Shadows of the Damned



Shadows Of The Damned is a game released in June of 2011 from the minds of Shinji Mikami and Suda 51 (with a soundtrack composed by Akira Yamaoka), and is a comedic horror game with a camera similar to Resident Evil 4. Expect an ample amount of Refuge in Audacity, gore humour and haminess.

The game details the tale of Garcia Hotspur, Demon Hunter as he attempts to save his girlfriend Paula from the Lord of Demons: Fleming. It's a good thing he's got Johnson, a floating skull that's both his sidekick and his Swiss Army Weapon.

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""Before you die, demon scum, I will carve my name into your flesh! That name is Garcia Fucking Hotspur! Hunter of demons and slayer of pendejos like you!""
 * Zero Percent Approval Rating: Fleming.
 * Abnormal Ammo: Bones, skulls, teeth.
 * Allergic to Evil: Hell's Darkness is an aura that slowly kills over time.
 * And the Adventure Continues:
 * Art Shift: The sidescrolling shooter levels change the art style to a paper cutout one.
 * Aside Glance: Garcia does a couple of these.
 * Auto Cannibalism: How George met his end as a mortal.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Combined with Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Garcia Fucking Hotspur. Yes, it seems Fucking is literally his middle name.
 * Badass: Garcia Fucking Hotspur
 * Badass Biker
 * Badass Spaniard: "Fuck that pendejo!"
 * Badass Boast: Used twice, to the point that it may be his personal Catch Phrase.

"Johnson: Demon keeps a'dreaming o' the Demon Town,
 * Big Eater: George, The Man Who Didn't Have His Fill. A harmonica player who, the more he ate, the thinner and hungrier he got.
 * It's implied, from both a comment Johnson made, and an event during the boss fight, that he had an undiagnosed tapeworm that was ravaging his intestinal tract and slowly killing him.
 * Bizarro World: The Underworld has many things that are the opposite of the living world. Booze heals you rather than poisoning your liver. Light is a deadly combustible, sealed away in barrels. Instead of gun control, they practice tooth control (since teeth can be used as weapons).
 * Book Dumb: During the storybook scenes, Garcia has trouble reading whenever he's the narrator, sometimes stumbling with words and reading slow (think first-grader-learning-to-read slow). Compared to him, Johnson's a much more eloquent narrator. Then again, this might be explained by Garcia being Mexican, which means he's not reading in his native tongue.
 * Boom Headshot
 * Booze Based Buff: Hard alcohol such as bottles of Hot Sake serve as healing items. Turns out alcohol has the opposite effect in the Underworld than it does in the real world.
 * Charged Attack: The Hot Boner, a charged up Sticky Bomb.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Before the first boss fight, Johnson tells you a few things about VIP demons, including their biggest privilege: they get to keep their genitals. The groin area is an exploitable for the boss when he takes his giant form.
 * Clothing Damage: During the Unexpected Shmup Level, when Garcia takes damage, he loses pieces of clothing, and eventually his skin.
 * Also, once you defeat, she is fully and visibly naked.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: "Fuck you!" is literally the only thing Elliot, AKA "Stinky Crow", says.
 * Colonel Badass: The Scary Black Man with the grenade launcher-looking machine gun is addressed as a colonel in a framed article Garcia finds.
 * Crapsack World: Do I have to say it?
 * Color Wash: There's a couple of predominant colors in the game that make the Underworld look just plain wrong. Johnson's default flame color is a strange pale orange, and a sickly pale green lighting permeates many areas.
 * Credits Gags
 * Damsel in Distress: Paula
 * Darkness Equals Death: You can't spend more than a few seconds in a dark zone without losing your health. Some sections of the game require you to sprint through long areas of darkness, and your "grace period" is only briefly restored by collecting pickups as you run.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Garcia and Johnson. They often hang lampshades on how ridiculous some actions they have to take in order to proceed are.
 * "EVERYONE knows that goats are a natural source of light."
 * Demon Slaying: Garcia's calling.
 * Dull Surprise: During the siege at the abandoned shack, Garcia sarcastically quips "My god, how do we stop them?" in his most deadpan, disinterested tone of voice, obviously more annoyed than frightened. Also a shout out to "MY GOD! HOW DO YOU STOP IT?!" from Evil Dead 2.
 * Exposition Fairy: Johnson, who also transforms into Garcia's various weapons, with his Shapeshifter Default Form of a talking skull-torch functioning as the melee weapon.
 * Eyes Do Not Belong There: Fleming's got three pairs of eyes; his skull is elongated and it looks like somebody just stacked three faces on top of each other.
 * Fake Ultimate Hero: Shortly into the game, Garcia meets an incredibly tough-looking giant man with a grenade launcher that fires like a machine gun (certainly a deliberate inaccuracy). The guy recommends that Garcia stays out of his way and later he exposits a bunch of his sorry backstory. However, he's sadly totally ineffectual against Stinky Crow.
 * A Fate Worse Than Death: Paula is revived and killed endlessly.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: If the story books you find scattered throughout the game are to be believed, George (a harmonica playing drifter), Elliot (a shut-in kid with a flying fascination), and the Sisters Grim (three VERY unlucky women) are all this, becoming demons after their deaths. Averted with Justine because she was a famous opera singer while alive.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Johnson is fond of letting everyone else do all the swearing.
 * Definitely not always.

motherfucking bitch fuck, shit went down!"

