History VideoGame / MadRatDead

** Heart admits to having difficulty telling Mad Rat apart from the other rats encountered in the game [[spoiler:because, to a cat like him, all rats simply look like identical prey.]]

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: [[spoiler:Heart fights Mad Rat due to the rat succumbing to Rat God's brainwashing, and when that fails, slaps him to get him to realises he's been led into a trap. When the Ghost Rat returns, Heart does it again, revealing that it too is a product of Mad Rat's infected psyche.]]

* AnimalJingoism: Mad Rat fears/hates cats, and for good reason. [[spoiler:However, he does save the black cat from drowning, presumably out of guilt. It doesn't stop him from being afraid of the cat.]] When Heart [[spoiler:reveals that he was afraid Mad Rat would hate him because he's a cat, Mad Rat says he doesn't care about that and then hugs Heart]].

* SurpriseCreepy: The game at first glance seems to be a stylised comical action platformer/rhythm game with a comical and full-of-'tude Zombie Rat as its Mascot. Its first commercials were gameplay fighting rather silly vibrant enemies to a chipper catchy soundtrack. It delivers and runs with these elements, sure, but immediately after the title screen for the demo, the intro cuts to a doctor slowly cutting open the protagonist as some rather deep questions are being asked. Each question furthers the process until Mad Rat's colourful guts pop out. After this it becomes rather standard, light swearing and fixation on revenge aside. Then it surprises you AGAIN by having the dopey, cowardly rats M.R. passed by earlier suddenly act strangely, even dipping into some Meta-horror with loud visible static cut between their dialog before [[spoiler:their pin-cushioned, oozey, colourful brains pop out of their heads and they attack as the first boss, hinting that there may be something more sinister at play here]].

* VoiceGrunting: The characters are "voiced" through noises at certain pitches. Mad Rat has very low and scratchy-sounding voice grunting, the Rat God has high-pitched voice grunting, and Heart's voice grunting is higher than Mad Rat's, but lower than the Rat God's. The other rats have a neutral-sounding little noise made when they speak.

The plot follows a lab rat (called 'Mad Rat') left for dead after a MadDoctor dissects him and cuts his heart out. In the afterlife, a mysterious being known as the "Rat God" offers him the chance to relive his final day, giving him a new heart with time-rewinding powers. Deciding to change his fate of ending up on the cutting board, he uses his new heart to travel back in time. Now accompanied by his (now sentient) heart, he must get revenge while keeping to the beat.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Averted in "Some Kind of Hope" — Mad Rat witnesses a child being hit by a truck [[spoiler:(the same child that saved his life earlier in the game)]], and while we do not see the accident happen, the child's blood-soaked hat landing nearby leaves very little to the imagination. [[spoiler:This trope is actually [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]: due to Mad Rat's time-manipulation, it doesn't stick, but thanks to Rat God, she nullifies said attempt. At the end of the game, this is once again averted thanks to Heart.]]

* RemixedLevel: "Some Kind of Hope" has the same layout as the preceding level, "Cottage House", except with some additional hazards and a faster song. [[spoiler:Justified as the former was a rather leisurely stroll through the city, while the latter level has Mad Rat racing to save the girl from being run over by a truck.]]

* StockAnimalDiet: Mad Rat and all rats go crazy over cheese. In fact, the rat afterlife is full of melted cheese. Goals are columns of melted cheese. Fading platforms are even cheese-covered. [[spoiler:The game actually [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] this trope. Rats that follow cheese end up getting eaten by a cat. That is the work of a parasite inside their heads that has them hallucinate cheese and encourages them to pursue the cheese. Once Mad Rat leaves those hallucinations, the actual rat paradise is actually covered with skulls and thorns, instead. Even when the girl feeds him ''real'' cheese, Mad Rat, despite his joy, only ate around a bite before offering the rest to Heart. Ironically, Heart is actually a cat, that is, an animal that actually likes cheese, but unlike Mad Rat and the Stray Rats, he can't see the cheese due to not being infected.]]

