Line #63 VideoGame/SpaceStationSiliconValley


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/space_station_silicon_valley.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:They seem friendly. Let's pet them!]]
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4	''Space Station Silicon Valley'' is a quirky 1998 Platform/Nintendo64 PlatformGame from DMA Design... better known these days as [[Creator/TakeTwoInteractive Rockstar North]]. Yes, the very same Rockstar Games that would come to be associated with mature franchises such as the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series.
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6	In the far off year of 2001, [[TitleDrop Space Station Silicon Valley]] was launched into orbit. The space station was the most advanced and expensive piece of technology ever created by man, and would undoubtedly lead to great strides in scientific advancement. Unfortunately, it suddenly disappeared shortly after its launch and it deemed to be forever lost... until the year 3000, when the space station has returned! Huzzah! And all the cute animals are now cyborgs! Awesome! And it's on a crash course for the planet Earth! Crud. While the impact won't destroy the planet or anything, it would still cause quite the mess, so we send our best to take care of the problem. But all our best fail to return, so our cheapest and most expendable are sent instead: "Heroes for Hire" Dan Danger and his robot sidekick Evo are dispatched to stop it.
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8	On the way, Dan and Evo get in an argument about the radio, which leads to them getting distracted and crashing into the station. They land unharmed, but Evo's attempts to eject don't kick in until after they stop, causing him to launch into the station's ceiling. As a result, Evo's body breaks apart, leaving his microchip brain helpless. Fortunately for him, he can merge with the cyborg creatures of the space station and take over their bodies. From there, while Dan sits in the spaceship and does nothing, Evo jumps from body to body in order to tackle the mission at hand. And each animal is weirder than the next, including missile launching dogs with wheels for feet, rams and sheep on springs, helicopter rabbits, and camels with turreted cannons for a hump.
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10	The game was later ported to the Playstation under the title ''Evo's Space Adventures.'' [[PortingDisaster You do not want to play this version.]] While not incredibly well known, the game was well received and critically acclaimed, despite several glitches (including [[GameBreakingBug one major one]] that somehow made it past Quality Control). Regardless, the game never ceases to be wacky, original, or fun.
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12	----
13	!!Provides Examples Of:
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15	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Subverted. The Stinky Sewers level is actually quite cramped, more like a normal sewer. Also there is poop scattered about, and can be eaten while controlling a rat. Doing so gets you the level's bonus trophy.
16	* AllInARow: Sheep/springs will follow rams/spring rams, rats will follow king rats, and penguins will follow king penguins.
17	* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The Engine Room and the Ending.
18	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: There are close to 50 animals to swap between. Fortunately they all only have two abilities, so there are no complicated move sets to memorize.
19	* BittersweetEnding: Space Station Silicon Valley [[spoiler: smashes into the New York Harbor,]] gets [[spoiler:completely destroyed,]] and all the animals [[spoiler: must die in order to save the earth from being terrorized.]] Oh, and not to mention that [[spoiler: Dan tries to take all the credit for saving the world, despite having spent the entire game sitting in the ship and yelling at you. Then he sells the ending sequence to pay for a new ship]].
20	* BonusLevel: There is one, but only accessible via cheat codes. See GameBreakingBug below.
21	* BossInMookClothing: Since you can control any of the animals, there are no real bosses (until the end). Some animals are very hard to take down however, filling the role of level boss. The Rat King and the Hippo are two notable examples.
22	* BrainInAJar: The BigBad is this.
23	* BubblegloopSwamp: The Swamp of Eternal Stench.
24	* ChasingYourTail: The King Rat in the Stinky Sewers. Not helped by his rat minions.
25	* CollectionSidequest: The purple power cells, which make Evo stronger in the end, and the hidden souvenirs, which would lead to 100% completion bonuses, if one wasn't broken.
26	* ColonyDrop: Subverted. At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the entire space station (the largest one ever built) falls straight down into New York Harbor. Ironically, Dan, Evo and all the animals are unharmed, but the space station is in ruins. The Earth suffers no damage from the collision, either]]
27	* ComMons: Subverted. Even the beginning animals have important uses.
28	* ContagiousLaughter: From the hyenas.
