Spike Balls of Doom

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It's Deathball!!...Deathball, what are you doing here?!

A variation of Spikes of Doom: Take a sphere and cover it with spikes and you got yourself a very typical obstacle. Common in video games but also occasionally present in other media. They come in many forms:

• They can be located on surfaces and fill the role of Spikes of Doom.
• They can hang mid-air and even move independently. Sometimes they're even spinning.
• In some cases, they are alive.
• In other cases, they're on chains, but not as a wieldable weapon since it's another trope.
  • When on chains, they will often swing back and forth or even in a 360 degree motion, perpetually.

In video games, those objects started making more widespread appearance from third generation consoles afterward and can sometimes be still present in seventh generation platform games.

Not to be confused with the Sea Mine.

Examples of Spike Balls of Doom include:

Film

• Pinhead from Hellraiser uses flying spiked balls at one point (according to an ad for one of the films I vaguely remember seeing).
• The Thief and the Cobbler includes these in a chain reaction.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: The Toclafane become spiky balls when they have decided to kill you..

Toys

• Thornax fruits from Bionicle. They can be used as projectile weapons, and are highly explosive. They also taste terrible.

Video Games

• Sonic the Hedgehog series uses spikeballs extensively. They are a rather common attack of many of the bosses in the series. Some of the spikeballs can be seen in environment spinning or mid-air. Also, some enemies, like Orbinaut, have spikeballs.
  • Sonic Colors introduces Pink wisps that allows Sonic to turn into one of these that can climb walls and ceilings.
  • On a more Meta level, Sonic himself is one of these most the time, being a hedgehog and all. He's covered in spikes, and all his attacks require him to roll into a ball, often causing the doom of Dr Eggman/Robotnik's machinery.
• Bubble Man's stage in Mega Man 2 has a lot of them. In 9, one type of spikeball is even an enemy.
• The Kirby series has Gordo which is alive and invulnerable version of a spikeball.
• The Loco Roco series has Togeh which is a black ball of spikes commonly found on surfaces. There is also an alive version of it.
• The Super Mario Bros. series has a few of them. For an example, in Super Mario World, there are spikeballs spinning around in a few stages. In New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, there are spike balls that act like enemies and destroy anything they touch.
  • There's also Spiny eggs, which are thrown by Lakitus, and will either turn in Spinies (red), bounce on the ground (green), or explode (yellow); as well as light green enemies called Spikes, which puke up spiked balls and throw them at the player.
  • In the spinoffs there are various types of these. Yoshi's Island has blue spike balls called Thorns that kill Yoshi in one hit and can be destroyed by eggs, and Wario Land 4 and Shake Dimension have spiky mines and mine like stationary enemies which look and act like this trope as well.
• Spiky balls (called pike balls) are one of the buyable items in Shantae.
• Spiky balls are present in underwater sections of Adventure Island IV.
• In Battletoads, these are located in many stages like 4 and 6, and mean instant death for the 'toads. Unlike other spikeballs, they are in a slightly irregular shape.
  • The Stage 6 boss of Battletoads and Double Dragon can turn into an invulnerable spikeball.
• Sometimes these cover floors and skies in CJ's Elephant Antics
• Trine loves spiked balls. Rolling, hanging from chains, falling out of trap doors, floating like naval mines, I don't think there was a single level that didn't have one.
• Don Paulo uses some on his flying machine to wreck the tower in Professor Layton and the Curious Village.
  • The sliding puzzle before confronting the future professor in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future has one.
• The first boss of Vectorman has spikes attached to its wings. Level 3 also features spikeballs, although they may be sea mines.
• These are one of the (many) weapons for tanks in Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
• Serious Sam II has a spikeball vehicle you can ride in. One of the enemies is also a spikeball.
• Brutal Legend
• In Gremlins 2, there are two types of spiky balls. One goes round and the other one goes from wall to wall.
• Gokujyo Parodius has a giant powerup boss which shoots powerups and spiky balls out in higher difficulties.
• Dwarf Fortress—used in traps.
• Abuse combines this trope with Asteroids Monster—huge spiky balls are inclined to drop on the player without warning, and when destroyed they split into smaller spiky balls.
• The Grass/Steel Pokémon Ferroseed and its evolution Ferrothorn from Black and White. Both are spiky metal plants, and Ferrothorn pretty much fits all the criteria at the top of the page (alive, hanging, spins, on chainsvines). Obviously, using a contact move on either of them will result in the attacker taking damage.
• A common trap in Jumper series.
• Occasionally, there are spikeballs found in Last Alert.
• In Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, some green spiked balls can be seen moving back and forth.
• In Batman - Return of the Joker, spiked balls hanging from the chains is one of the first hazards you encounter.
• Liero features spike balls as a weapon - a very tricky, but also potentially very destructive weapon. Players who use them are known as spikeballers (duh).
• Some songs on Dance Dance Revolution MAX, MAX 2, and EXTREME prominently features these in their background videos, especially up-tempo songs. Subverted Trope in that you don't have to dodge them.
• Kabuki Quantum Fighter has those kinds of obstacles and these move around too.
• These appear as enemies in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time's Water Temple.
• Terraria has these as a throwable weapon. Cool.
  • As well as perpetually rotating ball-n-chain's spawning in dungeons.
• Hammerin' Harry has at-the-end-of-chain variations of these.
• The Blues Brothers NES game has stationary versions, mobile versions and larger spikeballs on chains.

Web Comics

• Girl Genius: the Castle inventory includes "The Happy Fun Ball of death"—large, self-propelled and on a week-long patrol route through the Castle's corridors.

Web Original

• Neopets has a flash game called Darigan Dodgeball. Yes, dodgeball, but with spiked balls.

Western Animation

• Wile E. Coyote sets up a cluster of spike balls tethered to a pole, set spinning like a top, in the road - they break loose and fly up a short distance and land right where he's hiding.