TRON: Evolution
"Greetings, programs!"
TRON: Evolution, the requisite video game tie-in/Prequel to Tron Legacy, fills in some of the backstory that is only vaguely alluded to in the film itself. You play as a newly-written program known only as the System Monitor, designed by Kevin Flynn to help quell the unrest between the newly-arrived ISOs and Grid-native Basics. The arrival of virus Abraxas on a supposedly-closed system doesn't help matters, and soon the Monitor is pressed into service to defend the Grid from threats both internal and external, with Strange Girl Quorra watching from a distance.
TRON: Evolution provides examples of the following tropes:
- Hundred Percent Completion: The TRON Files and Abraxas Shards scattered throughout the game.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: From a virus, no less. And directly towards the screen.
- Actually, I Am Him: Abraxas shows up shortly after the former leader of the ISOs is supposedly derezzed. No points for guessing his true identity. It goes even further if you connect the dots between the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 version and the Wii counterpart, Battle Grids. The customizable protagonist of Battle Grids ends the game by becoming the first ISO to win the title of champion of the Grid Games; information provided by collectibles in Evolution establish that Jalen, the ISO who becomes Abraxas, was the first ISO champion of the Games.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Everyone infected with the Abraxas Virus and Abraxas himself.
- Big Bad: You'd think that would be Abraxas, the source of the virus infecting Tron City, but he himself was reprogrammed into a virus by Clu, using Abraxas as a distraction for Flynn, Quorra and Anon, while Clu takes over the Grid and exterminates the ISOs.
- Boss Banter: Gibson
- Bottomless Pits: The Grid is filled with them.
- The Cameo: Despite his name being the title, Tron himself only appears briefly in the opening scenes. They did get Bruce Boxleitner, though.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Just like the films, blue is good (or at least neutral), while red is bad and dark yellow/orange is independent. Exclusive to the game is bright yellow representing infected programs. Although ISOs end up being both green and white during the game, green is reserved for residents of Bostrum, while all other ISOs are white.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: Arjia City
- Cutting Off the Branches: Supplementary materials confirm that the customizable player character of TRON: Evolution: Battle Games was Jalen, the leader of ISOs and eventually the main antagonist and Final Boss Abraxas.
- Deadly Disc: Your identity disc is your ONLY weapon. Use it wisely.
- Deadly Euphemism: Programs don't die, they are derezzed. This one is true for the entire TRON 'verse, though.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gibson falls pretty squarely into this area.
- Death Is a Slap On The Wrist: Hell, they'll even refill your health while they're at it. Sometimes suicide is the most effective way to give yourself a fighting chance against the next wave of enemies.
- Dying As Yourself: Gibson. He even thanks Anon right before derezzing
- Doomed By Canon: Evolution is a prequel to Legacy. Anon, Gibson, and Radia are all nowhere to be found in the film. Guess who's not making it through Evolution in one piece? To say nothing of The Purge.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The nameless hero is only ever referred to as the "System Monitor".
- Expy: Abraxas is a Tron-Line-covered Darth Vader.
- Faux Action Girl: While a genuine Action Girl in the film, Quorra does surprisingly little in the prequel other than stand around and/or get captured.
- Featureless Protagonist: The Monitor is pretty clearly male. Everything else is up for grabs.
- Fighting From the Inside: Gibson is able to resist the Abraxas Virus enough that the majority of his Boss Banter is him pleading for deresolution.
- Final Boss: Abraxas
- Gladiator Games: The Game Grid.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gibson to save Anon and Anon to save Quorra
- Hero of Another Story: Anon. In Legacy, Quorra briefly mentions a "sympathetic program" helping her to escape the Purge before she was found by Flynn; it seems likely that she meant Anon.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: CLU's own creation, Abraxas, returns to take revenge for his torment, destroying CLU's command carrier. CLU, himself, escapes, but Abraxas's intervention create the opportunity for Anon to rescue Quorra.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Doubles as Getting Crap Past the Radar: "Son of a glitch that hurts!"
- Ink Suit Actor: For Tron and Quorra, definitely. Averted with Gibson and with Flynn and CLU (See The Other Darrin, below.)
- Like Cannot Cut Like: Averted. Unlike the films, one disc CAN destroy another. It's even a minor plot point.
- Meaningful Name: While never referenced in the game itself, The Monitor's name is "Anon", (see: Featureless Protagonist entry above)
- Mercy Kill: Anon has to perform one on Gibson right after Gibson knocks him out of Abraxas' reach .
- Mook Chivalry: When Abraxas first attacks, several guards run at him in a single-file line and are individually swatted into oblivion. Which is odd, because they were shoulder-to-shoulder when they started running, and don't even draw their discs to deal with the obviously dangerous program.
- Mr. Fanservice: Gibson for most of his screentime... if you ignore the fact that he tries to kill you while infected, anyway.
- New Game Plus: All your upgrades and disc types carry over from one playthrough to the next. You can even take your upgraded Monitor into online multiplayer.
- No Sidepaths No Exploration No Freedom: You WILL go from point A to point B, program.
- One Program Army: Anon is always outnumbered by CLU's forces and the Infected Programs but never stops tearing through them. He's even more this after Flynn upgrades his disk for the final attack on CLU's command ship.
- Le Parkour: The Monitor's preferred method of travel. Heck, you have to use Le Parkour to restore your health and energy by running along Energy Tranfer Circuits along walls and structures. Vaulting towards an enemy and attacking also increases damage.
- Rousing Speech: CLU gives one while you're busy fighting for your life in the Game Grid.
- RPG Elements: The Monitor acquires Experience Points and upgrades, gaining Version Numbers as the game progresses.
- Silent Protagonist: The Monitor never says a single word throughout the entire game.
- Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Each time a new enemy type appears, the game beats you over the head with what disc type to use.
- Tron Lines: Obviously.
- Underboobs: Radia, but surprisingly tasteful.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Light Cycles in a TRON game were to be expected. How they were implemented was not.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Gibson has one for getting The Monitor out of the Game Grid.
End Of Line.