem), whose volcanic scenery contrasts the castle-based setting of the previous two areas.
    • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U:
      • The Dark Emperor's stage from Find Mii in the 3DS version takes place in a rocky area erected upon a lava-flooded wasteland, though the volcanic aspect is cosmetic. The real threat is the Dark Emperor itself, appearing often as a stage boss.
      • In addition to bringing back Norfair and Castle Siege from Brawl, the Wii U version also introduces a Metroid stage based on the lava-filled Pyrosphere from Metroid: Other M, where Ridley appears as a stage boss at one point.
    • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The game brings back Brinstar Depths, Norfair, Castle Siege and the Dark Emperor's stage, and also features the Molten Fortress sub-area in World of Light. In the latter, the characters have to navigate across ramparts built upon a sea of lava, and to this end they have to press switches in order to activate bridges that allow them to reach new parts while they make their way to the whereabouts of Giga Bowser, the lurking boss.
  • While Dead or Alive 3 had the Hellfire stage where Final Boss Genra is fought resemble more a burning forest, Dead or Alive Dimensions makes the place as volcanic as possible.
  • Shrek SuperSlam: Dragon's Gate is surrounded by lava.
  • The "Genesis" stage of World Heroes Perfect features flowing lava and glowing rock.

    First Person Shooters 
  • Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. have a stage set in a volcano where you need to cross pools of lava via platforms and bridges. Unfortunately, the insect monsters you battle in the stage are born within the lava environment, and as such have developed immunity to the lava - these critters will literally walk above lava pools to attack you.
  • Borderlands 2 has the Eridium Blight and Hero's Pass.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops II brings us 'Magma' for part its second DLC pack, which is a Japanese village being destroyed by Lava. Complete with Climactic Volcano Backdrop and lava rivers. Also, the "Green Run" Zombie aps that come with the game also have lava. although unlike the magma multiplayer map, the lava doesnt insta-kill you, but does heavy damage over a few second time span, leading to fast deaths if stood on for too long.
  • Deep Rock Galactic: Lethal Magma Land, rather, but the Magma Core has almost all the hallmarks. Fire everywhere, mini-volcanoes and fire vents that periodically erupt, molten rock that will burn you if you touch it, explosive flora, and frequent earthquakes that will open even more molten rock in crags. Oh, and any explosions will reveal more molten rock to cook yourself in. It's hostile even by Hoxxes IV standards.
  • Descent:
    • Many levels of the first game involved lava at some point. However, there was at least one level where the entire thing was lava. Being the first game, lava behaved differently.
    • The planet Brimspark in the second game. And yes, the heat of the lava does drain your shields.
  • Doom:
    • "Mt. Erebus" in the original Doom is set on an island surrounded by lava, presumably in the caldera of the titular Mountain.
    • "Foundry" in Doom (2016) is set in a massive factory, with the ground flooded with molten metal.
  • Evolve had these in its initial stages, but they were eventually cut due to the balancing issues of both making lava dangerous and not making it a One-Hit KO.
  • Hands of Necromancy has the Fire and Brimstone Hell levels, where the whole area's made of lava and you'll need to cross platforms and narrow bridges or get incinerated.
  • Heretic has multiple levels with this feature but Episode 2: Hell's Maw focuses on lava as a dominant theme. Some levels even have ice in them too, occasionally even right next to said lava. Lava hurts you about twice as quickly as poison so getting across is manageable at least.
  • Marathon has a few of these, most notably "Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" in which you have to wade through lava and stay alive, and "Six Thousand feet Under, in which failure to avoid the lava results in death, along with a few in Marathon Infinity, particularly "Eat the Path" and "Whatever you please," which are both freakin' weird.
  • Level 6-1 in Medal of Honor: Frontline has a giant blast furnace that you can knock Nazis into and watch them get crisped.
  • Stone Rain, the final level in Shadow Warrior (1997), is Zilla's secret Volcano Lair hideout. You start off at the base of the volcano, being pelted by lava balls and dodging open fissures, before jumping into a hole in the lava lake to reach the hideout within the volcano's molten interior.
  • Team Fortress 2 has not only Hellfire, a Mannpower map taking place in a facility right above ravines of lava, but also Hell itself at the very end of a match in Helltower.
  • Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has this in the lower reaches of the Lair of the Blind Ones.

    MMORPG 
  • EverQuest's lavaland is aptly named Lavastorm.
  • In Granblue Fantasy, the Valtz Duchy has several factories built over rivers of lava.
  • The island of Padres Del Fuego in Pirates of the Caribbean Online is a giant volcano, which will occasionally shake and erupt. There's even a cave inside the volcano itself, the Lava Gorge.
  • Phantasy Star Online 2 has the Volcanic Cave area of planet Amduscia.
  • The Karamja Volcano in RuneScape.
  • The planet Oricon in Star Wars: The Old Republic is almost entirely covered by a vast ocean of liquid rock. The small habitable island that players can actually explore is only kept stable by a mixture of advanced technology and sith sorcery.
  • In World of Warcraft:
    • Ther's Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, and Shadowmoon Valley (the Outland version; the one on Draenor is a Green Hill Zone). There's also the Blackrock Mountain dungeon complex which, along with including the infamous Molten Core, has what appears to be a volcanic crater right in the entryway.
    • The dwarf capital city Ironforge has... well, a giant forge, filled with molten iron, right in the center. One would think the city would be a giant Dutch oven, but you know what they say about that. Back in vanilla it was deadly to fall into, but now anybody can survive for long enough to teleport out from it using your Hearthstone. Classes with healing capabilities and mages with their fire protection can survive indefinitely. And if you don't have any means to teleport out of there, magma becomes a Mercy Slap On The Wrist. At some point they put up invisible walls to keep players from offing themselves in the forges.
    • The starter instance of Ragefire Chasm.
    • Mount Hyjal in the Cataclysm expansion, the southern and lowest part of the zone has become a Lethal Lava Land due to Ragnaros the Firelord re-emerging to burn the World Tree. Lakes of lava, walls of flame, islands of rock, elemental giants of magma and a rare volcanic turtle. Patch 4.2 introduced the Firelands raid dungeon and the Molten Front daily quest area, which are this trope all over.
    • Frostfire Ridge in Warlords of Draenor is a mixture of this and Slippy-Slidey Ice World.

