Nitrome

Nitrome is an independent game developer known for its Flash games, many of which are on Miniclip. Nitrome's games often have highly unusual gameplay that forces the player to think well outside the box.

Nitrome's games

 * Hot Air!
 * Sandman
 * Chick Flick
 * Roly Poly
 * Feed Me!
 * Gift Wrapped
 * Scribble
 * Frost Bite
 * Tanked Up
 * Magic Touch
 * Skywire
 * Space Hopper
 * Dangle
 * Hot Air 2: All Blown Up
 * Square Meal
 * Toxic
 * Yin Yang
 * Nanobots
 * Off the Rails
 * Headcase
 * Pest Control
 * Twang
 * Thin Ice
 * Snow Drift
 * Jack Frost
 * Aquanaut
 * Go Go UFO
 * Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam
 * Magneboy
 * Cheese Dreams
 * Snot Put
 * Knuckleheads
 * Skywire 2
 * Small Fry
 * Mutiny
 * Final Ninja
 * Onekey
 * Mallet Mania
 * In the Doghouse
 * Numbskull
 * Bomba
 * Flipside
 * Toxic 2
 * Fat Cat
 * Frost Bite 2
 * Ice Breaker
 * Pixel Pop
 * Flash Cat
 * Twin Shot
 * Mirror Image
 * Glass Works
 * Ice Breaker: The Red Clan
 * Rustyard
 * Final Ninja Zero
 * Power Up
 * Cosmic Cannon!
 * Droplets
 * Double Edged
 * Castle Corp: Castlewear for All Occasions
 * Parasite
 * Twin Shot 2: Good and Evil
 * Rockitty
 * Nebula
 * Cave Chaos
 * Graveyard Shift
 * B.C. Bow Contest
 * Cold Storage
 * Ice Breaker: The Gathering
 * Avalanche: A Penguin Adventure
 * Rubble Trouble New York
 * Skywire VIP
 * Blast RPG
 * Tiny Castle
 * Chisel
 * Bullethead
 * Fault Line
 * Ribbit
 * Worm Food
 * Squawk
 * Temple Glider
 * Sky Serpents
 * Enemy 585: The Last Henchman
 * Super Treadmill
 * Bad Ice-Cream
 * Rush
 * The Bucket
 * Canary
 * Test Subject Blue
 * Chisel 2
 * Knight Trap
 * Steamlands
 * Test Subject Green
 * Silly Sausage
 * Test Subject Arena
 * Office Trap
 * Rubble Trouble Tokyo
 * Canopy
 * Mega Mash
 * Steamlands: Player Pack
 * Stumped
 * Nitrome Must Die!
 * Lockehorn
 * Rubble Trouble Moscow
 * Rainbogeddon
 * Skywire VIP Extended
 * Gunbrick

Nitrome's games contain examples of:
"Rico: That stupid boy is going to make me lose the bet! I can't afford to lose, the price is too high! I'll make that boy super thin, even if I have to get on that treadmill myself! HAHAHAHAHA!"
 * Advancing Boss of Doom: Present in both "Ribbit" (as a hybrid of a rhinoceros and a beetle) and "Off the Rails" (as a train.) The final level of the latter has two such bosses, one in front of you and one behind, preventing you from going too fast or too slow
 * Advancing Wall of Doom: "Avalanche" has a straight one. "Cave Chaos" uses an odd variant: the scenery constantly assembles in front of you and disassembles behind you, forcing you to keep up or fall to your doom. "Super Treadmill" takes place on a treadmill, and you lose if you fall off either side.
 * Affectionate Parody: Happy Jump Land in "Enemy 585".
 * In "Mega Mash", There's a game called Nitrometris.
 * After the End: "Rustyard," starring a robot that wanders the ruins in search of places to recharge its batteries.
 * All There in the Manual: Some of the plots are only mentioned in the game descriptions.
 * An Ice Person: "Jack Frost".
 * Amusement Park of Doom: "Skywire".
 * Armless Biped: The troll protagonist of "Square Meal".
 * Also the titular character of "Lockehorn" and his tribe.
 * Arson Murder and Jaywalking: From "Tiny Castle": "[...]And also subletting to your grandad was the final straw!"
 * A Winner Is You: Rarely, but "Bullethead" stands out in this regard.
