Web Animation / Kaizo Trap

Title card for the YouTube video

The concept of a game sucking players in is nothing new, but what if that game were a Platform Hell sort, a la Kaizo Mario World? This is the challenge ahead of an (initially) unnamed heroine who ventures through (and dies to) numerous obstacles and is bombarded in every way possible with a barrage of threats in order to save her partner, who was sucked into the game itself and is being held captive by the console.

Named after the trope of the same name, Kaizo Trap is a 2015 web animation by Guy Collins, with music by Leslie Wai. It is a loving tribute to platform hell games, of which Collins is an avid player himself. It is also, however, a sort of game in and of itself, as Guy created five endings for it, and it's up to the viewer to find them all. (Sadly the game no longer works; see the Trivia page for more details.)

In November 13, 2021, an actual playable recreation of Kaizo Trap was created, developed by CyberPunk64Bit and Draker, with approval by Collins and Wai themselves. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled by CyberPunk on May 2022, but the game remains available to download.

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Kaizo Trap provides examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Kai, going through platform hell to save the love of her life.
• All Just a Dream: The first ending has Kai and Zo waking up in front of the TV as though nothing happened. Although the room itself is damaged for reasons unknown, it's somewhat implied that they wake up years later. It's played more straight in the "Wake Up" ending, where Zo wakes up in front of the TV as if from a nightmare.
• All There in the Manual. The aptly named "Manual" gave a bit of a backstory on how Kai bought the Kaizo trap console in the first place, and why did the console kidnapped Zo.
• Animated Music Video: For Leslie Wai's "Paradigm".
• Arrange Mode: During Kai's second montage of attempts after she enters the Continue door, the game appears to be remixed to be harder. The snowy level now has a blizzard that somewhat obscures vision, the volcano level's cave-in is more aggressive and also features rising lava, and a rockslide now perpetually rains onto the mountain level.
• Art Shift: Inside the game, both human characters have more Super-Deformed-esque designs, and there is a subtle pixelation that runs throughout the entire world. This is also the style used for the credits in the second alternate ending.
• Beam Spam: Both final bosses use this.
• Bear Trap: One kills Kai in the first death montage, taking off the top of her head when she lands in it.
• Bland-Name Product: The Kaizo Trap console is basically a Nintendo Entertainment System with a different label.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Zig-zagged. Kai suffers through horrific deaths throughout the game, but when Zo's shadow counterpart blasts her into the continue screen, she only suffers from several small scars on her body.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Though it can be considered very sadistic, Kaizo Mario World is made of the same stuff as its predecessors, and as such the gore is almost non-existent. Whenever Kai in this dies, however, it's often quite visceral. The first time she reverts back to start, she appears highly disturbed by the fact that she just died.
• Body Horror:
  • The various gory deaths Kai suffers.
  • The final boss is feeding off of Zo's body using cables embedded into him. He eventually figures out that removing the cables weakens the system, but this comes at a great physical cost to him as well, bleeding profusely from each hole in his body. And according to the creator, ripping out even one of those cables would be as painful as deliberately snapping one of your fingers.
• Bullet Hell: The final boss is a platforming version of this, with laser beams instead of bullets.
• Can Only Move the Eyes: The garbled credits freeze in the "Long" ending just before the couple reaches the springboard, and Kai can only move her eyes and eyebrows.
• Coconut Meets Cranium: Hidden in the first death montage; Kai is standing and looking at the locked gate at the first level when a coconut falls from the tree above her and apparently kills her instantly.
• Cool Code of Source: Entering and exiting the game flies Kai past a wall of programming code, and there are other instances where it is visible, most notably in the glitching effects as well as in the alternate endings.
• Determinator: Kai dies many, many times in order to reach her partner, only to be sent to the Continue screen instantly. The choice to keep pushing forward is a quick and easy one.
• Distressed Dude: Zo gets sucked into the game world and his body is used as a vessel for the final boss.
• Do Not Spoil This Ending: Meta-example. The secret endings go almost entirely unmentioned on this page, except for their existence. Given that the creator is a troper, this may not be surprising. However, YouTube video suggestion doesn't know it's supposed to be a secret. No longer the case in 2020, where the creator made all the endings except one public due to the removal of annotations from YouTube.