    Party Game 
  • Mario Party: Bowser's Magma Mountain. To unlock it, the player must pay 980 coins and play all standard boardsnote  at least once each. It takes place in the summit of a large volcano, and the path goes through a zigzag pattern. There are junctions that can be crossed, but only if the players pay 10 Coins and get a Star by hitting a roulette block (if they get Bowser's face instead, they won't be able to cross that path and no refund will be given).
  • Mario Party 4:
    • Bowser's Gnarly Party. It was built by Koopa Kid to homage and worship the Koopa King, and was built above a highly active volcano with a scorched Bowser shell in its heart.
    • The minigame Chain Chomp Fever pits all players into a rocky corral surrounded by lava in a volcanic area. The objective is to dodge the Chain Chomp's charges while also avoiding the boiling gases protruding from the ground.
  • Mario Party 5:
    • Bowser Nightmare, which is unlocked by clearing Story Mode for the first time regardless of chosen difficulty. The board takes place into one of Bowser's Castles, specifically one built above a lake of lava. Many of the features (including those courtesy of the Event Spaces) work against the players, so they're best avoided. For example, landing onto one of the Event Spaces in front of the far-sided silos (the ones with ceilings shaped like Bowser's shell) will make Bowser come out for a stroll to the other side... while turning all blue spaces he walks onto into red spaces and crushing whoever is in his way (taking 10 coins away from them in the process). Landing onto the Event Space at the northernmost area will make Bowser appear to mount a large flamethrower to burn whoever is in the nearby radius, making them lose all their capsules in the process. And so on.
    • The minigame Revolving Fire pits three characters in a ground surrounded by lava, while the fourth is in the center controlling a fire machine that can spew fire from three sides, and unleash a Ring of Fire when the solo character is performing a Ground Pound. The other three characters must avoid all fire as well as all the surrounding lava. If at least one of the three running characters survives during 30 seconds, then the trio wins. If the solo player manages to get rid of all of them, then they'll win instead.
  • Mario Party 6: The solo board Infernal Tower takes place in a large tower that Bowser built in the midst of a sea of lava. The objective is to land onto the last standard space, which can be found at the top of the tower; if the player moves past that space, they'll reach a balcony that traps them into a jail, making Bowser appear to take them captive with his Koopa Clown Car, which makes the player lose the game.
  • Mario Party 7: The last board, Bowser's Enchanted Inferno. It consists of an Amusement Park of Doom built upon four islands placed in a sea of lava, and several deadly attractions abound. The main gimmick of the board is that, every five turns, the island where the current Star is will sink as part of the Bowser Time event (in fact, unlike in the other boards, Bowser won't do anything else during this period). Therefore, each player must evaluate whether or not to go to the next Star to buy it by checking the current turn and how close or far they are from said Star. Whoever is unlucky enough to be in the island that sinks will be roasted into the lava, lose half their current coin budget and be sent back to the start of the board.
  • Mario Party 9: Magma Mine is unusual in that it does not belong to Bowser (his would be Bowser Station, a Space Zone board). The characters have to drive through a volcanic mountain, and at one point they have to escape from lava when its level begins to rise (if it reaches them, the character who's currently driving the vehicle will lose half their mini-stars).
  • Mario Party: Island Tour: Bowser's Peculiar Peak is the last board unlocked in Party Mode, available when all other boards are played at least once each, excluding Shy Guy's Shuffle City (this is because that board cannot be played with only one human player available). It takes place in a precarious volcanic landscape, and the objective is to avoid reaching the goal line (since the "winner" will have to roll 3 or lower with a dice to keep surriving, or else they'll be knocked off by Bowser and lose the party). Being placed last in the minigames is also crucial, as the ones placed higher will receive Bowser Dice Blocks that add to the number of steps they walk when hitting the standard Dice Block, potentially getting closer to Bowser. The last player remaining in the board wins.
  • Mario Party 10:
    • The Chaos Castle board is set in Bowser's castle, which is flooded with lava and swarming with various fiery hazards. The first part of the board has the players navigate a series of platforms floating in a moat of lava, while avoiding enemies like Lava Bubbles and Charvaarghs, the second part has the players scale a series of walls while avoiding hazards (Skewers in Mario Party, Burners in Bowser Party), and the Homestretch takes place in Bowser's throne room, where a straight bridge is the only thing between Team Mario and a pool of lava.
    • Spiked Ball Scramble has the players walk down a hallway with platforms floating in lava. If they accidentally walk off the edge of a platform, they will fall in and be eliminated.
  • Mario Party: Star Rush:
    • World 4 of Toad Scramble is located in and around Bowser's castle, which is flooded with lava. The lava level will periodically go up and down, submerging lower-level sections of the board and preventing the players from accessing them. Players standing on spaces that get submerged when the lava rises will get burned and lose coins.
    • Lava Labyrinth is a minigame where players race down a series of platforms and grates over a lake of lava to grab a gold, silver or bronze treasure chest, each one earning first, second, and third place, respectively. Along the way, Magmaarghs rise from the lava and slowly move over certain spaces of the map, temporarily blocking the way and possibly forcing players to find a faster way around them.
  • Mario Party: The Top 100: World 4-3 in Minigame Island is designed to resemble Bowser's usual domain. Fittingly, all of the minigames here feature lava and fire, such as Bumper Balls, Hexagon Heat, Magma Mayhem, and Heat Stroke.

    Puzzle Games 
  • In Gems of War, the island of Broken Spire is volcanic, and seems to have plentiful lava; whether the resident Lava Wrym is a cause or a consequence isn't stated. The lava doesn't have a gameplay effect, though $ it's just for flavour.
  • Meteos has three fields/planets that fit this mold in different ways; worth noting is that they don't always follow the "angry-music" rule. Firim is a fiery planet that's home to pyro aliens and features a rock and roll soundtrack, Jeljel is a magma/brimstone-infested Planet Heck accompanied by an Ominous Music Box Tune, and Hotted is a cube-shaped planet made out of molten and glowing-hot iron where synthesizers play the level's music.
  • In Outer Wilds, Hollow's Lantern is a small moon entirely consisting of lava. It occassionally spits molten meteors at its parent planet, gradually breaking it apart.
  • Pâquerette Down the Bunburrows: The aptly-named Hell is a fire themed area with unique fire tiles that prevent placing items.
  • World 7 of Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition.
  • Spelling Jungle: Spelling Jungle plays with this — a volcano can be seen in the background, but players never run into one on the actual levels. They do have to deal with the hot coals, burning-hot ground that incinerates Wali or All-Terrain Vehicles if they stop moving on it.

