History VideoGame / BattleBlockTheater

''[=BattleBlock=] Theater'' is a 2D co-op style PuzzlePlatformer created by [[VideoGame/AlienHominid The]] [[VideoGame/CastleCrashers Behemoth]] for the Xbox 360 and Steam. Riding aboard the ''S.S. Friendship'', a crew led by the world's bestest friend Hatty Hattington soon finds itself caught in a storm. Thrown off-course and crashing on the island, Hatty is captured by the resident cat monsters and forced to wear a glowy red hat, turning him villainous. With the crew of hundreds imprisoned, they must fight like gladiators through numerous obstacle courses and rescue each other and Hatty.

-->[music cuts]\\
'''Narrator:''' (cheery) Just a reminder: anyone caught trying to escape will be executed on the spot. Good day!\\
[music resumes]

-->"Now one fine morning Hatty and pals set out for a new and exciting adventure! What fantastic wonders would they discover this time? Perhaps they would come across a scary ghost ship! Perhaps they would find an island made entirely of candy! Perhaps they would meet a band of swash-buckling pirates! And join forces to find an island made entirely of candy!"

--> '''Narrator:''' There was explosions and dancing girls! Dancing girls who exploded! Exotic animals! Exotic animals who exploded!

-->'''Narartor:''' *While talking about the theater's age* I mean, avert your eyes, children, avert them! *A cardboard cartoon skeleton flies down onto the screen* There's bony people skeletons everywhere! *Zoom in on skull* Scary, right?

-->'''Narrator:''' SAY SOMETHING, HATTY! *incoherent babbling* Cat got your tongue? *rimshot* Shut up.

-->''"Toot-toot! All aboard the gem train! U-uh, next stop... Rich Town! Have your ticket ready."''\\
''"Lets pile all of these into a big mountain, and call it "Gem Mountain"! And then go sledding down Gem Mountain on our toboggans! And then-- uh-- maybe go eat something, and-- g-- sh-- and get some cocoa... so-- w-with, uh, marshmallows."''\\
''"Why don't you treat yourself and go out for cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes and take me with you and treat me too?"''

The gameplay revolves around 'stages' in the decidedly gruesome prison/theatre that the game takes place in, where your character is currently locked up in, and the blocks that they are made up of. The game's co-op component is described as [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential "co-optional"]] (screwing each other over might as well be encouraged, or even mandatory), and there are many versus multiplayer gametypes, such as capturing tofu horses and shooting soccer balls into... basketball hoops. Based off their ''Alien Hominid'' PDA Games.

''[=BattleBlock=] Theater'' is a 2D co-op style PuzzlePlatformer created by [[VideoGame/AlienHominid The]] [[VideoGame/CastleCrashers Behemoth]] for the Xbox 360 and Steam. Riding aboard the S.S. Friendship, a crew led by the world's bestest friend Hatty Hattington soon finds itself caught in a storm. Thrown off-course and crashing on the island, Hatty is captured by the resident cat monsters and forced to wear a glowy red hat, turning him villainous. With the crew of hundreds imprisoned, they must fight like gladiators through numerous obstacle courses and rescue each other and Hatty.

[[caption-width-right:300:Give the performance of your life.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buckle_your_pants_6265.jpg]]

!!''[=BattleBlock=] Theater'' as a whole is an example of:

* NintendoHard: Furbottom's Features are always very difficult.

* SolidClouds: Clouds in this game can be walked on, acting as DirectionallySolidPlaftorms.

->''"What a strange, mysterious island! And what's this? The shore is riddled with little friend-sized footprints! Guess the tide brought them to land! How utterly CONVENIENT! But where have they gotten to? Who knows? I don't! [[CloudCuckoolander Do you? I don't! Do you? I don't!]] Do-[[LargeHam WELCOME TO BATTLEBLOCK THEATER]]! Go inside... the door."''

* BlatantLies: The game's Steam trailer may be stretching the truth a bit, proudly boasting 1,000,000,000p graphics, 21,000 frames per millisecond, and UsefulNotes/OculusRift support... for up to five simultaneous "Oculuses".

** [[spoiler:This eventually comes to [[JustForPun light]] in [[VideoGame/PitPeople the next Behemoth game]].]]

* StuffBlowingUp: A lot of of weapons explode in some way, from logical grenades to the odd rigged paper airplanes.

