History VideoGame / MercenaryKings

** The Violence Kings come from Robertson's animation "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll5qW9_ex0g Kings of Power 4 Billion %]]".

** The Pheasant is quite similar to a full-grown bird from ''VideoGame/TinyWings''.

* AffectionateParody: The games whole theme and setting is a tribute to 80's and 90's action movies, such as {{Commando}}, {{Predator}}, {{Alien}} and the like. Some events in game are even direct references to scenes from those films.

** The radio conversations are straight from the MetalGear series, more specifically MetalGearSolid's "talking heads" Codec chatter.
** King looks a lot like a gruffer, scruffier version of MetalSlug's Marco, down to the bandanna and backpack.
** The Wooden Sword. [[{{TheLegendOfZelda}} "It's dangerous to go alone. You should take this."]]
** The "Peashooter" reciever is MegaMan's arm cannon. It works on multiple levels: In the first three games (and GameBoy games) it's denoted in the Weapon Menu as the "P" weapon (or P-shooter, if you will), and the description itself is a dead giveaway (designed by Light Industries, made to fight for everlasting peace).

** One knife in the game is named [[{{Dishonored}} Corvo]]. It’s decent, but nothing special.
** Another knife is just called "Snake". [[{{MetalGearSolid}} It's described as being solid.]]
** There’s also a pickaxe that is visually identical to one in {{Minecraft}}. It’s nearly the worst melee weapon available.
** The Pheasant is quite similar to a full-grown bird from VideoGame/TinyWings.

* MoreDakka: What this game's all about - make your own escalating Frankenguns. Machineguns, SMGs and Assault Rifles all have high rates of fire. However, the more rounds a magazine has, the lower the weapon's base power will be, which is balanced out by pure DPS for the higher firing rate weapons.

** The "Peashooter" reciever is MegaMan's arm cannon. It works on multiple levels: In the first three games (and GameBoy games) it's denoted in the Weapon Menu as the "P" weapon (or P-shooter, if you will), and the description itself is a dead giveaway (made by Light Industries, designed for everlasting peace).

** [[spoiler: The Company isn't much better, as they're ready to kill off the Kings the second they become stop being convenient.]]

* BittersweetEnding: CLAW has been stopped, the world is safe, the Ark of Samsara is returned to the Temple People, the mandrakes are free to go back to their natural place in the Mandragora ecosystem and [[spoiler: Rajah, Majestic and Royal are alive and kicking,]] but [[spoiler: Tasker and the Kings are forced to say goodbye to their team and go on the run, as they are now fugitives and hunted by the Company.]]

** When combined with a sniper rifle barrel, it's possible to kill enemies that are an entire screen length away.

* PaletteSwap: The rabbits come in black, white and orange variations. Besides the pelt colour, all other details are the same. The elemental versions of enemies and bosses also operate on that principle.

* PsychoElectro: Electrocutioner enemy, which always has an insane grin on his face as he sends tough patterns of electrical charges everywhere.

** Magnums (i.e. large pistols) have Clint 500 and Desert Eagle twin named Jackal.

** Averted with the Doomsday Harrier and Hellfire Harrier bosses, which begins to break down as it gets low on health, forcing it to land so the pilot can take potshots at you with a grenade launcher.

* StalkerWithACrusher: [[spoiler: Dr. Neil is one for for Bluebell. She's understandably horrified.]]

** In an almost literal example, all of the Temple People's warriors are women.

** One of the Violence Kings wields aforementioned axe as well.

* CatchAndReturn: It is possible to deflect bullets in this way with your knife.

** Averted with the Doomsday Harrier boss, which begins to break down as it gets low on health, forcing it to land so the pilot can take potshots at you with a grenade launcher.

* DoubleJump: Because why not?

* EyepatchOfPower: Your Mission Leader, Colonel Tasker, has one. For [=CLAW=], Commander Baron's dog, Alpha, also has one.

