[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mcpixel_steam.jpg]]
->''"Savin' the day, the [=McPixel=] way!"''
-->-- '''WebVideo/JesseCox'''

''[=McPixel=]'' is a 2012 video game developed and published by Sos Sosowski.

There's a bomb somewhere in the building/house/deserted island/whale/castle/school/outer space/(insert location here)! You've got twenty seconds to defuse it! What would you do?

Be a complete idiot, apparently.

In this cross between ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' and ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'', follow the adventures of adventure man, jack-of-all-trades and general vandal [=McPixel=] as he finds himself in various cliffhanger situations, and has only 20 seconds to save the day with a mixture of cartoon logic and wanton destruction.

Available [[http://www.mcpixel.net here]] and through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. A sequel, ''[=McPixel=] 3'', published by Creator/DevolverDigital, was released in 2022.
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!!''[=McPixel=]'' contains examples of:
* HundredPercentCompletion: Clearing a scene only nets you a silver ranking. Getting a gold ranking requires you to do every single thing you can do within a scene.
* AffectionateParody: ''Series/MacGyver1985''... on drugs.
%%* AppeaseTheVolcanoGod: As described below in UnexpectedVirgin.
%%* AssShove: A possible solution to a disturbing amount of puzzles.
* BitingTheHandHumor: The penultimate mission of the sequel is a heist, where the target is a mansion belonging to Devolver Digital themselves.
%%* BombDisposal: The premise of the game is essentially "BombDisposal [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs on drugs]]".
* ButtMonkey: There's a certain old man who appears at least once in every chapter that gets abused in various upsetting ways, such as being thrown off a bridge, out an elevator, out of a train, or having [=McPixel=] climb inside of him to safely detonate the bomb.
* TheCameo: A "Space Butterfly" level that was added at the request of WebVideo/JesseCox. LetsPlay/PewDiePie, the Bro, Stephano and a Barrel appear in the same DLC set.
** The promotional video about the non-existent ''[=McPixel=] 2'' contains cameos from several people who worked with Devolver Digital in the past (Daniel Mullins, Bennett Foddy, Goichi Suda...)
* CantHoldHisLiquor: Chapter 4, Round 1, Level 4. [=McPixel=] gets hammered off a drink that's 1% alcohol and {{Groin Attack}}s Guy Fawkes. Can't hold it [[UrineTrouble literally]], either.
%%* CheekCopy: A possible answer to Chapter 2, Round 2, Level 4. It still explodes the building.
* CloudCuckooland: [=McPixel=] is just the tip of the iceberg; don't expect anyone—or any''thing'' for that matter—in the game to act in any sort of logically predictable manner.
* ComedicSociopathy: [=McPixel's=] task is to make sure the bomb doesn't blow up, no one said anything about making sure bystanders don't get hurt or used as battering rams. The sequel's ethics are even looser, and sometimes bombs are allowed to go off as long as [=McPixel=] isn't in the blast radius.
* CutAndPasteEnvironments: Chapter 4's special stage is all the same room. Only the outcomes on each of the rooms is different.
* DetonationMoon: One of the stages is on the moon.
* DiggingToChina: A stage in ''[=McPixel=] 3'' ends with this, or well, rather, digging to ''Poland''.
* DigitalPiracyIsOkay: The developer even handed out promo codes for the game on a torrent page on The Pirate Bay. This gave the game a lot of publicity, which TPB's organizers helped along by modifying their logo to resemble ''[=McPixel=]'''s. [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/08/wait-whys-pirate-bay-promoting-an-indie-game/ Article linkie.]]
%%* EarthShatteringKaboom: {{Invoked}} to stop a bomb on the moon.
* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:[=McPixel=] ''himself'' set up all the bombs so he could charge exorbitant prices to get rid of them.]] PlayedForLaughs.
* EngineeredHeroics: One of the extras for HundredPercentCompletion is a scene in which [[spoiler:[=McPixel=] sends out the bombs he defuses]].
%%* FeedItABomb: As noted under JumpingOnAGrenade, this is sometimes a solution.
* GainaxEnding: The sequel ends on a doozy. [[spoiler:After disarming the final bombs and saving the city, [=McPixel=] accuses Steve of being the one who planted all the bombs throughout the game. Steve denies it, instead claiming that ''[[=Mcpixel=] himself'' did it in order to [[EngineeredHeroic look like a hero]]. As they argue, a bomb suddenly lands between them, and the two duck for cover as it explodes. Cue credits.]]
* {{Gasshole}}: One of the extras for HundredPercentCompletion is a "Fart-Along" rhythm game.
* GroinAttack: Whenever [=McPixel=] interacts with a person, his first action will be a kick to the groin.
* IdiotHero: The titular protagonist, of course! And lucky for him it's [[CloudCuckooland one of the few universes]] where one has to ''be'' an idiot in order to win.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: One set of levels in the sequel subjects [=McPixel=] to a ShrinkRay and tasks him with solving problems involving being considerably smaller than usual.
* JumpingOnAGrenade: And sometimes, ''eating'' the grenade. 50% of the time, it works. The other fifty percent, everything else explodes.
* LaughTrack: The sitcom-themed levels in the sequel provide one of these whenever [=McPixel=] does anything. [[spoiler:There's also a button to permanently toggle this effect after completing the game.]]
%%* MindScrew[=/=]AcidTripDimension: The Bonus Stages.
* MoonLogicPuzzle: The only kind of logic that can beat 99% of the puzzles. To put things in perspective, the first rule of playing this game is this: If the solution you have in mind makes sense, there's a 75% chance it's wrong. The remaining 25%? It works, but not in the way you were expecting it to. After a couple levels, it's almost second nature. The four bonus rounds, meanwhile, are ''No'' Logic Puzzles.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: [[spoiler:The final set of levels in the main game tasks [=McPixel=] with defusing the one bomb out of eleven that's not a dud. To make things worse, the six levels in the set are all identical apart from their outcomes.]]
