History VideoGame / CharlieMurder

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Circe seems to have this after zapping the band to near death in the final battle. Disobeying Mortimer's orders to kill them results in him impaling her with his scythe in a blind fit of rage, shortly followed by King Tepe's retaliation for killing his girlfriend leading to the same fate. Beelzabal crushes his contract with Gore Quaffer and leaves Mortimer to fend for himself.]]

* MetalScream: Charlie starts some of the band's songs with this. [[MakeMeWannaShout He also utilizes it for his Anarchi]].

* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The game starts and ends with Charlie and crew emerging LikeABadassOutOfHell.]]

* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The game begins with Charlie and crew beating up devils in Hell, before being revived by paramedics. [[spoiler:In the end, they go to Hell to fight the Angel of Chaos and return victorious.]]

The gameplay model, referred to as a "[=BrawlPG=]" by the developers, plays out as an unusual mix between ''RiverCityRansom'', ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', ''VideoGame/FinalFight'', and ''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'' arcade game. Fallen foes drop pocket change which can be used to buy food and clothing. Food and drink provide both healing and permanent stat boosts, while clothing provides a whole host of benefits: torso clothing primarily provides significant defense boosts and elemental resistances, hats strengthen your character's magic power (here referred to as ''Anar[[KiAttacks chi]]''), and gloves strengthen your punches and kicks, as well as adding some extremely splashy [[ElementalPowers elemental damage.]] All of the clothing can also have tangential enchantments that are harder to quantify, such as life-steal, stun chance, or causing stasis on knockback.

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss the Angel of Chaos]]]].

** In a playground, there are a few horse toys. [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 One of them is a bit bloody and has a triangular helmet on its head]], and another bears a resemblance to [[Main/MyLittlePony Rarity]].

** In the mental asylum, the band will wake up [[Film/{{Saw}} strapped in a trap.]] The boss of that level, the Lady in Tatters, also bears a strong resemblance to the Billy puppet.
*** Maybe doubling as a EarlyBirdCameo, there is also a movie poster outside of the theater showing the Lady in Tatter's face, named RAWR in similar font to Saw's title.

** The radio station seems to exploit the ongoing rivalry between Charlie Murder and Gore Quaffer to draw listeners in. The people they interview likewise don't seem too concerned about the ongoing ZombieApocalypse, and the one who is is cut-short.

[[caption-width-right:350:The punk rock apocalypse is here!]]

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress throughout the game and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss the Angel of Chaos]]]].

* FanDumb: InUniverse. You can hear both Charlie Murder and Gore Quaffer fans being interviewed by the radio station in the tattoo pallor in-between songs, with plenty of [[TakeThat Take Thats]] directed toward certain kinds of examples of this trope (for example, one fan says that he is no longer a fan because they "sold out" and only their early demos were any good).

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNoWhere: Any boss that isn't a part of Gore Quaffer counts, as none of them get any foreshadowing or some kind of explanation for why they're there. This ranges to comedic with the Sasquatch boss and downright disturbing with the Bloated Tumor under the sea.

** The radio station seems to exploit the ongoing rivalry between Charlie Murder and Gore Quaffer to draw listeners in. The people they interview likewise don't seem too considered about the ZombieApocalypse, and the one who is is cut-short.

* MeaningfulName: Countess Circe Bathory and King Tepes were named after Countess Elizabeth Bathory and Prince Vlad III (the inspiration of Dracula who was also known by King Tepes). Beelzebaal is a combination of the Biblical demon Beelzebub and Ba'alberith, the god of Canaan later to demonized.

** Lester has a [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Triforce]] on the backside of his right hand.

* MeaningfulName: Countess Circe Bathory and King Tepes were named after Countess Elizabeth Bathory and Prince Vlad III (the inspiration of Dracula who was also known by King Tepes). Beelzebaal is named after Beelzebub, a biblical demon.

** Lord Mortimer sometimes [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight throws a chalice of red wine at the ground]]. To make the reference complete, a level has Phantom Mortimer sitting upon a throne and ask the infamous question with speech bubbles before doing so.
** In a playground, there are a few horse toys. [[VideoGame/SilentHill One of them is a bit bloody and has a triangular helmet on its head]], and another bears a resemblance to [[Main/MyLittlePony Rarity]].
** One scene has the band fighting against [[Film/{{Birdemic}} fighting exploding birds. With coat hangers.]]

* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:The final level and the real final boss of the game, the Angel of Chaos, isn't available unless you acquire all of Smockula's pieces before your battle with Lord Mortimer. Otherwise, you won't be able to damage Smockula during the battle, leading to the game's bad ending.]]

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress throughout the game and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiler:[[[[BiggerBad the Angel of Chaos]]]]]].

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress throughout the game and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiler:[[{{BiggerBad the Angel of Chaos}}]]]].

* YourHeadAsplode: The default finisher to a downed enemy is crushing their head underfoot (strangely, their brain remains intact). Certain minibosses need to be killed this way.

* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The game begins with Charlie and crew beating up devils in Hell, before being revived by paramedics. [[spoiler:In the end, they go to Hell to fight the Lord of Chaos and return victorious.]]

** "The Bad Ending": [[spoiler:The ZombieApocalypse is stopped. [[BitterSweetEnding But at the cost of not being able to save Paul from his demons.]]]]

* MushroomSamba: In the Camp Falconbats side area, Charlie and friends eat random pills that they find lying on a picnic table, causing them to completely trip balls and run through a multicolored psychedelic chalk-outline world, fighting cultists and demons, while wielding an infinite supply of chainsaws/shotguns. (As soon as a chainsaw breaks or a shotgun runs out of ammo and you throw it, you instantly get a new shotgun or chainsaw.) Eventually you fight a bizarre brain monster and the trip ends. You then run back to the beginning of the area to discover that [[spoiler:all the cultists you murdered were actually just hippies. The last living hippie screams in terror and tries to run away from you, only to trip and violently impale his head on a branch.]] Also counts as a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, as you get no e-mails after finishing the area and it's never mentioned again.

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress throughout the game and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiler:The Angel of Chaos]].

* WhamLine: Throughout the game, you get phone messages from "a friend" who makes note of your progress throughout the game and serves as MrExposition after major events and boss fights. The message before you fight Gore Quaffer simply reads [[spoiler:"By the way I am not your friend"]]. Though one could speculate "your friend" [[spoiler:is Paul taunting you]], the next two messages confirm that it's [[spoiker:The Angel of Chaos]].

The gameplay model, referred to as a "[=BrawlPG=]" by the developers, plays out as an unusual mix between ''RiverCityRansom'', ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', ''VideoGame/FinalFight'', and ''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'' arcade game. Fallen foes drop pocket change which can be used to buy food and clothing. Food and drink provide both healing and permanent stat boosts, while clothing provides a whole host of benefits: torso clothing primarily provides significant defense boosts and elemental resistances, hats strengthen your character's magic power (here referred to as ''Anar[[KiAttacks chi]]''), and gloves strengthen your punches and kicks, as well as adding some extremely splashy [[ElementalPowers elemental damage.]] All of the clothing can also have tangential enchantments that are harder to quantify, such as lifesteal, stun chance, or causing stasis on knockback.

* LikeABadassOutOfHell: The game begins with Charlie and crew beating up devils in Hell, before being revived by paramedics.

* YourSoulIsMine: Lester's character-specific ability is being able to steal the souls of critically wounded underlings for a small HP boost.

* UnfriendlyFire: The enemies attack haphazardly, and said attacks are just as deadly to their own as they are to you. Your crew can indulge in friendly fire too, but only when there are no enemies onscreen.