    Racing Games 

    Roguelike 
  • The Binding of Isaac:
    • Afterbirth+ has the Burning Basement, an alternative to the Cellar (itself an alternative to the Basement) that is lit ablaze, with most enemies being replaced with a fiery counterpart.
    • Antibirth and Repentance have the Mines, an alternative to the Caves floor that has some pits of magma and various fire-themed enemies. It is also heavily earth-themed and, as the name implies, features minecarts (for the enemies only).
    • The Ashpit of Repentance is an alternate Mines that has been burnt down. It is mostly themed around ghosts and bones, but there are still several fire-themed enemies.
  • Act IV of Diablo II is fought in Hell, which is probably as Lethal Lava Land as you can get. However, the lava actually behaves the same as walls and there is no way to step on it.
  • Diablo III has lava landscaping in several non-Hell areas, including Leoric's dungeons and the lower levels of Bastion's Keep. You can't fall into the pits, but a typical trap has periodically-erupting lava underneath a grate floor. Don't be standing there when it goes off.
  • The Lava Tubes of Dungeons of Aether consist of small platforms over a sea of lava/magma. (An in-game document argues over what it should be called, since it's deep underground, which should make it magma, but there's enough space above it, so it could also be lava.) Some rooms have a magma pit that sometimes bubbles, causing damage if you move into them.
  • Hades has the Asphodel Meadows, a handful of barren islands of rock surrounded by eternally bubbling and spitting lava. Convection isn't an issue for Zagreus, as he's flame-resistant (but not flame-proof, so stepping directly into the lava still hurts him). Comments from various characters indicate that Asphodel wasn't always like this, as it used to be more lush and green like Elysium before the river Phlegethon flooded the area and burned it up.
  • In NetHack, some of the Quest sub-levels feature lava. And towards the end of the game the player has to pass through four "elemental" levels, one of which is fire, which of course means lava. If you have fireproof water-walking boots, you can stroll around on the stuff, and all those highly flammable scrolls will be just fine.