* PermanentlyMissableContent: The game has four MindScrew bonus rounds (one made entirely out of the title character, one set on the rainbow trail of Nyan Cow, one set in a sewer underneath a toilet, and a crazily glitched up one) that can only be accessed a limited number of times while doing the initial runthroughs of each of the official stages [[note]]the Free DLC stages do not count[[/note]]. They are reached by getting three silver or gold completions in a row, and missing once breaks the chain. Once you finished all normal stages, these bonus rounds can no longer be reached without wiping the save file.
* PerspectiveFlip: One set of levels in the sequel involves playing previously existing levels, but where you control someone involved in the scenario other than [=McPixel=].
* QuoteMine: Take a look at the website and see how many review quotes are mined to the point of unintelligibility.
* RebusBubble: The scant amount of character dialogue in the sequel often takes the form of speech bubbles with images and = signs.
* {{Retraux}}:
** Mimics late 70s[=/=]early [=80s=] pixel games. The cover art itself is very eighties as well.
** The lack of sound effects, along with the bizarre non-sequitur [[{{Slapstick}} slapstick comedy]], invoke the style of early 20th century {{silent film}}s.
** A set of levels in the sequel is based on emulating the graphics of various classic systems, including the Atari 2600, NES, Game Boy, CGA-era PC, and Windows.
* ShoutOut:
** The Bonus Stages are specifically geared around a theme of {{Film}}, VideoGames, and [[WesternAnimation Cartoons]].
*** The first Bonus stage features: ''Film/Titanic1997'', ''Franchise/StarWars'' (specifically, ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''), ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' ([[Film/Alien3 the third film]], it seems), ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'', ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'', and ''Franchise/HarryPotter''.
*** The second bonus stage has ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' (and the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', for some reason), ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', and ''Franchise/MortalKombat''.
*** The third bonus stage has ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'', ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.
** One Bonus Round is Nyan Cat.
** One of the taglines is "[[Film/BatmanTheMovie Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.]]"
** The [[VideoGame/Portal2 Space Core]] is visible in most outer space stages.
** Getting [=McPixel=] to drink coffee in the "Coffee Shop" round turns him into [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Cornholio]].
** One ending sequence shows the main character humping a [=PS3=], which is a reference to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2UHhyIBlmw this video]] from [[Webcomic/{{Sonichu}} Chris Chandler]].
* TimeBomb: Almost every level has a bomb with a fuse or timer, but it's set for 20 seconds to respond. In the stage with a visible timer (Dual-phase bomb in chapter 4), it's malfunctioning and switching between 0 and 1 but this doesn't affect the timer.
* TimedMission: Every level gives you twenty seconds to figure out a solution.
* TitleScream: '''MCPIXEL!!''' greets you each time you fire the game up. The same graphic also appears whenever you start and finish a round, though the voice clip itself doesn't occur. '''Steve''' gets his own graphic in the sequel, but in his case the accompanying voice clip always plays.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: One of the main additions to the sequel are missions that suddenly shift the game's genre, including a side-scrolling shmup, a racing game, a beat-em-up, several sports, an auto-scrolling platformer and a first-person shooter among others.
* UnexpectedVirgin: A volcano demands a Virgin Sacrifice. You have the option to toss a DumbBlonde or a cow in. [[spoiler: The solution to that particular puzzle is for [=McPixel=] to throw himself into the volcano.]]
* UnInstallment: ''[=McPixel=] 3'' is the second game in the series. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEoYnmukN20 A gag promotional video by Devolver]] claims that there was going to be a ''[=McPixel=] 2'', but it was too ambitious to succeed. [[spoiler: Level 4-B is all about McPixel's attempt to find the floppy disk containing McPixel 2.]]
* UrineTrouble: [=McPixel=] apparently has a thing for urinating on certain objects and people for whatever reason. Is almost certain to happen if he [[CantHoldHisLiquor drinks alcohol of any sort]].
* WhamEpisode: The sequel's final level set starts with [=McPixel=] being thrown into a dungeon with a puzzle reminiscent of the tutorial level, interspersed with him doing other wacky shenanigans like running for office and holding a concert. While the shenanigan levels play like normal, the escape sequences follow an oddly structured sequence with continuity. Until the awards ceremony level, which plays out almost entirely like the events of one of the game's trailers, except the solution is [[spoiler:to simply walk out, at which point [=McPixel=] removes his outfit to reveal himself to be Steve in disguise. It turns out he hired someone to kidnap [=McPixel=] while he posed as him in the other levels.]]
* WhoWantsToBeWhoWantsToBeAMillionaire: A mission in the sequel puts [=McPixel=] on a pastiche of the show and asks him an incredibly difficult algebra question. Many of the gags are obtained by using his lifeline to phone various friends.
* WireDilemma: [=McPixel=] encounters one of these in one scenario. [[spoiler: His response is to just yank out a fistful of wires without any care for order or precision. Naturally, it works.]]
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