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Dynamite Headdy is a Platform Game by Treasure with the unique feature of taking place in and behind the scenes of a puppet show. You control Headdy, a puppet with a detachable head that can be used as a projectile, on a mission to confront Dark Demon, a Big Bad who has, quite literally, stolen the show. On your way you meet helpers such as Hangman, an animate handhold; Headcase, a walking box with a rotating selection of power-up heads inside; Beau, a visitor from Fluffy Cloud Heaven who points out bosses' weak points; and Heather, a mysterious woman with detachable hands.
The puppet show nature of the game's setting comes up quite a bit, although it also has elements of a live action play or a movie. Each stage of the game is called an Act, and is subdivided into sections called Scenes. Backgrounds are often missing sections through which the backstage area can be seen, and sometimes actually fall apart. Some sections of the game take place backstage, and enemies and NPCs both sometimes take on the role of stagehands or other staff. Even the Life Meter reflects this: Headdy's vitality is represented by a spotlight whose color (and the size of the "H" in the middle) corresponds to the amount of life left, and bosses have a similar spotlight with an "E" in the center. There's also a scene where an orchestra is visible in the background playing the background music. Needless to say, metafictional and setting tropes get quite a workout in this game.
This game provides examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final boss fight.
- Butt Monkey: Bino, classified by the game as a backstage worker, appears often "on stage" in many ways (grabbed or thrown in by a boss, boss wearing a MASK of him, wandering aimlessly on the arena...) and his elimination is the key to get many of the Secret Bonus Points.
- Bonus Boss: Winning the bonus game four times gives you a password that can be entered after the end credits to fight an extremely difficult boss (fortunately you have infinite lives at that point).
- Bonus Stage: Most stages have one liberty head, which leads to the basketball bonus game mentioned above.
- Breather Level: Technically, Stage 7 itself is only a few screens long, has no threats whatsoever, and even goes so far as to pamper you with a bonus stage. Even the boss is a cheery, relaxing affair. Then you get punished gruesomely for your naive belief that the game would be so kind, and the rest of the game past this point is no better.
- Chickification: Heather appears to be an Action Girl at first, going as far as to defeat one of the Keymasters before Headdy shows up. but later on in the game she gets captured and must be rescued. Twice.
- Cosmetic Award: Getting all the Secret Bonus Points or beating the Bonus Boss does not affect gameplay in any way, and in fact all you get in either case is the game briefly acknowledging that you've done so.
- Difficulty By Region: The game starts with 3 continues in the Japanese version but none in the North American/European version (you can earn continues in both versions) and has a few other tweaks to make the American/European version more difficult. On the other hand, Twin Freaks, one of the hardest bosses in the game, has twice as much health in the Japanese version, but you can cheat against it, which is impossible in the other version.
- Difficulty Spike: Scene 6, if one isn't accustomed to the space shooter genre.
- And Scene 7, if one is human.
- Guide Dang It: Many of the Secret Bonus Points require you to perform extremely counterintuitive or un-obvious actions, and there are no hints anywhere. Fortunately, they're not mandatory, and in fact, aren't worth a thing.
- Heal Thyself: Sleepy Head. Headdy goes to sleep and gradually regains health until he is fully revitalized. Can be dangerous to use if you're currently under attack, although it can be canceled like most heads. There is also a non-head healing item, the Banana, which restores half of your maximum health.
- Hold The Line: The penultimate level has Maruyama's robot go out of control and chase both of you down a very long hallway. The robot is invincible, and Maruyama himself may only be stunned. Maruyama spends the whole sequence tackling and holding you down for the robot to shoot both of you, while you desperately Try Not To Die. For about four minutes.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: bananas.
- Intangible Man: Empty Head, which reduces Headdy to a white outline with no color inside. Rather one-sided, as you can still attack enemies but their attacks go right through you. Still vulnerable to Non Lethal Bottomless Pits.
- Just For Pun: Most of the levels in the US version are puns of popular movies (eg Stair Wars), and the Recurring Boss that looks like a cat is called a bear, probably just so they could name him Trouble Bruin.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Dark Demon has a beam attack that fills most of the screen.