    RPG 
  • Bug Fables: The last area before the final boss requires getting around giant pillars of fire to put them out. This must be done while having to fight stronger fire versions of earlier enemies that are the only things other than said final boss or a certain superboss that can inflict the Burn status. The place in question is the stove of an abandoned kitchen. From the point of view of bugs, the Wasp King turning the stove on is presented as a plataeu that is spewing great walls of fire.
  • In Child of Light, the innards of the sentient mountain Magna consist of lava caverns.
  • Digimon World DS: Lava River is a lake of lava interspersed with several islands of purple rock connected by teleporters. A few cliffs in the overworld have lavafalls and in battle, multiple points of land in the background can be seen to emit smoke and ash.
  • Digimon World Dawn/Dusk: Shadow Abyss is a mazelike expanse of lava and dark rock home to dark and dragon Digimon. This area is unlocked as part of a sidequest in Dusk and during a postgame mission in Dawn. The area's battle backdrop is identical to the one from Lava River except that it isn't animated and the landmass in the foreground isn't purple.
  • Dragon Age: Origins: The dwarf capital of Orzammar is apparently set in a volcanic region, as are parts of the Deep Roads apparently at random. Oddly enough, the actual volcano you see the surface side of is quite safe. Aside from the Optional Boss you can summon there.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Dragon Quest II has the Undersea Cave, a volcanic cave formed by a submarine eruption.
    • Dragon Quest III has the Orochi's Cave, a cavern filled with lava pools which works as a five-headed's dragon lair.
    • Dragon Quest V: Mount Magmageddon is a volcanic dungeon the hero needs to go to in order to retrieve the Circle of Fire so he can get married. At the end of it there's a boss battle against lava monsters.
  • EarthBound (1994): The Fire Spring is the last normal dungeon to be unlocked. All the enemies here are represented by flame sprites.
  • The Elder Scrolls
    • Morrowind has Molag Amur and Red Mountain. The Molag Amur region is characterized by the presence of lava pools and rivers on the surface. The land is predominantly dark volcanic rock covered with an overlay of ash and cinder. Red Mountain combines it with Mordor and Death Mountain by adding choking disease-spreading blight storms and steep falls. It is also the home of the game's Big Bad.
    • Crossing over with Fire and Brimstone Hell, the series has the Deadlands, the Daedric plane of Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Destruction. Crossing over with Mordor, the Deadlands is a bleak and barren realm, containing wastelands of blackened rock, seas of lava, and partially destroyed structures. However, the Deadlands subverts the "fire" part of the trope as, despite the flowing lava all over the place, mortals who visit are said to feel an "unearthly chill" within the realm. You'll spend quite a bit of time here during the main quest of Oblivion, which also gives Boethiah and Peryite's realms the same design.
    • The Dawnguard DLC in Skyrim brings us the Aetherium Forge, which is one of these in miniature. It's a single cave whose far side is flooded with magma. You can swim in it by either using the Become Etherial shout or by increasing your fire resistance as high as you can and mainlining healing potions the whole way. There's an island with a chest against the far wall. There are also two side passages nearer to the forge that you need to open gates while swimming in the lava to access, leaving you open for some very rapid Damage Over Time if you're just relying on the shout.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy series:
    • Volcano Peak in Epic Battle Fantasy 3 is a wasteland with lava running through it, suffering from a volcanic eruption during the time the game takes place. It used to have been more calm, but Akron's awakening started the eruption and made the place a more hostile environment than it was before. Earlier in the game, Glacier Valley has a screen of a small volcanic area, which introduces the player to lava-themed enemies before reaching Volcano Peak proper.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 5 has the Lava Lake, a sub-section of the Rapture that is a massive pool of lava with metal bridges hanging above. It contains fire enemies and leads up to a fiery hydra guarding one of the objects needed. Of the optional areas, the fire half of the Freezeflame Dungeon and the end of the left side of the Crystal Caverns qualify, both being underground dungeons with magma and a series of fire-themed enemies.
  • Eternal Sonata has the Wah Lava Cave, though the only "danger" other than the enemies within is that they might catch a cold from going from one extreme of temperature in the Sharp Mountains to the other.
  • Eternal Twilight: Sidamo Mountain is a dungeon full of hot lava, so hot that being around it causes the party to get exhausted and lose HP, MP, and TP over time.
  • Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City: Molten Caves, the game's third stratum, is located within an active undersea volcano but still part of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Due to the extreme heat, some of the floors are harmful for the explorers, though there are skills that help them mitigate the damage. In the later floors, you'll find rocky platforms that allow you to travel across lava rivers, though they won't stop along the way. Though this stratum doesn't return in Etrian Odyssey Nexus, a red-hot palette based on it dominates the atmosphere of Golden Lair while the Boiling Lizard's fiery scale found in the current floor is active; this didn't happen in the original Golden Lair from Etrian Odyssey IV, which retains its usual Underground Level tileset regardless of the current temperature, but in both cases the heat of the large scale is enough to keep the water bodies warm (destroying the scale will cool down the whole floor and freeze the water).
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy: Mount Gulg contains a lava-flooded cavern full of fiery monsters, culminating in a boss fight with Marilith. Rather than being instantly lethal, the lava tiles deal a set amount of damage per step taken. Hellfire Chasm has similar floors, plus a "fire temple" area palette-swapped from the Sunken Shrine. This area consists of a hot floor with lava underneath it. The hot floor deals continuous damage over time, which can only be avoided by standing on groups of safe tiles.
    • Final Fantasy II: The third floor of the Mysidian Tower is flooded with lava. As with Mount Gulg, the lava tiles deal a set amount of damage with each step and the monsters are mostly of the fiery variety. The floor ends on a boss fight with a Flame Gigas.
    • Final Fantasy III: The Molten Cave is, as its name suggests, a cave flooded with lava. Said lava deals damage as you traverse it and is only there thanks to the Fire Crystal's presence.
    • Final Fantasy IV: The Underworld is a vast cavern beneath the overworld and has oceans of lava that your airship can only fly over after being reinforced against the heat. This even extends to its towns. King Giott's castle has a lava moat and the town of Tomra has small ponds of lava. The Passage of the Eidolons has lava tiles that deal heavy damage with each step. There's also a bomb-infested palace in the Lunar Ruins that's surrounded by lava.
    • Final Fantasy V: The Great Sea Trench is a lava-filled cavern in the seafloor full of fleshy Undead Abominations. The town of Karnak also has lava running through its canals thanks to the local kingdom's use of the Fire Crystal.
    • Final Fantasy VI: The Sealed Cave's inner areas are criss-crossed with bridges over lava-filled ravines. It's most relevant in the first lava room, where the bridges change constantly and standing on a bridge senction when it disappears causes your party to fall into the lava. Falling in the lava teleports you back to the beginning of the area and inflicts minor damage to everyone. The rest of the cave requires you to open a path over the lava using switches, though without any risk of falling in. The Phoenix Cave has a similar to these later sections, but requires a split party to move paths into place over the lava. There's also the burning house in Thamasa, where the walls are completely engulfed in fire and Balloons stalk the collapsing halls.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: The Fire Cavern consists of a single path surrounded on all sides by roiling lava. The lava emerges from a point at the end of the path containing a fiery pit where Ifrit dwells.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: The first half of Hells' Lid is a lava-flooded cavern with various lava monsters as enemies. The second half of the dungeon is filled with water instead.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Roda Volcano and Tubola Cave. The former is a rabidly-active volcano that constantly gives off lava flows, with all maps having lavafalls as setpieces. Tubola Cave also has a some lava pools of its own. In both cases, lava tiles can be jumped over but not stood on.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has multiple volcano maps, and most of them are pretty small as maps go. The two aboveground areas of the Neslowe Passage are the only ones that are open by default. You can unlock three more by activating different wells during the Odd Places quest, which spit you out in the Sant D'alsa Bluff, Goug, and the Kthili Sands respectively.
  • Golden Sun has a lava-filled environment is the underground portion of Taopo Swamp. The second game has "Magma Rock", filled with puzzles that involved altering the flow of... you guessed it, magma!
  • Haven (2020)'s last few islets have a volcanic Mordor aesthetic, and the Very Definitely Final Dungeon is set in the volcano itself.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts: Genie Jafar's Boss Room is a chamber deep in the heart of the Cave of Wonders with lava pools around the edges. Jafar can dive into the lava to move to the other parts of the room or lift a molten boulder out to throw at Sora. After the Sora seals the Keyhole in the room above that, there's an Escape Sequence where Sora and Aladdin fly out of the cave on Carpet. The later half of the sequence sees them fly through a series of lava-flooded rooms and corridors while dodging falling stonework from above and jets of fire from below.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories gives Jafar's Boss Room the Remixed Level treatment by putting a smaller group of platforms in the center of the same chamber, now completely surrounded by lava. The boss arena and a couple chambers from the escape sequence also make it into the Agrabah track in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, though the track goes through a portal back to Agrabah proper before you can reach the cave exit.
  • In The Longest Five Minutes, the party's quest takes them to a volcanic cave near a hot spring resort appropriately titled the "Gates of Hell". In addition to the damage caused by walking over lava, some paths are blocked off by stray flames that can only be extinguished with Clover's ice magic.
  • In Lords of Xulima there's Vilak, the volcanic homeland of the demons. Without a divine artifact to protect your party, even going near the great lava lake will cause significant damage with every step.
  • Mass Effect:
    • In Mass Effect, the planet Therum features large lava flows which, of course, the Player Character can stand right next to without difficulty but cannot touch so much as the edge of a tire to without bursting into lethal flame. There's also Nonuel, another volcanic planet with multiple lethal streams of lava and a huge lava lake near the southern end of the explorable area. Unlike Therum, it also has a level 2 heat hazard, limiting the amount of time Shepard and company can be out of the Mako before taking Damage Over Time. The Legendary Edition has lava deal rapid and continuous damage to the Mako as a level 8 hazard instead of instant death.
    • The Mass Effect 2: Firewalker DLC pack includes several worlds full of lava (as you might have gathered from the title). Fortunately, the eponymous hovercraft is perfectly content in even such hostile conditions.
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda: Peebee's Loyalty Mission takes the team to a lava planet, because there's some stuff there Peebee wants to get. Problem is, it's too volcanic to land the ship (but fortunately, not too volcanic for a party of adventures to wander around without bursting into flames once they get down there), and at the end of the mission, everything starts erupting.
  • Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes: The setting of Chapter 4, the Inferno. It's a large, volcanic hollow where many demons reside, and has several rivers of magma. Aidan finds himself here after the portal that was supposed to take him to the Silver Cities goes haywire due to being open for too long and takes him to Inferno instead. The Blade of Binding he grabbed beforehand allows him to take control of demons, allowing him to prepare revenge after Azexes for the death of his father. Unfortunately, the Binding Blade corrupts him, which isn't reverted until near the end.
  • Monster Hunter: Each generation has a distinct volcanic map, usually it's the last or second-to-last to be unlocked and is generally the one housing the strongest regular monsters in the game. With one exception, in all these areas, the heat of these areas will slowly drain your health if you don't consume a Cold Drink or equip an armor with the Heat Cancel skill. And the monsters that live in these locations tend to have an affinity for Fire.
  • Pandora's Tower has Crimson Keep and Blazing Citadel. They're ancient foundries where the molten metal is processed to make new weapons and armor. Historically, that weaponry was used by the conflicting kingdoms that surround the continent.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Mt. Chimney's crater has a lava lake. Emerald adds a cave underneath Mt. Chimney, filled with even more lava, and it actually comes with a lampshade from one of the Team Magma grunts. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire instead add a side-path that lets you go down onto a ledge right above the lava.
    • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2: Reversal Mountain, at least in White. In the other, the area is filled with water. You can find Heatran in there after you get the Magma Stone.
    • Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Firespit Island is an offshore volcanic island, with rocky terrain crossed by streams of molten rock. Despite your character getting close to the lava, they aren't bothered any more than a hot summer day would bother them. It is mainly home to Fire- and Rock-type Pokémon.
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Stark Mountain in Pokémon Platinum. It’s a post game area that has a constant rain of ash and is home to the legendary Heatran
    • Pokémon Gold and Silver: The Blackthorn Gym has lava inside of it. In HeartGold and SoulSilver, it's expanded to include platforms that you need to pilot across the lava. You need to recall your following Pokemon before doing so. After all, you don't want them to fall in, do you? Bruno's arena also has lava, albeit confined to the sides of the room.
    • Pokémon Colosseum: Mt. Battle is a volcano that you work your way through 100 battles in the post game. It’s in the main story too.
    • Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness: Citidark Isle. You go through a couple of rooms with lava in them on the way to fight the Big Bad.
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Bowser's Flame Pipe serves as an organic take on this in the form of the organs that allow Bowser to breathe fire.
  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: Bowser's Castle is surrounded by a moat of lava that provides most of the surrounding scenery. There are no fire enemies, but there is platforming involving the lava itself. In the second half of the game, the castle takes to the skies and becomes Neo Bowser Castle, with the pits of lava being replaced by electric barriers. The original lava lake becomes an empty area without anything to explore.
  • Paper Mario:
    • Paper Mario 64: Mt. Lava Lava, an active volcano serving as the dungeon of Chapter 5. In addition, Bowser's Castle has lava areas, but if you shut off the flow, it cools well enough to walk on instantly.
    • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Rawk Hawk's training area (i.e., the send up of Bowser's castle from SMB) has its lava pits.
    • Paper Mario: Sticker Star: Rugged Road takes place on a lava-filled pathway leading to Rumble Volcano, the final area of World 5. Both stages are filled with lava hazards and fire-themed enemies.
  • Paper Mario: The Origami King: The Fire Vellumental Cave, where the eponymous elemental bird resides, is a fiery dungeon filled with rivers of lava crossed by narrow pathways (some of which collapse under as you walk over them), fire-breathing statues, and fire-slinging Hammer Bros. Hotfoot Crater, although visited only briefly, is a volcanic cavern featuring lava pits that will instantly kill Mario should he fall in them (instead of simply taking off a chunk of health like other pitfall traps) and Lava Bubbles that will leap onto the safe ridges the player must climb to leave the area.
  • Sword of Mana: The titular sword is found in the Subsea Volcano, whose floor is covered in pools of lava that deal Damage Over Time when walked on. There are also lava geysers that inflict the burn status and brittle ground that can break to reveal small patches of lava. The only fiery monster in the area is the sword's guardian Efflite. The regular enemies only have fire attacks.
  • Tales Series
    • Tales of Phantasia has a cave where Claus makes contract with Ifrit and Odin's Tower, where Flamberge can be found, assuming Nymph's rings are equipped on everyone to survive the heat.
    • Tales of Eternia has Efreet's Gorge, where even the supreme water spirit of the world isn't able to protect you indefinitely: once Undine's power runs out, you start taking damage instead.
    • Tales of the Abyss has Mount Zaleho, a volcano near Daath.
    • Tales of Berseria has Mount Killaraus, another volcano which, due to being located far in the north, doubles as Hailfire Peaks.
  • Undertale has the penultimate stage of the game, the aptly-named Hotland. There's flames, lava and hot air vents everywhere, and the weather is dry enough to give fish-woman Undyne some trouble, though the spiders seem to find it hospitable enough. You can't fall into the fire here, but you can pick up a Frying Pan of Doom.
  • Volcannon Trap from Wild ARMs, as its name suggests, is filled with lava that you must use Jack's grappling hook to avoid. The level also marks a Difficulty Spike as it is the first where you must fight two bosses, instead of one.