29	* CraniumRide: Occasionally possible.
30	* CrateExpectations
31	* CripplingOverspecialization: Each animal only gets two abilities, making some less effective against others. Sheep don't even get an attack (But they can "baa!").
32	** Fish are only useful in the water, and take constant damage while on land.
33	* DefeatMeansPlayable: More so than any other game perhaps.
34	* DieChairDie: You can blow up the speakers [[SorryILeftTheBGMOn playing the background music,]] as well as the terminal screens. In fact, destroying the speakers is an objective on one level.
35	* EternalEngine: The Engine Room and the Rat-o-Matic are the straight examples. However since the game takes place on a space station, elements of this pop up all over the place.
36	* ExplodingBarrels: Handy for taking out enemies if you have a ranged animal.
37	* FloatingPlatforms: Justified by either being designed to do so or being broken pieces of the station floating in space.
38	* GameBreakingBug:
39	** The souvenir trophy for Fat Bear Mountain can be found, but not gathered. Your character will pass through it without any effect. Sadly this makes the game impossible to be 100% winnable, and the ending bonus level cannot be accessed without cheating.
40	** This game is also the only known documented case where having the Expansion Pak installed in your system is problematic, as it causes random crashes due to a memory addressing error. [[note]]Essentially, the game will sometimes take advantage of overflow to warp back around to the start of memory. Since the Expansion Pak adds additional memory, the address pointer will now end up in a part of memory that has not been initialized, causing it to return nothing and crash[[/note]]. Not helping matters is that the N64 Expansion Pack is actually quite a pain to remove from the system once it's installed, since there's usually not any real reason for doing so outside of this game.
41	* GameWithinAGame: Any of the events to get Evo's body back.
42	* GentleGiant: Polar Bears/Polar Bear Tanks will not attack you if you are a Penguin, [[MisplacedWildlife possibly because they have no idea what one is.]]
43	* GreenHillZone: The Europe levels.
44	* GravityScrew: Rocky Hard Place
45	* GrimyWater: Subverted; some robot animals have better protection against water than others. Played straight in the Swamp of Eternal Stench.
46	* GoombaStomp: Though never explicitly stated, relatively heavier animals can do this. Sometimes they don't even need to be able to jump, oddly enough.
47	* HilarityInZoos: Perhaps the weirdest example yet.
48	* TheHyena: Unsurprisingly, the hyena (though the wheeled version less so). It's contagious laugh is it's main offensive weapon, causing non-hyenas to laugh themselves to death.
49	* IdleAnimation: The animals will often bob their heads to the music.
50	* IncendiaryExponent
51	* InevitableTournament: I'll just say this: The kangaroos wear boxing gloves.
52	* InvisibleWall: Justified, as they are the glass walls of the station. You can even see Evo's reflection.
53	* ItsUpToYou: Because Dan certainly isn't going to do anything due to being stuck in the ship as well as just lazy.
54	* {{Jobber}}: "Prepare for the first bout... a useless camel!"
55	* JumpPhysics:
56	** Sheep can floaty hop like [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]] for some reason. Penguins at least justify it with their parachutes.
57	** Also, your animal hosts [[SubvertedTrope can't jump while in water]]. This makes a lot of sense. Ever tried jumping into the air whilst swimming in RealLife?
58	* JungleJapes: The jungle levels, including one named... Jungle Japes!
59	* LazyBum: Dan. Never leaves the ship and is only there to give you your objectives and occasional advice along with a snide comment. [[spoiler:In the end, he tries to take all the credit for saving the Earth. And then he sells the ending sequence to pay for a new ship.]]
60	* LiftOfDoom: Squish
61	* LoadBearingBoss: "[[spoiler:Ah, I think The Evil Brain was driving this thing... AND SPACE STATION SILICON VALLEY IS ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH EARTH!]] This is all your fault, Evo. I'm telling."
62	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: On the first arctic level, you switch on a large computer, which turns on the secondary engines, speeding up the crash course to Earth. Oops.
63	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Many animals are mashed up with vehicles. And have missiles.