* AnimalTesting

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Mad Rat is a zombie, but besides the giant hole in his chest and his heart turning sentient he's mostly the same. He also has the power to rewind time, [[spoiler:although it turns out this is something cats do and not specific to him becoming undead. Also, [[SubvertedTrope he never really was dead at all]], just suffering from a poor heart that warranted a transplant, although that doesn't explain his chest having a massive hole in it. In fact, he's in genuine danger of dying from either a cat or his condition.]]

* SanDimasTime: Despite having a TimeRewindMechanic, each stage has its own time limit that moves along to the stage's song's beat.

* StockAnimalDiet: Mad Rat and all rats go crazy over cheese. In fact, the rat afterlife is full of melted cheese. Goals are columns of melted cheese. Fading platforms are even cheese-covered. [[spoiler:The game actually [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] this trope. Rats that follow cheese end up getting eaten by a cat. That is the work of a parasite inside their heads that has them hallucinate cheese and encourages them to pursue the cheese. Once Mad Rat leaves those hallucinations, the actual rat paradise is actually covered with skulls and thorns, instead. Even when the girl feeds him ''real'' cheese, Mad Rat, despite his joy, only ate around a bite before offering the rest to Heart. Ironically, Heart is actually a cat, that is, an animal that actually likes cheese.]]

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Averted ''hard'' in "Some Kind of Hope" — Mad Rat witnesses a child being hit by a truck [[spoiler:(the same child that saved his life earlier in the game)]], and while we do not see the accident happen, the child's blood-soaked hat landing nearby leaves very little to the imagination. [[spoiler:This trope is actually [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]: due to Mad Rat's time-manipulation, it doesn't stick, but thanks to Rat God, she nullifies said attempt. At the end of the game, this is once again averted thanks to Heart.]]

The plot follows a lab rat (called 'Mad Rat') left for dead after a MadDoctor dissects his heart out. In the afterlife, a mysterious being known as the "Rat God" offers him the chance to relive his final day, giving him a new heart with time-rewinding powers. Deciding to change his fate of ending up on the cutting board, he uses his new heart to travel back in time. Now accompanied by his (now talking) heart, he must get revenge while keeping to the beat.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: [[spoiler:The main villain is a sapient ''Toxoplasma gondii'' parasite that [[GodGuise pretends to be a god]] in order to lead rats to be eaten by cats.]]

* CreatorCameo: Of sorts. The boxes that fall down when Mad Rat lands on them are labeled "NIS.co.jp", which stands for Nippon Ichi Software, the game's publisher.

* EdibleThemeNaming: All of the music composed by a_hisa has a cheese in its naming. "Cheesy Trap" refers to cheese in general, but the other ones have a specific cheese in their names: "Stilton," "Chaource," "Neuchatel" (Neufchâtel), and "Mimolette" are simply cheese names by themselves, while "Cheddar Chaser," "Passion in Blue," "Cottage House," and "Emmental Catalepsy" are a cheese paired with another word[[note]]Cheddar cheese, Blue cheese, Cottage cheese, and Emmental cheese[[/note]] while "Call me Jack" is, as mentioned under PunnyName, based on Colby Jack cheese.

* HateSink: [[spoiler:Rat God, a sapient ''Toxoplasma gondii'' parasite, who leads rats like Mad Rat to their death by cat. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Being driven by an instinct to survive only excuses her so much,]] especially after she crosses the MoralEventHorizon once she hijacks Mad Rat's time powers to undo his good deeds (i.e saving the cat from drowning and the little girl from getting hit by a car) just to screw with him.]]

* AndroclesLion: Mad Rat manages to save the black cat he fought from drowning. In turn, the cat refuses to eat him when they cross paths later [[spoiler:thanks to Rat God.]] Also, in a rare case of the main character being the proverbial lion, Mad Rat repays the little girl that saves him by [[spoiler: rewinding time to save her from getting hit by a truck.]]
* AnimalJingoism: Mad Rat fears/hates cats, and for good reason. [[spoiler:However, he does save the black cat from drowning, presumably out of guilt. It doesn't stop him from being afraid of the cat.]] When Heart [[spoiler:reveals that he was afraid Mad Rat would hate him because he's a cat, Mad Rat says he doesn't care about that and then hugs Heart.]]