    Shoot Em Up 
  • Stage 5 of Axelay is set on a lava planet.
  • Bullet Heaven and Bullet Heaven 2 have the fourth world and Redroast Volcano, respectively. Both are lava-themed stages that have plenty of enemies shooting fire, including Fire Sprites. In the first Bullet Heaven, this is where the Final Boss is, while the second has a giant eye monster as the required boss and a lava turtle as the extra boss.
  • Darius II has Zone A (Sun Stage), complete with flaming flying fish.
  • In Elemental Master, the Fire zone takes place on platforms surrounded a lava sea, with waves of fire shooting up from underneath, along with the occasional volcano spewing rocks across the player's path.
  • In Galaxy Force II, Mission 2 takes place over a lava planet, with fiery plumes erupting from the surface in arcs.
  • Burning Heat in Gradius II, the Fire Stage in Gradius III, and the second half of the Volcanic Stage in Gradius IV. The Volcanic stages in most of the games, while they have erupting volcanoes, are more of standard Death Mountain or Underground Levels.
  • The Phoenix Mountain/Volcano in Kid Icarus: Uprising.
  • Chapter 4 (Fire Devildom) in Phelios.
  • A different kind of on-rails shoot-em-up but Pokémon Snap had the Volcano Stage. A new, more intricate one appears in the sequel, New Pokémon Snap.
  • Stage 6 of Sol Cresta, set in Mercury, is depicted as a lava planet.
  • Star Fox:
    • Star Fox 64: The intense heat on Solar causes you to steadily lose health. Your team members take damage too, but since they can't be healed mid-mission the level designers made it so they only take some heat damage when their dialogue box is open and the damage stops when fighting the boss, otherwise they'd all be dead one-third of the way through the mission.
    • Star Fox Adventures: Certain parts of the DarkIce Mines are like this (particularly underground), while the rest is covered in snow and ice. A more full-fledged case is the Volcano Force Point Temple, which is located beyond Moon Mountain Pass and has many lava pits as well as hot setpieces like fire geysers and pistons that periodically spit fire. Lastly, the battlefield where Fox confronts Drakor in Dragon Rock is an underground foundry, though lava is cosmetic here as Fox's vehicle (a mobile hovering platform) keeps him safe from it.
  • Stage 5 of Star Gagnant is set on a "Fire Planet" where erupting fireballs and prominences can damage the player's ship. In-story, the player is advised to avoid staying on the planet too long lest it melt their ship, however the only semblance of time pressure are the usual boss time limits, and even then a time-out only forces the game to advance with loss of boss destruction and remaining-time bonuses and no actual harm to the player.
  • The Touhou series finally gets one in the 11th game, Subterranean Animism.
  • The internal tunnels level from X2, where the player must avoid collapsing rocks from above and walls of flames from below. It's as hard as it sounds.

