History Main / DeadlyWalls

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SpaceMegaforce'' (aka ''SuperAleste'' in Japan), where walls will only kill you if you get squished between one and the bottom of the screen.

This trope is most common with AutoScrolling games, especially in Space Shooters in which [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything]] kills you in [[OneHitPointWonder one hit]]. Even if your ship scrolls along at a relatively slow rate, if a corner of your ship so much as grazes the wall beside you, you will violently explode.

* ''VideoGame/{{Puggsy}}'' had this for the (thankfully) optional level 'Lunar Jet Pug'. It was a horrible combination of ScrappyLevel, UnexpectedGenreChange, ContinuingIsPainful and of course, OneHitPointWonder. The best part? Oh, you died. Instead of respawning in roughly the same spot with a few seconds of invincibility, we're sending you back to the start. Oh by the way, you now have to do it without the gun you just dropped. Have fun.

* The NES ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer'' is an {{egregious}} example of this trope. Like anything, walls will kill him in one hit, but what makes it really bad is the overhead levels, where his surfboard takes up a great deal of space and so much as grazing a wall with the back corner of it will kill him. It should also be noted it's hard to distinguish the walls in the overhead levels making it even more frustrating. And this completely ignores the fact that the Surfer's primary power in the comics is being NighInvulnerable.

* ''VideoGame/AngryVideoGameNerdAdventures'' has skull & crossbones-marked Death Blocks that are a OneHitKill if the Nerd touches them. In many levels, they appear and disappear at timed intervals, creating CorridorCubbyholeRun situations.

->''"Imagine if I were to draw a maze on a sheet of paper. I'm asking you to draw a line from the beginning of this maze to the end. You can't run into any dead ends and you can't touch any of the lines. Now while you're trying to do this, ''[[AutoScrollingLevel I'm moving the maze to the left]].'' It would drive you fucking nuts."''

* This is the point of ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'', a game where you control a triangle spinning around a hexagon and try to avoid walls that converge in on the hexagon. The page image above actually shows a ''good'' scenario: new players often die before even 10 seconds elapse. However, while colliding head-on with a wall will kill you, rubbing the side of one ''won't''; this can be heavily used to your advantage.

** Before that, ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' had some bramble levels. Then again, since the walls are made of bramble (which has a lot of thorns), it's justified in both games. Fortunately, the floors do not hurt you when Squawks is carrying Diddy and/or Dixie, but NOT when they change into him)

* One level of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' has a version of this. You have to move through walls of brambles in a spiral shape to reach the prize in the center. Hitting the walls at all takes off on of your [[RuleOfThree three]] [[CallAHitPointASmeerp life watermelon]]. Sounds simple, except the bramble walls spin back and forth, making it a great feat to get in and out without dying. Not to mention you do the maze as DK, who has a pretty large hitbox, and that it’s possible to accidentally access it before third watermelon is available.

* The first game in the ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' series had a lighter version of this : merely scratching a wall would instantly set the player's speed to zero. The following PS1 games handled it a bit better, but then the collision handling became ''[[GoodBadBugs abusable]].''
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* The Japanese game show ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honoo no Challenger'' has an event where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod gives off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], including the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo system with a trackball controller and blasts of compressed air as the penalty for collisions, and a PlayStation game localized by Creator/{{Jaleco}} under the name ''Irritating Stick''. Sometimes challenges of this sort appear in those NintendoHard real-life obstacle course competitions. The whole concept appears based on the classic board game ''Operation'', where the sides of the chambers are "deadly" in the sense touching them ended your turn. They all work on the same principle. Both the stick and the edges of the maze are electrified. Touching them completed the circuit and triggered the alarm.

* The refueling tunnels in ''{{VideoGame/Parsec}}'' for the TI99.

* ''{{VideoGame/Venture}}'' has deadly walls protecting a treasure in a dungeon that the player's character must safely navigate through and escape before a Hallmonster comes in after you.

* The Japanese game show ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honoo no Challenger'' has an event where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod gives off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], including the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the NeoGeo system with a trackball controller and blasts of compressed air as the penalty for collisions, and a PlayStation game localized by Creator/{{Jaleco}} under the name ''Irritating Stick''. Sometimes challenges of this sort appear in those NintendoHard real-life obstacle course competitions. The whole concept appears based on the classic board game ''Operation'', where the sides of the chambers are "deadly" in the sense touching them ended your turn. They all work on the same principle. Both the stick and the edges of the maze are electrified. Touching them completed the circuit and triggered the alarm.

* The [[SegaGenesis Genesis]] space shooter ''VideoGame/ArrowFlash'' had plenty in the later levels, including a winding path, and is a classic example of a game where they're your biggest threat after you've built up your weaponry (which all goes away if you die). One of the [[TitleDrop Arrow Flash]] moves gives temporary invincibility against them; just don't use it too late.

* ''VideoGame/{{R-Type}}''. Partially removed in the last 2 games: only the walls that you'd logically consider to be lethal (such as a large indestructible battleship) kill you when you touch them, but static pieces of scenery only create a shower of sparks when you grind against them.

* The ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series uses them pretty heavily, mostly because aircraft smacking into mountains and buildings don't tend to stay in one piece. Particularly noticeable in the obligatory [[ThatOneLevel canyon and tunnel missions]].
** ''VideoGame/AirCombat'', the first game in the series, has one exceptionally notable example. The canyon run itself isn't so bad, but the technical limitations of the game and lack of depth perception makes it very difficult to navigate through the level without crashing.

* The Japanese game show ''Ucchan Nanchan no Honoo no Challenger'' has an event where contestants must guide a rod through a maze (of sorts) under a [[TimedMission nowhere-near-forgiving time limit]], and the rod gives off a burst of smoke if it collided with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou anything in the maze]], including the walls, a slot-machine type contraption, rods, at least 1 robot, or a pendulum. This was adapted by Saurus into an ArcadeGame running on a unique variant of the NeoGeo system with a trackball controller and blasts of compressed air as the penalty for collisions, and a PlayStation game localized by Creator/{{Jaleco}} under the name ''Irritating Stick''.

* The refueling tunnels in ''VideoGame/Parsec'' for the TI99.

* This is the point of ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'', a game where you control a triangle spinning around a hexagon and try to avoid walls that converge in on the hexagon. The page image above actually shows a ''good'' scenario: new players often die before even 10 seconds elapse.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Einhander}}'', touching a wall will NOT destroy the [[OneHitPointWonder player's ship]] instantly, but it will if you continue pushing into it.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MegaMan2 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadly-walls_mega-man_7258.png]]]]

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[[quoteright:346:[[VideoGame/SuperHexagon http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hexagon_demonstration_5219.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:346: See that small triangle near the middle? [[OhCrap It's you]].]]

* This is the point of ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'', a game where you control a triangle spinning around a hexagon and try to avoid walls that converge in on the hexagon.

* ''VideoGame/AngryVideoGameNerdAdventures'' has skull & crossbones-marked Death Blocks that are a OneHitKill if the Nerd touches them. In many levels, they appear and disappear at timed intervals, creating CorridorCubbyholeRun situations.