• Double-Meaning Title:
  • It's a video about Platform Hell games and the ending isn't really the actual ending.
  • After the couple was officially given names in 2021, the title gains a third meaning: a game console that traps a couple named Kai and Zo inside its world.
• Eaten Alive: As seen on the death montage, a number of enemies, but most notably there's a frog that catches and swallows Kai whole.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: The video comes with a warning of these, particularly due to the laser and glitch effects.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Given the amount of deaths shown in montage, it's safe to say that everything has killed Kai, yet she keeps pushing forward.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: When the game is booted up, all the lights in the house shut off; this leaves only the glow of the television, which sucks both occupants in.
• Evil Twin: The game creates a shadow version of Zo, all black with glowing red eyes and the ability to shoot powerful laser beams. Kai fails once to beat him, but returns and restores him back to normal. In the alternate endings, however, he comes Back from the Dead.
• Face Death with Dignity: After Kai breaks off the cables holding Zo from the Kaizo Trap system, it had a look of what appears to be relief shortly before turning into a singularity.
• Foreshadowing: The paintings in the living room: on the left, it shows the infamous Kaizo Trap sequence from Kaizo Mario World^note When completing a level with an active P-button timer-affected platform after the finish line, there's a chance that the timer runs out just before the Iris Out, thus turning back the platform back into coins and making the player fall, losing a life instead of finishing the level. itself, while on the right it shows two rectangles; one red and one blue, representing the "Continue" screen.
• Frictionless Reentry: Averted. A ball of flame surrounds Kai as she falls into the game, but it doesn't hurt her.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Zo boots up the game system, one can get a glimpse of the final boss's eyes on the television just before the camera cuts away.
  • The location of the first annotation leading to the hidden endings is given away in the instruction manual.
  • During the first montage of deaths, one of Kai's deaths is bonking an Invisible Block and presumably falling into a pit.
  • Another scene from the same montage, lasting three frames, is of Kai looking at the locked spring in curiosity before getting killed by a falling coconut from the nearby tree.
  • As Kai gets boosted up to face Zo's shadow counterpart, she passes by two signs that detail speed running rules for this game.
    UNASSISTED RUN ONLY
    TOOL-ASSIST PROHIBITED
    No Save Scumming
    No Slow Motion
    No Frame Advance
    No Rewind
    No Memory Display
    No Code Injection
    No Pause
    No Hope
    No End
  • After Kai chooses to continue the game instead of quitting, the camera zooms by a MS-Dos style command prompt, featuring text from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
  • After that is a montage of her running through the game again. At the end of each scene, however, she is depicted in a scenario that will inevitably lead to her death (being surrounded by cats, about to fall into lava, standing underneath falling rocks without enough time to move away).
  • The backdrop when Kai fights Shadow Zo has a large screen with scrolling text from The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, barely discernable when Shadow Zo fires his lasers.
  • While the graphics glitch during the final bossfight, the silhouette of Zo can be seen executing the same moves as Kai a fraction of a second before she does.
  • In the first ending, after the Kaizo Trap console breaks down, the real world suddenly becomes pixelated like in the game world despite the couple had just narrowly escaped from it. Coin textures are also seen on the bottom left corner for one frame as the scene fades to black, implying that they're still trapped in the game world in a way.
  • Just before the credits close in the "Good" ending, when the couple waves the viewers goodbye in their home, the painting on the left moves itself.
• Game-Breaking Bug: Invoked in-universe by Zo to disrupt the Kaizo Trap console holding him; At first he unplugs one cable from his body, reviving Kai despite having gotten killed earlier - and then unplugs another to start breaking the game. When Kai forcibly breaks the remaining cables off, the game tears itself asunder.
• Game Over: Appears at the end of each of the video's endings, with the score reading "0" for the main video and "5" for the final ending.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: All of this applies to the shadow counterpart of Zo.
• The Goomba: Snail enemies are the most common, though their mechanic is more based off of the Koopa Troopas from Super Mario World; stomping them results in their retracting back into their shell, which can be picked up, thrown, etc.