* GasMaskMooks: The Hazmat Patrols with flamethrowers.

* LesserSeenSpecies: Amongst commonly known animals like boars, rabbits and foxes, the devs took trouble to implement [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara Capybara]].

* RPGElements: Besides ItemCrafting, there are also direct upgrades to your character's armor and the bio-mods. Then, it is also possible to converse with support personnel at the base and receive side quests from them.

* ThisIsADrill: The Diamond Drill weapon. It is absolutely huge, being much larger than your character, weighs 2.4 kg, but only does 600 damage. There are tons of far lighter weapons dealing more than this. The snail drill is smaller and better balanced, but still isn’t very good.

** Armadillon enemies will attack you by performing this combat roll in an attempt to crush you.

* WeaponisedExhaust: One of the Doomsday Harrier’s attacks is to try and burn you with its exhaust.

* XMeetsY: It's MetalSlug}} meets MonsterHunter, with the art style of ScottPilgrim.

** The "Peashooter" reciever is MegaMan's arm cannon. It works on multiple levels: In the first three games (and GameBoy games) it's denoted on the Weapon Menu as the "P" weapon (or P-shooter, if you will), and the description itself is a dead giveaway ("Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!").

** A dog-like tank boss that unfolds from a small box is named Blitzhound K9.

** The Violence Kings might qualify as well.

* CuteWitch: The Shamans.

* DenialOfDiagonalAttack: In another retro element, the player is only allowed to shoot straight left, right, up or down. Some enemies, like One-Eyed Joes, are allowed to shoot diagonally, however.

* EliteMooks: There are elemental versions of basic CLAW enemies (Patrol, Guard, Riot) that have much greater health and inflict bonus damage of their element with each shot.

* EyepatchOfPower: Your Mission Leader, Colonel Tasker, has one. For CLAW, Commander Baron's dog, Alpha, also has one.

** Pretty much [[WorldofBuxom every single female character has a sizable bust]] that bounces when they move. [[BeyondTheImpossible Or don't.]]

* {{Gorn}}: In sharp contrast to the somewhat cutesy character design, the violence is rather brutal and graphic.
** Special mention goes to the Boomerang Billy enemies, who get disemboweled by their cyborg arms exploding when they die.
** Electrocutioners explode and launch bits of viscera in every direction on death.
** All the pretty half-naked blonde warrior-women in the Temple levels? They get gaping holes blasted in their stomachs when killed.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Played with. You can only carry your gun and up to two different item types, they all have weight and the more weight you're carrying, the slower you move. However, you still seem to pull all your equipment out of thin air.
** Completely averted with King, who is never without a rather large backpack. Empress however, seems keeps everything [[DoubleEntendre in her shorts.]]

* HeavilyArmoredMook: [[CaptainObvious Armored enemies.]] Include the Armored Runner and Armored Joe, as well as more unique variations.
* HumanoidAbomination: The Violence Kings. A pair of immortal, ancient warriors with blank white eyes that are clad in turtle shells and channel bizarre elritch power of unknown origin.

* ItemCrafting: One modern feature of the game that complements its Retraux roots is item crafting and customization. It is possible to find or purchase more than 300 distinct weapon pieces that can be mixed and matched at will.

** There’s a Peashooter pistol receiver, which looks just like a cheap toy gun. It's biggest advantage is that it doesn't run out of ammo or need to be reloaded!
** The Flusher submachine gun, which looks like a complete toilet somehow converted into a gun. The Trombone shotgun receiver ([[InstrumentOfMurder which is literally a trombone]]) goes even further).

* KnifeNut: Your bladesmith, Ironside, has apparently "not used a non-knife utensil in the past 15 years".

* LovableCoward: Dr. Elmenmeyer, a CLAW biologist. He defects and sets up a hideout in the jungle so he can study flowers, because all that super soldier and giant robot stuff is really not his thing. He's also quite friendly with the Kings.

