"What if you are the one who caused the zombie apocalypse? Can you destroy the world in just 60 seconds?"
— The synopsis of the first game, Infectonator! 60 Second Edition, from the producers' homepage.
Infectonator! is a series of Turn-Based Strategy Web Games by Toge Productions
(with one spin-off with slightly different premises), all based upon making chain reactions and getting upgrades. The twist? It's all about making zombie apocalypses! Yes, you are a mad scientist hell-bent on turning the world into a wasteland (and in one case ruining Christmas), and all you have is a deadly virus that can turn people into zombies.
The first entry, 60 Second Edition, released on December 4, 2009, had you try to infect and zombify as many people as possible in a single minute. Breaks were allowed for making upgrades, but once you ran out of time, that was it.
The second entry, Christmas Edition, was the same, but instead of 60 seconds, you had 25 days until Christmas, and each turn took a day. Also, you got to kill Santa.
Where the series really got off the ground, however, was when World Dominator got released. Not only did you get as many days as you'd need, but you could now attack actual cities and/or villages, as well as recruit actual celebrities to your undead legion! This added realism may have a factor in making those poor humans' anguish and suffering a lot more satisfying.
The third game released was Necronator, best described as "Infectonator meets Warcraft"; while a large part of the interface and controls in World Dominator remain, the setting and gameplay is completely changed to Medieval times, with you commanding a Necromancer who tries to Take Over the World with his undead . Unlike the other games, units are built over time from a preset building with income slowly provided, instead of being created from an infectious chain reaction. However, zombies and the original "infection" chain reaction ability from the first three games remain.
Necronator 2 was the fourth game in the series, It abandoned the gameplay of World Dominator for a complete strategy feel while improving the aesthetics and gameplay of its predecessor. The zombies and infection abilities are still present in a greatly nerfed form, however, the main draw is the multiple campaigns and huge variety of playable units and races.
Infectonator 2 and Infectonator 3: Apocalypse returned to the formula of the original game. It retains most of the game-play of the original World Dominator while improving the visuals and tightening the core elements that made the original successful.
There is also an iOS port of Infectonator, which retains the gameplay of Infectonator 2 while adding new levels like Santa's workshop (for the Christmas update) and the Toge Office, which houses the surprisingly badass News Reporter and her Cameraman. It is available at the iTunes store.
Currently, the latest game in the series is Necronator: Dead Wrong. The gameplay differs from past installments, in that it includes deck-building and Roguelike elements.
Tropes:
- Apocalypse How: Your goal in nearly all of the games is to cause Planetary-scale Human Extinction.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Tokyo has been attacked! 211 people have been killed today, 113 people have been infected and turned into zombies, and a car was destroyed!"
- Artificial Stupidity: Your units in Necronator 2 regularly get stuck in wide passages, unable to move until you force them to. Then there's also the fact that they sometimes will not attack an enemy that's right next to them. Oh, and enemies have no such problem.
- Attract Mode: The title screen shows the carnage to be expected in the game. Of course, it's blocked by an ad, so you have to close it to watch.
- Badass Bystander: Some enemies in World Dominator, such as the Chinese guys that attack with a very painful sword, Eskimos who whack your zombies with an icepick, Surfboarders who attack with their surfboards, etc.
- Badass Santa: Santa in Infectonator 2. Badass indeed- he can heal the Elite Mooks in the area, and dish out a lot of damage on your zombies.
- Bad Liar: In Necronator: Dead Wrong, the first of the three heroes that you encounter is Lord Balderdash of the frozen north, who claims immunity to the cold...despite constantly shivering and sneezing, both in-text and in his character portrait.
- Black Knight: Bileam Lightbringer in Necronator. You obtain him after killing a paladin "hero".
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: In Infectonator 2 and Infectonator for the iOS, a small donation gets you nigh-invincible heroes and devastating support options.
- Brutal Bonus Level: The Toge Office in 2, mostly due to the reporter and cameraman.
- The Cameo: World Dominator has several that start out as "heroes", but can be recruited to your army. Some change identities, too! (Spider-Man -> Venom, for example)
- Crystal Ball: Infectionator originally used a tv/computer screen to show news of a city being attacked. In Necronator, this is replaced by a fortune teller using a crystal ball.
- Defeat Means Playable: In World Dominator and Necronator, beating a Hero Unit will allow you to use a zombified version as your own hero unit.
- Dem Bones: Your skeletons and skeleton archers in Necronator.