    Simulation 
  • Dwarf Fortress lets you build a Lethal Lava Land. Not only does it give you a useful source of heat for forges and obsidian for building, it lets you drown your foes (or dwarves) in a sea (or river, or waterfall...) of molten rock.
  • In MechWarrior Living Legends, the descriptively named 'Inferno' map takes place within an active volcanic caldera. Volcanoes violently erupt off in the distance and in the center of the map, the ambient heat level is enough to kill an unprotected person, and the lava flows will literally melt nearby battlemechs to death in seconds via Over Heating. The battlefield is extremely rocky, cramped, and vision is obscured by dense ash clouds. Flamer uses rejoice on this map, as the ambient heat level makes overheating enemies to death that much easier.
  • MySims Agents has the Fire Room, with both lava pits and flame jets. You can't walk or jump into either; the latter is part of the temple's puzzles, and the former just can't be crossed unless there's already a bridge there.
  • In Project Wingman, Mission 6 takes place in what used to be the Yellowstone Caldera before the Calamity, now a lava-filled Exclusion Zone where cordium is mined as a geothermal energy source. Prospero and other places across Cascadia (and even across the Pacific Rim) also become this after the Federation bombards the city with cordium missiles in Mission 15, triggering a second Calamity. And Presidia after Crimson 1's attack at the end of Mission 20, setting the stage for the final battle.
  • One of the three final missions for Sky Odyssey takes place in an active volcano. As the player you have to fly in there while it's erupting in order to reach the games final goal. On top of lava plums that you have to dodge, you also need to avoid rockslides and lightning generated by the volcano

    Sports Games 
  • Lava Dome in Backyard Football, which has lava on only one side.
  • The rubgy area in Doodle Champion Island Games downplays this, having lava lakes and lavafalls in its section of the overworld, but not in the actual rugby minigame.
  • Deep Inferno from Pangya. Complete with volcanic ash for "rough", lava pool "water hazards" and lung-clogging ash filling the air. Did I mention this is a golf game?

    Stealth Based Game 
  • At one point in Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf, you get a time machine that allows you to go to the prehistoric past. This past seems to be this.