** You do not have to be constantly moving and pressing buttons with every pulse that is shown at the bottom of the screen. So you can stop to assess the situation and/or move, say, every other beat if you need to and not lose your combo right away, just make sure you get back on beat once you start moving again.

** Collectables stay collected even if you're forced to rewind (Though this can be a detriment as you are no longer able to use them to restore time on the clock).
** Getting hit does not lock you out of higher stage ratings, as long as you manage to get to the end in a reasonable time, the threshold for being hit or failing to a hazard is fairly forgiving as long as you get back on track well.
** In music where the beats you have to hit are more spaced apart (particularly in hard difficulty), the gameplay will actively slow down, so if you're say, in mid-jump you can have an easier time to get your bearings

** "Mad" refers to the insanity and rage some characters have, but also deals with the titular Mad Rat's [[spoiler: fading grasp on reality thanks to Rat God.]]
** "Wish" is carried by all three main characters; Mad Rat's wish to leave his mark on the world by killing the scientist, Heart's wish is to make Mad Rat happy, [[spoiler:and Rat God's wish to live by leading Mad Rat to be eaten by a cat so she can continue to live within it.]]
** "Mark" refers to leaving an impression on the world, with Mad Rat and Heart wanting to kill the scientist [[spoiler:while saving the black cat and little girl along the way. Rat God, meanwhile, must leave her mark by leading him to be eaten by a cat.]]

* BigBad: Initially, the Doctor seems to be this, as they are responsible for many of Mad Rat's hangups. [[spoiler:However, it turns out that the true antagonist was [[EvilAllAlong the Rat God all along]]]].

* BlackAndGrayMorality: While Mad Rat is [[BloodKnight obsessively eager]] to kill the scientist, the boss of level 1-5 shows that he's somewhat justified, given that the scientist [[spoiler:apparently mass-lobotomized and heavily experimented on an entire cage of rats in a very short period of time.]] [[spoiler:It's ultimately played with, as the Mob Rats were never experimented on and Mad Rat was only hallucinating the whole thing, but the doctor's personality depends on the questions you answered in the intro, and as such, can either be a good person or a horrid one. Mad Rat himself also becomes a kinder and downright altruistic rat as the game goes on. In the end, the only character who truly is evil is the Rat God, and even then she is partially driven by the instinct of reproducing.]]
* BlackBlood: [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted:]] The Mob Rats are leaking an ambiguous yellow liquid, but the Rat God [[ImpliedTrope implies]] that the yellow liquid is actually blood. Later, once Mad rat kills the scientist, the scientist is more clearly bleeding yellow blood. However, Heart's boss battle involves lots of ''red'' ([[DoubleSubvertedTrope and purple]]) blood, which becomes the standard way of showing blood from that point on the game. The truth is that Mad Rat was merely hallucinating killing the Mob Rats and the Scientist; Should Mad Rat choose to kill the scientist for real, the scientist bleeds red blood.]]

** The first boss is [[spoiler:[[WolfPackBoss the Mob Rats]], all of them having been seemingly lobotomised and their brains replaced with exploding ones filled with needles.]]
* BossRemix: "HEART's Beat", the theme of Stage 1-3 [[spoiler:gets a fittingly more dramatic remix for Heart's boss battle.]]
* BrightIsNotGood: The Nightmares are comprised of many bright colors, and they serve as the game's {{Mooks}}. [[spoiler:The Rat God is also very brightly-colored compared to other characters, and she's the BigBad]].

** A couple of the bosses qualify. [[spoiler:Heart's blood]] projectiles, [[KingMook Phantom Moon's]] minions when combined with their explosion attack, [[spoiler: Rat God's projectiles downplay this somewhat]].

