Teleport Patterns
Posted on: 10/12/2008 - By: Kevin

When developers cannot settle on a movement pattern for the constant swarm of enemies that deter heroes from their victories, they fall onto a classic trick: teleportation. While predominately the realm of bosses and big baddies, developers have seen fit to imbue some of the fodder with the art of slipping in and out of space.

Teleportation has even become a staple of certain genres such as FPSs. When a game gives a human the ability to reform at any part on the map you know that such a trait will soon become an unstoppable fragging weapon. Even the normal enemies that display sleight of form have different ways of teleporting. Some enemies simply appear with no fan fare, while others make their presence well known ahead of time creating a sense of foreboding for the player.

Wizzrobe and Magikoopa, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. respectively

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that many of today’s basic enemy movement patterns were established in early Nintendo series. The Wizzrobe in The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past displays the classic mentality of most spell casting underlings. Appear, sling a spell, and get the hell out before the hero slashes you to ribbons with a glowing sword.

Wizzrobes appear with a slight flicker, giving the player little warning before flinging waves of energy out. While one or two wizzrobes present little issue, it is in the later dungeons of A Link to the Past where a room full of the beasties becomes an issue for Link. Four wizzrobes out of sync with each other can force Link to take an early swig of his fairy bottle.

The Adventure of Link’s Wizzrobes have an additional arrow in their quiver of tricks: they are unharmed by Link’s sword. Only with the Reflect spell cast could Link hope to defeat them.

The Wizzrobe’s cousin in crime, the Magikoopa from Super Mario World, is also a teleporting fiend. The added ability to destroy the ground and their tracking magical blasts makes the Magikoopa an unusual foe in the Mario Bros. universe.

The ass that learned about telefragging in Doom

Even in the beginning of FPS deathmatching, teleportation was a force to deal with. Most players who were into gaming during the 486 days can remember the first time they were spawn-fragged in Doom. Due to the limited amount of spawn points in early shooters such as Doom, a crowded multiplayer match would result in death for those that were good enough to stay alive.

Now the idea of a body appearing inside another and NOT resulting in the death of both is a bit far fetched, but so is the idea of running around a space station killing the agents of Hell. Telefragging could upset a close match, giving victory to the player who just happened to spawn at the right place at the right time.

Perhaps the most amusing instance of telefragging is when Epic took the concept away from an accidental event to an actual weapon. The translocator was a device that was given to every player in Unreal Tournament to allow players to move quickly about the large and sometimes very vertical maps. The device soon turned into an almost sniper-like weapon when players figured out they could throw a translocator beacon underneath an opponent, slap the right mouse button, and instantly telefrag the opposition.

Abyss, Devil May Cry 3

These creatures live at the deepest region of the demon world, and rise up from the liquidate floor to attack. Abysses are a type of enemy whose re-entry into the playing field is an attack itself. After liquefying into the ground the abyss will begin to bubble under the floor beneath Dante only to explode from the ground with scythe swinging.

A deadly mix of attacks between three Abysses is one of the worse combos Dante can suffer. If one Abyss scores a teleport swing on the hero, the other two will immediately set upon Dante with a flurry of bloody blows. The only defense against Abysses is to watch the ground religiously as one juggle can mean the end of Dante’s demonic life.

As action games and first person shooters continue to get larger, developers with continue pushing teleportation as a way of movement and death dealing. From the early NES days all the way to the fastest Unreal Tournament 3 rigs players have constantly had to deal with disappearing enemies and blinking opponents. Embrace the weapon that is teleportation quickly before it vanishes!