    Strategy Game 
  • Battle for Wesnoth:
    • Heir to the Throne has "The Scepter of Fire" scenario, which takes place in the caves where the Scepter is located are volcanic and the presence of the artifact is making the whole place tremble and awaken: once in a while, certain tiles will turn from solid ground to lava, slowly expanding and, at the same time, killing any unit caught on that tile.
    • The final two scenarios of Sceptre of Fire are set inside a volcano, with impassable lava hexes here and there. In the last one, the heroes must trigger an eruption, allowing the lava to expand and kill any units previously standing there.
  • In Colobot, at least one planet is like this, with freely flowing lava and plenty of Convection, Schmonvection to go along with it.
  • Devil Survivor:
    • In later days, one of the areas, initially the Diet Building, becomes "contaminated" and lava-filled potholes will appear. You can't walk in them though.
    • When you fight Jezebel in Amane's mental world, the area in front of her is a lake-turned-lava-pool, and ending a character's turn in it will damage that character's team unless its party is immune to fire.
  • A number of levels in the Dungeon Keeper games feature lava heavily. You can build bridges across it though, and some creatures can walk through it unharmed or fly over it.
  • These levels also exist in several of the Fire Emblem games.
    • The Flame Barrel, the graveyard of Fire Dragons, in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem is a treacherous cave filled with barbarians and the dragon pets. Though unlike later games, the lava is purely atmospheric.
    • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade have the cavern holding Durandal. It's full of flaming tiles that damage any units standing on them.
    • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Nelares Peak, a volcanic cave featuring similar lava tiles.
    • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has the Kauku Caves, a volcanic cave within the mountains that border both Gallia and Goldoa. To avoid the Begnion army, the Laguz Alliance retreated into the caves.
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening features the Demon's Inglenote , a treacherous volcano where you fight Say'ri's brother, Yen'fay. During the fight, the floor is slowly beginning to sink and will hurt your units if they stay in there. There is also the DLC, Five-Anna Firefight, which takes place in a lava cave, though instead of lava that hurts you, it's the very air, averting Convection, Schmonvection.
    • Fire Emblem Fates has the Demon's Falls, a river/waterfall in Nohr that's on fire. It's also possible to flood the place with lava, which has predictable results. There's also a downplayed version with the lava fields near the southern part of the Bottomless Canyon.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Aileil, the Valley of Torment, is a craggy location perpetually bathed in lava where ruins of a village can be seen around it. In-universe, is it said to have been born when the goddess sent a pillar of light to punish the sinners residing in it. On the Verdant Wind route, it is revealed the place was created after a “javelin of light” from "those who slither in the dark" failed to hit Garreg Mach due to a source of power residing in the Holy Tomb, redirecting the missile from its original target into the village.
  • Sega version of Lord Monarch have lava world in one chapter, where you must face Syakuren's ninjas. Though magma replaces water since you still can build bridges to get across.
  • In My Singing Monsters, we have Earth Island, the final natural island that houses Quarrister.
  • Shows up pretty regularly in Rock Raiders. And they are much despised because your miners don't seem to realize that cutting corners across lava isn't a bright idea.
  • Starcraft II:
    • The game has a level that floods with lava every few minutes. Just to be mean, all the resources are in areas that flood. In a nice touch, the local fauna is programmed to flee to higher ground in the seconds before the lava arrives, except for the Brutalisk, who may be more focused on killing your team than evacuating the flood. One achievement requires you to kill the Brutalisk in this fashion.
    • The planet Char is also a Lethal Lava Land in most of its incarnations, except for one appearance in Heart of the Swarm that shows an acid swamp. Lovely place, that Char. Probably the most impressive example is "The Belly of the Beast", which takes place inside a series of tunnels and lava tubes dug into Char's surface. Your job is to plant seismic charges that will flood the whole place with, you guessed it, more lava.
    Raynor: Lava and zerg. Two of my favorite things.
  • Barathrum from Total Annihilation, although this doesn't actually have much effect on game play aside from the fact that you can't build naval units given that the 'seas' are made of lava.
  • Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon has three such regions. All feature a variety of very bizarre-looking volcanic islands that shoot lava bombs in random directions at regular intervals. The lava bombs deal area damage as if they were lobbing weapons. Given the weird physics of Trasure Planet's setting, where the lava flows go after they leave the volcanoes is anyone's guess.
    • The Calyan Frontier is an arc of volcanic islands in the northernmost corner of mission four's map. Here, you have to save a navy tender from pirates while dodging lava bombs.
    • The Calyan Abyss is a passage packed to the brim with volcanic islands. The region is known to be incredibly dangerous both for the multitude of volcanoes and for the dragons that call its nothern end home. Mission seven has you hurry through the area to provide disaster relief to an island that was hit by an asteroid while mission eight has you investigate an ironclad sighting in the region.
    • The Diablo Strait is a skirmish map that consists of two rows of volcanic islands split by a strong current that can carry ships out of bounds. That makes avoiding the lava bombs by staying in the center of the map a poor decision.

    Third-Person Shooter 
  • PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: The Paramo map takes place on the side of an erupting volcano in the South American countryside, with lava flows running across it. They can be crossed on foot, but you take damage if you do so.

    Wide Open Sandbox 
  • Glean has volcanic planets, which are hotter and have plenty of lava. Minerals are more frequent on them, but crystals and gas are rare.
  • Minecraft has the Nether, in which the only three sources of light are glowstone, randomly burning netherrack, and oceans of lava as far as the game can render.
  • Saints Row:
  • In Spore, any planet with a terrascore of 0 from having too high of a temperature is a lava planet. In addition to having a more fiery version of other T0 planets' hazards, the heat rising from the lava oceans themselves inflicts Damage Over Time on your ship. The lava gets retextured to red water if you terraform a planet enough, but retains the heat hazard until the planet actually reaches life-supporting conditions. Since you can only play the earlier stages of the game on life-bearing worlds, the only way you can walk around on a lava planet in the base game is with the Hologram Scout. Good luck getting close enough without taking at least some damage. The Galactic Adventures expansion, meanwhile, allows players to create planetside adventures in any environment, including lava worlds.
  • Subnautica has the Lava Lakes, the Lava Castle, and to a slightly lesser degree, the Inactive Lava Zone that contains the latter and leads to the former. note  It probably helps that the entire accessible game world is found within the crater of a giant dormant volcano.
  • Terraria: The Underworld is a massive, open feiry cavern at the bottom of the map, consisting of bits of ash and ruined old buildings sticking out of an ocean of magma. This is the only area where water evaporates, due to the heat. Many of its local fauna are fire or magma-themed and can burn the player character. Plants that can be obtained from fishing in crates also appear to be made of fire, and ashy trees grow there. The ore found there can be used to create fire-themed tools. As the place is also Hell itself, it houses undead beings and Demons.

Non-video game examples:

    Anime & Manga 
  • Digimon:
    • Digimon Frontier: During the Sakkakumon mini-ark, Tommy gets sent to Sakkakumon's Fire Area, a volcanic Pocket Dimension where lava flows cut canyons into the landscape and flames shoot out of holes in the ground. The sky is a swirl of reds and purples to match the colors of the landscape. Tommy faces a manipulative Asuramon who tries to lure him to the peak of a volcano in the Fire Area and comes out the victor despite both Asuramon's powers and the general environment being Logical Weaknesses for his Digimon forms.
    • Digimon Fusion: The Magma Zone represents this trope in a Digital World based on stock video game settings and it's full of active volcanoes and hot springs. Appropriately, the Bagra Army invaded with a squad of Meramon led by an AncientVolcamon. They're based out of some lava caves and imprison the local Digimon, mostly mammal and rock 'mons, behind a lava moat in the cavern's depths when they're not being put to work trying to to dig up the the Magma Zone's Code Crown.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 10 Episode 23, the final level of the game the Supermen have to Win to Exit is filled with lots of lava and features a volcano monster for a boss.

