I.M. Meen
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Oh look, what clever children! See them study, watch them learn? |
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I.M. Meen is an "educational" child's game where you are forced to fend off a mean spirited man and his guardians after he traps you in his magic maze. His assistant, Gnorris, helps you in secret along the way as you defeat the guardians, and eventually Meen himself.
Animated by the same people behind The Legend of Zelda CDI Games, every cutscene feels like an acid trip. Because of this, I.M. Meen has become the newest face to YouTube Poop.
Had a sequel called Chill Manor, which starred Meen's girlfriend/wife (first mentioned here), Ophelia as she tries to literally rewrite history. Meen himself makes a brief appearance in the ending.
The game itself is essentially a First-Person Shooter with the only "educational" segments coming from locked doors that can be opened only by fixing grammar mistakes.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer
- Badass Bookworm - The playable characters. Literally.
- Bonus: because most of the projectile weapons are disposable, you, a prepubescent child, will be knocking out gigantic trolls with Good Old Fisticuffs for most of the early levels.
- Braggart Boss - Meen considers himself to be the most powerful magician in the world, but seeing as he got beaten up by a little goodie-goodie armed with only good knowledge of grammar, his claim is rather hard to believe. Either he's lying or the global magic level is really low.
- Breakable Weapons - All weapons (except one) break after a certain number of uses.
- Child-Hater - Meen, of course.
- Cow Tools - All over the place in the Laboratory levels.
- Deranged Animation: Given that it was animated by the same people who did the animation for the Zelda CDI games, this was bound to happen, which leads to some very creepy expressions from Meen himself.
- Difficulty Levels
- Emergency Energy Tank - Stealth Sneakers restore all of your health. That's because your health is actually your "energy", and the sneakers somehow rejuvenate you.
- Evil Laugh - Meen's got some completely and utterly insane ones.
- Evil Sorcerer - Meen, obviously.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: Meen's exit, in the last cutscene.
- Expository Theme Tune: The opening song to the game, pretty much.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus - I.M. Meen's face in the last cutscene, when he says "But I'll be BACK!"
- As Meen threatens to "turn you into a... CHIPMUNK!" he momentarily poses in such a way as to look like one.
- Gonk: Even without the Off-Model quality of the animation, Meen isn't a very good-looking guy. In particular, his face is overly thin except for his chin.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy - In "Hooray For Meen", Meen manages to slip by two guards of the Toxo Corporation by making it seem that one of them called the other a dope, causing both of them to fight eachother.
- Haunted Castle - Levels 25 through 28 take place in one.
- Helpful Mook - Gnorris, who is Genuinely Gentle.
- Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Come on, Meen writes his own fanfiction.
- Hypocritical Humor - I.M Meen clearly states that he hates people who study, but it is also explicitly stated that he is a magician, meaning he'd have to study to reach that level of accomplishment in the first place.
- Alternatively, he might hate the idea of other people studying because that means they could become magicians too, and he doesn't want the competition.
- Large Ham - The eponymous villain.
- Meeningful Name - He is indeed "meen."
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast - Who else?
- Obviously Evil: Come on, would you trust someone whose name sounds like "I am mean"?
- Off-Model - The animation isn't quite so bad when it's not supposed to be characters you've known since you could first pick up a controller, but still...
- Notably, Meen's face looks completely different from scene to scene.
- Only Smart People May Pass - Meen hates smart kids, but apparently, doesn't think they're all that smart, because almost every lock in the maze is powered by bad grammar. Literally, just fix the grammar in the sentences written on the maze, and the door opens! Justified in that Gnorris appears to have rigged the locks that way. It doesn't seem to be Meen's intention.
- Punny Name - I.M.Meen, Writewell
- Purely Aesthetic Gender - You can play as a boy named Scott or a girl named Katie. Meen will refer to the player as "bookworm" regardless of chosen gender.
- Small Name, Big Ego - Meen, by far. In the stories he writes about himself, (With titles that always promote himself, like "Hooray For Meen" or "Meen goes to Mars" or "You Know How Much I Love Me.") he portrays himself as a valiant, heroic figure who is attractive, smart, strong, and generally the person who gets things done while other characters are simply sidekicks.
- Stupid Statement Dance Mix - This, and some others.
- Sword of Plot Advancement - Writewell's Book.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Meen himself is an expert in this if nothing else, wielding many ways to appear and disappear, whether it's puffs of smoke, lightning, or sparks.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore - Meen's magic book. Apparently, when someone tries to read it, they get sucked inside instead.
- Unwinnable - If you die in the last level, the game is unwinnable because you no longer have the only weapon that can damage the final boss.
- Villain Exit Stage Left - The final cutscene is Meen vowing revenge and disappearing.
- And he actually does reappear during the ending of the sequel, Chill Manor, to escape with the villain!
- Villain Song - Very scary and confusing. Destination of MY CHOOSING! Magic Labyrinth of I! M! MEEEEEEEEEHEEHEEHEEN!
- Villain Teleportation - Meen always appears in a puff of colorful smoke, and he almost always vanishes in electricity.
- YouTube Poop: Very many.