Death Mountain

One order of Hailfire Peaks, hold the ice.

A stage in a video game, particularly platformers, that takes place on a mountain or similarly high, rocky place. Thankfully, the usual problems of low air pressure are generally not found in these stages. Instead, natural hazards include falling rocks, crumbling ledges, rope bridges, and of course, very, very long drops. High wind may be a hazard in some places as well. Enemies may include eagles or other high-flying birds, Bighorn rams, and whatever nasty things the world may have living in the inevitable caves.

Death Mountain is commonly merged with other areas. For example, the Lethal Lava Land version is of course a volcano, while others are snow-covered peaks.

Named after the recurring area in The Legend of Zelda series.

Examples of Death Mountain include:

• The Hill Top Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, as well Red Mountain in Sonic Adventure. Of course, both of these combine this with Lethal Lava Land.
  • Rail Canyon in Sonic Heroes and Sky Rail in Sonic Adventure 2 combine this with major abuse of rail grinding.
• Dragon Roost Cavern in The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker is an example of the classic volcano subtype. When you put the Map of The Wind Waker on top of the Map of Ocarina of time, several familiar places (like the Deku-tree) are pretty much in the same location. Dragon Roost and Death Mountain share their spot on the maps. Interestingly, when Death Mountain appeared in the original game, it was just set up like the rest of the dungeons in the game.
• Majoras Mask has Snowhead Mountain, and Twilight Princess has Snowpeak Mountain.
• Twilight Princess also has Death Mountain. Not to the mention the lofty waterfalls leading into Zora's domain. That kid must have calves of steel by the end of the game.
  • Tal Tal Heights in Links Awakening.
  • Skyward Sword has Eldin Volcano. Which is obviously the same old Death Mountain.
• Tall, Tall Mountain in Super Mario 64. Also contains Cool, Cool Mountain as the snowy variant.
  • World 6 in New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii
  • Part of "Freezeflame Galaxy" from Super Mario Galaxy and possibly "Boulder Bowl Galaxy" from Super Mario Galaxy 2
  • Chocolate Island was mostly this.
  • Worlds 4 and 6 in Something Else take place on a giant mountain. In World 4, Luigi has to deal with Yoshis, Killer Bills, a very dark cave, and an underground mine. Luigi has to stop the invasion of the mountain village by Von Toad II and his frog cronies. In World 6, Luigi has two ways to approach the last castle. On one path, Luigi has to deal with exploding bullet birds and slippery ice blocks. On the other path, Luigi has to deal with slippery ice physics and plenty of platforming perils.
• Gorilla Glacier in Donkey Kong Country is the classic icy version, as is K3 from Donkey Kong Country 3. Razor Ridge, also from DKC3, is a more traditional example.
• The Red Mountain in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a variation: the main dangers, instead of being very long drops, are the creatures infected with blight and corprus emanating from the crater. The Dagoth Ur Facility also has Lethal Lava Land elements.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sends you up the Throat of the World, the highest or second highest mountain in all Tamriel (sources disagree). It is quite a bit easier to die from very long drops than what was the case with Red Mountain, which is rather encouraging, considering Red Mountain is supposed to be the other contender for highest mountain on the continent.
• The natural habitat of the Fire Dragon in Gothic II. No actual lava, as the volcano seems to be dormant, but plenty of long drops and an assortment of fire-related nasties to battle - although the latter can be avoided by transforming into a bug and just crawling past them. They ignore anything that small. It's possible to make it all the way up to the crater and the dragon itself without a single fight.
• Death Peak in Chrono Trigger is another snowy version. Your first obstacle is even passing through a very windy area without getting sent back to the start.
• Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack have their respective final battles set in a mountain cavern, which PdP actually calls Death Mountain.
• The first action stage in world 4 of ActRaiser contains elements of this and Lethal Lava Land.
• Mt. Hobs and Mt. Ordeals in Final Fantasy IV.
• The Northern Mountain and the Hiryuu Valley in Final Fantasy V.
• Mt. Kolts and Crescent Mountain in Final Fantasy VI.
• Mt. Nibel and Gaea's Cliff in Final Fantasy VII.
• Mt. Gagazet in Final Fantasy X. Even better that it's overflowing with powerful fiends, most of which are the lost spirits of former guardians and summoners. Like the one you're trying to protect.
• Mosphoran Highwastes in Final Fantasy XII. And at the peak, is a battle with an Esper.
• Rocky Valley in the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong.
• In Unreal Tournament, both the DM-Morpheus and DM-Plungemap maps are set at the top of skyscrapers so high that gravity is low. For some reason, no one wears oxygen masks or cold-weather suits.
  • DM-Peak from UT99 is a tiny wooden monestary wound around the top of a rocky spire with rickety bridges over long drops. The new, planetside CTF-Face(ing Worlds) in UT3 might also count.
• The Shiverpeak Mountains in Guild Wars. As one might guess from the name, they're the icy variant, though even the lady Elementalists, whose preferred attire is a bra, miniskirt, and a lot of lace, have no trouble with the cold.
• The Krasnogorje mountain in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It's high up enough that the air is lighter, and as such Snake's stamina drops faster in this area.
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Expedition Everest's Forbidden Mountain at Disney Theme Parks is as close as you can get to this trope in Real Life.
• The Blue Mountains in Rayman, the Precipice and the Iron Mountains in Rayman 2: The Great Escape, the Summit beyond the Clouds in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, and the Mystical Pique in Rayman Origins.
• An Untitled Story has the Curtain and Highlands, which precede the former. The Curtain has the game's usual jumping puzzles complete with lethal ghosts, while the latter has a constant danger in the form of falling rocks.
• Spikes Peak in its entirety.
• The Stonefang Tunnels in Demon's Souls.
• The Nature Park in Water Warfare. It has damaging guysers (with delicious tempting items on top nine times out of ten), and its boss is even a cave girl.
• The "Volcanic" levels in the Gradius series. Sometimes there are erupting volcanoes, III's turns into an Underground Level halfway, and IV combines it with Lethal Lava Land.
• Alpiner took place entirely on mountain slopes.
• Eldam Mountains(also a Slippy-Slidey Ice World) in Ys III, Ice Mountain and Fire Mountain in both versions of Ys IV, and Grana-Vallis Mountain in Ys VI.
• Dragon Quest IX has the Heights of Loneliness and a volcano, the Magmaroo.
• Vodkavania in Heavy Weapon is set on a rocky terrain, and is the first level in which you encounter enemy tanks.
• Sector 7 in Jumper Two is a combination of this and Slippy-Slidey Ice World. It has dangers in form of usual Spikes of Doom as well as regularly blowing winds and slippy surfaces.
• Mount Silver in Pokémon Gold and Silver 's Heartgold and Soulsilver remakes. There are no falling rocks, but the wild Pokemon are annoying enough, and then you face Red, the highest leveled trainer in any game to date, when you reach the top.
  • Also Mount Coronet in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum. You have to slog through several dungeons (bring plenty of Repel...GoddamnedBats...), battle Team Galatic mooks, and then encounter the version's legendary at the top, at Spear Pillar. And if you're playing Platinum, you go right from there into the Distortion World.