It's time to bring the brain!
"Filmed on a soundstage at Shovelware Studios Hollywood and live in front of a studio audience, it's time for Shovelware's Brain Game!"
—The Announcer
Ever wanted to win big? Say, a prize that's a moai ripped straight from Easter Island, the Harkinian Appliances patented Dinner Blaster, or a mandatory 6 month vacation to Brazil? Oddly specific, but if that's how you roll, be sure to try your hand at Shovelware's Brain Game! With a spectacular host, several children as cam operators, a single special guest and several questions, will you prove you've got the biggest brain and win any of those oddly specific prizes?
Shovelware's Brain Game is a Roblox experience made by Shovelware Studios, best known for Despicable Forces and several other obbies. The game takes place as a Game Show of the trivia flavour, hosted by Dancing Banana, and usually attended by Special Guest Boardy the SMART Board, where players have their thinking parts put to the test to win unconviental prizes of all kinds. Play it here and hope you know your stuff!
This article of Shovelware's Brain Game was sponsored by the following tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Features: The final update added several regarding collecting every prize in the game.
- It is cheaper to buy prizes you missed out on after a round ends.
- The grand prize is now guaranteed to be one that the Grand Champion is missing in their collection.
- The vent at the top of the map is now always open, no longer requiring the Announcer to bring up his obby in a round.
- The Alleged Car: One of the prizes is A NEW CAR...well, kinda. It was manufactured in Sweden, so you might need to assemble it first.
- Anthropomorphic Food: The host, Dancing Banana and his nephews are starters. The entire live-audience is comprised of anthropomorphic fruit and candy including pears, oranges, cantalopues, lemons, among others.
- Anything but That!: The Lemon in the audience really does NOT like the idea of a juicer being in the prizes. But it's when he hears Peel's name alongside the word "squeeze" that he really loses it and flees the game show, jumping through a nearby wall to escape.
- Blatant Lies: In one "It's Lit, Fam!" question, the Announcer claims that he made a completely original evil counterpart to Dr. Jekyll. Answering the question correctly (Mr. Hyde) will have even Dancing Banana question the authenticity of the Announcer's claim.
- Black Comedy Burst: As of the April 14th update, one of the prizes is a pair of baby shoes that have never been worn. the announcer mentions that they were on sale.
- Brick Joke: When announcing the DIY obby kit prize, the Announcer also plugs in his own obby, and says you should try it sometime. And with a bit of parkour, you can head into a vent, and indeed play his obby.
- But Thou Must!: The entire gist of the six-month vacation to Brazil prize; it's mandatory you take that six-month vacation.
- Cast of Expies: Downplayed example in which it's not the entire cast, but most of the studio audience: Orange's inspiration might be too obvious, Lemon's freakout might bring to mind Lemongrab, Cantaloupe's appearance and gimmick is a dead ringer for Bluto, and the Cherries' dynamic is something similar to Statler and Waldorf.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: For some questions the Announcer travels back in time. One of these times is back to the Titanic, where the Announcer cheerfully explains its about to hit the iceberg.
- Subverted for a Zoo Pals question; the Announcer at first cheerfully explains he got bitten by a venomous snake, but as he reads the question, it trails off into a pained tone. Mostly because venom works slowly.
- Chicken Joke: One of the questions in Nonsense Non Sequiturs has this.
- Continuity Porn: Just look at the back of the soundstage; the mecha-Santa head, the checkpoint and speed pads from the obbies, and the speed coils...just something else.
- Depraved Kids' Show Host: Implied. While Dancing Banana is definitely the opposite of this, sometimes the Broccoli might ask him about some allegations. The security Donut also might occasionally chime in to pull out a wanted poster of Dancing Banana and ask if anyone has seen him. Both Boardy and the Announcer will also frequently complain that he does not pay them livable wages or uphold their contracts.
- Easter Egg:
- Sometimes, a player will get a car battery chucked at them or randomly get set on fire. And sometimes an audience member will chime in to ask Dancing Banana a question.
- As of an update, there's also the chance that Dancing Banana will come in from the top at the start of a game, doing some cool skateboarding tricks before the show begins.
- Occasionally, the announcer will mention that he's made an obby. When this happens, a vent at the top of the map will open. Going through it teleports the player to the announcer's obby, and gives them a badge upon completion.
- Expy:
- Commander Crust is one to Cap'n Crunch.
- Same goes for Garfunkel, who's an obvious Garfield riff. The comic strip prize also mentions a Constance the Nuisance.
- The Cantaloupe appears to be one for Bluto, with his sailor hat, scruffy beard, and squinting eyes. There's also the fact that he takes you to the Donkey Kong mini game, as Donkey Kong was originally meant to be for Popeye.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Announcer immediately drops his act when the dancing hotdog prize is revealed; mostly because that's a real person, other than an object like the other prizes.
- The Ghost: Naturally, the Announcer is this. All we do know is that he apparently lives in his car until the next episode is announced. Although one of the prizes being a self-help book on how to deal with being a disembodied voice heavily implies he's The Voice instead. It's all subverted in the end when Shovelware's announcement video gives us the man (or mic, in this case) in person.
