History VideoGame / TheEndIsNigh

->''"Dear anybody reading this: I'm probably dead. That wouldn't be surprising, everybody else is. There was some kind of apocalypse, and all that was less was me. Well, most of me. All in all, y’know, hasn’t been so bad! Until yesterday… my favorite game cartridge finally broke. I think I’m gonna go out and make a friend!"''

* AfterTheEnd: By the time you start the game, Ash is one of the last...things, alive in this world. [[spoiler: Then something happens overnight once you finally make a friend, leaving the world even worse off for the second half of the game. And if you have enough tumors, you can survive the [[Main/UpToEleven THIRD]] apocalypse and enter [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Nevermore]]. ]]

* UpToEleven: The sound menu can be put on 110%.

* EtherealChoir: It's rather subtle and could probably be mistaken for just instrumentals, but you can hear an angelic choir singing in the background in the Arid Flats theme if you listen closely enough.

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The whole soundtrack are reworked classical pieces. The theme of The End is Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre", the music in the Wall of Sorrow is Franz Listz's "Hungarian Rhapsody", the music in the secret underground Mega Tumor rooms [[spoiler:and Ruin]] is Edvard Grieg's "In The Hall of the Mountain King", while the music of [[LethalLavaLand Golgotha]] is Modest Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain", just to mention some examples.

* AfterTheEnd: By the time you start the game, Ash is one of the last...things, alive in this world. [[spoiler: Then something happens overnight once you finally make a friend, leaving the world even worse off for the second half of the game. And if you have enough tumors, you can survive the [[Main/UpToEleven THIRD]] apocalypse and enter [[Main/TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Nevermore]]. ]]
* AntagonistTitle: [[BrutalBonusLevel Pus-Man]].

* {{Bookends}}: [[spoiler:The cartridge you find at the end of Nevermore? It's the same catridge Ash plays in the intro]].

* DownerEnding: As per tradition for a Creator/EdmundMcMillen game, [[spoiler: Ash dies in the first ending, although with a smile. The second ending is a bit more optimistic, even though Ash is transformed in a small planet and stuck in [[BrutalBonusLevel Nevermore]] forever, at least now he is no longer alone and Steven is walking on him.]]

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: You actually play the game Ash is streaming. The game breaks as soon as you "die", and the levels are designed to ensure you won't complete them all in a single life. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}} if you ''do'' manage to complete them without dying, which earns you a NonStandardGameOver in which Ash finishes his stream and doesn't go outside to make himself a friend and an [[BraggingRightsReward achievement]] for your troubles]].

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:In the first ending, Ash gives the world one final smile as he [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepts the fact that he's about to be caught in the blast of the orb.]]]]

* LudicrousGibs: What happens to Ash when he dies. [[NintendoHard Which will be very often]].

* NotSoFastBucko: [[spoiler:After assembling Ash's "friend," there's a ''second'' apocalypse and a new set of levels.]]

* RuinsOfTheModernAge: The End, which ironically is the first area. [[spoiler:Its future counterpart Anguish as well]].

** The Arid Flats [[spoiler: and its future counterpart Gloom. ]]

** All the collectible cartridge games are a reference to a classic game. For example, [[VideoGame/RiverCityRansom River City Rancid]], [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Catastrovania]], [[VideoGame/PacMan Pus-Man]]...
** The Kuko Jr. and Kuko enemies are one to [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Kracko]], both in name and design.

* SolidClouds: Some areas have clouds that you can use as platforms. In Wall of Sorrow, the clouds serve as [[TemporaryPlatform Temporary Platforms]].

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler: Nevermore]].

* VideoGameLives: Either 0, 9, or infinity in the cartridge levels. [[spoiler: Also, the tumors you get in the past are each 1 life in the future.]]

A platformer developed by Creator/EdmundMcMillen. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the player controls Ash (voiced by [[Webvideo/RedLetterMedia Rich Evans]]), a one-eyed blob creature who after his favorite video game cartridge finally breaks decides to go out into the world and build himself a friend.

* {{Adorkable}}: Ash, so very much. He's a video game nerd who makes awkward LetsPlays and the entire game is about him going out into the world [[IJustWantToHaveFriends to make a friend]]. The dorky voice also helps.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler: [[Creator/EdmundMcmillen Isaac, Gish, Guppy and the squid from Aether]]]] all appear (or at least creatures resembling them do) in [[spoiler:the second half of the game]], hidden in secret areas. [[spoiler:Isaac even uses the "hurt" sound from Rebirth when talked to.]]

* SolidClouds: Some area have clouds that you can use as platforms. In Wall of Sorrow, the clouds serve as [[TemporaryPlatform Temporary Platforms]].

* ShiftingSandLand: The Arid Flats [[spoiler: and it's future counterpart Gloom. ]]
** To a lesser extent, Retrograde, as it seems to be a PaletteSwap of Arid Flats.

* UpToEleven: The sound menu can be put on 110%