Standing still isn’t exactly something that most games are known for. I mean, a game where you stand still a lot probably isn’t going to be topping any charts. As such, video games give you lots to do to make sure you keep moving. But sometimes, developers go out of the way to make it more interesting when you have to step away from the controller for a few minutes by giving the character a fun animation for when they stand still too long. These are called idle animations, and they are the subject of this month’s Question of the Month!
If you aren’t aware of Question of the Month, it’s an event hosted by the gaming blog Later Levels, a blog that I recommend highly to anyone interested in video games. This is my second month “competing” and while last month I chose to go with an obscure title, this time I decided to barely play it safer by submitting a slightly less obscure title. The only rule guiding me is that I cannot use more than 100 words in my argument. And if you’ve been an adventurer for any length of time, you know that’s gonna be interesting. So here’s my submission for the best idle animation in a video game:
PAPER MARIO: THE THOUSAND-YEAR DOOR
The idle animation in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is deceptively simple – he falls asleep. But think: this man can fall asleep literally anywhere. Pictured above, he is standing between two columns of swirling flame in the final dungeon of the game. Talk about danger! This game goes the extra mile and has Mario’s partner fall asleep too. Flurry doesn’t even bother to rest on the ground – she simply hovers in place, her wind powers sustaining her flight even when sleeping. The flames don’t even wake her up – she just keeps right on snoozing. Now THAT’s some heavy sleeping!
There you have it, adventurers, my pick for the best idle animation. If you agree with me, be sure to head over to Later Levels Friday morning at 6 AM GMT – that’s 1 AM for my fellow Eastern Timers , you can wait til you wake up 🙂 – and cast your vote for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door! I mean, I guess if you think one of the other people are right, you could vote for them or something. But that totally won’t happen, right?
Thanks for taking the time to read! If you’re new here feel free to look around, and be sure to come back tomorrow at 9 AM EST for a brand spanking new post on the subject of video games!
Adventure Rules 
Great response! Personally I’ve never played paper Mario but him falling asleep is pretty cool. I remember in Mario 64, an idled Mario would look around or lay down on the ground to sleep as well. One Sonic game (I can’t recall which one) would look at his wrist and tap it… time is money Sonic, time is money lol.
-Luna 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a good one! I feel like I have played a game where the character plays video games on a GameBoy or DS as the idle animation but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s been a few good idle animations, but I really didn’t pay attention so it’s like ughhhh what was that game lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great pick. Having just played through this recently, I noticed Mario falling into the deep slumber rather easily as I checked my phone or went to get a snack
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes, the snack break is the perfect time to discover an idle animation!
LikeLike
Perhaps picking a favorite idle animation from a fighting game is sort of cheating, but the beautiful 16-bit goodness from SNES’s Killer Instinct was definitely one of my favorite. The characters were all grim and creepy in their own unique ways, and I loved the subtle bobs they all did. Such good quality and high level of detail considering the limits of the console.
Here’s a gif: http://rs762.pbsrc.com/albums/xx266/xDemonGurlx/Gaming/sabrewulf-stance.gif~c200
It always looked to me like Sabrewulf was so full of rage, he was panting heavily, ready to rip across the screen into one of his massive combos!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think you can cheat at this, so you’re good! 😉 I never played Killer Instinct myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. He certainly looks like he wants to tear some suckers up!
LikeLike