Platforming games with one-way platforms

[Sik]

Yeah, internally an one-way door could be an one-way wall with the sprite being there just for animation. That would make it simpler to code, and the player would not be aware that the door is actually doing nothing (programming collision against objects tends to end up being harder to get right than collision against the map).

In hindsight, that kind of stuff may make one-way walls really useful.

[tepples]

On the other hand, pulling a chair into a one-way door to keep the sprite from going away might make a good puzzle.

[Myask]

Yeah, that would be a good use for such blocks, but I can't think of any games that did this with walls.

N [+] has one-way platforms, 4-orientable, pixel-placeable. (Y'know, that flash ninja game that got ported to DS, etc.). There are a myriad of maps for it; it is used both as a one-way-door, as a danger-zone trap(ninjas get in, can't get out), as a simple wall (doubled-up to make a full wall) if aesthetically desired or just because the block-grid doesn't provide enough...

Adventures of Lolo has its arrow tiles, which are all-but-aesthetically one-way-walls.

If I recall correctly, Super Mario World's land-shapes can function this way, but are not used as one-way-walls in the base game ever.

One-way [or trap, for down]doors are a far-more common case, though. (A subtype is a turnstile.) Probably next-most-common are insurmountable conveyor belts/zones.

Other common gimmicks in this vein are blocks that become solid when moved through (e.g. Chip's Challenge), doors shutting behind you...

Yoshi's Island has those pinball flipper things that allow only downward movement

They are oriented horizontally fairly often too. Not sure if any are up-only; the lack of a jump-down command makes a simple pass-through platform fill that niche.

La-Mulana has one-way doors a-plenty, along with trapdoors you cannot jump back up through. Not sure if its inspiration Maze of Galious does.

Zelda 2 and Super Metroid (onward) have crumble-blocks, which standing on destroys, but cannot be destroyed from beneath. Super Metroid has a few other ways to do one-way, doors being obvious; speed blocks with running room only on one side (with regeneration), or closing gates...

Link's Awakening has one-way doors (body-wall spinners).

Wario: Master of Disguise has currents that are too strong for non-specialized form to counteract.
For that matter, so does Super Mario Brothers 3. (Donut Lifts may count under 'crumble blocks' down-only variety;)

SMB1 on have invisible coin blocks. For that matter, SMB1/2 has blocks you cannot pass left through; it just triggers a screen-width later
Milon's Secret Castle has trapdoors.

Though not quite what you meant on one-way walls, Lemmings does have walls you can dig through in only one direction.


I feel like I'm missing a (recent, indie?) platformer game that did this, with arrows pointing in a direction you could not move, for all four directions...

[Khaz]

I just want to bring up the loops in the Sonic games as a pseudo-example of one-way walls. I spent a while thinking about how they function and from what little I've read there seems to be a trigger at the top of the loop that switches which "path" sonic is on. So, some surfaces only exist in the "foreground" and others in the "background". The game also allows you through either side when you approach it to begin with, it keeps you in the correct plane somehow.

I had considered putting such loops in my game when I implemented the Sonic-style rolling physics but I think I've decided against it, it would feel too much like a direct rip-off... Though it does seriously limit the fun you can have with rolling around curves.

[Sik]

The game also allows you through either side when you approach it to begin with, it keeps you in the correct plane somehow.

More triggers at the sides of the loop, or just knowing ahead of time that Sonic will be in a given plane. Sadly the latter sometimes doesn't work and you can sequence break into being unable to enter the loop, but to be fair you have to be actively trying to do that (and I'm not sure I ever got it to happen without debug mode).

[thefox]

Necro; but since we were talking about games which utilize one-way platforms, notably Super Mario Maker has them in all directions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvnAXh8cs8 (couldn't find a better video)