* MadeOfIron: King and Empress, thanks to the Mandrake Formula.
* MadScientist: Dr. Neil can get very intense about science.

* MundaneUtility: The Runway Brothers are at all times in the presence of an ominous, floating stone monolith that emanates an unidentifiable energy and gives them limited reality warping powers. They use it to make tent decorations and change the color of your clothes. But they can only change the color of your clothes, not the clothes themselves, that would be crazy!
* MustHaveCaffeine: Colonel Tasker runs on coffee. It's speculated that he doesn't actually need to eat or drink anything else.

* NukeEm: [[spoiler: How The Company plans on stopping CLAW if the Kings don't get things under control, even though there are sizable civilian and native populations, and it's unknown how the island's energies would react.]]

* PaletteSwap: Every single enemy type has ''at least'' one palette swapped version. Even the harmless rabbits.

* ShoutOut: Dozens. Far too many to list in their entirety.

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Company, the organization that funded the Mandrake Project in the first place and hired the Kings to stop CLAW. Little is known about it, other than it's a lot less morally upright than the Kings themselves.

* TurnsRed: The Riot Grifs and Abductors will panic and begin to shoot rapidly if their shield is corroded/killed.
** The Violence Kings will armor up and begin flying around on the Ark of Samsara when they get low on health.

* UniversalAmmo: The soft-point and hollow-point ammo will fit every weapon. Other ammo types can only be equipped if your gun has 100% compatibility with it.

* WhoWearsShortShorts: Empress, Digger and all the female hostages wear short shorts!

* XMeetsY: It's MetalSlug meets MonsterHunter, with the art style of ScottPilgrim.

* DenialOfDiagonalAttack: In another retro element, the player is only allowed to shoot straight left, right up or down. Some enemies, like snipers, are allowed to shoot diagonally, however.

* EliteMooks: There are elemental versions of basic CLAW enemies (Patrol, Guard, Riot) that have much greater health and inflict bonus damage of their element with each shot. There also similarly elite electric turrets, which have doubled health.

* EyepatchOfPower: Your Mission Leader, Colonel Tasker, has one. For [=CLAW=], Commander Baron's dog, Alpha, also has one.

** Pretty much [[WorldofBuxom every single female character has a sizable bust]] that bounces when they move.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: Armored enemies. Include Armored Runner and Sniper as well as more unique variations.
* HumanoidAbomination: The Violence Kings. A pair of ancient warriors clad in turtle shells that channel some bizarre elritch power.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Played with. You can only carry your gun and up to two different item types, they all have weight and themore weight you're carrying, the slower you move. However, you still seem to pull all your equipment out of thin air.
** Completely averted with King, who is never without a rather large backpack. Empress however, keeps everything in her shorts.

* ItemCrafting: One modern feature of the game that complements its Retraux roots is item crafting and customisation. It is possible to find or purchase more than 300 distinct weapon pieces that can be mixed and matched at will.

** The Flusher submachine gun, which looks like a complete toilet somehow converted into a gun. The Trombone shotgun receiver (which is literally a Trombone) goes even further).

* KnifeNut: Your bladesmith, Ironside, who has apparently "not used a non-knife utensil in the past 15 years".

* MadeOfIron: King and Empress, thanks to the Mandrake formula.

* PaletteSwap: The rabbits come in black, white and orange variations. Besides the pelt colour, all other details are the same. The elemental versions of enemies and bosses also operate on that principle.

* TurnsRed: The Shield Guards and Abductors will panic if their shield is corroded away/killed and begin to shoot rapidly with their pistol.

* UniversalAmmo: The soft-point and hollow-point ammo will fit every weapon. Other ammo types can only be equipped if there’s 100% compatibility with a certain ammo type.

* XMeetsY: It's MetalSlug}} meets MonsterHunter, with the art style of ScottPilgrim.