• Goomba Springboard: Used frequently.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Given the roots of Platform Hell, this is a given. Japanese text appears numerous times throughout the short, including in a portrait in the home.
• Guide Dang It!: Parodied. A Nintendo-style instruction manual follows Kai into the game, but she's baffled by the instructions (which are clearly written for a controller and considering that she's the player character, she has to learn all the moves by herself through trial-and-error).
• Hand Blast: Zo's shadow counterpart has this ability.
• Haunted Technology: The Kaizo Trap system's nature is never explained, but given that it has the ability to suck humans into itself, we can assume that it is equipped with some form of supernatural power.
• I Have Your Wife: Gender-inverted. Someone you love and deeply care about has been kidnapped from you, and the only way you can rescue them is by traversing a dangerous land. Also, you know that you will die. A lot. All because you wanted them to be happy.
• Holding Hands: Kai leads the way out with Zo in her tow as the game world collapses, mostly because he's too weak to fend for himself.
• Hope Spot:
  • The basis of the "Good" ending. The couple escapes the game world without having their house ransacked and then the credits roll, giving viewers a false sense of victory should they not notice the annotation that (initially) appeared on the red springboard near the end. At the last second, the music stutters and the painting depicting the infamous Kaizo Mario World sequence on the couple's room suddenly moves itself, signifying that it's not over yet.
  • The climax of the "Long" ending has Kai getting the key needed for the springboard in order to escape the ruined game world, complete with garbled noises in the background shifting into a triumphant song. However, just as the couple was about to land on their house, the game stutters and crashes once again. The continue screen even plays a distorted version of Super Mario World's stage complete jingle along with what sounds to be garbled laughter, as if the Kaizo Trap system is mocking the couple (and the viewers) thinking they've beaten the game.
• Human Resources: The Kaizo Trap system appears to be using Zo for this in some capacity, as the final battle has him submerged in fluid with numerous cables plugged directly into his body.
• Invisible Block: One appears during the first kill montage.
• Jump Physics: A number of techniques are outlined in the instruction manual, such as the Wall Jump, Double Jump, and Long Jump. Falling Damage does not occur, however.
• Kill It with Fire: One of the many obstacles Kai needs to dodge.
• Kill Screen: The glitches that occur when the imprisoned Zo is removed from the system strongly resemble that of a kill screen. In the "Long" ending, the entire game has become a kill screen.
• Lethal Lava Land: One of the worlds.
• Matrix Raining Code: A bit is visible before Kai ascends to face the final boss.
• Meaningful Background Event: The key Kai uses to escape the game appears very briefly in the industrial level, just before she meets Zo's shadow counterpart.
• Mecha-Mooks: All the enemies inside the game appear to be robotic.
• Mickey Mousing: The final boss' attack patterns from 5:20 to 5:50 follows the beat of "Paradigm".
• Multiple Endings: There was a hidden annotation in the main video, and one could use it to find five hidden endings. When annotations were removed from YouTube in 2019, Collins released all but one videos alluding to the hidden endings to public in the following year.
  • "Bad": The ending tied to the entire animation. The couple escape from the game world successfully, but find their house completely in shambles, implying that they've been gone from the real world for a long time. Freeze-Frame Bonus also implies that it's not really the "real" real world they ended up in. Final Score = 0.
  • "Good": Obtained by clicking an annotation that appears when Kai activates the springboard in the original animation. Here, the board turns red and the couple escapes to the real world just like the previous ending, but this time with their house still intact. The credits roll, with a nice 8-bit remix of "Paradigm" to boot... until it stutters at the last second. Final Score = 1
  • "Long": Obtained by clicking another annotation that appears on the red springboard from the credits of the "Good" ending. Here, the entire credits sequence is completely glitched and it freezes just before the couple reaches the springboard. Kai wakes up and realizes that being stuck in the credits screen means they're stuck inside the game world again. Zo's shadow counterpart suddenly returns to take him away while Kai couldn't do anything but watch, separating them. The couple then gets stranded on the Kill Screen-ed version of the game on their own, but eventually reunite with each other. They glitch themselves through the game to find the credits sequence again, this time in worse condition. Kai then goes through a maze behind the credits to get a black key which she uses to break through and find a black version of the springboard, which she and Zo use to finally escape... until the game crashes just as they're about to reach their house. Final Score = 2
  • "Short": Found by clicking on an annotation that appears during the glitched sequence from the "Long" ending. The ending itself is just sped-up garbled mess, but a frame at 0:17 contains hex codes that can be decoded to access the first video of the "Maze", a series of five glitched out continue screens. Before annotations were removed, viewers had to click on the correct option that appears in each subsequent video before proceeding to the next one, lest they get Rick Rolled if the wrong option was chosen. The completion of the ARG will lead to the fourth ending. Final Score = 3.