- Lethal Lava Land: Act 3, Scene 1. Subverted in that it ends with Trouble Bruin bursting through the background and pulling Headdy backstage, where the rest of Act 3 takes place.
- Made Of Explodium: Most enemies. The explosion sound is high pitched and very unique.
- Mary Sue: Possibly referenced in the Japanese version, where it is revealed that Dark Demon was originally Smiley, an animate award that was supposed to be presented to the "greatest puppet", but instead interpreted this to mean that he was to become the greatest puppet, leading directly to his Start Of Darkness and transformation into Dark Demon.
- Mood Whiplash: Hey, it's a weird but friendly level full of cows and birds. And the boss is kinda easy and Heather is helping me out while they play happy music. Could this be a Breather Level?
- More Dakka: Multiple heads may qualify. Lotsa Heads gives you a head that splits into three heads when fired; War Head continually fires projectiles in all directions; Air Head shoots bullets in three directions at once at a very rapid rate of fire; the extremely bizarre Feather Head allows you to vomit a constant stream of tiny birds from your mouth as an attack.
- No Fourth Wall: Played with, in that the characters are well aware that they're puppets in a puppet show, but aren't as obviously aware that they're characters in a video game.
- Non Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling off the screen doesn't kill Headdy, instead launching him back upward while damaging him some.
- Pink Bishoujo Ghetto: Partially. The main character and a few enemies\supports are male, but most enemies and bosses are female (a little more obvious in the Japanese version). Of course, in this case, there's no Fan Service element to this... at least I hope not.
- Poison Mushroom: Head Trip, a massive head which slows you down a lot and prevents you from jumping or shooting. It can't be canceled. It has a distressing tendency to show up during boss fights.
- Power Up: Aside from his normal head, there are over a dozen different heads Headdy can put on, each of which grants him a different special ability. Almost all of these can be switched for another head whenever you're near Headcase, revert to the normal head after a fixed time, and can also be canceled at any time, but a few work differently: Pin Head lasts indefinitely; Head Trip expires after a time limit but can't be canceled; Bomb Head reverts as soon as it explodes; Liberty Head is really just the way you enter the bonus game; Air Head, Rocket Head, and Feather Head remain for the duration of Act 6, although you can still switch between them.
- Quad Damage: Slammer Head, which does twice as much damage per hit as the regular head.
- Recurring Boss: Trouble Bruin, a bear (although he looks more like a cat, really) who also has a detachable head but instead uses it to control a wide variety of strange attack vehicles, Eggman-style. He is The Dragon to Big Bad Dark Demon.
- Schmuck Bait: DON'T SHOOT
- Shoulders Of Doom: Dark Demon has what appear to be green statues sprouting from the shoulders of his costume. Animated green statues.
- That One Boss: Treasure does everything to the Nasty Gatekeeper short of putting a sign over her head saying "this is That One Boss". The introduction, the music, and of course the difficulty (at least until you get the hang of it). then again, a little later on you get Twin Freaks which doesn't have the intro or music, but sure has the difficulty.
- The Stinger: Played with in that it's a boss fight, not a cutscene.
- The Unfought: Heather beats one of the bosses for you; you never get to fight or even see her.
- This Cannot Be: "I CANNOT BELIEVE IT" (the death line for almost every boss)
- Toy Time: Due to the nature of the game's setting, all areas have a little bit of this, if only in the enemies (the Keymasters are so named because they are giant wind-up toys, and plenty of Mooks have smaller keys), but the toy theme is especially strong in Act 2.
- Unexpected Genre Change: Act 6 is a flying level with a space shooter feel.
- Use Your Head: For combat, picking up objects, grabbing ledges, climbing walls, operating machinery, flying...pretty much everything that's not walking and jumping, really.
- Widget Series: It's a game set in a puppet show, starring a puppet with a detachable head. The Widgetiness is especially high in the Japanese version, which contains robot kabuki performers, a gigantic doll firing Eye Beams, a bright purple Trouble Bruin with a fixed grin (referred to as Maruyama), and bizarre dialogue.
- Your Head A Splode: What happens when you die. Also used to your advantage with Bomb Head, which doesn't harm you unless you're still wearing it when it goes off but does colossal damage to every enemy on the screen.
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