 * Bad Boss: The Big Bad of "Office Trap". He forces prospective employees to make their way through an office building riddled with death traps and agrees to give a temporary work contract to all the survivors.
 * Be Yourself: By Day 17 of "Super Treadmill", Billy no longer cares about his weight or the competition, and if he decides to lose it, he'd rather eat healthy and exercise than use the Super Treadmill. Of course, his Uncle Rico is hell-bent on making Billy lose weight on the treadmill...
 * Biological Mashup: The Mooks in "Ribbit" are standard versions of this, like a snake with porcupine quills. The title character is a variant, with a rabbit's head and a frog's head joined by their necks, lacking a torso or limbs. (Note that Ribbit is not a Multiple Head Case, referring to itself as "I.")
 * Bizarre Puzzle Game
 * Black Knight: The protagonist of "Tiny Castle", at least in terms of how he dresses.
 * Bloodless Carnage: So far, only "Graveyard Shift" and "Parasite" have used blood at all, and in those it's been greenish gunk.
 * Well, there's a bit of normal, red blood in the vampire level of Pixel Pop.
 * Boss Game: Sky Serpents.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: The main character of "Glassworks".
 * Bullfight Boss: The final level of "Super Treadmill".
 * The Cameo: So many of them.
 * Early Bird Cameo: The zombies, plant, and maiden from "Graveyard Shift" debuted months before the game was released.
 * Cartoon Cheese: The protagonist of "Cheese Dreams" is made of it.
 * Cats Are Mean: "Doghouse"
 * Chained Heat: Necessitates your awkward movements in "Knuckleheads."
 * Character Name and The Noun Phrase: "Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam"
 * Colossus Climb: "Sky Serpents".
 * Continuity Cavalcade: "Nitrome Must Die" is loaded with characters from previous games.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Your leader in "Castle Corp." He may also be a Pointy Haired Boss, considering how cliche his idea of a pep talk is.
 * The Final Boss of "Nitrome Must Die".
 * Cranium Ride: The title character of "Parasite" uses a particularly brutal version, burrowing its tentacles into the heads of foes to control them and use their abilities. Creatures so controlled get a Sickly Green Glow in their eyes and a constant stream of green drool, and when abandoned explode into Ludicrous Gibs.
 * Crosshair Aware: "Final Ninja."
 * Cyberpunk: "Final Ninja" has a lot of elements of the genre.
 * Damsel in Distress: Referred to as such in "Graveyard Shift". You've got a Hostage Spirit Link to them, and they die in a single hit from a zombie, so be careful.
 * Death Is a Slap On The Wrist: "Fault Line". You're merely sent back to the last checkpoint you accessed, and any fastened fault nodes that hid it are unfastened.
 * Deliberately Monochrome: Each level of "Yin Yang" is essentially two in one: one that's on a white background, with everything in black, and one that's on a black background, with everything in white. Everything that's empty air in one world is a solid block in the other. The two main characters can't directly interact, but can sometimes move crates around to open up holes in the other character's landscape.
 * Dem Bones: Seen in "Small Fry", "Mutiny", and "Numbskull".
 * Difficulty Spike: Practically their Signature Style. The first five to eight levels will be pretty easy tutorial levels, but then things get crazy. Averted by some games, though, like Tiny Castle (it's just one level) and Blast RPG (the level system is a bit different).
 * Dropped a Bridge On Him: Used on zombies in "Graveyard Shift"... Oh, wait, you were using the phrase metaphorically?
 * Drop the Hammer: What happens if ice (or an unfortunate monster) lands on the ship's deck in "Ice Breaker".
 * Eldritch Abomination: The player character in "Worm Food".
 * Escort Mission: The owl in "Fat Cat" functions rather like a standard plane in a standard shmup, but is completely Immune to Bullets. The cat is slow and vulnerable, but must be kept alive so that it can smash down walls the owl can't damage. In later levels, this means deliberately moving the owl into hails of bullets to keep them from reaching the cat.
 * Enemy 585 is all about escorting a slow, fat Mook escape.
 * Every Car Is a Pinto: Even if it's a hand-powered trolley car, as seen in "Off the Rails".
 * Everythings Better With Bunnies: Or, rather, half-bunny half-frogs, if "Ribbit" is any indication. Also, the rabbit-like titular creatures in "Droplets," although
 * Everythings Better With Penguins: A penguin is the protagonist in "Avalanche". "Snow Drift", however, has them as antagonists.