64	* NoEnding: {{Invoked\|Trope}}. After you beat the final level and Dan tells you if you've made a new record time or not:
65	-->That's it then.\
66	No really, I mean it. The show's over. I am best. You can go now.\
67	Bye then. Don't bother hanging around for the big finale because there isn't one. [[spoiler:I sold it to pay for a new ship.]]
68	* OlympusMons: The Lion, the Helirabbit, and the Racing Dog are the most powerful animals with which you actually get to kill things. The Demonic Spider animals don't see much killing once you down them, sadly.
69	* PassThroughTheRings: Appears in some levels, depending on the animal you will either be jumping, driving, flying, or swimming through them.
70	* PetTheDog: If you complete a level fast enough Dan will do a happy dance or clap for you. Also, If you fail a level there is a chance Dan instead of scoffing, cries over Evo’s untimely demise.
71	* PolarBearsAndPenguins: In the Arctic worlds. [[MisplacedWildlife Yep... Arctic.]]
72	* {{Prehistoria}}: Borassic Park
73	* PuzzlePan: Free Tour!
74	* RacingMiniGame: Walrus 64
75	* RobotBuddy: Inverted, with you as the robot buddy.
76	* SavingTheWorld: Subverted in the end. Too good even for spoilers.
77	* SetAMookToKillAMook: The beginning of the Engine Room pits you against very powerful bear and a racing dog with missiles, with you as a [[IncrediblyLamePun weaker wheeled]] racing fox. The idea is to get the two bruisers to cross paths and fight, using ''yourself'' as bait. Alternatively, [[TakeAThirdOption you could simply kill the racing dog with the fox, and then fight the bear yourself.]]
78	* ShiftingSandLand: The desert levels.
79	* ShoutOut: One to ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' in Pinball Blizzard.
80	* SkippableBoss: In a rather weird example, if you skip the opening cutscene for the final level, you'll end up going to [[spoiler:the animals' attack on the city]] without meeting the FinalBoss. If you wish to face the boss, you'll have to watch the entire cutscene.
81	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The arctic levels. Very little annoying ice fortunately.
82	* SmallNameBigEgo: Upon completing the final level, Dan exclaims "I did it, Evo! I saved the world!" Even though he [[strike: really just sat]] was trapped in his ship the whole time.
83	* SpaceZone: Rocky Hard Place. An area where a wall of the space station had been breached, unique dangers include meteor showers and pieces of the station floating above the abyss of space.
84	* StayingAliveDancePose: Dan's pose on the duo's "Heroes For Hire" ad.
85	* StoryToGameplayRatio: About as much as Mario 64.
86	* StuffBlowingUp
87	* SuperDrowningSkills: Racing Mice, Ski Huskies and Desert Foxes are not waterproof and take damage while swimming. Scorpions take massive water damage ''and'' sink straight to the bottom.
88	* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Heavier animals will sink, but don't need air since they're robots.
89	* ThisIsADrill: Spring Thing/Spring Ram
90	* UnexpectedShmupLevel: Of the rail shooter variety.
91	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: The game has an infamous bug that makes it impossible to 100% complete. Specifically, there is a trophy in one of the Europe zones that Evo will simply walk right through and not be able to collect. In fact, [[WordOfGod the very developer who was responsible for this glitch]] actually explained it in the comment section of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbjXlHkv_3c this Youtube review for the game.]] Fortunately, a fan-made patch exists that fixes this glitch (as well as another infamous one that makes some copies unplayable when the Expansion Pack is inserted into the N64) and makes 100% completion possible.
92	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Getting the bonus trophy in each level often requires senselessly killing all of a certain type of animal. One particularly disturbing example occurs in the level "Hoppa Choppa", in which you get the trophy by killing a defenseless group of rabbits that you spent the rest of the level trying to ''protect''. It's essentially a CruelTwistEnding for them that you invoke yourself just to get a collectible.
93	* WeCanRuleTogether: When Evo reaches the center of the station, [[spoiler:The Evil Brain offers to let Evo join him by claiming "With your body and my brain we will rule the stars."]]
94	* WeHelpTheHelpless: And a steal at only 200 cretz!
95	* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler: The FinalBoss. No worries, though, he's a bait and switch for the endgame sequence.]]

Context VideoGame / SpaceStationSiliconValley