--> "Now one fine morning Hatty and pals set out for a new and exciting adventure! What fantastic wonders would they discover this time? Perhaps they would come across a scary ghost ship! Perhaps they would find an island made entirely of candy! Perhaps they would meet a band of swash-buckling pirates! And join forces to find an island made entirely of candy!"

--> '''Narartor:''' *While talking about the theater's age* I mean, avert your eyes, children, avert them! *A cardboard cartoon skeleton flies down onto the screen* There's bony people skeletons everywhere! *Zoom in on skull* Scary, right?

--> '''Narrator:''' SAY SOMETHING, HATTY! *incoherent babbling* Cat got your tongue? *rimshot* Shut up.

* NiceHat: Say nothing of the possible hats wearable by the player, the story revolves around a magnificent but cursed top hat possessing a friend of yours. [[spoiler:Though he doesn't seem to move very much after wearing it.]]

* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: The Narrator's description of the game's content rating in the trailer.
-->'''Narrator:''' Rated T for Blude, Veowlunce and Crud Hoomaw! Crud Hoo... what's that — like French, or something?

* {{Brainwashed}}: Hatty Hattington, normally the friendliest of the friends, has become an assistant of the cats thanks to the top hat they game him.

''[=BattleBlock=] Theater'' is a 2D co-op style PuzzlePlatformer created by [[VideoGame/AlienHominid The]] [[VideoGame/CastleCrashers Behemoth]] for the Xbox 360 and Steam. Riding aboard the S.S. Friendship, a crew lead by the world's bestest friend Hatty Hattington soon finds itself caught in a storm. Thrown off course and crashing on the island, Hatty is captured by the resident cat monsters and forced to wear a glowy red hat, turning him villainous. With the crew of hundreds imprisoned, they must fight like gladiators through numerous obstacle courses and rescue each other and Hatty.

The gameplay revolves around 'stages' in the decidedly gruesome prison/theatre that the game takes place in, where your character is currently locked up in, and the blocks that they are made up of. The game's co-op component is described as [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential "co-optional"]] (screwing each other over might as well be encouraged, or even mandatory), and there are many versus multiplayer gametypes, such as capturing tofu horses and shooting soccer balls into... basketball hoops. Based off their ''Alien Hominid'' PDA Games.

* AbnormalAmmo: Weapons and tools can be a bit strange. Perhaps the toppers are a cannon that fires suction cup darts and the bubble blower... thing that shoots some sort of highly corrosive bubble.

* BearsAreBadNews: In one area of the chapter hub, there's a poster that reads "Bear Hug is Nigh" and depicts a bear wearing star pasties. It's probably no big deal. [[spoiler:And then it shows up at the end of the game. Gigantic and living in space. The scene is ridiculous and set up in a way that makes you doubt it is actually there, but no, it IS there and things only get more absurd as Hatty shoots it down with a huge laser. The icing in the cake is that this actually sets the events of The Behemoth's next game. Said game also implies that the bear was the NarratorAllAlong]].

* BigNo: ...But in this case, it's "Lo," as the narrator was softly singing a stream of "Lo"s which turns into "Lo"s sounding like big "NO"s when [[spoiler:at the end Perham Furbottom's Hat suddenly fires a laser that kills a giant space bear. Justified since in the sequel ''Pit People'', Honey Hug the space bear's mate, Honey Kiss ''was'' the narrator -- of course he'd scream in protest if a giant laser was about to kill his companion]].

* BlatantLies: The game's Steam trailer may be stretching the truth a bit, proudly boasting 1,000,000,000p graphics, 21,000 frames per millisecond, and UsefulNotes/OculusRift support... for up to five simultaneous "Oculuses"

** "Sharks" are green penguin-like birds that eat you and shoot you out as an egg. [[spoiler:Although in the credits, one of these "sharks" puts on a pair of pants and turns into an actual shark]].

* TheCameo: Pipistrello and the [[LateArrivalSpoiler Orange Princess]] from ''VideoGame/CastleCrashers'' appear in cutscenes, the Sockpuppet also appears as one of the portraits of the previous managers. The alien from ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'' briefly appears during the ending. Both him and the knight from ''Castle Crashers'' can be used as avatars if you own their games. Other playable cameos include more characters from both games and the ''Madness Combat'' version of Tricky the Clown.

