Kings of Power: 4 Billion%
Kings of Power: 4 Billion% is a web animation created by Paul Robertson with music done by Cornel Wilczek, released in 2008 as his second short film, after "Pirate Baby Cabana Battle 2006". It is a short, 15 minute film done in 2D 16-bit graphics, all hand designed, and is a marvelous piece of work, without any dialogue and very little plot.
Basically, it seems that the author was trying to see how much he combine of the following: Rule of Cool, Refuge in Audacity, Gorn, Pixel Art and as many videogame references and conventions he could get away with.
It can be seen in multiple places on the web, but here and here are good places to start you off.
Tropes used in Kings of Power: 4 Billion% include:
- All There in the Manual: Apparently, the little girl's name is Kathy.
- Big Bad: the little girl, of all people. Maybe.
- BFS: the geeky girl carries one.
- Bloody Murder: The little girl's attacks all involve self-mutilation and propulsion of the resulting blood and/or organs.
- Body Horror: done multiple times, all meticulously and caringly animated, to point one might suspect the author has something of an interesting case of Fetish Fuel.
- Boss Rush: much of the movie consists of this, albeit only with only one confrontation per boss.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: the soundtrack is amazing!
- Downer Ending: it seems that way. Maybe.
- Dual Boss: the Violence Kings.
- Every Car Is a Pinto
- Final Boss, New Dimension: horribly, and awesomely, played straight with big dose of Gorn.
- Fighting Your Friend: again, the little girl. Maybe.
- Gainaxing
- Genre Shift: at the very least, from an sidescroller brawler to an Shoot'Em Up and back a couple of times. Kinda.
- Gorn: most of the movie has plenty of this throughout, but wait until you see the final 2 minutes or so.
- Gratuitous English: Bury me deeper lest my love reach you in the eternal resting place.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: depending on how you interpret things, again.
- The Man Behind the Man: the Violence Kings aren't really the final boss. Maybe.
- Mirror Boss: the elegant dressed guy goes through one.
- Mind Screw: just what the hell is going in this movie? No, really, any ideas, anyone?
- Rule of Cool: you can strongly suspect the movie is made with the purpose of achieving as much of this as possible.
- Shapeshifter Swan Song: The Violence Kings.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Bosses include a Buddha statue and a Poring wearing the papal tiara, the Violence Kings are defeated with "The New Ultimate Jesus", which is apparently a fusion of hundreds of crucified mythical and pop-culture heroes that can use an attack called God Rush, which involves several gods rushing the target, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse make an appearance.