"Fleming: She has a lot of dying to do. And coming back to life, and dying some more..."
 * Gratuitous Spanish
 * The Grim Reaper: The three Sisters Grim: Maras, Kauline, and Giltine. Apparently, because of their rather ridiculously contrived accidental deaths, Fleming gave them the power of death over demons. Garcia faces all three throughout the game. No explanation on why they sound like men, though.
 * Groin Attack: During the first real boss fight, if you run out of weak points on the front to slow the boss down, you can aim for the groin area to hurt him.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Christopher the demon, who functions as your shopkeeper (even though he looks all-demon). To hammer home the fact that he's a good demon, he's usually surrounded by pretty flowers and wears a bunch of lamps on his back to drive away light-sensitive demons.
 * Hand Cannon: The default weapon.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: Garcia, quite literally hell bent.
 * Hollywood Darkness: When you're in a "dark zone," everything is dark blue rather than pitch-black.
 * Hurricane of Puns: If you can't tolerate some lame dick jokes, you'd better steer clear of this game. Suda 51 may as well change his name to "The Pungeon Master."
 * I Have Your Wife: Flemming kills Paula and then kidnaps her. (She keeps getting better).

"Sign: Welcome to the Castle of Hassle, where thy game will soon be beateth and thy princess restoredeth to safety."
 * I'm a Humanitarian:
 * I'm Taking Her Home With Me: How Garcia met Paula:
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Paula, according to Garcia. He reminisces about the time where they were at a shooting range in a carnival, where after Garcia managed to hit a bulls-eye, Paula manages to shoot off the pin holding the target all the while making out with Garcia.
 * Insurmountable Waist High Fence
 * It Runs On Nonsensoleum: Why do demons love strawberries? 'Cause they're made of people's tongues, that's why!
 * Kill It With Fire/Light'Em Up: The Light Shot.
 * Kiss of Death: In scenes where Paula chases you, she'll One-Hit Kill you with one of these if she catches you.
 * Large Ham: Garcia is not a man of subtlety or volume control, neither is Fleming. Which leads to...
 * Ham to Ham Combat: Whenever they share a scene.
 * The Lancer: Johnson.
 * Leaning On the Fourth Wall: On encountering the "Moor Pu Dekcuf" in the Castle of Hassle, Johnson quips "It's probably a joke from the designers."
 * The Legions of Hell
 * Living Weapon: Johnson's an undead reformed demon if you want to get technical.
 * Lost Forever: There are hidden red gems throughout the levels, which you need for upgrades. Unfortunately, there is almost no backtracking in this game, and it's not always immediately apparent which way is the side path with the goodies and which is the main path that will shut closed behind you. Worse yet, there's no New Game Plus, so those precious upgrade gems are lost to you for good! ARG! At least you can spend money on more red gems...
 * Make My Monster Grow: George
 * Marathon Boss: The third Sister Grim if you don't know the trick.
 * Mickey Mousing: Activating a Sushi Lamp causes this alongside a Japanese song.
 * Mood Whiplash: On the one hand, the game is a hilarious romp through a version of Hell that's so ridiculous as to be practically an amusement park. On the other,
 * Mysterious Woman: Paula.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Invoked by Garcia Fucking Hotspur if you're a demon.
 * No Animals Were Harmed: Watch the credits all the way to the end.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Garcia bears a strong resemblance to Benicio Del Toro.
 * Nonuniform Uniform: Most of the boss demons wear an unusual outfit that looks half like a military outfit of some sort, half like some weird mechanical monstrosity.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Okay, so you beat Fleming and rescued Paula.
 * Offhand Backhand: Garcia can do this to enemies sneaking up behind him with a button prompt.
 * One-Man Army: Garcia is very, very skilled at taking down demons. Also, the game's third difficulty setting says it all: Legion Hunter.
 * Our Demons Are Different: And they apparently like strawberries.
 * "Demon" is somewhat treated like it's more a profession than a race -- Johnson is identified as an "ex-Demon" who left the demon world after tiring of just how disgustingly wicked and vile the whole thing was.
 * Pokémon Speak: Elliott. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOUUUUU!"
 * Press X to Not Die: The "juice-jockey" demons that have several weak points on their back force you to do these when they grab you. If you fail most of the button inputs, you die.
 * Punny Name: Garcia's little companion and Empathic Weapon, Johnson. Get it? "Enlarge your Johnson" is both a manner of power-up and a penis joke.
 * Some of the weapons also have this, and amping the penis joke is the aptly named "Big Boner".
