A portion of the game's playable characters.Clockwise from the bottom-center
Newgrounds Rumble is a Flash game released in 2007 (and subsequently updated into 2009) by a trio of users (Luis, NegativeONE
, and MindChamber). At its core, it's Super Smash Bros. with Newgrounds characters — the plot being a series of fights for the title of "King of the Portal".The game can be played for free here.
Features playable characters from:
- Alloy (Alloy)
- Pico (Pico, Nene, Convict)
- Piconjo (Piconjo)
- Newgrounds Bots (P-Bot)
- Samurai Asshole (Samurai Asshole)
- Salad Fingers (Salad Fingers)
- Tankmen (Tankman)
- Alien Hominid (Alien Hominid)
- Madness Combat (Hank, Henchman)
- Fancy Pants Adventures (Fancy Pants)
This game contains examples of:
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Tankman's ending has shades of this, primarily with the banners bearing a "T" symbol with an obvious resemblance to a swastika.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: In his original appearance, Samurai Asshole's hair was black, but in Rumble, his hair is blue. However, his design here was actually intended for a scrapped sequel of his original game, justifying the sudden design overhaul seen here.
- Adaptational Name Change: The Madness Combat Grunts are called "Henchmen" here.
- Adaptational Villainy: Fancy Pants Man's final battle is against Pico and Nene, who are apparently the ones behind his coming here and the attempted assassinations on him. It's bad enough that Piconjo takes Fancy Pants Man's side in this conflict.
- Adaptational Modesty:
- Convict was shirtless, possibly even nude in his debut "Pico Vs Convict" but appears in Rumble in a black suit with a loose red tie.
- Piconjo's redesign takes him from a Walking Shirtless Scene in a long loincloth to being dressed normally.
- And the Adventure Continues:
- Samurai Asshole, unable to find the person responsible for destroying his village, leaves Newgrounds to continue searching.
- Hank discovers that Tricky was behind the Zerg Rush at the end of his story.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Predictably the case in Piconjo's ending, where he plunges Newgrounds into its Darkest Hour after killing all of its protectors. Convict does this as well, but in his own way by staying hidden and using his Shapeshifter abilities to manipulate Newgrounds from the shadows.
- BFS: Piconjo's weapon of choice is basically a huge chunk of metal in the shape of a sword.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: As mentioned below, Tankman's ending has a derisive reference to what was then Newgrounds' latest (and most infamous) April Fools' joke.
- Buy or Get Lost: There is a sign in the back of Nene's store that reads "HELLO CUSTOMER. This is not a ribrary. No flip flip with Magazines. You buy."
- The Cameo:
- In Pico's School, Cassandra (in her Penilian form) looms over the rubble.
- In Nevada, Jebus can occasionally be seen flying in the background, shooting at an off-screen attacker.
- Comeback Mechanic: If a character takes lots of damage in a short span of time, the "rage" power-up kicks in (boosting their own attack power).
- Crapsack World: Fancy Pants Man's ending outright states Newgrounds to be "a civilization of people who kill anything they don't understand."
- Cycle of Hurting: It's quite easy to do this to the AI with Fancy Pants's neutral normal attack, due to the lack of Mercy Invincibility.
- Dead Person Impersonation: After Nene hangs herself in her ending, Convict employs this to one day destroy Newgrounds from the inside out.
- Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: Downplayed. The majority of the roster features characters from series that are violent, crass, or unsettling, and then there's Fancy Pants, who originates from a platforming series that has none of the above.
- Ditto Fighter: Convict randomly morphs into any of the other fighters (though he has his own moveset, used in between transformations).
- Doomed Hometown: Samurai Asshole's backstory is that he's searching for the person who destroyed his village.
- Doppelgänger Attack: One power-up creates an intangible clone of your character that follows and attacks alongside them.
- Downer Ending: Nene's. She's unable to deal with the pressure of being king of the Portal and hangs herself days after getting the title (by killing Pico, no less). Convict subsequently takes her place, waiting for the right time to destroy Newgrounds entirely.
- Driven to Suicide: Nene's ending has her hanging herself days after becoming king of the Portal, unable to deal with the pressure.
- Drunk with Power: Tankman's ending shows him demanding the nation be redesigned in his image.
- Easy Level Trick: Any single player level taking place in the Scrapyard can be finished quickly by luring the computer opponents under the crusher (which is a One-Hit Kill). It's downplayed a bit, as it's not guaranteed, and you have to make sure you don't die as well — but, when pulled off, makes the battle trivial to win.
- Evil Versus Evil: Convict's penultimate story level sees him fight Piconjo (because the latter refused to give up his "position").
