99Vidasnote is a Beat 'em Up Video Game developed and published by QuByte Interactive in collaboration with the Brazilian podcast group of the same name. The game was released on Windows, MacOs, and Linux on December 22, 2016 and on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Play Station Vita in 2017. A "Definitive Edition", featuring extra stages, visuals and modes, was released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 27 2018, while the PC version was updated to match the console versions in July 28, 2021.
The game's story consists of the titular 99Vidas, an artifact that can grant unimaginable power to those who can obtain it, and its Guardians, who have sworn to defend it from those who would try to use it for evil via the use of Elemental Powers. When the 99Vidas does indeed get stolen by a crime boss bent on taking over the world with its power, the Guardians must fight their way through Boss' minions across the country to stop him from unleashing his wrath on the world with the artifact and retrieve it from his clutches.
This game was inspired by beat em' ups such as Final Fight, Double Dragon, and Streets of Rage. It had a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2015.
99Vidas provides examples of:
- Abbey Road Crossing: Clearing the game with one of the four starting characters shows them doing this pose
. - Action Girl: The Warriors, female counterparts to the main Guardians, are just as capable of beating up mooks as their boyfriends are.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Midway through Stage 1, a pickup truck carrying cows will show up, which you'll have to outrun to avoid getting run over until you reach the second half of the stage. Rather surprisingly, it goes on to show up in the later stages, first in Stage 5 to knock away SADIV 66 after his fight and again in Stage 6 having somehow found its way on the top floor of a building (much to the protagonists' confusion) and goes on to knock Boss off the building to his (temporary) demise.
- The Alleged Car: The main characters start their journey driving in a particularly beat-up one. It eventually breaks down at the start of the first stage, requiring them to go on foot for the rest of the game. Fries' ending has him fixing it up, with DeeDee joining him in her ending.
- Art Shift: There are two secret stages that noticeably change the art style of the game: Child's Play and Glitch World. Both can be accessed by picking up certain items in certain stagesnote . The former stage resembles drawings on a notepad complete with pens and renders everyone with a sketchy look, while the latter stage inverts their colours and is basically like something out of TRON.
- Bald of Evil: The Evil Boss has a mustache, but no hair on his head.
- Battle in the Rain: Stage 5 takes place on the rainy streets of a city where cars will run over anyone in the way.
- Beam Spam: Cybr-1 would constantly unload his energy blasts into the screen via his Arm Cannon.
- Big Bad: The Evil Boss, responsible for stealing the 99Vidas in his bid for world conquest.
- Boss Rush: Stage 6 has some of the previously defeated bosses come back for another round against the Guardians, which is actually lampshaded by the latter. They are in order: Bob Owner, Harddy and Jujurandir."Oh... So this is one of those games. You need to fight the bosses again..."
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: The starting four characters: Izzy is red, King is yellow, Oak is blue and Fries is green. For the female characters, Hannah is dark red, Trish is turquoise, DeeDee is grey and Rey is pink. Mike and Dan are white and purple respectively, and SADIV 66 is black.
- Competitive Balance:
- Jack of All Stats: King, Hannah, Oak, Reynote .
- Fragile Speedster: Izzy, Trish, Mike, Dan.
- Mighty Glacier: Fries, DeeDee, SADIV 66.
- Cyborg: Cybr-1, one of the bosses, is a half-human half-machine hybird whose appearance seems to be based off the character with the same name from the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon.
- Distaff Counterpart: The Warriors (i.e. the four female characters) are this to the main four Guardians, mostly sharing the same moveset, powers and sprites with them. Bonus points for also being their girlfriends, as revealed in their endings.
- Ditto Fighter: SADIV 66. Being a combat robot made to obtain data from strong fighters, he serves as a Tsungxpert, fighting with a mishmash of other characters' skills and powersnote .
- Droste Image: Stage 2 has a section in the games center area with a television in the background... showing the current game screen, including another television. Which is showing the current screen as well, and another television in it, and another, and another...
