Chronicled herein are all the little things that cause objects in videogames to work differently from, say, objects in your backyard, for the purpose of being awesome.
See Artistic License – Physics.
- Air-Aided Acrobatics
Using fans or wind to jump to normally-unreachable places. - Air-Dashing
Bounding off the air to gain lateral momentum. - Body Armor as Hit Points
Rather than protecting bodily areas, body armor just gives you bonus Hit Points. - Boom, Headshot!
It's always better to go for the head instead of the torso or other larger target. - Cobweb Trampoline
A spiderweb is always used as a trampoline. - Collision Damage
Just touching an enemy will damage or kill the player. - Convection, Schmonvection
Lava and other superheated objects are completely harmless unless made direct contact with. - Depth Perplexion
In video games, foreground and background aren't always as separated as they appear to be. - Directionally Solid Platforms
Platforms that are solid from certain sides only (most notably, above). - Edge Gravity
Where the edge of a platform actively resists the player's motion over it. - Floating Platforms
Because it's much easier than building proper structural supports. - Frictionless Ice
A place or puzzle where every step on an ice patch makes you continue in that direction, unable to move or stop. - Gravity Screw
A Gimmick Level which messes around with gravity in some way. - Ground Pound
The player jumps, ducks or crouches in the air, and comes down powerfully onto the ground. - Ground-Shattering Landing
Characters who can land with such an impact that it can break the ground beneath them - Hit the Ground Harder
Characters who can speed up to beyond fatal falling velocity to completely or partially negate fall damage. - Homing Projectile
A projectile that constantly curves toward its target. - Instant 180-Degree Turn
A character or an object the player is controlling, can turn 180 (different number in 3D games) degrees in an instant. - Invisible Grid
A mainly 3D game mechanic that limits where you can move, jump, and/or land so that you are always on an invisible grid. - Jiggle Physics
That amazing programming breakthrough that gives breasts (amongst other things) realistic bouncing animation. - Jump Physics
It's very different in a Platform Game than it is in real life.- Double Jump
You jump, then you jump again. No, it shouldn't be possible, but it's fun. - Wall Jump
You know when your parents said you were driving them up the wall? Here's how you actually do it.
- Double Jump
- Knockback
Taking damage results in being knocked aside, whether the attack in question would reasonably be expected to do that or not.- Knockback Evasion
Frequently, a method is provided to completely avoid knockback, even for attacks that should reasonable be expected to knock you aside.
- Knockback Evasion
- Ladder Physics
Ladders in games act strangely, like letting you climb them while having both arms free. - Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid
Lava is portrayed as way less dense than it should be. - Not the Fall That Kills You…
One must impact the ground to get killed.- Falling Damage
When impacting the ground merely hurts you rather than outright killing you.
- Falling Damage
- Painfully Slow Projectile
Bullets, arrows, or sundry other super-fast shooty things will move slowly enough to defend or dodge. - Parasol Parachute
An umbrella or parasol used as a parachute. Plus it keeps the rain off! - Projectile Platforms
Game physics so abstracted from reality that a character can ride what is ostensibly a projectile without changing its trajectory. - Ragdoll Physics
Games that use increasingly realistic physics for all objects, especially dead enemies. - Recoil Boost
Firing rapidly in a direction opposite of where you want to go will give you a good push sideways or even upward. - Reflecting Laser
Lasers that can reflect off of any flat surface. - Road Runner PC
You are always one of the fastest things in the game world. - Rocket Jump
Using explosives to propel the player to normally unreachable places. - Selective Gravity
Gravity is only applied to some things; others are totally immune. - Set Swords to "Stun"
A weapon's lethality is directly proportional to its user's desire to kill. Bladed weapons can cause nonlethal damage. - Shockwave Stomp
Where a boss or character can smash on the ground and send out a wave of energy that causes damage. - Spring Jump
An ability in video games that sends your character rocketing straight upwards, and is much more powerful than ordinary Jump Physics. - Springy Spores
You can use Mushrooms as trampolines. - Sticky Shoes
Footwear that sticks to sheer surfaces. - Tele-Frag
Trying to teleport somewhere that's already occupied. Leaves a mess. - Tremor Trampoline
When an earthquake or violent impact causes characters to bounce about. - Vent Physics
Conveniently placed air vents give you the boost you need. - Very High Velocity Rounds
You've slowed down time, and while enemy bullets will crawl like molasses, yours go at normal speed. - Video Game Dashing
From a complete standstill, you burst forward for a short distance as though you were strapped to a jet booster. - Video Game Flight
Video games that actually let your character fly freely about the world. - Video Game Sliding
You can pull off a full-on baseball slide from a complete standstill, with enough force to break down a wall. Oh, and you're most likely invulnerable to bullets while doing so. - Walk, Don't Swim
Your character can't swim when underwater, just walk around and jump higher, or lower. - Wall Crawl
The ability to scale vertical surfaces. - Wreaking Havok
Where the coolness of the physics engine conspicuously draws attention to itself rather than meshing with the rest of the gaming experience.