Collapsing Ceiling Boss

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An extreme form of Ground-Shattering Landing performed by various game bosses. Usually (But not always) through a Ground Pound, they shake the very foundations of the room you fight them in, causing boulders, support girders, or other debris to fall from the ceiling. Some are so skilled at this that they can aim the debris either at the hero, or right on top of themselves so they can throw it.

One wonders how the whole building or cave doesn't collapse and crush both the hero and the boss. Similarly, you'd expect at some point there would be no more stuff left up there to fall down but that never happens, no matter how many times the boss smashes the arena.

May occasionally show up with smaller enemies as well.

Not to be confused with Load-Bearing Boss. Compare Stalactite Spite.

Examples of Collapsing Ceiling Boss include:

• A very common setup in Mega Man.
  • Guts Man from the first game would jump around, and catch the falling boulder to throw at you.
    • And he does it again as the first Fortress Boss in Mega Man 7.
  • Junk Man would also Ground Pound, making debris fall randomly.
  • The Power Piston, the second boss of Mr. X's castle in Mega Man 6, pounded the wall to cause a constant rain of rocks.
  • Stone Head, a miniboss in Jewel Man's stage in Mega Man 9 shakes ground to cause boulders to fall.
• Also a common boss attack in the Castlevania series.
  • Fairly often, this attack is given to the Frankenstein's Monster boss. They don't usually jump, instead either stomping the ground, or pounding the wall with their fists.
  • This is also a common attack for the Golem enemies. Some will cause boulders to rain down, while the Iron Golem from Circle Of The Moon will make gears tumble down, since you fight him in a clock tower.
  • Goliath in Order of Ecclesia can both drop pieces of the ceiling on you and smash a large chunk of the floor upwards.
• Sonic the Hedgehog is by no means a stranger to this attack.
  • The spiked pig robot boss from Sonic2 for the Master System/Game Gear would charge at you. If he hit the wall, stalactites would rain down.
  • Robotnik's machine in Mystic Cave Zone would burrow in and out of the ceiling, causing a rain of stone. The rocks were harmless, but the stalactites would hurt you.
    • You face off with a drill bot with a very similar pattern in Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3.
  • Eggman's Machine in Ice Mountain Zone in Sonic Advance remains on the ceiling, pounding it to rain stalactites down on you. Since you're stuck in water too deep to jump out of, you have to jump on the sinking stalactites to be able to reach Eggman, and get a breath.
• Donkey Kong does this in Donkey Kong for the GBA, and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, stomping on the ground causing junk to fall from the ceiling. Very odd in the final boss battle in Donkey Kong, since you're at the top of a tower, and there is no ceiling.
  • Wasn't there construction going on? The junk that falls seems more "Constructing" than "Constructed".
• One Spyro the Dragon boss has this: to defeat him, you have to wait until he does his Ground Pound attack and dodge it, at which point he looks up at the boulders bouncing off his head. This process is repeated three times, despite the fact that you should have run out of ceiling a while back.
• Yoshis Island and Yoshi's Island DS both have this for the Final Boss... except neither battle has a ceiling, and the castle itself had collapsed before then. For the first game, the debris comes from Giant Baby Bowser's roaring causing a Chunky Updraft.
  • Don Bongo from Yoshi's Story is an odd version. His stomping around causes dishes to drop from the ceiling.
• The Segmented Crawbster in Pikmin 2 has an attack like this. It rams the wall and makes rocks fall down. Gather your Pikmin. Fast.
• In I Wanna Be the Guy, whenever Kraidgief stomps, spikes and debris from the ceiling fall down towards you.
• Happens twice in Flintstones - Surprise at Dinosaur Peak. One time with caveman boss and second time when during the final boss battle.
• The giant yeti in Spelunky can knock ice blocks loose from the ceiling simply by roaring.
• Volvagia from Ocarina of Time can do the same with boulders.
• In Hydorah, the end boss of Dunarys is literally a collapsing ceiling. A more traditional example occurs at the end of Cyclades Liberation.
• Casandra starts doing this midway through the final showdown of Pico's School, and you have to shoot the debris out of the air so that you don't lose health.
• Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door has Rawk Hawk, who can climb onto the steel bars and shake it, causing things to rain down on you.
  • In the original Paper Mario, Tutankoopa does something similar to Mario and his partner. At one point in the fight, it will backfire against him and he gets hit with a fallen piece of limestone from the ceiling.
• The final boss of Purple, as one of his attacks, can Drop the Hammer and cause blocks to fall from the ceiling.
• In Illusion of Gaia, the Mummified Queen does this in the pyramid, but with large stone blocks falling from the ceiling.
• The Old Man from The Legend of Zelda does this as a boss in Abobos Big Adventure: after drinking a potion and having turned into a giant, he often stomps on the ground causing debris to fall from the ceiling. Since the stage is in a top-down view, Abobo must stay away from the crosshairs that appear to avoid being crushed by the stone chunks.
• In World of Warcraft Magtheridon causes debris to fall onto players during his third stage, when he breaks the walls of his prison.
  • Prior to the fight itself Scourgelord Tyrannus forces players to run through an ice tunnel and uses his dragon to try to collapse the roof, dropping giant chunks of ice that hurl players around the tunnel if they connect.
• Runescape has Stomp, a frustrating Dungeoneering boss. It wouldn't be so bad if the debris that falls didn't block off the items you need to prevent him from healing a third of his health.
• The very first boss of Dragon Quest IX can do this. Despite all logic, it does as much damage as his regular attack.
• Happens in DC Universe Online when you and Nightwing face Bane.
• The very first boss of Wario Land Shake It, Rollenratl does this by shaking the ceiling. Then again, he is holding up the roof... He also eventually kind of realises the downfall of this tactic when he's defeated and crushed by the ceiling.
• Tutankhamenattack, the boss of the Temple of Doom stage in Life Force, uses falling blocks as an attack.
• In the SNES remake of Prince of Persia, the multi-armed Giant Space Flea From Nowhere in Level 17 causes skulls to fall from the ceiling when landing.