- Developing Nations Lack Cities: World Dominator suffers from this immensely almost to the point of
Unfortunate Implications, starting with Brazzaville being represented as a collection of tents rather than the actual city that it is◊. Similar things happen in Nicaragua, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Greenland, though much of this is down to graphical limitations. Later entries do away with this, as buildings become better implemented. - Disaster Dominoes: The zombie pandemic tends to follow this pattern.
- Endless Running Game: Spinoff game Infectionator: Hot Chase. It's controlled similar to the "helicopter game": hold to move up.
- Enemy Chatter: You can see the people chatting away while wandering before you drop the virus on them ("It's a nice day, isn't it?"), or after ("OMG! ZOMBIEEEEEEESSSS!"). Improved in World Dominator, where the chatter comes in several languages, corresponding to the most likely area they would be spoken.
- The dialogue is randomized among NPCs, though, so you can get hilarious instances like Spider-Man desperately asking "Where is cop??"
- Enemy Mime: They turn into the same zombies as everyone else, unfortunately.
- Fallen Hero: All of the Hero units in Necronator must first be fought as champions of humanity. After beating the stage they appear on, you gain access to a corrupted, evil version of said hero. A similar system is in place in World Dominator, though No Celebrities Were Harmed.
- Global Currency: No matter where in the world you are, the money that spills from the bodies of the dead always comes in coins, money bags, and gems (though the latter two only show up in World Dominator.
- Hero Killer: Diablo in Necronator. He has a lot of health and sports a move that can deal around half the maximum health of an enemy hero, allowing him to kill enemy heroes with ease.
- Hero Unit: Both you and the enemy humans have them. In 2, these are shown by a blue aura (yours) or a yellow aura (enemy) around them. In World Dominator, killing one of these allows you to use zombified versions as yours to command.
- Instant Illness: As soon as a human is harmed by your virus click attack, they immediately die, then rise up as a zombie a few seconds later.
- Interactive Start Up: You can hover over coins to collect them on each game's main menu.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Several in Infectonator 2:
- Ill Kim Jong (Kim Jong-il)
- Jackon (Michael Jackson)
- Kruggy (Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street)
- Jayson (Jason Voorhess from Friday the 13th)
- Gigsaw (Jigsaw from Saw)
- Reinald and Zombie Reinald (Ronald McDonald)
- Bomber (Boomer from Left 4 Dead)
- Puker (Spitter from Left 4 Dead)
- Greench (How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)
- Ramboo (Rambo)
- Level Grinding: With the extended timeframe of World Dominator, "easy mode" involves repeatedly playing the starting villages until you have enough money to buy enough upgrades to trash the population (and loot) dense cities over and over again, until all is not but cinders. And then you hop to the next landmass and do it all over again...
- Mad Scientist: You, the player.
- Mascot Mook: In Necronator: Dead Wrong, the previous Necronator, considered to be an ancient demigod, has been reincarnated into the form of a Chubat (chubby bat) that advises your chosen commander with their conquest.
- Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: The Jackson character. Obviously.
- Mighty Glacier: Necronator has Orcs, who dish out a lot more hurt than skeletons but are slower.
- Monster Clown: Zombie Ronald McDonald. Zombie... Ronald... McDonald.
- Mood Whiplash: So you've got the nice jingles of some ordinary day in life, all melodious and oh shit Johnny became A ZOMBIE RUN!!!!
- Mooks: Humans, naturally.
- Elite Mooks: The special agents and Hero Units, who cannot be infected directly, but must be wailed upon by your zombies. Hazmat units in 2 are like special agents with LOADS of health and high damage output.
- Necronator has halberd guards, who have a lot of health and an AOE Spin Attack, and gunners, who have a Spread Shot that hurts and covers a large area. The latter are only found in the last few stages.
- Ms. Fanservice: The News Reporter is incredibly attractive and only became Progressively Prettier as the series went on. Her sizable busom is always at the center of the camera, and her outfit usually exposes ample cleavage. In both 2 and 3, the player can unlock all kinds of Fanservice Costumes for her, such as a Sexy Santa Dress, a Naughty Nurse Outfit, a Sailor School Uniform, a Modesty Towel, a Playboy Bunny, a Dressed Like a Dominatrix, etc.
- Necromancer: The player in Necronator. Alice Jezebel also counts, being able to summon undead mooks from dead foes.