* AffectionateParody: The games whole theme and setting is a tribute to 80's and 90's action movies, such as {{Commando}}, {{Predator}}, {{Alien}} and the like. Some events in game are even direct references to scenes from those films.
* AirborneMooks: Several robot enemies. Some are weak (Flyer, Ghost) but the Bomber and Copter Turret are very powerful.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Most of the Sniper Rifle weapon parts. They provide better range than any other parts and are always compatible with armor piercing ammo, but are also ridiculously heavy and only have mediocre damage.

* AwesomeButPractical: Magnum weapon parts. High damage, quick reloads, compatible with jumbo ammunition and [[RevolversAreJustBetter they're all revolvers.]]

* CreepyTwins: The Runway Brothers, who speak in perfect unison at all times, are never apart and own a big floating monolith that emanates an unknown power and ''talks to them''. Fortunately they're on your team.

* GenkiGirl: Lawless and Miss Zero. Lawless loves building, shooting and talking about guns. Miss Zero is just generally very excitable, especially when it comes to messing with CLAW.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Violence Kings. A pair of ancient warriors clad in turtle shells that channel some bizarre elritch power.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Played with. You can only carry your gun and up to two different item types, they all have weight and themore weight you're carrying, the slower you move. However, you still seem to pull all your equipment out of thin air.
** Completely averted with King, who is never without a rather large backpack. Empress however, keeps everything in her shorts.

* NiceHat: Ironside, your melee weapons expert, wears one. [[BaldOfAwesome It covers up his bald spot.]]

* ShoutOut: Dozens. Far too many to list in their entirety.

* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: You can perform one to avoid some attacks. It can also be used to break your fall and prevent suffering falling damage.

* WallMaster: Looper robots, which will do nothing but continually go around certain environment element in circles and damage you on touch.

* WorldOfBuxom: Golden Gate is just about the only female character without a pronounced bust and cleavage.

* XMeetsY: It's {{MetalSlug}} meets {{MonsterHunter}}, with the art style of {{ScottPilgrim}}.

'''Mercenary Kings''' is a retro [=2D=] action platformer, created by Creator/TributeGames and released in 2014. When scientist Doctor James Neil discovers the Mandragora Serum, a potent elixir that bestows superhuman strength and regeneration, he is kidnapped by terrorist cell CLAW and brought to Mandragora Island so that CLAW can use the serum to TakeOverTheWorld. In response, a mercenary group called the Mercenary Kings are dispatched to the island to stop CLAW, but something goes horribly wrong. CLAW has already used the serum to mass produce a giant army of super soldiers, robots, mechs and mutated wildlife, and the Kings are ambushed and almost immediately cut down. Only two of the mercenaries survive, King and Empress, and even then they have to be given doses of the Mandragora Serum to survive their wounds.

Now, empowered by the serum and armed with a plethora of weapons, King and Empress are redeployed to Mandragora Island to deliver some well deserved payback to CLAW!

The game was designed to recapture both the spirit of the action films of the 1980's and of retro games of the same era, but update it to modern times. Thus, it includes the ability to upgrade your character's weapons and armour, bio-mods to directly implant into the character's body and the ItemCrafting mechanic, which allows you to create dozens of weapons for your character. The game's website is [[http://mercenarykings.com/ here]].

* AffectionateParody: Certain scenes parody or play {{Homage}} to the cheesy action movies of the 80's like ''Film/{{Commando}}'' and ''Film/{{Predator}}''.

** In an almost literal example, the vast majority of the Temple People's warriors are women.
* AnAxeToGrind: The Violence Axe weapon, which is one of the most powerful melee implements.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: The [=AP=] ammo, which negates the damage reduction of armored enemies and passes through objects.

* BladeOnAStick: Rather weak Glaive and very powerful Golden Spear and Capy Spear. Latter does more normal damage, but electrical Golden Spear has an advantage vs. robots.
* BattleAura: The K9 Boss will begin to glow with one as it performs its charge attack.

