Build a Bad Guy Workshop - Designing enemies for retro games

Stationary

The enemy does not move at all.

Walker

The enemy walks or runs along the ground. Example: Super Mario's Goombas

Riser

The enemy can increase its height (often, can rise from nothing). Examples: Super Mario's Piranha Plants and Castlevania's Mud Man

Ducker

The enemy can reduce its height (including, melting into the floor). Example: Super Mario's Piranha Plants

Faller

The enemy falls from the ceiling onto the ground. Usually these enemies are drops of something, like acid. Some games have slimes that do this.

Jumper

The enemy can bounce or jump. (some jump forward, some jump straight up and down). Examples: Donkey Kong's Springs, Super Mario 2's Tweeter, Super Mario 2's Ninji

Floater

The enemy can float, fly, or levitate. Example: Castlevania's Bats

Sticky

The enemy sticks to walls and ceilings. Example: Super Mario 2's Spark

Waver

The enemy floats in a sine wave pattern. Example: Castlevania's Medusa Head

Rotator

The enemy rotates around a fixed point. Sometimes, the fixed point moves, and can move according to any movement attribute in this list. Also, the rotation direction may change. Example: Super Mario 3's Rotodisc, These jetpack enemeis from Sunsoft's Batman (notice that the point which they rotate around is the player)

Swinger

The enemy swings from a fixed point. Example: Castlevania's swinging blades

Pacer

The enemy changes direction in response to a trigger (like reaching the edge of a platform). Example: Super Mario's Red Koopas

Follower

The enemy follows the player (Often used in top-down games). Example: Zelda 3's Hard Hat Beetles

Roamer

The enemy changes direction completely randomly. Example: Legend of Zelda's Octoroks

Liner

The enemy moves in a straight line directly to a spot on the screen. Forgot to record the enemies I saw doing this, but usually they move from one spot to another in straight lines, sometimes randomly, other times, trying to 'slice' through the player.

Teleporter

The enemy can teleport from one location to another. Example: Zelda's Wizrobes

Dasher

The enemy dashes in a direction, faster than its normal movement speed. Example: Zelda's Rope Snakes

Ponger

The enemy ignores gravity and physics, and bounces off walls in straight lines. Example: Zelda 2's "Bubbles"

Geobound

The enemy is physically stuck to the geometry of the level, sometimes appears as level geometry. Examples: Megaman's Spikes, Super Mario's Piranha Plants, CastleVania's White Dragon

Tethered

The enemy is tethered to the level's geometry by a chain or a rope. Example: Super Mario's Chain Chomps

Swooper

A floating enemy that swoops down, often returning to its original position, but not always. Example: Castlevania's Bats, Super Mario's Swoopers, Super Mario 3's Angry Sun

Mirror

The enemy mirrors the movement patterns of the player. Sometimes, the enemy moves in the opposite direction as the player. Example: Zelda 3's Goriya

GeoIgnore

The enemy ignores the properties of the level's geometry and can pass through solid objects. Examples: Super Mario 3's Rotodisc, many flying enemies will ignore geometry as well.

Shielder

Player attacks are nullified when hit from a specific direction or angle, or hit a specific spot on the enemy. Example: Zelda 2's Dark Nuts

Deflector

Player's ranged attacks are reflected when the enemy is hit by them.

Secret spot

The enemy has a specific spot where damage can only be taken when that spot is hit. The opposite of a Shielder. Many bosses have this attribute.

Invulnerable

The enemy cannot be harmed or killed. Examples: Most are geometry based hazzards (spikes, mashing blocks, fire spouts), but also includes enemies like Super Mario 3's Boo Brothers.

Revivor

The enemy is revived after dying. Examples: Castlevania's Skeletons, Super Mario's Dry Bones.

Regenerator

The enemy's health is regenerated over time.

Secret Weakness

The enemy is vulnerable to specific types of attacks (fire, magic, arrows, etc). Example: Zelda's Dodogno (weakness to bombs).

Hard to Hit

These enemies are specifically hard to hit with by the player's normal attack ranges. They are aften very fast, or very tiny. Example: Zelda 2's Myu

Segmented

These enemies are made up of smaller individual objects or enemies. Each individual segment can often be destroyed independently, and are often in snake-form - but not always. Example: Zelda's

Bumper

These enemies act like pinball bumpers, pushing the player (or other objects) away quickly. Example: Zelda 3's Hard Hat Beetles

GeoMimic

These enemies have properties of level geometry. Most commonly, the player can stand on them. Examples: Most enemies in Mario 2, Megaman X's Sigma, Castlevania's Catoblepas

Alarm

An enemy or object that causes another enemy or object to react. I didn't record any specific examples, unfortunately.

Grower

The enemy can grow in size.

Shrinker

The enemy can shrink in size.

Forcer

The enemy can apply direct movement force to the player. I don't have any specific examples, but treadmills found in most games apply, as well as enemies who blow air at the player, causing them to move backwards.

Carrier

The enemy can carry another enemy, an object, or the player. This one is a bit broad, but includes enemies that pick up the player, that 'eat' the player and spit it out again, or otherwise grab and restrict the movement of the player. Example: Zelda's WallMasters

Thrower

The enemy can throw whatever it is holding (an object, the player, or another enemy). This is often combined with Carriers, but not always. Examples: Castlevania's Barrel throwing Skeletons, Super Mario 3's Buster Beetle

Emitter

The enemy 'emits' another enemy or projectile. This type is very similar to the Thrower, and the differences are mostly semantic. The main difference being that throwers throw an object they've picked up or spawn with, while Emitters have an infinite supply of the things they can throw out. Examples: Super Mario 3's Bullet Bill Cannons, Super Mario's Lakitus, anything that has a gun, Gauntlet's enemy spawners.

Splitter

The enemy can split into multiple other enemies while destroying itself. Examples: Rogue Legacy's Slimes, Legend of Zelda's Vire and Biri.

Cloner

The enemy can duplicate itself. Often, the duplicate is an exact clone, but sometimes, the duplicate is very slightly modified (such as having reduced health, or being faster). The enemy that does the cloning is not destroyed. Example: Zelda's Ghini

Morpher

The enemy morphs into another enemy type. Sometimes, this is temporary, and sometimes, the enemy will morph into multiple other types of enemies. Unfortunately, I didn't log an example of this.

Sapper

The enemy can cause the player's stats to be modified (slower speed, reduced or eliminated jump, inability to attack, etc). These effects can be either permanent or temporary.

Latcher

Like a Sapper, the enemy can drain the player's stats and abilities, but does so by latching on to the player. Example: Mario 3's Mini-Goombas, Zelda's Like-Likes.

Hider

The enemy can hide from the player. Typically, the enemy is hidden until the player comes within a set distance, or the inverse where the enemy hides once the player comes too close. Example: Mario's Piranha Plants.

Switcher

The enemy can toggle between various attributes, such as being stationary and invincible and switching to being a pacer and vulnerable. Example: Mario's Boo Brothers, Zelda's Peahats.

Exploder

The enemy can destroy itself and cause splash damage. Example: Proximity Mines found in many games, Mario's Bo-Bombs

Interactor

The enemy can interact with scripted objects, such as levers or buttons.

Charger

The enemy will pause it's behavior between switching to another behavior Example: Castlevania's Wolves (Who pause a moment and lunge towards the player)