 * Evil Laugh: The protagonist of "Mirror Image" gives one every time he survives a level.
 * Excuse Plot: Very, very common. However, games that descend into Plot What Plot often have The Reveal at the end explaining what you've been doing the whole time.
 * Expansion Pack: "Ice Breaker: The Red Clan" and "Ice Breaker: The Gathering".
 * Eyepatch of Power: Both the title character in "Dirk Valentine" and Akuma in "Final Ninja Zero".
 * Faceless Goons: "Castle Corp", "Double Edged", and "Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam". Note that the former two also have faceless protagonists -- apparently, helmets are sometimes antiheroic.
 * Fake Difficulty: Nitrome's specialty is to take things that would usually be considered such, particularly Interface Screws, and try to make them reasonable and enjoyable limitations.
 * Follow the Leader: Many Nitrome games can be traced to an individual game they're copying (for instance, "Small Fry" is a mimic of Lemmings.) To its credit, it's often quite inventive in creating new challenges within the same basic framework.
 * Fungus Humongous: A common background element in "Small Fry".
 * Also appears in the background of "Swindler".
 * Goomba Stomp: Your alternate attack in "Frost Bite." "Ribbit" is an interesting variation in that you can only do this if you've charged up for a high jump -- standard jumps just result in Collision Damage.
 * Grappling Hook Pistol: Your way of getting up the mountain in "Frost Bite," as well as your primary weapon.
 * Gravity Screw: "Rush" has as its gimmick the ability to flip your character from floor to ceiling, not unlike VVVVVV. You can also flip your opponents' tracks, causing them to get screwed over as well!
 * Have a Nice Death: It's worthwhile to lose intentionally in "Mutiny" just to see the unique messages for every battle.
 * Healing Potion: "Graveyard Shift". Somehow, it works by shooting it.
 * He Knows About Timed Hits: Usually, the necessary information is on signposts scattered around the level. "Cheese Dreams" gives these from the main character's perspective, with the inevitable lampshading of "Why are my thoughts appearing on these signs?"
 * Human Cannonball: "Blast RPG."
 * Human Popsicle: Your objective in "Ice Breaker" is to liberate them. Don't worry, a good whack with a hammer and they'll be perfectly fine.
 * Hundred Percent Completion: There's a fuse in each level of "Rustyard," and several vials of acid in each level of "Toxic 2." In each case, you're encouraged to collect them all, though neither explains whether anything special happens if you do (a screen in the former says "Have you been collecting those fuses? What for?"). Of note is that these are among the few Nitrome games that have no leaderboard for Scoring Points or completing a level in the smallest possible time.
 * Husky Russkie: One of the protagonists of "Rubble Trouble." He has a tendency to provide powerful explosives with only vague explanations of where he got them.
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: Sushi in "Final Ninja" and a Spot of Tea in "Dirk Valentine".
 * Interface Screw: "Super Treadmill" and supposedly it's Spiritual Sequels are based on old NES games, so Nitrome has put in occasional TV static and glitches into AV mode.
 * Invisible Monsters: The levitating swords in "Tiny Castle" aren't actually levitating -- they're held by invisible swordsmen, who flash when struck.
 * Just Toying With Them: Your Sarcastic Devotee in Toxic 2 is certain the robot leader is doing this -- you can't possibly have gotten this far without her wanting you to. It's never entirely clear whether he's right about this, though either way, a good player is being underestimated.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: The protagonist of "Blast RPG", though he's a little young for the role. If his HP drops to zero, the armor breaks and shows off his Goofy Print Underwear as he cries a river of tears.
 * Last of His Kind: "Final Ninja".
 * Legions of Hell: They wander the ruins in "Mirror Image". Don't get too close.
 * Lightning Can Do Anything: It revives a skeleton in "Numbskull".
 * In "Headcase," it teleports the main character to "a world where everyone walked on walls" and turns him into a superhero.
 * Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me: How you prevent zombie goop from killing you in "Graveyard Shift". Pieces break off it as it blocks more and more hits, but it never completely breaks, and you can replace it at some points.
 * Ludicrous Gibs: "Graveyard Shift" and "Parasite" are straight examples. "Off the Rails" has gore, but no blood, with dead bodies splitting into neatly sliced bits resembling steaks. "Final Ninja" has no blood or gore, just body parts flying every which way in a disturbing fashion.