- Hypocritical Humour: The Announcer refuses to give out the dancing hotdog as a prize, yet he has no problem with Carl being one.
- I Have This Friend: The Announcer claims that he has a friend that has arachnophobia, but the way he states it suggests otherwise.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Boardy might announce sometimes that he's supposed to have one appearance on the show if he's brought up in the same round twice or more.
- The Announcer will sometimes say things about the gameshow being back in just a few moments after a round is done.
- Last Lousy Point: Wanna get all 72 prizes? Well, hope you have patience and luck along with the knowledge to answer the question or the money to buy it when the game's over. This has been mitigated in the final update, which guarantees that the grand prize is one that the Grand Champion was missing in their collection, as well as making prizes from the previous round cheaper.
- Mean Boss: The Dancing Banana's treatment of his employees is suspect, to say the least. The Announcer is trapped in the studio while on the job and isn't paid a livable wage, Boardy claims his contract doesn't cover more than one appearance in the same round, and the production crew consists of his nephews.
- No Name Given: Two of the Dancing Banana's nephews are only known as Oldest Nephew and Middle Nephew. The youngest nephew is the only one with a given name, Peel.
- Noodle Incident: We're...not sure what the allegations between Dancing Banana even are. Less than the spontaneous combustions.
- Speaking of those, sometimes the Announcer will mention another host who was supposed to be on the show, but was randomly murdered and set on fire while enjoying their birthday. This is never elaborated on.
- Nothing Is Scarier: What exactly is wrong with going into Studio 7 when no ones around? We're never given the reason why.
- Overly Long Gag: When revealing the Dancing Hotdog prize, the Announcer gets shocked at the fact that the prize is a genuine living person and tries to change the prize but only ends up giving the Hotdog a guitar. This a reference to a Ben 10 video where Vilgax gets the Omnitrix but keeps turning into a hotdog instead.
- Running Gag: Several Bait-and-Switch prizes presumed to be new cars, but tend to be other things instead, like a card, carp, or a cardinal. It is possible to actually win a new car, but there is some assembly required.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: The previous fate of the 2023 Innovation Award prize. Due to neither of it's planned outcomesnote ever happening due to the Roblox Innovation Awards ceremony being canceled, the prize is in what is essentially quantum paralysis, as it has no known result made to ground it to human existence. The Roblox Innovation Awards ceremony would be rescheduled to October of that year and be held within the experience. As Shovelware's Brain Game did win an award, the former outcome was settled.
- Shout-Out: As expected for Shovelware Studios, this game is LOADED with them, especially the prizes. As a matter of fact, there's so many of these that they needed their own page.
- Speaking Simlish: With the exception of the Announcer and Boardy (both of whom instead have full voice acting), all of the other characters have speech boxes with their 'speaking voices' not unlike those of Animal Crossing Villagers or even the cast of Banjo Kazooie.
- Special Guest: Boardy is one In-Universe, as an explanation for questions that require imagery (and a sponsor, according to the announcer).
- Stock Scream: Running on the speed pad results in the player screaming the Wilhelm Scream as they are launched into a crate.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: It's probably not the brightest idea trying to lift a moai statue to present it as a prize. Or rip a stop sign from its pole in a high-traffic area.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Speaking of which, the stop sign prize was totally not just ripped from the nearest interstate.
- Take That!:
- One of the prizes is a DIY obby kit with just the lava squares and strips and spawnplates. And the manufacturers are called L.A.Z.Y.
- An option for the question about the extinction of the dinosaurs is "the first gender reveal party".
- One question asks for the name of the state in which something is considered "old, broken, and falling apart." Two of the possible answers are "State of Florida" and "State of New Jersey." When a player given the question gives the correct answer (state of disrepair), the Dancing Banana quips that two of the other answers (implied to be the aforementioned New Jersey and Florida) could fit this description just as well.
- One of the vacation prizes is to "take a Long Walk off a Short Pier"
- Train Problem: The Announcer can read off a question about two trains, which keeps piling on details and conditions that make it impossible to solve. Thankfully, the actual question is just simple math and has nothing to do with the setup.
- Undesirable Prize: Parodied. A lot of the prizes shown are quite unusual and purposefully useless. Prizes include: a stone football, cabbage, caveman vitamins (which contain lead), a tiger poster, a broken phone charger cord, a dancing hotdog, a shaken can of soda, cow tools, a rock found outside the studio, an I.O.U., etc. The descrption for the 8x10 headshot of Boardy reads "What exactly are you supposed to do with this?".
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Whenever the Cantaloupe butts in, everything shifts into a Donkey Kong clone for a while. The minigame itself is playable on the "Shovelware's Barrel Game" arcade machine backstage.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Sometimes, something might happen that prompts such a screen to show up while the incident is sorted out. Like you and your podium being set on fire, for example! Fun.
- White-Collar Crime: If the Dancing Banana is actually wanted for anything, violating quite a few labor and contract laws would be at the top of his list for both not properly paying the Announcer & Boardy and using literal children as production staff.
"You can't say that on TV!"
