Video Game / I Was An Atomic Mutant

I Was An Atomic Mutant is a 2003 video game for PC, developed by Canopy Games and published by Valusoft.

The game is set in the 1950's American Southwest, as nuclear bomb tests have spawned giant monsters that rampage through nearby towns and cities. The game is presented in the style of a 1950's giant monster movie, making homages to films in that genre.The monsters you can play as are:

• Reptomicus: A giant, fire-breathing dinosaur.
• The Brain From Beyond Infinity: A massive, floating brain with psychic powers.
• The Invader from Dimension X: An alien invader operating a gigantic mecha.
• The She-Beast: A giant woman with laser vision and a sonic scream.

This game provides examples of:

• Affectionate Parody: Of 1950's-style science fiction and monster movies.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The Invader from Dimension X, as made explicitly clear in its trailer.
  Narrator: A being that knows not reason nor fear. It knows only to destroy! Destroy! DESTROY!
• All There in the Manual: The manual trailers provide more background information on the different monsters than the game itself ever provides, though some of it is contradictory.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The whole premise of the game, with the player taking the role of the giant monster.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Most of the voice acting in the game and trailers is hilariously poor.
• Badass Boast: The Brain from Beyond Infinity gets a couple after clearing a level, being the only selectable character capable of human speech.
• Beam Spam: The Invader's Death Ray and the She-Beast's Eye Beams.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Remptomicus' tail ends in a ball of spikes that he can wield like a flail.
• Blob Monster: The Invader from Dimension X is a one-eyed blob piloting a giant mecha.
• B-Movie: The gameplay deliberately tries to invoke the look of one. The various loading screens, menus, trailers, and box art also draw inspiration from the posters and trailers for these types of films.
• Body Horror: In the trailer for the Brain from Beyond Infinity, the titular brain was once a brilliant scientist caught in a nuclear blast, leaving behind nothing except his brain, spinal cord, and eyes, all of which were mutated to gigantic proportions by the radiation.
• Boring, but Practical: In Arcade mode, using ranged attacks will use up the monster's atomic energy faster than it can replenish, making physical attacks more practical, particularly in larger levels.
• Brain Monster: The Brain from Beyond Infinity, being in the "Just Brain" category.
• Breath Weapon: Reptomicus' fire breath attacks.
• Bring It Back Alive: In the She-Beast's trailer, she is discovered by scientists (after her island had been used as a test site for nuclear bomb), captured and taken to the United States for research. It goes about as well as expected.
• Covers Always Lie: The giant woman on the box art is a fair-skinned blonde wearing a red dress (or what's left of it, anyway). In the game itself, the She-Beast has a tan complexion with purple hair, and wears pink clothes.
• Death Ray: The Invader from Dimension X has one mounted on the chest of its Humongous Mecha.
• Deliberately Monochrome: All of the trailers for the monsters are in black-and-white.
  • The game also has an optional black and white setting.
• Depending on the Writer: The manual and trailers clash on occasion. She-beast's backstory is the most inconsistent, being an island native in the trailer and a housewife in the manual.
• Drivein Theater: One of the early levels prominently features a drive-in theater on the outskirts of town.
• Enfante Terrible: According to the manual, The Invader from Dimension X is but a child and its mech is its species' version of the child activity center. From The Invader's perspective it is merely playing with a bunch of small toys.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Cars and military vehicles spontaneously explode on contact when thrown.
• Excuse Plot: The trailers for the monsters do nothing other than explain why a giant monster suddenly appeared and started leveling towns in the American Southwest.
• Expy: The She-Beast is an obvious expy of the titular monster from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. There's also Reptomicus, the obligatory Godzilla knockoff.
• Eye Beams: The She-Beast's aptly named Eye Blast attack.
• Faceless Eye:
  • The Brain's eyes are the only part of his face that survived being mutated by radiation.
  • The alien that pilots the Invader mecha has a single eye in its otherwise featureless blob body.
• Failed a Spot Check: In the trailer version of She-Beast's origin story, her island was used for nuclear weapons testing because the scientists were unaware that the island was inhabited until after the fact.
• Giant Woman: The She-Beast.
• Helicopter Flyswatter: Fighter planes will occasionally fly low enough to be taken out by physical attacks.
• Hell Is That Noise: The She-Beast's high-pitched primal screams.
• Hero Antagonist: Your rampage is opposed by a small army of police officers, soldiers, tanks, fighter planes, and bombers.
• Humongous Mecha: The Invader from Dimension X is a building-sized mecha piloted by a green blob.
• Improvised Weapon: Billboards, vehicles, cacti, and people can all be picked up and thrown at buildings to do damage.
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: The Invader from Dimension X, the only one of the monsters not directly created by the nuclear tests.
• Kaiju: A deliberate homage to the genre.
• Magic Pants: In her trailer, She-Beast's outfit survives her sudden growth spurt. Averted according to the Manual's version, where she raided a textile factory to make said outfit.
• Mind over Matter: Most of the Brain's attacks use telekinesis, since he is just a giant floating brain with no limbs.
• Mighty Glacier: None of the monsters are capable of moving faster than a brisk walking pace, but they can all give and take ungodly amounts of punishment.
• Monster Modesty: The She-Beast dons a torn skirt and matching top.
• Multiarmed And Dangerous: The Invader's mecha has three robotic arms. The blob alien that pilots it also has three tentacles.
• Not Zilla: Reptomicus.
• Nuclear Mutant: Reptomicus, the Brain, and the She-Beast were all created by nuclear radiation. Averted with the Invader from Dimension X, as its trailer explains that the nuclear bomb ripped a hole between dimensions, allowing it in.
• Pink Is Feminine: She-Beast, the game's token female character, wears a tattered pink skirt and top.
• Playing with Fire: Reptomicus' Fireball and Inferno attacks.
• Red Shirt Army: The US Army and local law enforcement do their best to try and halt your rampage, even as you slaughter them left, right, and center.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Reptomicus.
• Retro Rocket: Several levels feature these ready for takeoff, adding to the overall 1950's aesthetic of the game.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Taken to its logical extreme, as the only way to beat a level is to destroy every building in town.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Both the She-Beast and the Brain are on the warpath in retaliation for having been mutated by nuclear bomb testing, as stated in their trailers.
• Smurfette Principle: As her name implies, the She-Beast is the game's sole female character.
• Spikes of Villainy: Reptomicus has spikes running down his back, with a spiked club on the end of his tail.
• Spin Attack: The Invader's Whiplash attack involves rotating its arms around its body to smash whatever is around it.
• Start of Darkness: Each of the trailers reveals the origins of its respective monster.
• Stuff Blowing Up: All over the place.
• Stylistic Suck: The game in general, though the trailers take this up to eleven, with stock footage of old B-movies spliced together with black-and-white game footage, often with hilariously bad voiceovers.
• Super-Scream: One of the She-Beast's ranged attacks is a sonic scream.
• Tanks for Nothing: True to the kaiju genre.
• The End... Or Is It?: Played for laughs; whenever the monster is killed, the words "The End?" flash across the screen.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: The trailers for Reptomicus and the Invader from Dimension X both use this almost word for word with regards to the unforeseen consequences of nuclear bomb testing.
• Throw-Away Country: Numerous towns and small cities exist solely to get wiped off the map by the player.
  • The She-Beast's island was used as test site for atomic weapons (though, in the scientists' defense, they didn't know anyone was actually living on the island before they nuked it).
• To Serve Man: Reptomicus will eat people that he picks up from the ground.
• Tragic Monster: Arguably all of them, though the Brain and She-Beast are particularly notable for how tragic their origins are (it also helps that both of them are formerly human).
• Victory Pose: Whenever you clear a level.
• Villain Protagonist: Comes with being a giant monster rampaging through 1950's America.
• Was Once a Man: The Brain was once a normal scientist that accidentally got caught in a nuclear explosion.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The trailer for the Brain implies that his psychic powers are so great that even he can't control them anymore.