History VideoGame / PonyIsland

Available on Steam, [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/405640/ here]].

** If there is a Hacking portal around the cursor will spit between red and blue and will point towards it.

*** [[VideoGame/EmilyIsAway A person that you interact with via a chat program, who reacts to different popular names, huh?]]
*** Speaking of [[spoiler:Chara]]. Asmodeus talks to you in nothing but a black screen with slowly advancing text and ominous music, and he also [[spoiler:attacks the screen]] if you answer his questions wrong. Sound familiar?

** If all the tickets are collected during a NewGamePlus, [[spoiler:the Lost Soul determines that you must be looking for the GoldenEnding and challenges you to a "cathartic" final battle. Once the fight is done, he tells you to close the game because there's nothing else to see.]]

** If you answer "[[spoiler:Chara]]" when Hopeless Soul asks for your name, he will say "You might be in the [[Videogame/{{Undertale}} wrong game]]."

* AnachronismStew: Since the game is set in Limbo, time and space has no meaning. The Arcade machine has an old style curved CRT monitor, the graphics look like something from Atari or Coleco, the desktop looks like Windows 95, the copyright notice for pony island lists 199'''2''' and the machine prints out arcade tickets. [[spoiler: Then there is the fact that the player is a Crusader from the 1200's who's able to operate a computer.]]

* ProgrammingGame: The hacking sections, where you must place command blocks to guide a key to the desired instruction. It starts out simple with simple arrows, then adds "portals" that cause the key to warp to the other portal upon passing one, splitters that creates a second key on the right side, and variables that require passing through certain bits of code multiple times while avoiding code that will reset the variable.

** The ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' knockoff you can find lying around. Unless you've memorized the cost of all buildable resources, let alone how the game works in the first place, it's terribly difficult to play since the game doesn't tell you ''anything'' about it.

** [[spoiler: During the escape, you have unlimited Pony Laser power.]] You're probably going to need it.

* AnachronismStew: Since the game is set in Limbo, time and space has no meaning. The Arcade machine has an old style curved CRT monitor, the graphics look like something from Atari or Coleco, the desktop looks like Windows95, the copyright notice for pony island lists 199'''2''' and the machine prints out arcade tickets. [[spoiler: Then there is the fact that the player is a Crusader from the 1200's who's able to operate a computer.]]

** Louey himself is obviously a reference to [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Flowey]]. Aside of names, they both use "howdy, friend" [[spoiler:and look innocent at first]].

** Louey bares a resembelence to The Gatekeeper (in his pajamas, at least) from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''.

* [[ThisIsMyHuman You Are My Human]] / YourSoulIsMine: The devil often tries to assert ownership, the protagonist is having ''none of it''.

* EscortMission: Of a sort, considering [[spoiler: you are the only one with any ability to protect the ponies behind you during the escape.]] If you don't feel up to it, there's no penalty [[spoiler: other than [[VideoGameCaringPotential keeping the Souls Lost as low as possible]]. It is also impossible to keep the count at zero.]]

* TheOverworld: The devil later adds an "Adventure Mode" to Pony Island, where you go from stage to stage a-la SuperMarioBros. [[spoiler: The devil's shoddy programming means you soon go OfffTheRails to explore it.]]

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The pony game to ProgrammingGame was just the start, and then you find [[UnexpectedShmupLevel PonyGalaxy.exe]] [[spoiler: At one point you need to dig into Lucifer's old games to find one buggy enough to break. One is a first-person 3D version of Pony Island, and another is a ''text adventure.'']]

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: The pony game to ProgrammingGame was just the start, and then you find [[UnexpectedShmupLevel PonyGalaxy.exe]] [[spoiler: At one point you need to dig into Lucifer's old games to find one buggy enough to break. One is a first-person 3D version of Pony Island, and another is a''text adventure.'']]

* OneHitPointWonder: Your pony in the Pony Island segments can only take one hit, otherwise you'll have to start the stage over again. [[Spoiler: Becomes a ZigZaggedTrope during the escape. You still "die" in one hit, but another pony takes your form and your place, with the only effect of adding one to the "Souls Lost" count.]]