* BossInMookClothing: Grenadiers. Lots of health, armored, and throws lots of hard to dodge, area-effect grenades.
** The Auto-Carriers. Very durable, extremely persistent, and difficult to hit due to how high they jump and their tendency to fire on you whenever they're vulnerable.

** Incendiary: Red/Orange and dark grey
** Electrical: Yellow and light grey

** Cryogenic: White and dark blue

* DeadlyLunge: Jumper Mandragora, which hops around at rather leisurely pace, than rapidly jumps towards you once you’re close.

** Also, your Communications Specialist lives not on Earth, but in space, in '''B'''ig '''O'''rbital '''S'''pace '''S'''tation.

* {{Hyperspace}}: Actually rather realistic: there are five movement speeds depending on the amount of weight you carry. Less than 2 kg is very fast, 2-5 is fast, 5-8 normal, 8-11 slow, and anything beyond 11 reduces you to a crawl.

* InfinityMinusOneSword: The Violence Razor does maximum damage of 765 just like Silver Skull and Violence Blade, with the advantage of being much easier to craft. The trade-off is that it’s nearly twice the weight of both.
** If you want damage-to-weight ratio, Forest Knife and Trejo are both slightly worse to Freedom Dagger in that regard, yet are much easier to make.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: In terms of damage-to-weight ratio, Freeman Dagger is the best, with 720 damage at mere 0.2 weight. For absolute damage, the honour is split between Silver Skull and Violence Blade swords at 765 damage (though Violence Blade is 100 grams lighter).

* RecurringBoss: Commander Baron's dog, Alpha, pilots the Munsterlander and Blitzhound K9 bosses, both of which are encountered multiple times.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Inverted: It is the weaker human enemies that have red eyes for some reason, while stronger enemies will typically have regular whites.

* ShieldBearingMook: The Riot Grif, who is only vulnerable if you get behind him or when he takes time to shoot. Weapons with corrosive damage can also corrode the shield, which causes them to panic and shoot rapidly.

* ShoutOut: Dozens.
** One knife in the game is named [[VideoGame/{{Dishonored}} Corvo]]. It’s decent, but nothing special.
** Another knife is just called "Snake". [[VideoGame/{{MetalGearSolid}} It's described as being solid.]]
** There’s also a pickaxe that is visually identical to one in VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}. It’s nearly the worst melee weapon available.
** The Fat Bird animal is quite similar to a full-grown bird from VideoGame/TinyWings.

* SigilSpam: [=CLAW=] surely love their skull emblem.

* SpikesOfDoom: Often appear in each levels.

* TakeCover: While there’s no cover system in the game for you, a Guard enemy type will compensate for their low health by crouching behind any chest-high object they can find.
* TempleOfDoom: Certain locations are ancient temples of the kind.
* ThisIsADrill: The diamond drill weapon. It is absolutely huge, being much larger than your character, weighs 2.4 kg, but only does 600 damage. There are tons of far lighter weapons dealing more than this. The snail drill is smaller and better balanced, but still isn’t very good.

* UniversalAmmo: The point type ammo will fit every weapon. Other ammo types can only be equipped if there’s 100% compatibility with a certain ammo type.

* WeakTurretGun: Averted. All turrets have respectable 2000 health and deal plenty of damage. Electric turrets are even more powerful.

* WesternTerrorists: [=CLAW=].

* XMeetsY: It's MetalSlug meets MonsterHunter, with the art style of ScottPilgrim.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: For melee weapons alone, there are implements like a pizza cutter, a Swiss knife, a cattle prod, a cyborg hand, a cross, etc.

* ActionGirl: The Empress, should you choose to play as her.

* ArmorPiercingAttack: The [=AP=] ammo, which negates the damage reduction of armored enemies.

* BattleBoomerang: An enemy called Boomerang Billy will use those against you.
* BossInMookClothing: Electrocutioner. The guy has 5500 health (most enemies have between 500 and 1000) and fires damaging electrical bolts in a rather complex pattern.
** There’s also Grenade Gordon. Nearly as much health, armor, and throws lots of area-effect grenades.

