Stalactite Spite

In platform video games, completely inanimate objects in the ceiling seem to know when a player is approaching and fall down accordingly. And only the player because the scenery just doesn't care about the enemies somehow.

The most common offenders are:

• Stalactites
• Icicles
• Spikes
• Chandeliers
• Coconuts
• And sometimes a tile or an entire section of a ceiling.

Notice: In Real Life, falling icicles kill dozens of people each year, although it's the mass of the upper part of the icicle, not the pointy end that's lethal.

Subtrope of Malevolent Architecture and part of Everything Trying to Kill You. Note that this trope doesn't include non-inanimate enemies (like Thwomp in the Super Mario series) with that kind of behavior, nor does it include Death Traps which look like they're deliberately made to do their thing.

See also Collapsing Ceiling Boss, where a boss attacks by causing things to drop from the ceiling.

Examples of Stalactite Spite include:

• Capcom's Aladdin had many falling stalactites in later levels.
• Icicles can be found in level 4 of Battletoads.
• Bloblonia is full of falling stalactites in the Wii version of A Boy and His Blob. They're also one of the few things that can kill Boy while he's in the Cola Bubble, which is otherwise completely impervious to everything from enemies to water. Fortunately for you, you can send Blob underneath them to trigger them early.
• Braid features a chandelier in the final level, which could've been used to jump up to where the princess is. She herself was trying to drop it on you. Also, if you get all the stars, you can use it to get up there.
• Some Castlevania games have chandeliers that fall when you approach.
• Cave Story - When Egg Corridor is revisited, two sizes of stalactites will fall if the player stays under them. The larger size insta-kills anything pinned under it.
• Crystal Caves. But only some of the stalactites. There are also stalagmites, which just stand in the ground (oddly enough, on the reverse gravity levels, stalactites and stalagmites are not reversed).
• Partially averted in Dragon Quest VIII where the icicles in the Snow cavern will fall right behind (or in front of) you, instead of onto you. They're actually required to complete a puzzle in order to navigate the grotto.
• The first Duck Tales NES game had some fallinc icicles in the Himalayas level.
• Duke Nukem has "Acme" signs that fall when you walk underneath them. They provide bonus points if shot while falling.
• Large icicles in Gaea's Cliff of Final Fantasy VII are treated as enemies in battle: Every time you strike them, they counter-"attack" by dropping smaller icicles on you from the ceiling.
• A version of this appears in first Harry Potter game (at least on the PC): Stalactites in the Fire Seed Cave fall when Harry approaches, but he can never be hit by them and they're necessary to proceed through the cave.
• Ice Climber, though they won't appear on the level you choose to start on.
• I Wanna Be the Guy, where Everything Is Trying to Kill You, it's no surprise that almost any time you walk close enough to a nearby spike, apple (cherry?), etc., it may suddenly fly out and try to kill you—even if that means it's "falling" up, sideways, or diagonally.
  • Indiana Rodent has falling fruit in a homage to I Wanna Be the Guy.
• Jill of the Jungle features falling stalactites in several of its cave-themed levels.
• Jineseiowata no Daibouken, "The Life-Ending Adventure," features an odd falling ceiling in its neverending pursuit of sadistic player homicide.
• Falling spikes are a rather rare type of traps in Jumper series are falling spikes. A memorable instance is at the end of stage 6-3 in Jumper Two.
• Kirby games have explosive coconuts which fall when being under them. Got an umbrella handy?
  • A handful of icicles can be found in ice levels of Kirby's Dreamland 3.
• Some The Legend of Zelda games. Most frustrating in Ocarina of Time, where the ceiling is high enough that you probably won't see the icicles from a distance, and they also respawn.
• One of the traps in the snow-themed stages of Oh No! More Lemmings is falling icicles.
• Linus Spacehead has got bouncing coconuts (brown for some reason) which fall when approached.
• In the Wilderness levels of LittleBigPlanet- The icicles actually fall before you get to them, thus forming convenient platforms. Of course they're still capable of smashing you.
• In the intro stage of Mega Man X 3, Zero knocks out a stretch of the ceiling and drops into the corridor just before the player takes control of him. Throughout the rest of the corridor, there are other stretches of ceiling that will fall when he passes below.
• Monster Party - Round 3 is an example of falling stalactites.
• All over the place in world 3 of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Complete with whole ceilings worth that do this, and giant types about the size of a car that have to be used as a temporary platform.
• Antarctica stages in Konami's Noah's Ark have icicles.
• Panic Restaurant - Icicles in the penultimate ice fridge level.
• Prince of Persia, in the level preceding the Final Boss, has a bunch of ceiling tiles that fall into your path as if someone were running over them (as loose ceiling/floor tiles are otherwise not unusual).
• Various levels in Purple have malevolent hazards that fall when the player approaches; construction beams in stages 1–2 and 4-3, and incicles throughout World 5.
• Rick Dangerous. While they only trigger on your proximity, they will also kill any enemies they happen to fall on.
• Spikes intentionally being dropped onto the player's head is an occasional Sonic the Hedgehog trap in levels:
  • The lifting weights with spiked undersides in the Marble Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 1).
  • The Underground Zone of the Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog 2 features spikes that fall when you near them/pass under them.
  • Ice Cap Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog 3, though the fallen icicles can also be used as platforms—in some places, this is the only way to proceed.
  • Sonic and Knuckles: Stactites can be found in the Lava Reef Zone.
  • Daytime Holoska stage in Sonic Unleashed has a few of those icicles.
• In various Super Mario World stages, ceilings lined with yellow spikes will occasionally have an odd-color spike mixed in, that shakes and falls as you cross underneath.
• SuperTux has icicles that drop from the ceiling (and occassionally even free-floating ones that drop) when the player approaches.
• Syobon Action, belonging to Platform Hell subgenre, has some of the particularly bad falling ceilings.
• Stalactites in level 2 of the impossibly unforgiving ZX Spectrum game Through the Trapdoor.
• Plenty of icicles in the Nepal level of Tomb Raider Legend, but justified in that you have to hang on to them and jump from one icicle to another, and perhaps Lara's body weight might make the icicles fall.
• The Crystal Caves level of Trine is full of falling stalactites.
• In Wario Land 4, there are various types of falling hazards, like icicles in the level 'Forty Below Fridge', and chandeliers in the game's final stage.
• Wonder Boy / Adventure Island - Falling icicles in the ice temple levels. Oddly in the latter, being hit by an icicle results in a blue Palette Swap of the "death by fire" animation.
• World of Warcraft has this as a standard tactic of Slabhide, a large stone drake you fight in the Stonecore. While they aren't deadly on their own, the tops of them are large and plentiful enough to block Line of Sight with a healer if you're positioned wrong/really unlucky.