* CherryTapping: Most attacks performed with the X button don't do damage, and just push people around. That being said, it is effective for, say, moving enemies into the insta-kill trap directly behind them...
* ColorCodedMultiplayer: Teams have self picked colors. Players and other team related assets use those colors.

** After completing the game, your character will walk around with a trophy on his back at all times (well, unless you toggle it off, anyway.)
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Everything's so bright, colorful and [[WorldOfHam ridiculous]] that its almost enough to make you forget that you're trapped on an island run by [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascist]] cats that force you to throw yourself into horrific death courses for the entertainment of the public.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: During single player, death plants you at the latest checkpoint with no lives to consider. During co-op, it is even less of an inconvenience, as dead partners tend to respawn on nearby safe surfaces. It is ''not'' a slap on the wrist in two instances, when you are finishing a level against the clock, and when it is on insane mode, where checkpoints do not exist.

** [[spoiler:This eventually comes to [[JustForPun light]] in the next Behemoth game.]]
* GenreSavvy: The Narrator, once again. When touching upon the top hat on Hatty's head, the Narrator makes mention of the fact it glows red. As everyone knows, glowy red stuff is ''always'' bad.
* GoombaStomp: Not present in the main game, but is present in others in the multiplayer. In some it only counts as a non-lethal hit, in others it is an instant kill.
* GotTheWholeWorldInMyHand: There is imagery of [[spoiler:Purrham Furbottom]], a cat, and Hatty standing over the Earth in this fashion during the ending, [[GainaxEnding for whatever reason.]]
* GottaCatchThemAll: Not a major part of the game but something many players feel they should do. Not too hard as on the PC heads are cheap (except for a certain summer sale exclusive one). The Xbox in contrast has repeat runs periodically for any head (even the one that's summer sale exclusive on Steam).

--->'''Narrator:''' For thousands of years, Purrham's hat passed from head to head - leader to leader - and the theater still operates to this very day... and what a piece of '''crap''' it's become!

-->'''Narrator:''' Rated T for Blude, Veowlunce and Crud Hoomaw! Crud Hoo... what's that - like French, or something?

* ManOnFire: Characters hit by the fireball weapon will scramble around in flames until they die or jump into a body of water. As fun as it is to kill people with it, [[CollisionDamage it's not hard]] [[TakingYouWithMe for the victim to set you ablaze as well.]] It also has a purpose for exploration, since water will put out the fire and lauch the character upwards instead of drowning it.

* {{Narrator}}: Voiced by [[https://www.youtube.com/user/StamperTV Will Stamper]]. He's the only one who talks, and ''boy'' does he talk. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/PitPeople'' implies that the narrator was the space bear seen in the ending]].

* PressXToDie: You need to press a certain key to enter doors in the HubLevel. If you [[ContextSensitiveButton press it anywhere else]], it will make your character start trembling and eventually explode[[note]]Though the explosion doesn't happen if you release the button first[[/note]]. It actually comes in handy in the Insane Mode if you want to quickly restart the level.

-->'''Narrator:''' I see them lurking in the shadows. . . lurking hard! Or hardly lurking, see?

-->''"Toot-toot! All aboard the gem train! U-uh, next stop... Rich Town! Have your ticket ready."''\\
''"Lets pile all of these into a big mountain, and call it "Gem Mountain"! And then go sledding down Gem Mountain on our toboggans! And then-- uh-- maybe go eat something, and-- g-- sh-- and get some cocoa... so-- w-with, uh, marshmallows."''\\

* SignificantAnagram: "Even the word 'hopeless' has 'hope' in it! And if you rearrange the letters, you get 'peeslosh'! ...The last part was probably unnecessary."

* SuddenMusicalEnding: [[spoiler:First comes the moving tribute to Hatty... and then an upbeat song about buckling your pants.]]

** This also helps show just how GenreSavvy the Narrator is: he's aware the player probably thinks this about him. This means that even when he's saying what's probably the truth (most notably, what's wrong with the hat,) he says he doesn't expect you to believe him.

* BigNo: ...But in this case, it's "Lo," as the narrator was softly singing a stream of "Lo"s which turns into "Lo"s sounding like big "NO"s when [[spoiler:at the end Perham Furbottom's Hat suddenly fires a laser that kills a giant space bear. Justified since the sequel ''Pit People'' implies that the space bear ''was'' the narrator -- of course he'd scream in protest if a giant laser was about to kill him]].