* ChainsawGood: Subverted with Electric Knife, Raid Saw and Twin Raider. They’re all a variation of chainsaw theme, yet none are actually very good.

* CollisionDamage: Present.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Elemental versions of enemies and bosses. The incendiary ones have orange-shaded uniforms, caustic ones have purplish or greenish tinge, electric is yellow and cryogenic is icy-blue.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: T-Bone, who joins your team as a chef after you smack him around a few times and throw a shock grenade in his face.

* ElementalPowers: There are five elements in the game, which are applied to weapons. If enemy is strong to specific element, it gets 20% damage reduction (50% for bosses). If it is weak, then there’s bonus damage ranging from 20%, to 80% to 100%, depending on the element and the enemy in question.

** ShockAndAwe: The electrical damage.
* EliteMooks: There are elemental versions of basic CLAW enemies (Patrol, Guard, Shield Guard) that have much greater health and inflict bonus damage of their element with each shot. There also similarly elite electric turrets, which have doubled health.
** There are two further elite versions of Shield Guards. One is Abductor, which is tougher and uses hostage as a shield, which means you have to get behind them if you don’t want to lose bonus points. Second version is charger, which has spiked shields.
* EyepatchOfPower: Your Mission Leader Colonel Tasker has one. For [=CLAW=], the dog driver of K9 Blitzhound also has one.
* FastballSpecial: The dog pilot of the Munsterlander boss will occasionally launch itself at you.

* {{Gainaxing}}: The Empress' boobs bounce. A lot. ''Constantly''. Probably a shout-out to Angel from the old NeoGeo game ''VideoGame/ShockTroopers'', who did the same.

* GatlingGood: The minigun receiver (i.e. skin) for the machine gun. It is functionally identical to other skins, however.
* GiantMecha: Many bosses are of this kind.

* GoombaStomp: The Jumper enemy can do this to you.

* GroundPound: One of Titan Trooper attacks.
* HandCannon: The Magnum weapon type is all about large, powerful, slow-firing pistols. One of them is actually called Hand Cannon.

* KingMook: The boss version of a Looper robot.

* LethalChef: Pizza cutter, bread knife, cleaver and barbecue knife are all usable melee weapons (not to mention the Fish Knife and Big Fish), making your character look like one when fighting.

* {{Mooks}}: Over a 100 versions of them! These include:
* MiniMook: There are cute, tiny baby boars, which you can kill and loot their meat and bone off them. Don’t feel too bad about it, though, because there are also full-grown boars around.
* MonsterCompendium: Kept by the Intelligence Agent Cadillac.

* NiceHat: Ironside, your melee weapons expert, wears one.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Exaggerated for laughs in the opening cinematic. Your chosen character survives head wounds, amongst other lethal injuries.

* ShieldBearingMook: The Shield Guard, who is only vulnerable if you get behind him or when he takes time to shoot. Weapons with corrosive damage can also corrode the shield, which causes them to panic and shoot rapidly.

* SmashMook: The Pikeman, who is quite large, not especially tough, and will stab you with his spear frequently.
* ShootTheFuelTank: Used for most robotic bosses, and is the only way to destroy Titan boss.

* ShoutOut: One knife in the game is named [[VideoGame/{{Dishonored}} Corvo]]. It’s decent, but nothing special.

** A dog-like boss that unfolds from a small box is named Blitzhound K9.

* SpinToDeflectStuff: The spinning drill on the Drillers’ machine will deflect all bullets.

* SpreadShot: Certain guns fire in this way.

* TimedMission: Side quests often have 10 to 20 minute time restrictions.

** Fatso enemies will attack you by performing this combat roll in an attempt to crush you.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: For melee weapons alone, there food implements like pizza cutter, a Swiss knife, Cattle Prod, a cyborg hand, a cross, etc.

* WeaponisedExhaust: One of Doomsday Harrier’s attacks is to try and burn you with its exhaust.