- Fish out of Water: Fancy Pants Man's story has him lured into Newgrounds with the promise of free ice cream. He soon realizes (after hacking P-Bot) that he was tricked — the rulers of Newgrounds aimed to kill him, as they were against "wholesome, non-violent gaming" (like his own series).
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Regarding Convict's transformations — certain parts of the game (such as his story mode and Nene's ending) imply he has to kill someone to impersonate them. Naturally, in gameplay this restriction doesn't apply at all. Additionally, his involuntary shapeshifting only applies to gameplay.
- Glass Cannon: Salad Fingers is somewhere between this and a Mighty Glacier — his attacks are very powerful and have incredible reach, but he's slow and has low health.
- Guest Fighter: Fancy Pants Man counts, since while some of his games are playable on the Newgrounds website, he didn't originate on Newgrounds.
- Home Stage: Every character has a stage associated with them except for Fancy Pants.
- Invincibility Power-Up: A golden sword (actually the level 57 icon) serves this function.
- I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Fancy Pants Man was led to Newgrounds under the pretense of Free Ice Cream Day.
- Joke Character: Henchman (unlocked by clicking Hank's sunglasses on the character select screen). He has Hank's Mighty Glacier moveset, but does less damage and only has about 40 health.note The secret medal for this game is actually obtained by beating a match as Henchman.
- Lighter and Softer: Fancy Pants Man, since he's the only character to actually come from a more family-friendly game series. This is actually a plot point, as the other characters try to kill him because they were against "wholesome, non-violent gaming".
- Man Bites Man: Alien Hominid has an attack where he bites the opponent.
- Mascot Fighter: For Newgrounds, of course.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Featuring Pico, Nene, Piconjo, Convict, Salad Fingers, Fancy Pants Man, Hank, Henchman, Samurai Asshole, Tankman, Alien Hominid, Alloy, and P-Bot.
- Mighty Glacier: Several characters come close to this, none so much as Piconjo.
- Mythology Gag: A whole page's worth.
- Not Himself: Samurai Asshole's penultimate mission begins with Pico coming into his garden, oddly eager to destroy the place. His final mission reveals that it was actually Convict (attempting to frame the real Pico).
- Odd Friendship: Piconjo, of all people, helps Fancy Pants Man in the latter's final stage. "Seems that [he] spent much of his childhood as a carefree stickman, and understands Fancy's plight."
- Off with His Head!: Pico's death animation has his head bloodily fall off his body.
- Once More, with Clarity: Nene's penultimate single player level reenacts Pico vs. Convict, revealing that she was really responsible for capturing him. (The last level has Pico himself try to kill her once this gets out to the public.)
- One-Hit Kill: The trash compactor in the Junkyard stage squashes anyone who is unlucky to be underneath it, killing them in one hit.
- Partial Transformation: When Convict isn't copying someone, his attacks revolve around transforming his limbs into weapons (such as turning his hand into a spike or mace).
- Randomized Transformation: Convict's Ditto Fighter gimmick works like this: every so often, he will transform into another playable character at random, then transform back again after a set period of time.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Samurai Asshole's story mode (and his involvement in other characters' story modes) amounts to this, as he searches for the one who destroyed his village (even attacking other characters in their own story modes).
- School Setting Simulation: Pico's stage is a wrecked classroom based on Pico's School.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Fancy Pants Man's ending. Disgusted with the Crapsack World that is Newgrounds, and fearful of the vicious spirit fighting its residents provoked within him, he leaves via the Portal with no intention of ever coming back.
- Secret Character: Henchman is more or less a living Easter Egg accessed by clicking on Hank's sunglasses in the character select screen — notably, you can never permanently unlock him (you have to use the aforementioned method every time you want to use him).
- Smurfette Principle: Nene is the only female character in the game. Her bio even states that she wants prove that she's "more than the token girl saving the group from ‘sausage party’ status."
- Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: The Pico-based characters have four representatives. The next-highest is Madness Combat, which has two (which is really more like one and a half, due to Henchman's... er, deficiencies). Everyone else gets one, leaving about a third of the game to be Pico-related content.
- Status Quo Is God: P-Bot's reason for entering the tournament was to prove himself capable of being more than a simple moderator. He ends up leaving his newly-earned title as King of the Portal to go back to his original function in his ending.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Fancy Pants Man, whose main method of offense in his home series was the Goomba Stomp, becomes an efficient weapon user here (even if it's a pencil).
- P-Bot, a simple bot on Newgrounds, is significantly more capable in this game.
- Villains Out Shopping: Inverted in one of Piconjo's missions, wherein he attempts to catch Alloy off-guard at the convenience store.
- Zerg Rush: Hank's final mission forces him to face dozens of Henchmen, who managed to consolidate while he was gone from the Madness Combat universe.