- Dub Name Change: A good number of characters have had their names changed from the original Portuguese version when it was translated to Englishnote , with the only exceptions being Izzy and SADIV 66. It's downplayed for Dan and Mike and, since both their English names are shortened from their original names of Daniel and Miguel. Hannah meanwhile simply goes from "Hanna" to "Hannah".
- Elemental Powers: All the playable characters in the game have different elements they use for fighting. To wit:
- Making a Splash: King and Hannah, with a bit of An Ice Person on the side.
- Shock and Awe: Izzy and Trish.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Fries and DeeDee.
- Playing with Fire: Oak and Rey.
- Blow You Away: Mike.
- Sand Blaster: Dan.
- All Your Powers Combined: SADIV 66.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Final Boss of the game is simply known by everyone as..."The Boss".
- Excuse Plot: An evil crime lord has stolen an Artifact of Doom and plans to use it to Take Over the World! Go beat up his goons and take it back!
- Executive Suite Fight: The final confrontation with Boss in Stage 6 takes place in his office suite. Unsurprisingly, he gets knocked through the window to his doom, though not by the player themselves, but rather by the pickup truck that had been hounding them since Stage 1.
- Expy: Rey in particular appears to be based off Mai Shiranui - from her hairstyle, to her Playing with Fire powers, and a swooping punch where she use her scarf to direct her flames on enemies, looking a lot like Mai's flaming uppercut (with her dress instead of a scarf). Also, both characters incorporate Phoenix motifs in their flames.
- Ice Magic Is Water: King and Hannah's level 1 special summons a tidal wave that washes enemies away. Same with their knockback attack, which creates a wave to knock enemies away. Their level 2 special changes the former to a wave of icy stalagmites.
- MacGuffin: The 99Vidas, an artifact with power so immense that it could bring untold chaos and darkness if used in the wrong hands. Not surprisingly, it gets stolen by the Evil Boss and now its Guardians have to fight through his goons to get it back.
- Make My Monster Grow: In the final battle, the Boss (actually the Final Boss, and yes he's called The Boss in-game) does this as the second part of his Sequential Boss fight. After you defeat him the first time, he pulls out the 99Vidas, fuses with it, and transforms into a hulking giant monster and attacks you on a rooftop.
- Mecha-Mooks: Superior Advanced Data-Intelligence Vector #66, or SADIV 66 for short. He initially appears in the background of the fight against Harddy in Stage 2 before becoming a Recurring Boss from Stage 3 onwards. Furthermore, he's also an unlockable character, differentiated from the enemy one by having a green eye as opposed to red. Also, stronger versions of him in different colours show up as enemies on higher difficulties.
- Moveset Clone: The female Warriors, who all share the same movesets and powers with the main Guardians. They are as follows: Hannah to King, Trish to Izzy, DeeDee to Fries, and Rey to Oak.
- One-Winged Angel: As mentioned in Make My Monster Grow above, the Boss fuses with the 99Vidas to become a giant monster and attacks you on the rooftop.
- Nemean Skinning: The "Tigra" mooks wear hoods made of furs, most likely as a Shout-Out to Sagat and Tiger Mask.
- Recurring Boss:
- SADIV 66, who hounds you as a mid-boss from stage 3 onwards.
- Also parodied with Ms. Grace, the stage 2 mid-boss, who outright says that she'll come back to haunt you after her defeat. In a way, she is right, since she shows up in later levels as a regular mook.
- Running Gag: The pickup truck carrying cows. It first appears as an Advancing Wall of Doom midway through Stage 1, then knocks a hapless mook into the game center's glass door near the end of the stage (kicking off the first boss fight), then it reappears in Stage 5 to run over SADIV 66 after defeating him, then it shows up in Stage 6, having somehow found its way on the top floor of a building, and then after defeating Boss' first phase, it crashes through, knocking him to his temporary doom.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Worn by Rey, one of the fighters, and she can even swoosh it around to slap her enemies with said scarf. Oak also wears one, and can even imbue it with flames in one of his dash attacks.
