History YMMV / DistortedTravesty

* ThatOneSidequest: Getting the skill crystals in the [[UnexpectedShmupLevel Unexpected Shmup Levels]] requires you to be ''really'' good at BulletHell games (VideoGame/{{Touhou}} in particular.) If you aren't? Well tough shit.

* {{Homage}}: The games' heavy tone of sarcasm aside, it's clear that they were created as a loving tribute to the classic side-scrollers of the creator's youth. Even the overly frustrating segments are something of a reference to the fact that many of those older games had overly frustrating segments of their own, as any gamer of the 90s or older can attest to.

* TrollingCreator: [=ZephyrBurst=] makes it quite clear in his developer commentary and the names of the various screens in the games that he knows he's being overly difficult in his game design, and doesn't care. There are a few levels that it's clear he included a gimmick just because he knew it would frustrate the players (the tilting screen map titled "You're going to hate me for this room" comes to mind).

* DownerEnding: Both the Bad and Standard endings: [[spoiler:In the bad ending: TheBadGuyWins and the world is ended. In the standard, the heroes are successful in saving the world, but due to a few DiabolusExMachina events right at the end, Jeremy, Jerry, and Claire are all killed in the Warship's explosion. Chao is the only survivor, left heartbroken at the loss of her brother and best friends, and she disappears shortly afterward, wandering the world without telling anyone where she's going.]]

*** Note that this one can be avoided simply by placing down an Earth Shift rock and running against it. As the window tilts left and right according to your movement, even running up against a rock will cause it to change. Window getting too lopsided, just run against a rock for a bit, and you'll sort it out.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Claire [[spoiler:cheering up and motivating Jerry]] at the end of the game.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

* ContinuityLockOut: Many plot points and references don't make much sense if the player hasn't completed the previous two games in the series.
* DemonicSpiders: CHAOS Rocketeers, which have extremely damaging and highly accurate attacks (one of which can't be dashed through), and zip around in the sky chaotically, making it very hard to hit them. They also usually appear in pairs, and God help you if there's a Healing Bot with them as well.
* DownerEnding: Both the Bad and Standard endings: [[spoiler:In the bad ending: TheBadGuyWins and the world is ended. In the standard, the heroes are successful in saving the world, but due to a few DiabolusExMachina events right at the end, Jeremy, Jerry, and Claire are all killed in the Warship's explosion. Chao is the only survivor, left heartbroken at the loss of her brother and best friends, and she disappears shortly afterward, wandering the world without telling anyone where she's going.]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

** Also, the constant banter between Jeremy and [[spoiler:Hexor]] in the final battle.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** The BGM for Black Rock Fortress and the overworld BGM after [[spoiler:The Darkness takes over]]. Also, every single battle theme.
** Special mention should go to "[[http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/86969 Earthbones]]", the boss music for any ClimaxBoss, most particularly Necrobane and the Shroud Lord.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4R_OWbbmN4 The Primary Memory]]. Kickass music to go along with the BestLevelEver.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:The ending.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The heroes are successful in saving the world, but due to a few DiabolusExMachina events right at the end, Jeremy, Jerry, and Claire are all killed in the Warship's explosion. Chao is the only survivor, left heartbroken at the loss of her brother and best friends, and she disappears shortly afterward, wandering the world without telling anyone where she's going.]]

* FridgeBrilliance:
** After completing the four bosses of Metropolis, a gateway to fight 'Mr. X' appears. Since it was Wily's alias in ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' games, most people wouldn't think anything of it. Who's the boss? [[spoiler:An X clone]].
** Later parts of the game feature bullet hell attacks that are tough to dodge. The kicker is that these don't start showing up until Jerry off-handedly mentions that he's bad at bullet hell shmups. Turns out the Darkness was listening to that conversation, as it introduces the very next boss with "So, you're not too good at bullet hell?"

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The heroes are successful in saving the world, but due to a few DiabolousExMachina events right at the end, Jeremy, Jerry, and Claire are all killed in the Warship's explosion. Chao is the only survivor, left heartbroken at the loss of her brother and best friends, and she disappears shortly afterward, wandering the world without telling anyone where she's going.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Chao was pretty well liked in the second game, but quickly became the most popular of the main characters due to having the most personality out of the four.

* ThatOneLevel: The Water Temple in Gate 2. It is a labyrinthine dungeon full of complex water-shifting puzzles that can take a very long time to fully wrap your head around. Reading the Dev Comment in the skull fish enemy scan reveals that this is exactly what was aimed for.

** The Geemers in the ''Metroid'' Gate have the same glitch they had in the original ''VideoGame/{{Metroid1}}'': they get stuck tumbling in mid-air if the platform they're on is destroyed. They have a similar silly animation when moving down slopes, though they don't get stuck there. This looks hilarious, so Zephyr never bothered to fix it.

** The Geemers in the ''Metroid'' Gate have the same glitch they had in the original ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'': they get stuck tumbling in mid-air if the platform they're on is destroyed. They have a similar silly animation when moving down slopes, though they don't get stuck there. This looks hilarious, so Zephyr never bothered to fix it.

* GoodBadBugs: In town, there's a certain NPC that always starts a little cutscene when you talk to him, instead of just displaying a text box like normal. If Jerry dashes past him, and you press up, you'll pause and stand still mid-dash for the cutscene (with SpeedEchoes still on screen), then resume your dash where it let off when it ends. Guess [[TalkingIsAFreeAction talking really is a free action]].

* BonusLevelOfHell: While all the Nightmare Gates are much more difficult than the standard Gates, Nightmare Gate E takes the cake due to featuring everyone's favorite ''Distorted Travesty'' gameplay mechanic: the Timed Color Flashes of Death. It's capped off with a deliberate CallBack to "Think and Act Fast", the most notoriously frustrating room from the original game.

** In Gate 5, in the Maridia section, most players' hatred of water levels is {{Lampshaded}} by the AltText saying "Oh no! Water level! Everybody run from the scary, scary water level!", in a room that begins rapidly filling with water.

** In Sigma's Fortress, Bit from ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' shows up to stop Jerry. Jerry isn't worried though, saying that Bit was a very easy boss (Bit runs away before being defeated... and indeed, is extremely easy). Later, Byte shows up to "do what Bit could not". Jerry's reaction: "BUT YOU WERE EVEN EASIER!"

* FridgeBrilliance: After completing the four bosses of Metropolis, a gateway to fight 'Mr. X' appears. Since it was Wily's alias in ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' games, most people wouldn't think anything of it. Who's the boss? [[spoiler:An X clone]].

* BestBossEver: The final boss. It may not be as hard as the boss before it, but it is much more epic.
** Not to mention the hacker battle between Jeremy and Hexor going on at the same time that keeps messing with the stage and Jerry's stats.

* BestLevelEver: The final level, due to your EleventhHourSuperpower.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: After Jerry has a PoorCommunicationKills moment:
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Jeremy]]:''' Failed diplomacy check.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The BGM for Black Rock Fortress and the overworld BGM after [[spoiler:The Darkness takes over]]. Also, every single battle theme.

* NightmareRetardant: The goofy enemies prevent the first Distortion from being a full-blown BleakLevel.

* ThatOneLevel: '''The Black Rock Fortress.'''

* {{Homage}}: The games' heavy tone of sarcasm aside, it's clear that they were created as a loving tribute to the classic side-scrollers of the creator's youth. Even the overly frustrating segments are something of a reference to the fact that many of those older games had overly frustrating segments of their own, as any gamer of the 90's or older can attest to.