History VideoGame / Sinistar

Sinistar is referenced heavily (to the point of the Sinistar voice being used as the voice and name of a main character) in the 2007 animated (and [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs surprisingly non-drug-influenced]]) film ''WesternAnimation/WeAreTheStrange''.

[[caption-width-right:227:[[AC:I hunger!]]]]

[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sinistar1.jpg]]

* EvilSoundsDeep: Combined with BadassBaritone. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XEINagmaU Just listen to Sinistar's voice.]]

* AntagonistTitle

* EndlessGame: PlayedForHorror. As explained in [[http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/flashback-the-arcade-horror-of-sinistar/ this article]], ''Sinistar'' uses this convention seen in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames contemporary games]] to construct a CosmicHorrorStory that instills hopelessness in the player: no matter how many times the player character destroys Sinistar, his followers will quickly resume in rebuilding him elsewhere in the galaxy, and so the player character is thus [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption always doomed to fall]] at the hands of Sinistar.
* EveryTenThousandPoints: Played with. On the game's default settings, the first extra ship is awarded at the 30,000 threshold, but the gap between each subsequent ship increases by 30,000[[labelnote:explained]]Upon reaching 30,000, the second extra ship requires coms at a total of 90,000, the third ship comes at 180,000, the fourth at 300,000, etc.[[/labelnote]].

* PopCultureOsmosis: ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has [[http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Vector_Strong_Bad Vector Strong Bad]], who resembles Sinistar and speaks in short phrases too ("YourHeadAsplode").

** It was a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome when one episode of ''Series/{{Starcade}}'' showed host Geoff Edwards managing to beat the game after a taping.

* LightningBruiser: Sinistar. Holy shit, Sinistar.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Sinistar.

* EldritchAbomination: Almost nothing is known about Sinistar itself (other than that it ''[[MemeticMutation hungers]]''), but its existence is definitely outside of any of our notions of life. Since it's built, it may also be a MechanicalAbomination.

* CollisionDamage: Averted. Excluding the Sinistar, running into any enemy craft will simply see the player's ship just bounce off it.

** When Sinistar chases you and appears on the screen, the angle he swings in on may be ''incredibly'' fast and nearly undodgable.

* DroughtLevelOfDoom: The recurring "void" levels.

Destroying the Sinistar is necessary to advance to the next level, but is by no means easy: The Sinistar is surrounded by twelve segments of armor, and the player must destroy all of them before delivering the final blow. At the same time, enemy ships are still mining and collecting crystals in order to repair damage to the Sinistar, while the Sinistar itself is hunting down the player's ship, [[TheComputerShallTauntYou taunting the player]] with such one-liners as "Run, coward!" (which, due to the crude sound chip, sometimes sounded like "Creator/RonHoward!", earning the game a FanNickname of ''[[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Opiestar]]'').

* EndlessGame: PlayedForHorror. As explained in [[http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/flashback-the-arcade-horror-of-sinistar/ this article]], ''Sinistar'' uses this convention seen in contemporary games to construct a CosmicHorrorStory that instills hopelessness in the player: no matter how many times the player character destroys Sinistar, his followers will quickly resume in rebuilding him elsewhere in the galaxy, and so the player character is thus [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption always doomed to fall]] at the hands of Sinistar.

Destroying the Sinistar is necessary to advance to the next level, but is by no means easy: The Sinistar is surrounded by twelve segments of armor, and the player must destroy all of them before delivering the final blow. At the same time, enemy ships are still mining and collecting crystals in order to repair damage to the Sinistar, while the Sinistar itself is hunting down the player's ship, [[TheComputerShallTauntYou taunting the player]] with such one-liners as "Run, coward!" (which, due to the crude sound chip, [[{{Mondegreen}} sometimes sounded like]] "Creator/RonHoward!", earning the game a FanNickname of ''[[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Opiestar]]'').

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: The only way to proceed to the next level is to let his drones build him.

* RegeneratingHealth: The worker ''will'' mine the asteroids for crystals, and they ''will'' repair any damages you have already incurred on the Sinistar.

* PopCultureOsmosis: WebAnimation/HomestarRunner has [[http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Vector_Strong_Bad Vector Strong Bad]], who resembles Sinistar and speaks in short phrases too ("YourHeadAsplode").

* PopCultureOsmosis: WebVideo/HomestarRunner has [[http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Vector_Strong_Bad Vector Strong Bad]], who resembles Sinistar and speaks in short phrases too ("YourHeadAsplode").

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: It seems the only way to get to the next level is to let his drones build him.

* EldritchAbomination: Almost nothing is known about Sinistar itself (other than that it ''[[MemeticMutation hungers]]''), but its existence is definitely outside of any of our notions of life.

''Sinistar'' is an arcade game released by Creator/WilliamsElectronics in 1982, belonging to a genre of the day known as "twitch games" (along with ''VideoGame/{{Tempest}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Defender}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Robotron2084}}''). The game was developed by RJ Mical, Sam Dicker, Jack Haeger and Noah Falstein, with sound direction by Creator/PythonAnghelo, and the title character's voice was supplied by radio personality [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doremus John Doremus.]]

->''[[AC:"Beware -- I live!]]"''

* EldritchAbomination: Almost nothing is known about Sinistar itself (other than that it [[MemeticMutation ''hungers'']]), but its existence is definitely outside of any of our notions of life.

* RegeneratingHealth: The worker ''will'' mine the asteroids for Sinibombs, and they ''will'' repair any damages you have have incurred on the Sinistar.