 * One-Eyed Willy.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Goes without saying.
 * Rescue the Princess: Lampshaded with the World Map.
 * Roboteching: The Teether's last upgrade.
 * Shout Out: This is a Suda 51-game, after all.
 * The Stage Map between levels is an 2-d old school imitation of Ghosts N Goblins.
 * Act 4-2 and Act 4-4 are called "Great Demon World Village" and "Great Demon World Forest", respectively. The Japanese name for Ghosts N Goblins is "Makaimura", or "Demon World Village", and one of its many sequels was called "Daimakaimura", or - you guessed it - "Great Demon World Village". Also, these levels include sidescrolling shooter segments. They are a bit similar to the Gradius series, but when Garcia takes damage, he loses pieces of his clothing, like Arthur in Ghosts N Goblins.
 * The game itself is a Homage to the Evil Dead-series and the Grindhouse-Genre. A more specific homage appears when Garcia is forced to take refuge in a shack complete with a monster in the basement trying to get out. It even features the monster POV camera!
 * Garcia's jacket has the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on the back, which is a Joy Division song. Of course, you could consider the main character wearing a biker jacket with a reference to an old, beloved band to be a Resident Evil shout out on its own.
 * The Library is a practical dead-ringer for the library in Resident Evil, sliding bookcase puzzle and all. Furthermore, the sections of the library are named after the nine Circles of Hell.
 * Act 2-4 is called "Riders of the Lost Heart".
 * Scaring One-Eyed Willy causes him to take a flaming dump, which also gives you a checkpoint. Where else have we heard of dropping a nice Save?
 * Occasionally, Christopher will say "Who you gonna call? Chris-topher!" and hum a few notes of the Ghostbusters theme.
 * The Big Boner -- a 2 meter long Hand Cannon with firepower rivaling a rocket launcher -- is a clear Shout Out to Joker's pistol from Batman
 * A Roboteching machine gun? Sounds familiar...
 * Near the end of Act 4, Garcia informs Johnson that he's a Mexican, not a Mexican't.
 * "One bloody hand had formed a peace sign. The other was giving him the finger. It's like an Alanis Morissette song."
 * Snarky Non Human Sidekick: Johnson.
 * South of the Border: Though the game takes place in an Underworld, the protagonist was dragged out of here, Unfortunate Implications be damned. Garcia F. Hotspur says "I'm a Mexican, not a Mexican't," without irony and speaks with a ridiculous accent. His Spanish consists of "Magnifico!" and obscenities. He wears leather hot pants and reads slowly, tripping over his words. He regains health by downing an entire bottle of tequila in one swig and throwing it away while yelling a Spanish obscenity.
 * Stealth Pun: The first boss is a man with tapeworms who starts of riding a horse. Before the second half of the fight he eats his steed to power up.
 * Surreal Horror: Did you really think a Suda 51 horror game wouldn't at least have elements this? Even a lot of things that qualify as more standard things like Body Horror have the added terror of making absolutely no sense. Somewhere between finding out goats are a light source, corpses that infinitely disgorge demons as long as they're in Darkness, and seeing a demon burst messily out of a woman at most half its size, you end up giving up on making any sense of this nightmare and roll with it.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: Johnson.
 * Cool Bike: Technically not a weapon, but still something he can turn into.
 * Shotguns Are Just Better: He's shooting skulls, of course it's better!
 * Hand Cannon: Called "Boner". 'Cause it shoots Bones. It's also able to get MUCH longer...
 * More Dakka: The Impossibly Cool Weapon Teether - which shoots teeth.
 * The Big Boner, penis jokes aside, is more or less a Sniper Rifle.
 * Let's just say he IS the right tool for every job.
 * Tactical Suicide Boss: The Sisters Grim would be unbeatable if they didn't keep summoning Darkness.
 * Take That, Audience!: "He must have played too many Videogames. Cue Aside Glance.
 * Tom the Dark Lord: The devil's name is Fleming. The high-level demons you encounter are George, Elliott and Justine.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: Comes in two variations.
 * Unexpected Shmup Level: Not so "unexpected" if you know Suda's last two games.
 * Sniping Mission: With the aptly named "Big Boner".
 * The Worf Effect:
 * Vocal Dissonance: Christopher. The look? A seven foot demon with horns, claws and a huge mouthful of fangs. The voice? Cam Clarke doing a goofy southern accent.
 * Woman in White
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: The only demon Garcia spares is the one that looks like a hot chick.
 * Yandere: Paula is not a mentally stable girlfriend, that's for sure...
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: A sign outside the Castle of Hassle in Act 5-2:


 * You Have Failed Me: The Sisters Grim execute each of the major demons after you defeat them.