* CheesyMoon: Mad Rat [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, to Heart's confusion. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope The cheesy moon turned out to be a hallucination.]] Mad Rat eventually sees the real moon.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The questionnaire the player answers in the beginning [[spoiler:turns out to be the doctor's perspective on how they view humanity and Mad Rat's life.]] When Mad Rat learns of this, [[spoiler:he can either choose to spare or kill the doctor.]]
* ColorMotif: Yellow, which seems to symbolise [[spoiler:madness and hallucinations]]. For example, after Mad Rat massacres the Mob Rats, all of them are either lying in or oozing pools of yellow liquid. Upon initial inspection, this might be passed off as them [[BloodlessCarnage trying to downplay the violence by omitting blood]], but one only needs to look at the intro to see that this game has ''no'' qualms about showing graphic (albeit cartoonish) blood and gore. This suddenly comes into far clearer focus [[spoiler:when Mad Rat manages kill the Human, where he bleeds a very vibrant shade of yellow. You might think that is a form of [[BlackBlood censorship]] (per the pink blood of ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}''), but a later battle involves lots of crimson (and purple) blood,]] which may start to clue one in to the fact see that something is very, very wrong. This comes to a head in the final levels of the game, which are shown to be [[spoiler: the almost completely yellow cheese afterlife with its pretty veneer stripped away, with Mad Rat seeing it for what it truly is.]]

** "MAD RAT, DIE" is a twisted and corrupted remix of the tutorial theme, "MAD RAT, ALIVE?", that accompanies [[spoiler:the Rat God trying to kill Mad Rat once and for all.]]
* DeadHatShot: All we see of [[spoiler:the little girl's body is one shoe, her hand and her bloodied hat.]]

** Heart cannot see certain things Mad Rat is seeing. [[spoiler:This is because most of what Mad Rat is seeing throughout the first half of the game is largely a hallucination]].

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: [[spoiler: The Phantom Moon, which is summoned by the Rat God shortly after both Mad Rat and Heart confront her after saving the girl. You don't see its name unless if you look at the stage select screen.]]

** Dropping does not just have Mad Rat fall faster. Mad Rat can also attack Nightmares this way, which also gives Mad Rat a little hop after he attacks the Nightmare. This also lets Mad Rat do a charge jump again. Also, you cannot cancel a drop. Once you drop, the drop won't stop until you hit something...like the death plane.

* HelloInsertNameHere: At the very start of the game, you are asked to enter your name as well as answer a few questions. Near the end of the game, the relevance of this becomes apparent: [[spoiler: You are the human doctor that experimented on Mad Rat at the very beginning, and your reasoning for doing so is dictated by the questions you entered.]]
* HumansAreBastards: The mad doctor who vivisects Mad Rat and performs many awful experiments on animals. [[spoiler: This trope can be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] depending on how the player answered the intro questions, revealing the doctor to be a good person whose evil deeds were illusions made by the Rat God. Also averted regardless with the little girl who saves Mad Rat.]]
* HyperactiveSprite: Mad Rat, Heart, and just about everyone else bounce to the beat in both cutscenes and in game... appropriate to a rhythm game.
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Averted ''hard'' in "Some Kind of Hope" - Mad Rat witnesses a child being hit by a truck [[spoiler:(the same child that saved his life earlier in the game)]], and while we do not see the accident happen, the child's blood-soaked hat landing nearby leaves very little to the imagination. [[spoiler: This trope is actually [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]: due to Mad Rat's time-manipulation, it doesn't stick, but thanks to Rat God, she nullifies said attempt. At the end of the game, this is once again averted thanks to Heart.]]

** Hard mode can mess with your timing, as it adds strings of red notes, all of which have to be hit in order for Mad Rat to move, requiring the player to both pay attention to the level, and to the heart at the bottom.

* LightIsNotGood: The Nightmares, as well as other hazards such as fire, are bright and vibrant like abstract graffiti to more easily see them coming up as obstacles. Even the Doctor wears sky blue and [[spoiler: the Mob Rats are mainly white]]. This is made all the more apparent with the stages themselves having more subdued colours so that they can stand out. [[spoiler: The game actually plays with this trope: the zombification of the Mob Rats are actually a hallucination from Mad Rat, whereas the doctor can be given more noble aims and even wish that Mad Rat be spared, depending on your answers at the beginning of the game.]]

