Nitrome Must Die (formatted on the title screen as Nitrome Must Die!!!!) is a flash game made by Nitrome. It is their 100th game, which the game proudly states in its startup.
The protagonists Austin Carter and Justin Bennet hate Nitrome, believing they make terrible games. Deciding they can't stand it anymore, the two meet up to destroy the company. Outside Nitrome Towers, Justin crashes into some trash cans, revealing two guns. The duo grabs the guns and enters Nitrome Towers on a quest to kill every living thing there.
The game is a platform shooter where each of the 100 floors of the tower is a level, and the player must kill all enemies on the floor before they can go to the next one. The floors are in sets of ten, with most of them in a random order, with the exception of the two "Challenge Levels" on each set, and the boss floor at the end.
Tropes found in Nitrome Must Die
- Abnormal Ammo: The various weapons can result in guns firing bubbles, barrels, live penguins, farts and letters of the Nitrome logo among other things.
- Alien Blood: Non-human enemies bleed a different color depending on the enemy, with it usually being the color of their body. Even for red enemies, it doesn't exactly resemble blood.
- Bloodier and Gorier: While it's all Alien Blood, most of the enemies were originally from games that had none at all. The first enemies being from Jack Frost makes this particularly noteworthy, as in that game, the player can only stun enemies, not kill them.
- Continuity Cavalcade: You go through the 100-floor Nitrome building killing enemies (and some that weren't enemies) from many of the Nitrome games up to this one.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Almost every boss in the game goes out by blowing up, with explosion effects crowding the screen.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Austin and Justin going on a rampage through Nitrome Towers just because they made bad games.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The protagonists from Nitrome's game Rainbogeddon appear as enemies, even though the game hadn't been released yet.
- Evil Versus Evil: Austin and Justin's murderous rampage against Nitrome over making bad games paints them as a Villain Protagonist duo, but considering how employees are abused in Nitrome Towers and even wild birds outside are shot, it's hard to say they're much better.
- Excuse Plot: The story is minimal and is only a pretext for the destruction of Nitrome Towers.
- Giant Mook: The trolls from Square Meal serve this role, being large, slow enemies that take a lot to bring down.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Nitrome is portrayed here as outright evil, with their employees being abused.
- Mooks: Various characters and enemies from previous Nitrome games appear as the hordes of enemies the protagonists mow down, often by large numbers.
- Self-Deprecation: It's a game where you destroy a fictionalized version of the company that made it.
- Side View: Everything in the game is shown from the side.
- Symbol Swearing: Austin and Justin swear frequently in the game's intro and (to a lesser extent) ending, but all of it is replaced by symbols.
- Zerg Rush: Some rooms will have a large number of weaker enemies attacking the player. A late game Challenge Room, for instance, has over 100 blue slimes the player needs to kill, all of them heading towards you.
