Waiting Character Animations

I remember back in the character focused side-scrolling platform game days when there were funny animations if you left your character standing still without pausing the game.

One of my favorites was when Earthworm Jim would jump rope with his head.

I haven't noticed it lately but I honestly haven't been looking for it too hard.

Though I haven't played much of it besides the demo, I assume Bastion has a nice voiceover if you leave your character standing still for too long, it just seems like that kind of game.

Do you guys/girls/Demis have a favorite old school wait animation? Have you seen any good new ones?

As I've recently been playing Chrono Trigger for the first time, I've noticed Crono do a "hey, HEY!" animation if you leave him idle on the overworld, which isn't too bad.

I know there were a few (besides Earthworm Jim) which I really enjoyed, but I'll have to get back to you on what they were.

In Dungeons of Dredmor if you sit idle too long your character pulls out what looks like a PSP and starts playing on it.

I can't think of a favorite old one off the top of my head but 'Splosion Man did jumping jacks if I remember correctly.

Sonic the Hedgehog taps his foot impatiently.

Innumerable FPS's show the avatar performing idle acts with his (or occasionally her) gun. The earliest behavior of this sort I can recall is Duke Nukem 3D, who would crack his knuckles.

In Donkey Kong Country Returns, if you're playing as Donkey Kong solo (no Diddy) and you wait too long he'll sit down and pull out a DS and start playing.

Sackboy will take a nap in LBP and LBP2, and I believe Mario in Super Mario Galaxies will too.

I'm pretty sure the guys in Rayman Origins do something, but I don't remember what.

Sonic wouldn't just tap his foot impatiently, he would actually run away if you left him to idle for too long, IIRC.

Commander Keen would sit down and read a book.

And actually, all the Chrono Trigger characters have different idle animations depending on who is in the front of your party.

Demyx wrote:

Sonic wouldn't just tap his foot impatiently, he would actually run away if you left him to idle for too long, IIRC.

Commander Keen would sit down and read a book.

And actually, all the Chrono Trigger characters have different idle animations depending on who is in the front of your party.

Just once, in Commander Keen IV, he turned around and mooned us. No word of a lie. It's the only time I've ever seen him do it, but it was so unexpected my jaw dropped. Of course, as I was pretty young at the time, I thought it was hilarious. Actually, now that I think about it, it's still pretty hilarious.

I've always been partial to the snark from Half-Life.

Metro 2033 had idle animations for every weapon, some of them really good. Wait for the two different bastard gun animations and for the universal charger in particular.

The Discworld adventure game had a pretty memorable idle animation:

tanstaafl wrote:

In Dungeons of Dredmor if you sit idle too long your character pulls out what looks like a PSP and starts playing on it.

I thought of that one too, but I thought he was texting on a smart phone.

Rallick wrote:

Just once, in Commander Keen IV, he turned around and mooned us. No word of a lie. It's the only time I've ever seen him do it, but it was so unexpected my jaw dropped. Of course, as I was pretty young at the time, I thought it was hilarious. Actually, now that I think about it, it's still pretty hilarious.

Get mooned:
Step on the little moon patterns on the floor of the pyramid of the moon. Wait a short time and Keen will moon you instead of reading a book.

AUs_TBirD wrote:
Rallick wrote:

Just once, in Commander Keen IV, he turned around and mooned us. No word of a lie. It's the only time I've ever seen him do it, but it was so unexpected my jaw dropped. Of course, as I was pretty young at the time, I thought it was hilarious. Actually, now that I think about it, it's still pretty hilarious.

Get mooned:
Step on the little moon patterns on the floor of the pyramid of the moon. Wait a short time and Keen will moon you instead of reading a book.

Hah! I don't have the game anymore (and it probably wouldn't work on my Win7 machine anyway) but we spent hours trying to get him to do it again. Thanks for finally putting that mystery to bed!

Those Metro 2033 ones are really cool. I don't think I ever sat still long enough to see any of them.

Rallick wrote:

Hah! I don't have the game anymore (and it probably wouldn't work on my Win7 machine anyway) but we spent hours trying to get him to do it again. Thanks for finally putting that mystery to bed!

It's on Steam...

Beware of this link... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

I've seen the Commander Keen mooning too, but there's another trick with idle animations in Ep. 4. You go to one of the pyramids where there are a lot of (harmless) worms on the ground that follow you when you walk. You gather up twelve of them and idle in the middle of them, and a Monty Python foot flies in and takes you to a secret level.