You play as Mr. Domino (at least, at first; other characters are unlockable). Your goal is to lay down a line of dominoes throughout some very odd stages. Each stage has a number of action triggers; for the best score, you need to line up your dominoes to hit all of these. All the while, you have to look out for various obstacles (which can hurt you but oddly do nothing to do your dominoes) and power-ups and traps on the ground. Oh, and one more thing: all the while, though you can slow down or speed up, you can't stop moving. After all, no one can stop Mr. Domino.
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino contains examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The last level starts in one, with the area's goal being to get onto street-level.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: The official American website
shows an alternate render for the cover art that would be this. However, the game's box gives Mr. Domino a simple smiley face, no matter what region.
- Butt-Monkey: Bruce gets hit by a car on the last level.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mr. Domino quite clearly commits suicide in both his and Miss Domino's endings.
- Fake Difficulty: A significant portion of the game's difficulty is that the stages are designed to screw you over at every turn. To name just one example, one of the triggers in "Fun Park Massive" has its landing point after an unavoidable Speed-Up panel, meaning you have to time your button press perfectly to resume the chain or else restart the entire stage.
- Gainax Ending: All of them:
- Mr. Domino jumps off a building. When he hits the ground he shatters to pieces, becoming an average domino which some girl finds.
- Miss Domino runs into a wall and breaks into an average domino. Mr. Domino appears and changes into an inanimate domino as well.
- Bruce randomly explodes and turns into an average domino. A crow comes by and carries him across the sunset.
- Pierre breaks down and collapses into an average domino.
- D∆M•?0 reduces himself to a pile of goo, and then turns into an average domino. A spaceship comes by and carries him out of Earth.
- Happens in-level in "Fun Park Massive". All the other triggers set off various amusement park items. The last one... turns off the lights?
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The end of "Tripping in the Park" has a meteor appear from nowhere and crash into the middle of the park.
- Gratuitous Japanese: All the human characters speak Japanese.
- Groin Attack: "Grandpa's in the House" has a Japanese dad getting punched where it hurts.
- Meaningful Name: The reason you can't stop Mr. Domino is because he just keeps running.
-
Nintendo Hard: The main reason the game got such mixed reviews is because of its utterly unforgiving and extremely frustrating gameplay. - Non-Indicative Title: As it turns out, Mr Domino can be stopped by a lot of things.
- Non Sequitur: Most of what happens when an action trigger is hit has no reason whatsoever for happening. Most notably Grandpa achieving enlightenment/becoming the Incredible Hulk at the end of "Grandpa's in the House".
- No Plot? No Problem!: Who is Mr. Domino? Why is he placing domino chains in these places? Why does what happens when you hit the triggers happen, and why do the dominoes cause them to happen? Who cares? Just place the dominoes already.
- Product Placement: "Shop 'Til You Drop" has this for many Japanese candy brands. Also, "Tripping in the Park" has D∆M•?O drive a vehicle that closely resembles a Jeep.
- Reset Button: One of the power-ups on the ground is a large letter R. Touching the R resets the level, removing all the dominoes placed (but not restoring Mr. Domino's health), and puts you back at the start. Useful if you screw up placing your chain.
- Scoring Points: The basis of the game. You get more points for having more dominoes in a successful chain, with a big bonus for hitting all the triggers. Any dominoes placed but not in the chain are deducted from your score.
- Shows Damage: Mr. Domino has a health meter that depletes over time and as he hits obstacles. This is represented by him slowly turning darker.
- Slapstick: The main point of "Grandpa's in the House". Dad gets punched in the groin by a boxing glove, Mom gets blown up by a bomb that just happens to be in her oven, Little Sister slips coming out of the shower and flies into the koi pond, and if you don't get a full chain, Grandpa has a giant bell fall on him.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: "Tripping in the Park", "Fun Park Massive" and the last level have sprite people cheering for you.
- Title Drop: The last level is called "No One Can Stop Mr. Domino".
- Toilet Humor: The last level has a bird pooping on a domino line, causing it to topple over.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: You don't get to see more of the stage than the area immediately around Mr. Domino, so at the start you won't have a clue where any of the triggers are, nor what's in the way, nor where the chain will resume. This is another reason the Reset Button power-up is useful.
- Your Size May Vary: The main characters' sizes are varying between the indoor (regular domino sizes) and outdoor stages (as large as cars). That is, unless the park and city stages are very small.
