Battle High

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Battle High is an indie versus Fighting Game created by Point Five Projects, available on PC and Xbox Live Arcade. The story revolves around a special school in San Bruno, California, designed specifically for teenagers with special elemental powers. All of the kids are brash and prone to fight, and every character have some sort of connection with at least one other character.

Battle High: Team-Up was the initial beta, featuring tag team gameplay, which is absent from later installments.

Battle High: San Bruno is the PC version, made available in demo installments, before being more-or-less shelved. It's said that a final version will be available in 2012.

The more-or-less complete version of San Bruno, Battle High: Elemental Revolt, was made available for Xbox Live Arcade in early 2011.

Work on a sequel has been confirmed.

Tropes used in Battle High include:
  • Acrofatic: Arvid. He's a chubby sucker, but he can bound through the air and stomp on your head.
  • An Ice Person: Mai.
  • April Fools' Day: "Nettou Battle High" in 2012, a supposed DSiWare release that echoed the "Nettou" series of fighting games available for the Game Boy in the early 1990's.
  • Art Style Dissonance: Battle High 2's character art is very cartoony. This is in stark contrast to the sprite art, which is much more realistic (if slightly anime-esque), and the storyline, which is a bit dark.
  • Ascended Fanboy: One of the voice actors in the sequel (and indeed the one who brought the idea of voice acting to the table) was simply a big fan of the first game.
  • Big Scary Black Man: At 6' 11", Heavyweight towers far above the rest of the first game's cast (second largest is Bryan at 6' 6"), and he definitely is strong and imposing. Subverted in that although he is the bodyguard of a gang leader, he's actually not a terrible guy.
  • City of Adventure: San Bruno, California, where San Bruno High School is located (naturally).
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Kazuo, a character in Battle High 2, is mentioned in Shinji and Jiro's stories. He's their older brother.
  • Expy: Bryan, for Jason Voorhees.
  • Funny Foreigner: Arvid.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Since the sequel has voice acting, expect a lot of this.
  • Lost Forever: The initial build/demo, Battle High: Team-Up. Yoyo Games updated their browser plugin, which broke the game's ability to run. The team also does not have the program any longer.
  • Love Dodecahedron: The main characters, brothers Jiro and Shinji, each dated Michelle. Then Shinji started dating Mai. Then Mai got fed up with Shinji and started chasing Jiro. And now, it seems Michelle is with Arvid of all people!
    • Though that last one may not be canon.
  • Misplaced Retribution: Ryken lost his father and arm in an auto accident. His mother told him that Chris Morgann, aka Heavyweight, was to blame. Upon beating down Morgann and finding out he has no idea what Ryken was after him for, his mother admits that she lied to him. He seems to just accept that.
  • Nerd: Arvid again.
  • Playing with Fire: Heavyweight
  • Suddenly Voiced: Everyone, in the sequel.