- Oh, My Gods!: In the North Pole levels of Infectonator 2, some of the elves can be heard saying "Oh my Santa!" as everything goes to Hell around them.
- One-Word Title: Both the Infectonator and Necronator series of games only have one word as their title.
- Patient Zero: Well, actually Patient 0, 1, 2, 3, up to Patient 7. Your virus click "starts off" the level after it hits and infects a person (or more than one), turning them into the initial infection on that country or city. Since it can eventually be upgraded into an 8-way spread shot, it's possible to infect up to 8 at one go.
- Perverse Puppet: Mirabella "the Doll", the second commander available in Necronator: Dead Wrong, is a graduate of Necronator Academy whose undead army mainly consists of possessed stuffed animals.
- Power-Up Letdown:
- In Hot Chase, the speed upgrades make it harder to catch humans because the hoard runs too fast to register a collision. It's also partly frame-rate based.
- In Hot Chase, the Swag attracts coins, but has reversed controls.
- Prequel: Necronator is a prequel to the series. At the end of the game, the Necronator is sucked through a portal, deposited on Earth in the future, and left with no powers... until he learns modern science and develops the zombie virus.
- Purposely Overpowered: Diablo in Necronator. He can be summoned anywhere at a cost cheaper than that of an upgraded hero, can take loads of damage, and wreaks massive havoc against opponents, structures and even enemy heroes. To balance it out, he's only obtained after beating the enemy hero in the third-to-last level.
- Rewarding Vandalism: You get bonus money for destroying a certain amount of settlements. The more you destroy, the bigger the payout.
- Saving Christmas: Inverted in Christmas Edition; The goal is to ruin the holidays.
- Shout-Out: Various towns/units. Among them are Raccoon Hill, Silent City, Northern Water Tribe, Boomer Santa, Rambo gets turned into a Tank, Spider-Man is protecting NYC, and when summoned, Michael Jackson does the Thriller.
- In 2, you fight against Rambo, Mario and Luigi, Ronald McDonald, Justin Bieber, Freddie Wong and Santa Claus.
- Doggar in Necronator is an obvious reference to Kratos. Oh, and Diablo is in this game as well.
- Spread Shot: Necronator has Miranda Silverbow, enemy archer heroes, and enemy gunners. The last of which can shoot 7+ shots in one go.
- Superboss: The reporter herself and her cameraman in 2, complete with rapid-fire explosive microphones that utterly shred zombies with high damage and area-of-effect.
- Sword Beam: Bileam Lightbringer and enemy Paladins in Necronator use this as a mid-range attack.
- Take Over the World: In World Dominator and Infectonator 2.
- Take Your Time: The chaos doesn't start until the people start to turn green, you know! (Of course, Infectonator 2 defies this by having timed challenges for you to accomplish to earn additional gold and get one step closer to permanently ruining the area.)
- In every game after Christmas Edition, no matter how long you take conquering the world or how much damage you've done, nobody will ever wise up and try to stop you.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The only explanation why regular humans keep coming into the infection site despite seeing people die and get zombified everywhere.
- The Ranald McD special zombie (and
Spiritual Successor the clown zombie in Apocalypse) relies on this; he poops out infected burgers that if any human touches them, they die and turn into zombies. The only possible way this could happen is if they picked up the rancid zombie-burger in the first place.
- Time Stands Still: In WorldDom and Infectonator 2, Zombie Michael Jackson does this briefly while introducing new zombies to the (8-Bit) tune of "Thriller". In later stages, it's actually the best way to ensure you pick up all the money dropped mid-way through a level.
- Villain Protagonist: The player is a Mad Scientist that is trying to infect the entire world with his zombie virus.
- The Virus: One that turns people into zombies. The player can upgrade it to alter its effects.
- A Winner Is You: World Dominator ends with a Smash Cut to a score submission, and once completed dumps the player back onto the main menu.
- You Are Number 6: The default commander in Necronator: Dead Wrong is Number 7, a former Knight questing for the Holy Grail that is now a zombie seeking the Unholy Grail.
- Zerg Rush: The main goal of the game is to have your zombies do this. You can also do this in Necronator by spamming skeletons and skeleton archers which have a very short recharge time.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Your job in all of the games is to unleash one of these upon whatever your objective is.
- Zombie Puke Attack: The blandly but fittingly named "Puker" zombies launch green vomit at humans that forms a pool of zombifying goop. Considering that it's inspired by the Spitter, this is intentional.