 * Mad Scientist: The villain of "Ribbit".
 * Malevolent Architecture: Lampshaded in "Final Ninja Zero", and present without acknowledgment in too many games to list.
 * Milestone Celebration: Their 100th game is about... some guys attacking them.
 * Mind Screw: "Tiny Castle" owes a lot to Braid, at least until The Reveal.
 * Money Spider: Lampshaded in "Tiny Castle" at the end--.
 * My Brain Is Big: The protagonist of "Head Case". This has multiple applications.
 * Night of the Living Mooks: "Graveyard Shift".
 * No Fourth Wall: In "Skywire VIP" the hosts speak directly to you, ponder why you're not pressing the play button, and even insult the programmer.
 * One Hit Point Wonder: Applies in "Hot Air", "Hot Air 2", and "Parasite". Justified in the former two in that you're a hot air balloon.
 * Pacifist Run: You get bonus points for this in "Final Ninja." By "Final Ninja Zero" it's inverted: you get bonus points if you Leave No Survivors.
 * Pirate: All the main characters in "Mutiny."
 * Powered Armor: The protagonist of "Final Ninja" wears some, though it's not quite as powerful as most fictional examples, being more focused on stealth.
 * Puppeteer Parasite: The protagonist of "Parasite", of course.
 * The Power of Love: Twisted in "Parasite." Certain areas are covered in "happy gas," somehow related to an overwhelming force of positive feeling. The title character is unharmed for gameplay purposes, though he strongly dislikes the feeling. His mind-controlled minions explode.
 * Rail Shooter: "Graveyard Shift".
 * Reality Warper: The protagonist of "Fault Line" can fold the 2D levels in on themselves, causing everything in the folded area to temporarily vanish from existence--for instance, he can bypass walls by folding the space around the walls and leaving empty air behind.
 * Recycled in Space: "Office Trap" is basically "Knight Trap" set... in the office.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: The protagonist of "Tiny Castle".
 * Resignations Not Accepted: "Final Ninja". The best solution, of course, is to kill your employer.
 * Restraining Bolt: Your Mission Control in "Toxic 2" is an A.I. you've hacked and forced to aid you. It eventually decides it likes you and becomes your Sarcastic Devotee.
 * Retraux: EVERYTHING.
 * Turned Up to Eleven with "Super Treadmill". The game slows down and fuzzes up when too many objects are on the screen, and occasionally even "disconnects from the video port"!
 * Rewarding Vandalism: "Rubble Trouble" is based around this -- you're a demolition engineer.
 * Although, you lose money if you hit any other buildings besides the one you're trying to demolish, so this is pretty much an aversion.
 * Rise to The Challenge: Several levels in "Knuckleheads".
 * Robot War: "Toxic".
 * RPG Elements: "Blast RPG", naturally.
 * Samus Is a Girl:
 * Sand Worm: "Worm Food."
 * Save the Princess: "Tiny Castle".
 * In "Hot Air 2", you have to rescue your girlfriend.
 * In "Dirk Valentine", you have to rescue Queen Victoria.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: The hero's scarf in Sky Serpents.
 * Screen Tap: In "Test Subject Blue", the scientist occasionally taps on the window in the test chamber.
 * Secret Level: Several in "Toxic 2", accessed through blue teleporters in out-of-the-way areas.
 * Segmented Serpent: One of the nastier enemies in "Graveyard Shift", and the final boss in "Aquanauts". Naturally, you kill them bit by bit.
 * The ones in "Bullethead" can take relatively few shots, but are only hurt when shot in the tail. They move left-to-right and right-to-left, descending a little with each pass, and are long enough that you only have a small opening to shoot the tail before another part moves in front of it.
 * Sky Serpents is based entirely on killing these.
 * Self Deprecation: "Nitrome Must Die". It's even in the title!
 * Shout Out: Many in pixel form in "Skywire VIP". In fact, that's practically the whole point.
 * A tutorial box in a remote place in "Final Ninja" says, "The ninja must be like a snake, sneaking through the darkness, hiding from the light. To never be detected is the way of the solid snake.".
 * In "Chisel 2", a level set in an asteroid belt has the asteroids as green outlines. The Voice With an Internet Connection comments that it hasn't been used since 1979.
