Because of the aggressive tendencies shown by your semi-sentient species, the Council has bestowed upon you the honor of relieving their boredom by fighting for the propagation rights of the species of your world.
The combat will be weaponless. The matches will take place in a holographic simulation of you or your opponent's homeworld, and will be farcast to the Council Chamber.
If you fight well enough, you will be given the honor of defeat at the hands of the Grand Champion.
Failure to fight will result in automatic forfeiture of propagation rights.
The combat will be weaponless. The matches will take place in a holographic simulation of you or your opponent's homeworld, and will be farcast to the Council Chamber.
If you fight well enough, you will be given the honor of defeat at the hands of the Grand Champion.
Failure to fight will result in automatic forfeiture of propagation rights.
—The announcer, from the game's Opening Narration
Oh, no...
—Nick, in response to the above
Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport is a fighting game written for DOS, by Argo Games, and published by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms). It was originally released as shareware, but has been freeware since 2006.
You choose one of eight characters of various alien races (including two humans) and fight the other characters (as well as three boss enemies) for the amusement of a mysterious alien council; the winner doesn't get their home planet blown up.
FIGHT!
- Alien Blood: Of the alien fighters, only Mouth, Toad, and Worm have blood that's some shade of red.
- Ambiguously Human: Selena has a hidden Finishing Move where she suddenly distends her jaw, sprouts fangs, and chews her opponent's head off.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: You can't fight Champion and Grand Champion in the story mode unless you play on at least Normal. If you're on Very Easy you can't fight Parasite either.
- Finishing Move: When the opponent's health is low during the final round, you can tear their head off by inputting a certain command, which the announcer gleefully refers to as "MEAT!" Afterwards, you can light their corpse on fire with a "FLAMBÉ!"
- Flawless Victory: Just like most fighting games, whenever you beat an opponent without taking a single hit, the announcer says "Perfect!". In Xenophage's case, this trope is also inverted. Whenever you lose without landing a single hit, the announcer would now say "Pathetic!" in place of "Perfect!" as if he were calling you pathetic in regards to your skill (or lack thereof.)
- Involuntary Battle to the Death: The human characters are shown being abducted with no warning, and there's no indication the aliens had any choice in this matter either.
- Ki Manipulation: The humans can project energy (a fireball for Nick, and a beam for Selena), to help them match the natural ranged attacks of the aliens.
- Mercy Rewarded: After beating an opponent, you can input a button sequence to perform a "Resurrection", reviving them and giving you some bonus points. But the move only gives them a sliver of health, so it's mainly an excuse to beat them again.
- Mini-Game: The hidden Pac-Man clone "Xac-Man", accessible by typing a code on the menu, in which you control Nick or Selena as they gather red dots and Argo Games logos while running from the other fighters.
- Off with His Head!: Every character's "Meat" move is a decapitation. Except for Grand Champion, who doesn't get one.
- Office Lady: Selena has the look of one, and her stage is an office building.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Nearly every attack causes blood to spray out of the target. You can adjust the amount of blood in the game's options, or edit the .ini file to increase it even more.
- Starfish Aliens: None of the nonhuman characters even look remotely humanoid.
- Take That!: This game is notorious for having "Blarney" the Dinosaur as a hidden character. He attacks by shooting hearts and can't get up if knocked down. The game will even mock you if you somehow lose to Blarney, which you pretty much have to do on purpose.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After decapitating the opponent with "Meat", you can input another button sequence to torch the body with "Flambe".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Grand Champion changes forms after you empty his first health bar.
MEAT! FLAMBE! VICTORY!
