In many games, the Hero Protagonist, in his quest to defeat the Big Bad and rescue the Damsel in Distress, has to climb buildings and make their way across the rooftops of their sprawling urban landscape, either as the section in a stage or as the stage itself. Beware: rooftops can be just as deadly as the streets below, with all sorts of dangers, like a Steam Vent Obstacle (either on the floor or on a wall). The area is also infested with Mooks working for the level boss.
Just as the city's lower portion may have its Bottomless Pits, so do the Ruthless Rooftops: falling from them to the streets below leads to certain death. Danger also comes from above, as enemies will try to attack the player character from above by dropping all sorts of ammunition on them, from the usual (missiles and bombs) to the unusual and unconventional.
The possible ways to make their way across the stage is by either by Roof Hopping (if the buildings are close to each other) or by Building Swing (if there are larger gaps). In addition, some of the common platform obstacles are window ledges that the player must pay attention to in order to time their jumps right.
The level or section may end in a Rooftop Confrontation with the boss (either the mid-stage boss or the level boss).
A rooftop-only stage is more common in 1980s and 1990s video games. As games become increasingly Open World, a rooftop section becomes part of a continuous city/urban setting. The setting is also more common in modern works set in present times, although Ruthless Rooftops can pop up in works set in ancient times.
Sub-Trope to Metropolis Level.
Examples:
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Action-Adventure
- ANNO: Mutationem: The first major area occurs across the rooftops of Noctis City as Ann runs across various buildings pursuing after Loki, a higher-up of The Factio Pugni after he stole a Data Drive MacGuffin, while also fighting against various mooks called in as reinforcements. After being cornered, Loki hijacks a Mini-Mecha to battle Ann, the brief damage to the surroundings leads to the top of the building's roof collapsing down into an abandoned warehouse and continuing the fight from there.
- Assassin's Creed Rogue: One of the first levels has Shay run across the rooftops of Lisbon as it collapses in the midst of a massive earthquake caused by him taking a precursor artifact, eventually having to dive into the sea to escape; this event, and a similar earthquake caused by another artifact in Haiti, cause Shay to quit the Assassin Brotherhood, as he sees their willingness to cause needless loss of life to obtain Pieces of Eden as antithetical to their mission.
- Dark Souls: The Undead Burg that the Chosen Undead visits shortly after arriving in Lordran proper is actually on the roofs of a town below; assuming the path intended by the developer is followed, the player won't visit the streets of this town until they're on their way to ring the second Bell of Awakening in Blighttown.
- Elden Ring: Exploring the Volcano Manor after reaching Altus will inevitably lead the Tarnished out onto the rooftops, where they must contend with snake-men and Abductor Virgins if they want to proceed.
- LEGO Adaptation Game:
- Lego Batman The Video Game: The two Catwoman-focused levels ("There She Goes Again" for the heroes, "Stealing the Show" for the villains) have most gameplay take place on high-rise rooftops, with several of the puzzles involving figuring out how to cross them without falling to the streets far below.
- The LEGO Movie Videogame: The "Flatbush Rooftops" level involves traversing the rooftops of Flatbush while avoiding falling to the ground below, which in this case is only a short distance down but is swarming with President Business' robots.
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: Most of the "Times Square Off" level involves crossing between and climbing over the rooftops of several buildings while chasing down Doctor Octopus.
- LEGO The Incredibles: The first half of "The Golden Years" involves climbing up and crossing rooftops so Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl can make it to the bank and stop Bomb Voyage from robbing it.
- LEGO Indiana Jones: One segment of the "City of Danger" level has you crossing some rooftops, needing to work your way across various gaps leading to the ground far below.
- LEGO Jurassic World: The final segment of the "Communications Center" level involves crossing rooftops to avoid the raptors swarming the ground below as Ian and co. make their way to a helicopter for escaping.
- LEGO Marvel's Avengers: The second half of the "Classic Captain Marvel" DLC has Captain Marvel and Captain America crossing rooftops to chase after Magnitron, which is complicated by Marvel being rendered unable to fly by the villain, forcing both of them to work their way across and up the roofs without falling to the ground far below.
- Psychonauts 2: Strike City, a level that's a mental manifestation of Ford Cruller's persona of a bowling alley attendant, largely takes place on the rooftops of the titular city, which is within a bowling shoe, filled with sentient germs that are facing Armageddon in the form of Ford spraying disinfectant into the level.
- Tomb Raider:
- Tomb Raider III: The London portion of the game occurs at night across the rooftops of London, especially the levels Thames Wharf and The City.
- Curse of the Sword, the second Game Boy Color game, sees Lara racing across the rooftops of New York City in pursuit of the thieves who stole the sword.
