The Last Kids on Earth: Happy Apocalypse to You is an animated, interactive short film.
Jack wants to prepare a huge birthday party for June, but to do so he and his friends need to gather the necessary supplies, all while dodging monsters and zombies along the way.
Tropes in the interactive short include:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: June’s age is never given, despite her birthday being a central part of the plot.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: It may be June’s birthday, but that doesn’t make the town any less dangerous. The kids have to overcome multiple obstacles to get the party started.
- And Then June Was A Zombie: Choosing to try and break through the zombies at the start of the cake mission ends up with June getting bitten by one they missed and turning into a zombie herself. Also, if the kids fail to get any cake but succeed in getting the helium tank and the nacho cheese the final zombie horde ends up overpowering the group, turning all of the kids into zombies.
- Birthday Episode: For June.
- Doomed Supermarket Display: While in the supermarket to get the birthday cake, the kids find a sleeping Wretch next to the cakes. If Jack tries to sneak towards it and get the cake without waking the wretch, he ends up bumping in to a stack of cans and knocks it over, waking up the monster.
- Eaten Alive: Several bad endings have this happen to the protagonists.
- For Want Of A Nail: The gauntlet sequence near the end of the episode requires the kids to use some of the party supplies to escape certain death:
- Failing to get the helium tanks leaves the kids unable to fend off the Wretch when it picks up Big Mama. As a result, it brings them to her nest and feeds them to her babies.
- Without the nacho cheese or Skaelka’s ring (which is gotten along with the cheese if the viewer chooses to return her axe immediately instead of holding onto it), the kids are unable to escape Mauler, who traps them by chasing them into rough terrain and crushes them flat.
- And lastly, without a surplus of cakes, the kids find themselves ill-equipped to fend off the zombie horde when they attack, resulting in them all getting zombified.
- From Bad to Worse: This happens if the viewer chooses to return to the treehouse early. Jack, feeling bad about the group decision to give up on June’s party is distracted trying to cheer her up while driving and is unable to prevent them from getting swallowed by a giant monster that burrowed up in front of them. Before they can do anything, that monster is eaten by another monster, which is immediately consumed by an even bigger monster.
- Growling Gut: During one scene after choosing to stay in the car instead of facing Octogroot, June complains she’s hungry and uses her growling stomach as proof, which triggers a contest where Quint, Dirk, and Jack try to make their own stomachs growl louder. Dirk wins, while Jack’s attempt instead causes him to fart.
- Hard-Work Montage: Choosing to deal with the Octogroot by building a Giant Robot treats you to one as the kids outfit Big Mama with parts from the crashed airplane.
- Hobbling the Giant: At the start of the episode, when choosing to fight Mauler, Quint can use a crossbow armed with plungers and ropes to tie Mauler’s legs together, after which the other kids easily make her fall over.
- Humongous Mecha: The kids can choose to modify their truck, Big Mama, into one to fight the Octogroot monster that is blocking their way to the school. It works, though it takes them over a month to build it.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: At the end of the Giant Robot option, Jack realizes that they just spent a month doing that, thus missing June’s birthday (and also Dirk’s). Fortunately, June enjoyed the robot fight, so they decide to just continue with things as if it was still her birthday, with Dirk emphasizing to just move on and never mention what just happened again.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: This is an option when having to choose which mission comes first; the cake, the balloons, the nacho cheese fountain, or split up and get all three items at the same time. A Genre Savvy Quint points out that this is what characters in horror movies always do, and he is proven right since this choice leads to a bad ending with all four protagonists dead.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: If Dirk goes to scout the basement on his own, he is soon attacked by the Aqualight and calls for help. The viewer can then choose to Armor Up, which triggers one of these as June, Quint, and Jack use objects around the store to craft some makeshift armor. However, when they go down to help Dirk, they realize too late that changing clothes is not a free action, as Dirk has already been eaten by the time they arrive.
- Multiple Endings: With this being a Choose Your Own Adventure-style episode, naturally it can end in more ways than one. The Golden Ending is the one where the kids gather all the supplies and June’s party is celebrated, with all their monster friends in the town stadium. There are, however, multiple bad endings where one or even all the protagonists die, get zombified, or otherwise incapacitated.
- Opt Out: After the first of the three party supply missions, Dirk suggests going back to the treehouse to celebrate with what they already have (if they didn’t fail to get it, that is) instead of continuing and risking things further. However, choosing this does not end well for the group.
- Run the Gauntlet: In the climax, the kids have to face the wretch, Mauler, and a horde of zombies on their way to the stadium. Only if they gathered all the supplies needed are they able to fight them off and make it to the party.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If the viewer chooses to let Dirk investigate the flooded basement by himself while searching for balloons and a helium tank, after the others save him from from the monster lurking there, he is too freaked out from what just happened to continue searching and the mission ends there.
- Shout-Out: While visiting the movie theater, the viewer can choose to have the protagonists watch the trailer they just saw a second time, but this time we see their silhouettes at the bottom of the screen, and they openly mock everything in the trailer, identical to the setup of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- Summon Bigger Fish: When faced with the wretch in the supermarket, the kids can choose to call Biggun for backup. It works, provided that before Biggun arrives, the kids stick together instead of letting Jack perform a You Shall Not Pass!.
- Talking Is a Free Action: During the nacho cheese mission, instead of dealing with Octogroot the viewer can instead choose to have the kids talk among themselves in the car and still later choose the trap and giant robot options to deal with Octogroot afterwards. But, it is subverted if talking is chosen a third time, as the kids end up spending so much time sitting there that Octogroot ended up finding and eating all of the nacho cheese.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: The kids come across a supernatural book, with an eye on the cover, while searching the school. If the viewer chooses to have the kids read the book instead of ignore it, it leads to a bad ending where Jack reads a spell that ends up trapping all four kids in the book.
- Too Dumb to Live: The kids can all have some moments that count due to the viewer’s choices, but one moment outside anyone’s control is Dirk forgetting to close the car window when driving through a zombie horde.
- Waiting Skeleton: If, during the confrontation with Octogroot, the player keeps choosing the option for the protagonists to sit in the car and keep talking instead of fighting the monster somehow, it seemingly ends with only Jack still alive while Quint, June, and Dirk have died and decayed into skeletons due to the long wait. However, it was All Just a Dream for Jack.
- Why Waste a Wedding?: The event is a party, but the trope’s spirit is still present in a few situations. If the group built a giant robot, the episode continues unchanged from there, despite it being a month later. Also, in the endings where June or all the kids get zombified, the final scene is at the treehouse, where their monster friends (and any non-zombified kids), are enjoying the party, despite the birthday girl not being in any state to enjoy it herself.
