Poacher (video game)

Poacher is a 2D side-scrolling, Metroidvania made by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. In a depature from his previous titles, it is his first game not to use the AGS engine.

The game stars Derek Badger, an unflappable Yorkshireman who poaches game for a living. One night, whilst out blasting rabbits with his new shotgun, he is confronted by his best friend and archnemesis, Archibald the gamekeeper (aka "Gamey"). When Gamey accidentally falls down a hole, Derek goes down to help him out. He finds himself in a strange Underworld, inhabited by flesh-eating rabbits and spirit beings. After joining up with a spirit named Rebecca, it isn't long before Derek discovers himself involved in something far bigger than a simple rescue.

It can be downloaded for free here.

": You had the audacity to ask me who I am."
 * Advancing Boss of Doom: The second form of turns into this periodically when it tires of attacking you from afar.
 * All the Worlds Are a Stage:
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: An in-universe example with Derek, due to interactions with Derek/the player's early game behaviour is brought up near the end, with his behaviour regarding   being commented by him.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: The second form of is essentially a giant mouth. One of its teeth is suspiciously a different colour, and it's what you have to hit to damage it.
 * Background Boss: The second form of, though it will periodically try to attack you directly.
 * Badass: Derek. Dear God, Derek. An unflappable Yorkshireman with a shotgun, he starts off badass before he even compacts with Rebecca. Speaking of whom, Rebecca certainly developed her badassery by tagging along with Derek, and together, they're virtually unstoppable.
 * Brought Down to Badass: After being
 * Badass Boast: An awesome one provided by before you fight him.


 * Big Bad: The Dark Ones, lead by the Dark Lord.
 * Big Boo's Haunt: The Crystal Tombs. Even the Dark Ones are terrified of the place, and with good reason.
 * Body Horror: The things in the Crystal Tombs. Yahtzee once again proves that while he isn't the most amazing pixel artist, he can still pull off some very creepy things with pixels.
 * British Accents: Derek has a very thick Yorkshire accent that Rebecca initially finds incomprehensible. As it happens, the Blemineg have the same kind of accent, forcing Rebecca to use Derek's brain as a translator. Played for laughs, a good deal of the time. Yahtzee, being British, would know a thing or two about his home country's accents.
 * Butt Monkey: Gamey. Falling down a hole, he then gets chased by evil rabbits in the background when Derek is first exploring the caves. In a later scene, Derek can either ignore him or outright shoot him.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Only in one boss fight, mostly because otherwise it wouldn't be much of a challenge:
 * Decapitated Army: Deconstructed.
 * Devil but No God / God Is Evil: Depending on your interpretation of.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Well, the Dark Ones count, for starters...
 * Evil Poacher: Averted. Derek doesn't hunt any endangered species, as far as the player is aware, and he only does it to get by. In fact, he's a very nice and rather empathetic bloke who is more than willing to lend a hand to others in need.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Dark Ones have practically become a whole race of these by this point.
 * The Dead Men in the Crystal Tombs are probably some form of this as well.
 * Hair-Raising Hare: The Bargests, rabbits taller than Derek.
 * Heart Container: Black puddings.
 * Gag Sub: In the As a result, the new credits are hilarious.
 * Go for the Eye: The weak point of the Bargest.
 * Immune to Bullets: A couple of enemies can't be hurt with bullets, but can be destroyed with spirit grenades. The hostile flowers can be disabled for a short time via bullets, but they can be destroyed by spirit grenades as well.
 * Jump Physics: Like many platformers of its ilk, though Derek does start off with a rather realistic jumping height.
 * Jungle Japes: The jungle.
 * Kaizo Trap: At least some bosses can injure/kill you during their death animations.
 * MacGuffin: The Blemineg artifacts. Refreshingly, they can be acquired in any order. (Though admittedly, you'll have a hard time of it if you go for the sunken ruins first, since you'll be unable to shoot underwater.)
 * Mirror Match:
 * Money for Nothing: Farming for gold is, most of the time, entirely unncessary, especially if you know where to find chests. By the end of the game, you will likely have at least a few thousand gold left over after buying everything from the shop.
 * Multiple Endings: Mainly depending on a few factors.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Early in the game, to reach the Spirit Kingdom you must Oops!!
 * Noob Cave: The Burrow.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: The... Things in the Crystal Tombs are invincible and will attack you on sight with an unavoidable stream of energy, complete with a blood-curdling scream. They can't hurt you by touch, however, if they can't see you. Problem is, the area they inhabit is pitch-black, and you only have Rebecca as a tiny light source that you have to switch on and off to avoid detection. In the darkness, you can only see their eyes. When you're in the right position so you CAN see them without getting hurt... They are still not all all pleasant to look at.
 * Most of the fight with has him mostly covered in darkness, only certain parts of his body lit up at a time. All you can tell is that his head is somewhat humanoid in shape, and he has two yellow eyes... That don't last very long.
 * Not Your Problem: Derek, being the good-natured sort, disagrees.
 * One-Hit Kill: Colliding with the second form of has this effect. So does falling off the arena, for that matter.
 * Platform Battle: The second and third forms of.
 * My God, What Have I Done?:
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy : is prophesied to be killed by Derek. However,, he tries to kill Derek personally... Except this gets him killed, as prophesied. Whoops.
 * Self-Imposed Challenge
 * Minimalist Run: As of Version 1.1, there's an achievement for beating the game with only the starting three health.
 * Pacifist Run: Sort of. Killing any of the locks you out of the Golden Ending.
 * Sequence Breaking: It is entirely possible to skip the entire descending elevator sequence, the only thing needed is for the player to lose one hit point, thanks to a glitch.
 * Sequential Boss: The Bonus Boss.
 * Short-Range Shotgun: Averted, so very much.
 * Skippable Boss: The first time you "fight" Gamey. He'll go down in one shotgun blast, but you can actually run away from the fight, and he can't jump in order to follow you.
 * Spot of Tea: At several points you meet an old Blemineg lady, who gives Derek the option to stop for a cup of tea, and getting some exposition on the backstory.
 * Tactical Suicide Boss: The second form of cannot be harmed unless he decides to attack you directly, which he will always do, even when he's in critical health and could easily whittle you down with ranged attacks instead. (In fairness, however, it is a very effective attack.)
 * True Final Boss:
 * Under the Sea/Palmtree Panic: The Lindenbrock Sea.
 * Underwater Ruins: The Sunken City.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Derek.
 * The Unintelligible: The Blemenig and, to a lesser extent, Derek, at least to Rebecca.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Derek and Gamey, by far. Half the time they're enemies, the other half of the time they're very good mates.
 * Wall Jump: An unlockable ability.
 * We Could Have Avoided All This:
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Played straight and subverted.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Seems to be an ongoing theme in Yahtzee's works.
 * You Didn't Ask: