Video Game / Fashion Police Squad

Fashion Police Squad is a retro-styled First-Person Shooter where you play as Sergeant Des, a fashion police officer. Rather than kill enemies, it is your sworn duty to solve fashion crimes by using a variety of fashion-themed weapons tailored for different crimes, such as a dye shotgun for dull colors and a sewing needle machine gun for loose suits. The game was developed by Mopeful Games, and published by No More Robots. The game released for PC on August 15, 2022.

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Fashion Police Squad contains examples of:

• 420, Blaze It: Number 420 makes occasional appearance such in a floor number of codex screen.
• Acrofatic:
  • Hugo Bauss, the first boss (named after real-life luxury fashion designer Hugo Boss) is surprisingly agile considering his weight, being able to jump all over the office.
  • The Mr. Spewdos enemies are potbellied men in Speedos who are capable of jumping high into the air to perform a Belly Flop Crushing.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Air vents are present in some of the levels, and are often more glamorous than the levels themselves, coated with shiny gold.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: During the final battle, Turn Coat steals the Fab Slap Glove from Des and uses it to slap the fashion out of him in two separate occasions, turning him into a Dull Suit and a Neon Brah respectively. To turn back to normal, you need to destroy enough Des Mannequins while avoiding falling asleep yourself in the former, and destroy 4 Des Mannequins while getting enough score from performing enough tricks for the latter a la Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
• Anti-Frustration Features: After you fix an enemy's fashion crimes, they fade out into a barely-visible translucent sprite until the fight ends, so your view of the arena won't be obstructed by the crowds of low level Mooks that you're taking out.
• Armed with Pepper Spray: The Karen enemies use this to attack Des, covering a large area in front of them with Deadly Gas that deals constant damage if Des is within. They can also use it for propulsion, allowing them to fly for a short duration while leaving gas clouds below.
• Asteroids Monster: Dull manager splits into two dull suits when defeated.
• Barely-There Swimwear: The Mr. Spewdos enemy is a fat man wearing nothing but Spewdos on his body (and cracs on his feet). He's beaten by having clothes forcefully put on him (and his footwear replaced).
• BFG: The final weapon in the game is called the B.F.G.(Big Fashionable Gun), although Des renames it the WARdrobe after Haley suggests it. It is a heavy weapon with limited ammunition, but able to solve any fashion crime.
• Blatant Item Placement: Mocktails inexplicably lying around in random areas serve to replenish your health, no matter how unsanitary or unlikely the area is. Bling items lying around in random areas serve to increase your temporary armor. Officer Haley even questions Des' hygiene when he picks up a mocktail in the middle of the street:
  Haley: Dude, did you just pick up a cocktail from the ground and drink it?
  Des: A mocktail. It was refreshing!
  Haley: Sheesh... you must have a killer immune system.
• Blowing Smoke Rings: Sagging Pants enemies attack by blowing rings of vape that deal damage to you. When they're beaten, they blow harmless bubbles instead.
• Body Horror: After Deep Coat's Fab Slap Glove clashes with Turn Coat's Fab Slap Glove and the latter overloads his, it causes Deep Coat to disappear and Turn Coat to transform into a multiple-limbed high fashion monstrosity with multiple bodies and legs as the final phase of the final boss battle.
• Bottomless Magazines: All your weapons except the W.A.R.drobe Launcher have infinite amounts of ammo, although a few do have a mode with limited "ammunition" such as the 2DYE-4's 7-shot charged mode after it has absorbed enough color, and the Wet'Ones' secondary fire that requires pressure built up from the primary fire.
• Bright Is Not Good: The Neon Brah enemies have a fashion crime of wearing way too flashy clothing, to the point that they glow and leave a neon trail. They're vulnerable to the 2DYE-4 Elite's color draining beam, which turns their clothing to a more normal color.
• Calling Your Attacks: Dull Suits will often call out "Launch" whenever they throw their suitcases at you.
• Catching Some Z's: Dull Suits often briefly fall asleep, indicated by Z symbol.
• Charged Attack:
  • Belt of Justice can be charged for more damage.
  • Wet'Ones secondary fire can be charged by primary fire.
  • 2DYE-4 Elite's primary fire can be enhanced by using secondary fire on brightly-colored enemies and certain environmental objects.
• Circling Birdies: Whipping enemies with a belt makes stars appear over their heads.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Flamers wear overly hot clothing that actually gives them fire powers. When Turn Coat puts on overly hot clothing, he too gains fire powers as well.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Deep Coat, a very shifty character, wears a stereotypical trenchcoat uniform.
• Crate Expectations: Levels have destructible wooden crates filled with mocktails and swag.
• Dance Party Ending: Taken even further — at the end of every level, all the enemies you've made fashionable are shown dancing on a catwalk, in the form of Parole Balls.
• Defeat by Modesty: Inverted by the indecently-dressed Mr. Spewdos and Gimp Suits, which are both defeated by forcing them into wearing decent clothing.
• Dirty Old Man: Parodied with the flasher enemy. He waits for unsuspecting people before showing the fashion crime underneath his trenchcoat.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Some of the enemies make an early appearance on the "Wanted" posters.
• Elemental Hair Colors: Flamers have fiery-looking hair to go along with their fiery clothing and fire powers. When defeated by getting doused, their hair changes to a pale blonde.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: The W.A.R.drobe Launcher is obtained in the second-to-last level and it can solve any fashion crime with one explosion, regardless of type. However, ammo for it is scarce and limited, and it can only hold four shots at a go.
• Everything Is an Instrument: The final boss theme uses sounds of tailor's tools such as a sewing machine.
• Exploding Barrels: The game has explosive pink fab barrels that help solve any fashion crime, should one happen to be near it. If Des is caught in their explosions, it heals him instead by restoring his fab.
• Expressive Health Bar: Des' face is shown above health counter. When his health goes below 50, Des loses his cap and becomes more drab.
• Fan Disservice: The Mr. Spewdos enemy is a fat man wearing almost nothing but a Spewdo and Cracs.
• Fashion Show: Appropriately, two levels feature these, but you're there to check the participants before they reach the main stage since "fashion criminals" have been placed among the others. You're meant to use a special sniper device to shoot out and make fashionable these people with bad-looking hair, unfitting clothes, and bad-looking footwear before they get displayed in public, and lower the fashion show's ratings. The Parole Balls also count as these for the defeated enemies and bosses showing off their new and improved fashion wear.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Invoked in-universe, where people with poor fashion sense and very questionable attire are considered criminals and serve as your enemies. Played very straight with Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX, who looks like a mishmash of Darth Vader, Neo, and Cloud. The true villain Turn Coat deliberately invokes this too, by switching to an overly hot attire and a gaudy raincoat in his fight.
• Funny Foreigner: Tourists are enemies with a strange accent and attack with camera flashes that deal damage and briefly turn the screen white. More distressingly, they wear socks with sandals, which is treated as an abominable fashion crime. They also have a rather hilarious unique animation when they're attacked by Sock Gnomes.
• Fun with Acronyms: Fashion Police Squad.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Toilets and air vents in Trendopolis are made of (or coated with) gold.
• Good All Along: Deep Coat appears to be very shady and shifty with his own agenda, causing Officer Haley no end of suspicion, but turns out to be genuinely benevolent, even pulling off a Heroic Sacrifice against Turn Coat at the end.
• The Goomba: Dull suit, being the first enemy type introduced in the game, throws slow briefcases and have little "health".
• Image Song: Half of the lyrics of the final boss is about how great the villain is. (the other half is listing fashion crimes)
• Improbable Weapon User: Both the player and the enemies:
  • The 2DYE-4 Elite is a glorified paintball gun that also comes with a beam that drains the color off enemies.
  • The Tailormade is a sewing needle-shooting gun that also comes with grenades that explode into fabric that traps enemies within.
  • The Sock Gnomes are odd gnomes that go after a target's unfashionable footwear and replace it with something better.
  • The Wet'Ones is a water gun that can build up pressure for its secondary fire, which shoots water bullets.
  • Dull Suits, Dull Managers and Loose Suits attack by throwing briefcases at you, the last of which also has their briefcases explode for Splash Damage.
  • Neon Brahs attack you by riding into you with their motorized scooters.
  • Sagging Pants use a vaporizer to inhale, then blow sprays of hazardous vape rings.
  • Karens use pepper spray to cover areas in Deadly Gas.
  • Tourists attack by using their cameras to take pictures of Des, the flash from which deals damage and disorients.
  • Tiny Suits are hyperactive job-seekers that place down suitcases containing their CV... which explodes after a few seconds.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence:
  • Parodied in form of colored ribbons. Sergeant Des states there is no way past the ribbons, even though there clearly is room to squeeze oneself through. Turn Coat literally just goes around a set of ribbons at one point, which the heroes are outraged by.
  • Played straight with road barricades.
• Invisible Wall: There are parts of the level where invisible wall stops you, usually around rooftops.
• Kill It with Water: The Wet'Ones fires out a stream of water that can solve fashion crimes. It's effective against Neon Brahs by washing away their color, Loose Suits via Shrunk in the Wash, Flamers via Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, and DJ 2-Louds via shorting out their electronics. It's also effective against Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX's electronic body as well as the computerized enemies within his servers.^note and also, presumably, effective at combating his atrocious hygiene practices by giving him a shower
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Most enemy types can be beaten by shooting at them with the correct weapon, but some have more convoluted methods of beating:
  • Sagging Pants are immune to all your ranged weapons bar the W.A.R.drobe Launcher, requiring the Belt of Justice to damage them.
  • Flashers can only be damaged when they're flashing their poor fashion under their coats. If their coats are closed, they're immune to damage.
  • Tiny Suits and Gimp Suits are immune to almost all weapons including the Tailormade's basic shots until they're bound by the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades, after which the Tailormade's basic fire will damage them.
  • Mr. Spewdos have two life bars, the first of which requires the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades to bind them followed by its basic shots, and the second requires the Sock Gnomes to replace their Crags.
• Leet Lingo: Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX speaks with some E letters replaced with 3 and some Os replaced with 0s.
• Limit Break: When the fab meter (filled by solving fashion crimes) reaches 100%, Des can temporarily activate a mode where he slaps fashion sense into criminals while remaining invulnerable.
• Locomotive Level: One of the levels takes place inside a train. The further Des makes it through the train, the fancier the wagons get.
• Logical Weakness: Every enemy type has a weakness to a different fashion-affecting weapon, which counteracts their fashion disaster in a logical manner:
  • Dull Suits and Dull Managers are vulnerable to the 2DYE-4 Elite's color attacks, which brightens up their suits.
  • Neon Brahs are vulnerable to the 2DYE-4 Elite's color drain beam, which drains their color, as well as the Wet'Ones, which washes away their color.
  • Loose Suits are vulnerable to the Tailormade's needles, which sews up their loose suits. The Wet'Ones also affects them, since their loose suits shrink when wet.
  • Sagging Pants are weak to the Belt of Justice, which pulls their pants up and fastens them tight.
  • The Karens' loose-fitting dresses can be tightened with either the Belt or the Tailormade.
  • Tourists are vulnerable to Sock Gnomes, which replace their socks and sandals with proper footwear. The Sock Gnomes also make them preoccupied, preventing them from attacking.
  • Tiny Suits move quickly, requiring the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades to hold them in place. This makes them vulnerable to the Tailormade's basic fire, which will sew the added fabric to properly fit their suits.
  • Flamers have overly hot clothing that gives them actual fire powers, which makes them vulnerable to the Wet'Ones.
  • Flashers wear either gaudy or a dull clothes under their coat, making them vulnerable to the 2DYE4's color drain and regular fire respectively.
  • Mr. Spewdos wear nothing but a Spewdo and Cracs, which means they require the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades as well as its normal shots to fit some clothes on, and the Sock Gnomes to put proper shoes onto them.
  • DJ 2-Louds wear loud garments attached with electronic devices, which are shorted out by the Wet'Ones.
  • Gimp Suits wear rather indecent latex and are beaten by giving them actual clothes with the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades as well as its regular shots.
  • Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX's physical form is capable of deflecting bullets if he isn't glitching out... but he not only can't deflect the Wet'Ones' primary fire (a water spray), it also shorts his electrical clothing out. The minions in the Wolfenstein 3-D-esque server are likewise vulnerable to water, as is his banhammer in the final section, due to all of them being computerized entities.
• LOL, 69: Number 69 often makes appearance in similar instances as 420 such as elevator destination floor number.
• Money Mauling: CEO Hugo Bauss attacks by throwing gold bars at Des.
• Mook Commander: DJ 2-Louds will give all enemies around her a massive defense buff as long as she's in the fight, even if she is stunned, making her a priority enemy to take out.
• Mook Debut Cutscene: Every time a new enemy is encountered, a cutscene showing the enemy's code name as well as their fashion crime will pop up, along with a quote from that enemy.
• Multiple Life Bars: The Mr. Spewdo enemy has two different fashion crimes (Spewdos and Cracs) and as such has two separate life bars. Both of these need to be depleted by the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades (plus its basic shots) and the Sock Gnomes in order to defeat them.
• Mysterious Informant: Deep Coat (named after famous real-life informant Deep Throat) is a shady character who has access to Fashion Police radio frequencies and seems to have an agenda of his own, but also provides useful information and ribbon-cutting scissors at key moments throughout the campaign.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling into a bottomless pit or stage hazard reduces a minor amount of health.
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: The Karens are basically walking stereotypes of mean housewives, with Des even receiving a call about a Karen talking with a manager. In-game, they attack with pepper spray and can even spray it downwards for propulsion, turning them into Airborne Mooks.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The final battle with Turn Coat parodies it by having lyrics in English instead.
• One-Hit Kill: There are things that can instantly turn most enemies fashionable.
  • Des' Fab Slap Glove slaps the fashion sense into an enemy so hard that it instantly makes them fashionable. There are no basic enemies immune to this.
  • The pink fab barrels will instantly turn any enemy caught in their blast fashionable.
  • The W.A.R.drobe Launcher will one-shot any enemy it or its explosions hit, with no basic enemies being immune to it. Turn Coat's monstrosity form doesn't get one-shotted, but takes a good amount of damage instead.
• One-Winged Angel: The villain Turn Coat transforms into a Body Horror fashion monstrosity against his own will, after his overloaded Fab Slap Glove clashes with Deep Coat's Reverse Polarity one. This, naturally, is the final phase of the Final Boss fight.
• Playing with Fire: Flamers wear clothing so overly hot that it gives them actual fire powers, like shooting fire shockwaves or placing lines of flames on the ground. Naturally, they're weak to the Wet'Ones. The villain Turn Coat also gains fire powers when he puts on an overly hot suit.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: A forced version by Des, who defeats the indecently dressed Mr. Spewdos and Gimp Suits by using the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades along with its needles to forcefully put decent clothing onto them.
• Power-Up Food: Tiny Suits have Super-Speed and hyperactive movement thanks to the energy drinks they gulp down. This even makes them invulnerable to most attacks if they're not bound up by the Tailormade's Fabric Grenades.
• Product Displacement: Mr. Spewdos is not dressed in speedo swimwear and a pair of Crocs; he's wearing "spewdos" and "cracs".
• Reference Overdosed: Pretty much every poster in the city and cutscene has reference to another work or a website.
• Rummage Fail: At the end of the first phase, Hugo rummages through his briefcase. It contains a fire hydrant.
• Secret Room: There are a few secret areas in every level, usually containing some bonus ammunition and a large portrait of Des in a silly outfit, and the game tracks how many you find.
• Serious Business: The main premise of the game is that fashion is treated very seriously in this game. Even wearing dull colored suit is considered a fashion crime, let alone wearing socks with sandals.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Flashers cannot be damaged until their coats are open, after which they're vulnerable to either the 2DYE-4's paint mode or the color-draining mode.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Des walks towards the cop car in the opening cutscene, he does so in a way identical to this panel◊ of DIO approaching Jotaro.
  • Turn Coat introduces Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX as his "young fadawan". Dressed in a Neo's coat and glasses, wearing a Power Glove with Darth Vader's power suit's panel, and wielding a lightsaber-buster sword, Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX enters by quoting Zero Wing. During combat, he performs a Naruto Run and after each of his phases, he has his health bar refill with a Mega Man (Classic) sound effect (involving a platforming segment with that franchise's Temporary Platforms sound), a codec call between Des and Haley, and a Wolfenstein 3-D minigame. When his final phase is beaten, it cuts to a "Press [F] To Pay Respects" funeral coffin scene (in cyberspace). The post-fight cutscene has a parody of Thao Nguyen Xanh - Sad Romance song playing in the background. His Parole Ball cutscene involves a pastiche of the Coffin Dance meme, until Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX leaps from the coffin — before dancing with Gangnam Style's "horse riding" move.
• Shrunk in the Wash: One of the Loose Suits' weaknesses is the Wet'Ones, since the water makes their unfashionable loose suits shrink to a more fashionable size.
• Significant Anagram: A tailor named Arton Cut that the protagonists investigate is actually the brother of Deep Coat, Runt Coat, which Arton Cut is an anagram for. Runt Coat renames himself as Turn Coat, another anagram for himself. More significantly, Des' fab glove was donated to the Fashion Police Squad by the "Taut Corn Foundation". Guess what Taut Corn is an anagram of.
• Sleepyhead: To emphasise how boring they are, a Dull Suit falls asleep standing during his own intro cutscene.
• Sniping Mission: Part of Mission 9 and Mission 10 require you to snipe fashion criminals on a gala walkway before they enter and lower the fashion show's ratings, with different bullet types working on different fashion crimes. Every so often a few fashion criminals will appear in the background to drain the ratings, requiring you to shoot them. The mission fails if the ratings drop lower than 20 at any time, or if the timer ends with the ratings below 40. There's no penalty for shooting innocent civilians, thankfully.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: Awnings and parasols often act as springboards, launching player up in the air. Later, rubber boats also acts as springboards.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Officer Haley serves as the serious Straight Woman to the wisecracking Des.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Elevator theme is a parody of At Doom's Gate from Doom series.
  • Unhappy String Instrument is a parody of Sad Romance by Ji Pyeongkeyon.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Each of the enemy types can only be damaged by a specific weapon, forcing you to switch them up frequently.
• Take That!: The various hidden secrets in the level show posters of Des dressed up in fashion crimes, which he'll bemoan the tackiness ofinvoked. Two of these outfits include Adam of the House of Randor's neon pink tunic and green tights, and Duke Nukem's classic red tank top and blond flat haircut.
• Too Kinky to Torture: The Gimp Suits are people running around in latex fetish wear. They're invulnerable to being whipped by the Belt of Justice — in fact, they get healed by it, and if there's one active then they'll teleport in front of Des to absorb the belt strike if he ever attempts one.
• Two Men, One Dress: Dull manager enemy is actually just two dull suits standing on each other.
• Uncommon Time: 14 Off the Rails, heard in mission 7, is in 10/4.
• Utility Weapon:
  • Belt of Justice can be used as a makeshift grappling hook.
  • Primary fire of Wet'Ones can be used to run faster across surfaces.
• World of Pun: The tailoring and fashion-related puns are everywhere in the dialogue and even in menus.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Many famous trademarks are altered such as Speedos are changed to Spewdos, YouTube to Huetube, Hugo Boss to Hugo Bawss etc.
• X-Ray Sparks: When Xx_UwU_Senpai_SwagMan_xX gets short circuited, his skeleton is shown.