* MeaningfulName: The protagonist's name is Mad Rat. He's naturally pissed and seeks vengeance on the Doctor that dissected him, [[spoiler:but he is also going insane thanks to Rat God's brainwashing.]]

* RemixedLevel: "Some Kind of Hope" has the same layout as the preceding level, "Cottage House", except with some additional hazards and a faster song. [[spoiler: Justified as the former was a rather leisurely stroll through the city, while the latter level has Mad Rat racing to save the girl from being run over by a truck.]]

* ScienceIsBad: Initially, the scientists are portrayed cruelly, starting from vivisecting the main character. It's no wonder Mad Rat is hell bent on vengeance. [[spoiler:However, towards the end of the game, the scientist may be working towards more noble goals, depending on your answers to the questions near the start of the game.]]
* SeldomSeenSpecies: [[spoiler:The main villain is a sapient ''Toxoplasma gondii'' parasite that [[GodGuise pretends to be god]] in order to lead rats to be eaten by cats.]]
* SkewedPriorities: A [[spoiler:Mob Rat]] becomes a monster and makes the move to attack Mad Rat, he shoves it away and Heart freaks out and tells him that pushing him was rude. [[spoiler:This foreshadows that Heart can't tell Mad Rat's suffering from Rat God's brainwashing.]]

* SurpriseCreepy: The game at first glance seems to be a stylised comical action platformer/rhythm game with a comical and full-of-'tude Zombie Rat as its Mascot. Its first commercials were gameplay fighting rather silly vibrant enemies to a chipper catchy soundtrack. It delivers and runs with these elements, sure, but immediately after the title screen for the demo, the intro cuts to a doctor slowly cutting open the protagonist as some rather deep questions are being asked. Each question furthers the process until Mad Rat's colourful guts pop out. After this it becomes rather standard, light swearing and fixation on revenge aside. Then it surprises you AGAIN by having the dopey, cowardly rats M.R. passed by earlier to suddenly act strangely, even dipping into some Meta-horror with loud visible static cut between their dialog before [[spoiler: their pin-cushioned, oozey, colourful brains pop out of their heads and they attack as the first boss, hinting that there may be something more sinister at play here.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: Once Mad Rat reaches the location of the scientist at the end of the game, Heart reads a nearby journal... which consists of the answers and name you entered at the beginning of the game. In other words, the scientist who vivisected Mad Rat is actually '''you'''.]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The aftermath of the fight against Heart reveals that the first part of the game was ThroughTheEyesOfMadness, as Mad Rat has been led into a trap. What follows afterwards is the slow reveal that the "Rat God" is a parasite that makes rats hallucinate and lead them to their doom.]]

* OnceMoreWithClarity: [[spoiler:After Rat God forces Mad Rat back to the morning of the day, he and the player go through the intro sequence, revealing that Mad Rat's vivisection was actually a heart transplant surgery.]]

* DarkReprise: [[spoiler:"MAD RAT, DIE" is a twisted and corrupted remix of the tutorial theme, "MAD RAT, ALIVE?", that accompanies the Rat God trying to kill Mad Rat once and for all.]]

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: The rewind ability as displayed in the plot occurs whenever you die, or on demand. [[spoiler: In a more specific example, in the level where Mad Rat is separated from Heart, Heart does not appear in the bottom left hand of the screen like he usually does.]]
** At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Heart tells Mad Rat he's seen him die before already. Due to the TimeRewindMechanic, this is true.]]

* AnimalJingoism: Mad Rat fears/hates cats, and for good reason. [[spoiler:However, he does save the black cat from drowning, presumably out of guilt. It doesn't stop him from being afraid of the cat.]] [[spoiler:When Heart reveals that he was afraid Mad Rat would hate him because he's a cat, [[Heartwarming/MadRatDead Mad Rat says he doesn't care about that and then hugs Heart]].]]