Medusa Head

The Medusa Heads in the Castlevania series of games are infamous for knocking heroes off of platforms and causing no end of trouble for game players.

Overview
Spawned from the hair of the infamous Medusa, Medusa Heads fly aimlessly through the air intent on ramming into heroes. They usually appear whenever a hero is trying to cross a hazardous series of platforms. Oddly, they also appear in installments where Medusa herself isn't present.

Attacks
The standard Medusa Head normally just flies in an arc-like pattern, usually making them hard to dodge, but aside from them running into you, they don't do anything else.

However, some Medusa Heads are gold in color and will PETRIFY any hero that touches them. This is extremely dangerous as petrification will usually lead to landing on spikes or in front of other enemies. While the gold colored Medusa Heads are often just called Medusa Heads, they have also been called Gold Medusa on occasion.

The only other time when the basic attack patterns of a Medusa Head have been alterred (aside from the aforementioned Gold Medusa) is in the game Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis. In the last stage: Castle Proserpina, there is a Medusa Head which floats up and down shooting off fireballs in the player's direction.

Types
Medusa Heads do not vary from game to game as much as other monsters. The only Medusa Head variation worth mentioning is:


 * Gold Medusa

And of course, the nasty creature that spawned all the Medusa Heads:


 * Medusa

Summoning
In some games, the hero is able to Summon Medusa. A Medusa Head (or varying sizes) will shoot beams from its eyes.