Beat 'Em Up
- Batman:
- Batman: Dark Tomorrow: The second section relocates Batman to the rooftops of Gotham, as the hero has to grapple and swing from one building to the other to reach Commissioner Gordon's office in the police building. The area is clear of any mook, but, according to Rerez, the camera angles and the lack of momentum in Batman's jump mechanics are the real enemies of the stage.
- Batman Returns (Game Gear): Stage 3 is the rooftops of Gotham, being possible to choose between two routes. In this stage, Batman fights mooks of the Red Triangle Circus gang and can grapple and jump to reach higher ledges.
- Batman Returns (Genesis): The first section of stage 1, Gotham City, occurs across the gothic rooftops of Gotham. Batman/the player has to avoid gargoyles coming to life, parachuting penguins with explosives on their backs, Red Triangle Circus mooks, and finally Catwoman herself.
- Batman: Revenge of the Joker (Sega Genesis): The entirety of Stage 1 occurs across Gotham rooftops: in section 1-1, Batman simply traverses rooftops and scales a tower-like structure; in section 1-2, which is an Auto-Scrolling Level, Batman has to jump across the rooftops and avoid the bombs dropping from a giant airship that belongs to the stage boss.
- Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu: The first stage of the Game Boy Advance port is called "Gotham Rooftops": Batman climbs escape ladders, grabs onto building ledges and jumps across rooftops. Mooks abound in the sections, exiting from windows. In the background, silhouettes of Gotham skyscrapers against Gotham's reddened skyline.
- Ghost Sweeper Mikami: In the video game for the SNES, Stage 3 has Mikami be shrunk to doll size and ride a cat across the rooftops in a Japanese neighbourhood. The player has to be aware of gaps between roofs and duck before hitting nail-like protrusions, fighting enemies all the way through.
- Jackie Chan Stuntmaster: Stage 4 happens across the rooftops, as the player has to time their jumps right, leap over awnings to advance, and climb metal ladders to access new areas. Some of the local dangers are vertical vents
that can blow Jackie Chan off from the platform.
- Ninja Gaiden (Arcade): In Round 3, the player/Ryu has to travel across the rooftops of Las Vegas buildings◊, fighting enemies all the way. Right at the beginning of the stage, the player has to grab onto a horizontal steel pipe in order to advance, lest he falls to his death. Further along the stage, the outlines of other illuminated Las Vegas buildings can be seen in the distance.
- Rushing Beat: In Brawl Brothers, stage 3-1 is called "Roofs": the player exits a fire escape and walks into a rooftop, being accosted by mooks as soon as he appears. Then, they must navigate the stage by jumping across rooftops, avoiding falling to certain death in the gap between buildings, and walking across red metal beams to reach stage 3-2.
- Spider-Man:
- In The Amazing Spider-Man (1990), for the Game Boy, the third stage is called "The Rooftops": Spider-Man exits a fire escape to a roof and begins his webbing trek through roofs of variable height and varying jumping distance, all the while avoiding Mooks falling from the skies.
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes: In the first stage, Spidey swings through some New York rooftops, fighting alien-like Spider-Slayers as the local mooks, until he faces C-list villain Beetle.
- Spider-Man: Web of Fire: HYDRA casts a force field all over New York. In the first stage, Spider-Man fights his way across the New York rooftops against HYDRA mooks, and web-swinging is the only way he — and the player — has to traverse the stage.
- Spider-Man (2000): Several sections of the game deal with Spider-Man having to web-sling between buildings with a considerable distance between them:
- Chapter 1, "The Back Heist", has the tutorial level and the following stage teaching Spider-Man how to maneuver between buildings with the web-shooting, while avoiding some mooks on the rooftops.
- Chapter 2, "The Sting of the Scorpion", is all about this: in the first section, Spidey has to jump and web-sling across roofs to reach the Daily Bugle. After defeating the Scorpion, the police chase after him and he makes his escape through the rooftops.
- Chapter 4, "Enter... Venom!", the first section of the chapter has Spider having to follow Venom across rooftops until they jump to an alleyway below.
- Spider-Man 2 – Enter: Electro: Many levels are based on rooftop jumping and avoiding enemies atop them:
- "Enter The Web-Head": The Tutorial Level has Beast teaching Spidey about web-swinging and creeping behind enemies for a swift attack.
- "Rooftops By Night": Spidey continues on the chase for a mysterious biker, and traverses the New York rooftops at night, even swinging to a bridge in his pursuit.
- "To Catch a Thief": Spidey must follow the Spidey compass to trail behind a fleeing helicopter, swinging over rooftops and avoid shooting enemies. Spidey can use huge cranes as landmarks to reposition himself.