  • "Sleep": Obtained after completing the "Maze" ARG from the "Short" ending. This one depicts Zo appearing to be unconscious inside a glitched version of the living room. Kai is nowhere to be seen and Zo occasionally glitches into his shadow counterpart. Like the "Short" ending, this ending contains hidden hex codes throughout the video that can be decoded, which leads to the final ending. Final score = 4.
  • "Wake Up": The only ending not to be made public by Collins after the removal of annotations. Here, the entire events of the animation (and the previous four endings in the process) turns out to be Zo's nightmare after he fell asleep playing the game for too long. As he and Kai leave the room, the game console turns itself on to thank the viewers who reached this ending for playing the game before shutting down again. Final Score = 5.
• Nintendo Hard: In-universe, the game itself, given that the animation is a one whole love letter to the Platform Hell genre in general.
• No Name Given: Initially, the human couple were nameless, only referred to within a set of coordinates in the "Long" ending as "Girl" and "Dude". They remained unnamed until six years later, in accordance to developing the actual Kaizo Trap game in November 2021, Collins "decreed[ed] forever more" that he officially named◊ the pair as "Kai" and "Zo" respectively.
• No OSHA Compliance: The Factory level.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: All over the place, but especially prominent in the alternate endings where the garbled textures combine with the eerie atmosphere to really nail the ominousness.
• One-Hit Kill: Kai. From everything.
• Patchwork Map: The video game world is a bunch of different biomes crowded together on a small planet, with a giant mountain complete with evil headquarters overshadowing the whole thing.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Kai and Zo.
• Power of the Void: After the Kaizo Trap console is defeated, it turns into a singularity which starts to suck in everything in the world.
• Red Pill, Blue Pill: The continue screen. The "Yes" door is red and leads back into the game, continuing the dangerous journey. The "No" door is blue and leads back home, where the journey ends.
• Save Scumming: Referenced as not allowed in a hidden disclaimer.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Slide Attack: One of Kai's abilities outlined in the manual.
• Steam Vent Obstacle: Occurs with fire instead of steam.
• Supervillain Lair: Where the boss fight is held.
• Take My Hand!: A somewhat inverted example; as the two humans are leaving the game, Zo's grip starts to weaken just before they make it out together.
• Temporary Platform: Numerous examples.
• The End... Or Is It?: The "Bad" ending sees the couple finally returning to the real world after narrowly escaping the game world's destruction... or so it seems, judging from the implications of the Freeze-Frame Bonus described above.
• The Many Deaths of You: The game has multiple montages featuring Kai's many death animations.
• The Walls Are Closing In: ...with saws.
• Time-Compression Montage: The number of deaths Kai suffers in order to beat the game composes a large montage, as well as a smaller one just before her final fight against Zo's evil side. The "Bad" ending implies that it took her months or even years to beat the game, as the house is ransacked, vandalized, and in a terrible state of disrepair when they come back. The "Good" ending nullifies this, however, by implying Narnia Time.
• Title Drop: The game system is named the "Kaizo Trap". Also doubles as Antagonist Title.
• Trailers Always Lie: The trailer for the animation depicts Zo running through the game, and the rest of the footage is edited to make it appear that it's Kai who gets captured.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The game itself.
• Video-Game Lives: There are none depicted in the game itself, but it is implied that Kai runs out of lives after reaching Shadow Zo for the first time.
• Win to Exit: The game, but not for Kai. After losing to Zo's shadow counterpart, she is presented with a "Continue" screen; "Yes" leads to the first level, and "No" leads back to her living room; however, this means she would have to leave her lover behind. She chooses to keep fighting.