    Collectible Card Game 
  • Magic: The Gathering has several volcanic regions. Convection, Schmonvection is, of course, in effect for all of them.
    • Dominaria has Shiv, a rabidly volcanic place where the land constantly tears itself apart and re-forms, releasing huge amounts of lava in the process. Urborg also has some active volcanoes, but on nowhere near the same scale.
    • On Alara, Jund is the shard most associated with red mana, with a similar abundance of black and green mana. This coupled with a lack of blue and white mana makes it half this trope, half Hungry Jungle. If the predators, both plant and animal don't get you, the constant eruptions will and if you manage to survive those, you're still easy prey for the dragons that call the volcanoes home.
    • Zendikar has Akoum, a continent constantly flowing with lava. Even the ubiquitous floating landmasses have lavafalls instead of the usual waterfalls. Somehow, there are thriving forests right next to open, glowing lava flows.

    Films — Animation 
  • The Land Before Time: The Mountains that Burn in the first movie are constantly and violently spewing lava. Littlefoot narrowly saves Ducky and Spike from a rock sinking into a lava river and what solid ground exists has a half-melted look to it. It's the most danger that any of them are in that doesn't involve Sharptooth.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over: Appears with a Lampshade Hanging in an in-universe video game, as well as providing the page quote. The characters have to go Lava Surfing in Level Four with an instant game over regardless of how many extra lives they have if they wipe out. The OSS hacks a lava monster into the game to force this, but it instead sends them into the secret entrance to Level Five.
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Mustafar is a planet entirely covered in erupting volcanoes, rivers of lava, and barren crags of jagged black rock.
    RiffTrax: Hey. He's riding on a platform, floating on a river of lava. Just like, uh, part of that, uh... what am I...
    RiffTrax: Every video game ever made ever?
    RiffTrax: That's right. It's just like that part of every video game ever made, ever.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Some of the planes fit this trope. As usual, alternate realities have their own laws of lava physics to excuse Convection, Schmonvection.
    • The Para-Elemental Plane of Magma, known more poetically as the Fountains of Creation, is the border between the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth. It's an endless expanse of lava with floating islands and active volcanoes on its surface. More broadly, the Elemental Plane of Fire is a dimension filled with all manner of hot materials, including fuel-less fire, storms of fire and ash, and oceans of lava and molten metal.
    • The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna contains four layers consisting of vast volcanic slopes with no known peak or base. The first two layers feature rivers of lava and constant eruptions, which are generally more more frequent and extreme on the second layer than the first. The third layer is more of a Hailfire Peaks and the fourth layer has no volcanic activity whatsoever.

    Webcomics 
  • Erfworld: The uncroaking of the Gobwin Knob volcano creates a permanent lava lake, impassible to all non-flying units.
  • Homestuck: Dave's planet in the Medium, the Land of Heat and Clockwork, combines this trope with an Eternal Engine-style level — it's covered entirely in oceans of molten rock, dotted with islands made out of clockworks and machinery. The enemies living there are also mostly themed around minerals, especially volcanic ones such as sulfur.

    Western Animation 
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation: H.O.T.S.T.U.F.F.", the Sanban Residence transforms into a volcanic netherworld after Numbuh 3 turns up the thermostat against her father's wishes, and Sector V has to venture into the house and lower the thermostat before it erupts.
  • The Fire Realm from Dragons: The Nine Realms is basically this with a sea of lava covering the floor, extreme heat, vulcanos sprinkled throughout the realm and any solid land mass being made out of darkened rock. The dragons inhabiting this realm have fire-based breath attacks.
  • Storm Hawks: The Wastelands between the habitable Terras are rabidly volcanic, sporting nigh-endless rivers and lakes of lava. While Convection, Schmonvection is in full effect, most of the local wildlife can live in the lava itself and is deadly enough to be a significant danger to heavily-armored airships.

    Real Life 
  • The Sun, and many stars in our galaxy, are all literal Lethal Lava Lands.
  • Because Venus lacks plate tectonics, it is thought that every billion years or so, pressure in its interior builds up until a large number of volcanoes erupt all over the planet's surface, replacing nearly all of Venus's surface features.
  • Our own planet Earth was like this at least a few times early in its geologic history, and it will again be a lava-covered world once the Sun goes red giant.
  • The Moon was probably another just after having been formed. Hundreds of millions of years later, lava would ooze from its innards covering a significant part of the near side giving it the familiar "Man in the Moon" look and its surface will also melt when the Sun becomes a red giant.
  • Io, one of Jupiter's famed Galilean moons, is locked in an orbital resonance with both Europa and Ganymede that stretches it, causing extreme friction that stimulates volcanic activity. Io is so volcanically active that its crust is constantly being reshaped with molten lava; it's been found that Io completely replaces its crust at least once every twenty years! This volcanism is also responsible for Io's distinctive colour. Large amounts of sulfur and other minerals common to volcanic environments deposit on the moon's surface, leaving Io a rich yellow in colour with spots of green, brown and orange here and there.
  • Lava planets, that orbit extremely close to their stars as Kepler-78b, and being so hot that their lava could have water-like viscosity.
  • For (liquid) methane-based life that could exist in places as Titan, Saturn's largest moon, at temperatures of around -200°C where granite-solid water ice replaces there rock and liquid water takes the role of lava, Earth with its oceans of liquid water and clouds of water vapor would be a hellish Lethal Lava Land.
  • Hawai'i, the largest island in the US state of the same name, tends to skirt into this due to its constant eruptions. These eruptions are not directly hazardous to most of the island, but do produce significant lava flows which frequently destroy houses and cover the roads. Additionally, a few patches of the island are completely covered in solidified lava — although one can typically find the liquid state not far beneath it.

Alternative Title(s): Fire Level, The Fire Level, Lethal Lava Level

Top

"The Cold Heart of Hate"

Clockwerk's Lair is a massive, high-tech fortress located in the Krakarov Volcano in Russia.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (2 votes)

Example of:

Main / LethalLavaLand

Media sources:

Report