* GoombaStomp: Jumper enemy can do this to you.

* FragileSpeedster: The Runner enemies have very little health, but will rapidly charge you with knives once provoked. Same applies to Creeper robots.

* TheGoomba: The Patrol enemies, which have little health, don’t do much damage and cannot do anything beyond crouching down to avoid some of your shots.

* GasMaskMooks: The Hazmat Patrols with flamethrowers.
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Armored enemies. Include Armored Runner and Sniper as well as more unique variations.
* EliteMooks: There are elemental versions of basic CLAW enemies (Patrol, Guard, Shield Guard) that have much greater health and inflict bonus damage of their element with each shot. There also similarly elite electric turrets, which have doubled health.
** There are two further elite versions of Shield Guards. One is Abductor, which is tougher and uses hostage as a shield, which means you have to get behind them if you don’t want to lose bonus points. Second version is charger, which has spiked shields.
* AirborneMooks: Several robot enemies. Some are weak (Flyer, Ghost) but the Bomber and Copter Turret are very powerful.
* BossInMookClothing: Electrocutioner. The guy has 5500 health (most enemies have between 500 and 1000) and fires damaging electrical bolts in a rather complex pattern.
** There’s also Grenade Gordon. Nearly as much health, armor, and throws lots of area-effect grenades.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Exaggerated for laughs in the opening cinematic. Your chosen character survives head wounds, amongst other lethal injuries.
* OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture: The Steel Assault assault rifle receiver has looks at the milder end of this spectrum.
* PaletteSwap: The rabbits come in black, white and orange variations. Besides the pelt colour, all other details are the same. The elemental versions of enemies and bosses also operate on that principle.
* PsychoElectro: Electrocutioner enemy, which always has an insane grin on his face as he sends tough patterns of electrical charges everywhere.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Inverted: It is the weaker human enemies that have red eyes for some reason, while stronger enemies will typically have regular whites.
* {{Retraux}}: The graphics, sounds and a lot of the gameplay are very retro, but there are also features like ItemCrafting and story that actually goes beyond ExcusePlot.
* RocketPunch: Steel Soldier bosses have it as their ranged attack.
* RPGElements: Besides ItemCrafting, there are also direct upgrades to your character's armor and the bio-mods. Then, it is also possible to converse with support personnel at the base and receive side quests from them.

* JokeWeapon: Many.

** There’s a Peashooter pistol receiver, which looks just like a cheap toy gun.

* XMeetsY: The game is frequently described as ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' meets ''VideoGame/MetalSlug''.

* Retraux: The graphics, sounds and a lot of the gameplay are very retro, but there are also features like ItemCrafting and story that actually goes beyond ExcusePlot.

'''Mercenary Kings''' is a retro [=2D=] action platformer, created by Creator/TributeGames and released in 2014. The game begins with the titular Mercenary Kings wiped out by the terrorist organisation named [=CLAW=] on the top-secret tropical island base they recently captured. Only one Mercenary King (or Queen) remains, and they're all that stands for between [=CLAW=]'s and their plans for world domination!

'''Mercenary Kings''' is a retro [=2D=] action platformer, created by Creator/TributeGames and released in 2014. The game begins with the titular Mercenary Kings wiped out by the terrorist organisation named [=CLAW=] on the top-secret tropical island base they recently captured. Only one Mercenary King (or Queen) remains, and they're the only one who can prevent [=CLAW=]'s plans for world domination!

The game was designed to recapture both the spirit of the action films of the 1980's and of retro games of the same era, but update it to modern times. Thus, it includes the ability to upgrade your character's weapons and armour, bio-mods to directly implant into the character's body and the ItemCrafting mechanic, which allows you to create dozens of weapons for your character.

* EyepatchOfPower: The dog driver of K9 Blitzhound has one.

* FunWithAcronyms: The terrorist group you fight is named CLAW.

* ActionGirl: The Mercenary Queen, should you choose to play as her.