ROM CHECK FAIL

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ROM CHECK FAIL is a fangame that takes a handful of games from the arcade era and mixes them together. The experience is somewhat similar to Wario Ware, in that you must adjust to rapidly changing playing styles. Every few seconds, your character and the enemies on the screen will change. At one second you may be Mario doing battle with a pack of Space Invaders, and the next you're the car from Spy Hunter blasting ghosts from Gauntlet (1985 video game). Unlike Wario Ware, there is a single goal that remains the same in each stage - clear all the enemies on the screen. The game continues for 20 screens, and upon completion, starts it all over again, raising the speed each time.

An addictive game with pick up and play gameplay reminiscent of the early arcade and Atari days. It can be downloaded here.

Tropes used in ROM CHECK FAIL include:

• Death From Above: Rain of Goombas. Goombas have the unique trait of observing the laws of gravity, making them plummet to the ground if they happen to be in the air. It's also worth noting that anything that falls in a hole in this game reappears at the top of the screen. If a group of Goombas fall in a hole, it's best to run for cover.
• Excuse Plot: A file containing a bunch of old games has become corrupted and mixed together somehow. It's up to you to... look, just go blast/stab/eat/stomp the enemies, all right?
  • Your classic games have been corrupted by something. Are you a bad enough dude to beat your broken games?
• Gameplay Roulette: From Pac-Man to Super Mario Bros. in 3 seconds!
• Not So Harmless: Goombas. See Death From Above.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Run out of lives and the game will crash in the same manner as the legendary Pac-Man L256 glitch -- half the screen locked up... and then the music will go nuts.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Your character, in all iterations.
• Poison Mushroom: The Space Invaders ship. Woe betide you if you receive this while an enemy is headed for you from the sides or below.
  • Rather anoying if you are stuck in the air and all the things you need to kill are goombas.
• Scoring Points: The entire point of the game.
• Shout-Out: The entire game, but also the phrase "Princess is in a faster castle!"
• A Winner Is You: After beating all 20 stages, you're booted back to the beginning to try again. You are also treated to a rapidly flashing display of classic end screens, many of which fall under this category.