- Sdrawkcab Name: SADIV 66's name is basically "99Vidas" backwards. A few characters actually lampshade this.
- Secret Character: How about seven of them?
- First off are the Warriors: female counterparts to the main four Guardians. Each one can be unlocked by clearing the game with their male counterpartnote .
- Next are Mike and Dan, two backer-created characters who both use their own unique powers. They can be unlocked by clearing the game with both the Guardians and the Warriors.
- Lastly is SADIV 66, normally an enemy Mecha-Mook, differentiated by his eye being green as opposed to red. Unlocking him requires beating the game with all the other characters, unlockables included.
- The Definitive Edition update changes things a bit by making Hannah and Trish available from the get-go, with Rey, DeeDee, Mike and Dan unlocked by clearing the game with the starting four. SADIV 66 still requires beating the game with all the previous characters, though.
- Secret Level: Two at first, with another four added in the Definitive Edition:
- The first two are Child's Playnote and Glitch Worldnote . Both can be found by picking up their respective items in the preceding stages, which is quite easy to do since said items tend to be lying around in plain sight.
- The Definitive Edition levels meanwhile are as follows: Super Worldnote , Casa Blancanote , Night Beachnote and The First of Themnote . Unlocking them all requires beating story mode with four different characters.
- Shout-Out:
- The logos seen on the game store near the end of Stage 1 are lawyer-friendly versions of the Neo Geo and Sega Mega Drivenote as well as Nintendo's.
- The Tigra mooks, as mentioned above, wear hoods made of fur, not unlike those of Tiger Mask and King.
- Boxers also appear as enemies, bringing the likes of Balrog, Heavy D and T.J. Combo to mind.
- Harddy, the Stage 2 boss, is clearly a Village People reject, right down to the flamboyant-looking police uniform and cartwheeling around the arena.
- The third boss, Espirro, is a guy dressed like a certain purple dinosaur carrying an infant on his back which he has to comfort after throwing him at the enemy.
- Near the start of Stage 4, a Personality Core can be seen on the beach.
- Defeating Jujurandir will have him do the thumbs-up gesture from beneath his fish a la the T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- The boss of Stage 5, Cybr-1, is a cyborg (like Cyborg from Teen Titans (2003)) and fights by shooting pellets at you like Mega Man. And then there's this quote of his:
Cybr-1: "I'm super...hyper...mega some might say..."- One of the secret levels added in the Definitive Edition is called "The First of Them", complete with cordyceps zombies as enemies. In addition to that, one version of the game's soundtrack has the four main characters as the aformentioned zombies.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: The Final Boss (who is simply called... The Boss) can create axes from pure energy, which he throws at you. This is justified due to him having access to the 99Vidas, which grants him such abilities.
- Traintop Battle: The stage in the subway will have your character ending on the train's roof while facing mooks. Beware of horizontal railings!
- Updated Re-release: The Definitive Edition, which features extra stages, more modes, more visuals and more enemies to beat up.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Harddy, the boss of Stage 2. Due to his ability to immediately counterattack you, his invunerability while cartwheeling about and the fact that he can only be damaged when he starts drinking from a barrel, he exists to prove that, no, you can't just power through some bosses head-on.
- Walk Like an Egyptian: Dan is quite clearly inspired by Ancient Egypt. Not only does he dress the part, his running animation also has him gliding along the ground via his sand in this exact pose. Not to mention that his attacks, when fully upgraded, summon mummies to wrap enemies in bandages, as well as having his level 1 special summon a pyramid to damage them with.
- X-Ray Sparks: Anyone who gets hit by Izzy and Trish's electric attacks, as well as Cybr-1's blaster shots and the Boss' electic axe attack, will show a skeleton when getting zapped. Even SADIV 66 has one, for some bizarre reason.