- "Aces High": Instead of the standard mooks, the player has to defeat flying small drones and fixed automatic laser machines.
- Spider-Man: The Movie: All levels that are not set inside a building take place entirely on rooftops, with Spider-Man using web-slinging to travel between them. In these levels he can never get to ground level, as he falls to his death if he drops below a certain height. In the tutorial, he gets resurrected as he gets called "Captain Jumpy."
- Spawn: In the game for the SNES, the first stage takes place across some New York rooftops, as Spawn has to escape from a chopper chasing him, fight common armed crooks and avoid falling into the gaps between buildings.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge: "Episode 7: Roof Running Reptiles" starts off with the heroes fighting the Foot Clan while hopping across apartment buildings and dodging booby-trapped billboards and pitfalls before an Elevator Action Sequence leads up an to a high-rise construction site.
- Valis: The Fantasm Soldier: In Valis III, the heroine jumps off a roof to fetch her sword, then flies back and makes her way across the rooftops. At the end of the section, she fights a caped demon on a rooftop with a large neon sign in the background.
First-Person Shooters
- Call of Duty: Black Ops: The campaign mission "Numbers" takes place in the Kowloon Walled City, a former ungoverned enclave in China; a large part of the action involves running across the rooftops as Hudson attempts to get information about the eponymous numbers from his target.
Hack and Slash
- Dark Forces Saga: All except the first (Dark Forces) have levels that meet this description.
- Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II has two levels set on Nar Shaddaa, the "Smugglers' Moon" orbiting the Hutt home world. As seen here, Nar Shaddaa basically doesn't have a "street level" — the whole place is towering buildings with occasional catwalks and bridges that Kyle Katarn has to find his way across, over, under, around, and occasionally through. Falling means certain death.
- Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast: One level is (again) set on Nar Shaddaa, and Kyle again has to find his way across the rooftops to his goal.
- Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: Two of Jaden Korr's missions involve this kind of level. One is set on Coruscant, the Imperial capital world, and takes place entirely in the city's upper levels. Another is set on the gas giant planet Kril'dor, where Jaden has to infiltrate a Tibanna gas mining platform. One misstep and he'll fall into the depths of the planet's atmosphere.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: The first boss fight takes place on a rooftop against Skelter Helter, who challenges Travis to avenge his brother that was defeated prior to the start of the first game.
Interactive Fiction
- Fallen London: The Flit is a "district" consisting of the city's many rooftops, joined together by strung ropes and makeshift bridges. It's an important mid-game area and essential to all Shadowy ventures, as well as a dangerous place where you're rubbing elbows with criminals of all sorts at all times — and where even a single moment of clumsiness will send you plummeting back to the city.
Platform Game
- Aladdin games:
- Aladdin (Capcom) (SNES): In the third stage of the Agrabah level, the player controls Aladdin as he does one jump ahead of the guards positioned across the roofs. If the player obtains a cloth, it helps a lot in Aladdin's jumps, as it acts as a parachute, allowing the player to glide from rooftop to rooftop.
- Aladdin (SIMS Co.) (Sega Master System and Game Gear): The second stage is based on the scene where Jasmine, disguised as a peasant, is on the run from a fruit vendor for stealing an apple, and Aladdin helps her escape. It's an Auto-Scrolling Level where Aladdin and Jasmine run across the rooftops of Agrabah, and have to jump across gaps and over barrels, both stationary and rolling.
- Aladdin (Virgin Games) (Sega Genesis): Stage 3 is called "Agrabah Rooftops". Just as the name implies, Aladdin makes his way through the rooftops of Agrabah and higher by hanging on magic ropes, jumping on flexible flagpoles and leaping across wooden beams, all the while avoiding knife-throwers and palace guards. The stage then concludes with a confrontation against lowly thief Gazeem and Razoul, the leader of the royal guard.
- Darkwing Duck (Capcom): In the city level, Darkwing Duck/the player begins the stage in the lower portions of the urban landscape, then scales a building to make his way across the upper portion of town. In the latter part, the player begins their trek by rolling on tires to avoid rooftop skies, use balloons and even hang on to lampposts to reach the end of the stage.
- Darkwing Duck (Interactive Designs) (TurboGrafx 16): The first section of the Megavolt stage occurs across some rooftops. Darkwing Duck fights some Mooks, jumps over spinning turbine roof vents, and powerlines from where Megavolt casts bolts to hit the player. The safest way to cross the stage is by jumping onto the floating green platforms, which allows the player to avoid most of the dangers below.
- Demolition Man: The first stage, The Rooftops, is a frenetic, action-packed sequence where the player literally leaps into the action, then must shoot down mooks and jump over fire pits.
- Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers: The area "Dewey's Rooftops" is a Side View level wherein Donald must jump from rooftop to rooftop and cross beams from construction sites.
- Gargoyles: In Stage 3, "Stone and Steel", the player controls the Gargoyle clan as he moves across the New York night skyline. Even if player jumps down to the lower part of the stage, the scenario is still firmly located across the skyscrapers.
- Master of Darkness is set in Victorian London. The section 3 of Stage 2, the Wax Museum, the player has to jump over the blue rooftops of Victorian houses, just as he has to avoid ghost ladies clad in green, bats, and men with black suits and hands in their pockets.
- Mirror's Edge and Mirror's Edge Catalyst have most of their levels take place on high-rise rooftops, with Faith needing to use her Le Parkour skills to cross them while avoiding falling to the streets far below.
- Ninja Pizza Girl is set entirely on the rooftops of an unnamed cyberpunk city, as horrible traffic congestion has left Roof Hopping parkour as the only way to deliver a pizza in a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately, protagonist Gemma is far from the only ninja lurking on these rooftops. They're also full of corporate pizza ninjas from MegaCo Pizza whose primary goal is to make sure that Gemma never makes her deliveries.
- The Pink Panther: Although visually identical, the same stage is played somewhat differently between two ports of Pink Panther Goes to Hollywood:
- In the Genesis port, in the stage "Hot Pink Roof", the player controls Pink Panther as he makes his way through rooftops at night, avoiding thundering clouds, defective powerlines releasing sparks and an angry white cat◊.
- In the SNES port, in the stage "Cat on a Hot Pink Roof", the player controls Pink Panther as he makes his way through rooftops at night, avoiding thundering clouds, large gaps between buildings, and an angry tabby cat◊. In this version, the player can Goomba Stomp blue lightning bolts as if they were generic enemies.
- In the Genesis port, in the stage "Hot Pink Roof", the player controls Pink Panther as he makes his way through rooftops at night, avoiding thundering clouds, defective powerlines releasing sparks and an angry white cat
- Quackshot: The second section of the Duckburg stage can only be accessed after Donald/the player obtains the red plunger, which allows him to create makeshift platforms to reach higher places. Thus, the second section of Duckburg occurs across Duckburg's rooftops, where the player has to jump over roofs, while avoiding pitfalls, birds throwing beehives, turtles and little Pegleg Petes shooting tomatoes at Donald.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic Adventure has Speed Highway, the first half of which takes place on the rooftops of Station Square's skyscrapers, variously linked by highways, rocket rides, and helicopter lifts, all while trying to dodge Badniks that resemble flying police cars.
- Sonic Unleashed has two levels that downplay this trope: Rooftop Run (as the name implies, though it does also feature sections at ground level), and Skyscraper Scamper (which mostly takes place on the network of inexplicable rails, tunnels, and moving platforms that link the skyscraper roofs together).
- Sonic Generations contains reprises of Speed Highway and Rooftop Run, and also mixes elements of the trope into City Escape, with Sonic weaving back and forth between street level and roof level while dodging GUN robots and the infamous truck.
Run and Gun
- Azure Striker Gunvolt: The "intermission" level takes place on the rooftops of Sinners' Row, a Red Light District where the enemy Adept, Zonda, is visiting. Aside from the dangers of the rooftops and the mooks, Zonda's "Mirror" ability will make traversing the levels extra confusing.
Survival Horror
- Alan Wake II: Alan has to traverse a series of these in Initiation 5; because his intended destination, the Oceanview Motel, is an Eldritch Location that just spits him back out onto the street whenever he tries to go into the front entrance, he has to take a door onto a side road that spits him out onto the roof, eventually coming upon his destination through an entrance by a rooftop bar after surviving several close calls with Taken.
- In Resident Evil: Outbreak, the very first level sees the protagonists fleeing the zombie hordes by taking to the roof of J's Bar, where they must then race back down to the streets of Raccoon City to avoid being trapped when the RPD starts blocking off streets. If Mark is one of the characters chosen, then if you make it to the roof with his friend and fellow security guard Bob still alive, then you get a special cutscene where Bob will eat his gun to avoid turning into a zombie.
Tower Defense
- Plants vs. Zombies: The final world takes place on your roof. The roof's curve blocks straight-firing plants, flower pots are needed to plant anything, and the enemies are some of the hardest in the game.
Web Game
- Canabalt takes place entirely in this type of setting, with the added danger of the rooftops frequently colapsing under your feet.
Wide Open Sandbox
- LEGO City Undercover: The first Special Assignment "Some Assaults" has Chase McCain use his grapple gun to scale the rooftops of some buildings in Cherry Tree Hills to chase after criminals.