 * As explained below, the Uncle from Super Treadmill is named Uncle Rico.
 * Enemy 585 has many to Super Mario Bros, consider the layout of the "boss" room at the start.
 * "Mega Mash" has it's first level pretty much identical to the first level of Super Mario Bros, apart from the bit where you turn into a spaceship.
 * Soliloquy: Uncle Rico does one in Day 24 of "Super Treadmill", summing up his true motive:


 * Spikes of Doom
 * The Spiny: "Frost Bite" has a few.
 * Stealth Run: Another thing that gets you bonus points in "Final Ninja".
 * Steampunk: "Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam", not surprisingly.
 * There's also "Steamlands".
 * Stripped to The Bone: The death animation in Toxic is surprisingly gruesome.
 * Sugar Apocalypse: The technology-free garden world on which "Parasite" is set is full of cartoonishly happy animals and benevolent nature spirits. The titular parasite kills the animals, harvests the spirits, and turns the entire world into a barren waste.
 * Super Deformed: The signature visual style in the more recent games.
 * Super Drowning Skills: Explained as part of The Reveal in "Twang" -- Also present, with a handwave, in "Parasite".
 * Surprise Creepy: "Canary" puts a cute little birdman in a Survival Horror situation. "Join us . . ."
 * Sword and Sandal: "Double Edged".
 * Teleporters and Transporters: The one and only ability of the main character in "Mirror Image"--he can't even walk.
 * Theme Naming: The leads of "Nitrome Must Die" are named Austin Carter and Justin Bennet.
 * Tomato Surprise: The end of "Tiny Castle", where your knight, bound to save the beautiful princess, turns out to be
 * Trial and Error Gameplay: "Cave Chaos" manages to be Masocore without being Nintendo Hard, on the basis that you have to memorize how to avoid several deaths per level.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: We have "Test Subject Blue", which plays out like Mega Man meeting Portal, then "Test Subject Green", where it's still the same formula, but not long after that we get "Test Subject Arena", where instead of getting a food pill, the blue and green enzyme fight with proton/enzyme blasts.
 * There's also "Mega Mash", which is a gameplay roulette of seven different sub-games with an overall puzzle element. The premise is that you're playing a broken Nitrome Enjoyment System cartridge which is constantly glitching out.
 * Up to Eleven: Nitrome takes their small retraux games to new heights with Gunbrick. The entire game is played in the tiny 50p x 50p icon! They have a full screen option so you don't scream in pain from the eyestrain, thankfully.
 * Verbal Tic: Ribbit, Ribbit in "Ribbit" constantly says "ribbit", ribbit.
 * Villain Protagonist: "Parasite" is about as clear-cut as you can get -- you destroy entire planets both for survival and because it's fun. A few other games, like "Castle Corp", have protagonists who're Anti Heroes.
 * has a bizarre twist example.
 * Austin Carter and Justin Bennet from "Nitrome Must Die".
 * Viral Marketing: Nitrome Must Die.
 * The Virus: Canary and Cave Chaos 2 approach this in different ways.
 * In Canary,
 * In Cave Chaos 2, worm-like enemies crawl into the protagonist's ear to reshape him into something halfway between his normal self and the standard enemies in the first game. (It's even more disgusting than it sounds.) This forces him to constantly move forward, just like those enemies, although he can still turn around. It also changes the level-complete animation--instead of dancing around happily, he'll stand in one place for a moment, then suddenly start vomiting (apparently purging the worm, since he's back to normal in the next level.)
 * Waddling Head: The vikings in the "Ice Breaker" series are a non-enemy example.
 * Wall Crawl: The protagonist of "Glassworks", due to the special gloves he wears.
 * Weird Sun: The sun in "Ribbit" has bulging eyes, a slightly downturned mouth, and clenched teeth, and appears to be in significant pain. This is never explained.
 * What Have I Become: Ribbit's reaction to becoming a Biological Mashup, though it skips the Wangst stage and proceeds straight to Revenge.
 * Womb Level: The entire game in "Nanobots".
 * You Bastard: The end of "Parasite", although it's Played for Laughs.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: "Tiny Castle" is pretty blatant about this--the princess is in a cage hanging by a rope, and several times you reach the cage just in time for the rope to be pulled and for her to get moved to another part of the castle.