History VideoGame / Madagascar

* CanonForeigner: The Zoohunter, Wilbur, and the fossa king.

** In the levels where Alex is playable post-arriving at Madagascar, Alex can collect mangoes to throw at enemies. Notably, it's the only way he can reach phase 1 of King Fossa in the final battle. The mangoes make a return in the sequel.

* GustyGlade: At one point in Save the Lemurs, Marty must help the lemurs traverse the "Trail of Excessive Wind", which, as the name implies, has wind on-and-off blowing so strongly that not hiding behind a rock in time blows you all the way back to the start of the area.

** During the boss battle with him in Back to the Beach, the albino crocodile gets back on his feet after being knocked down by hovering with his tail in this fashion.
* HeliumSpeech: Marty can obtain this during King of New York by popping at least 6 balloons.

* IronicName: "The Perfectly Safe Path" appearing in the Save the Lemurs level is anything but, because it is in fact fossa-infested.

** If Marty gets caught by a security guard or touches the zoohunter in Marty's Escape, the words "BUSTED BY THE MAN" appear on-screen as the character in question runs over to Marty.
** Levels where Melman needs to stick to higher ground will have cutscenes should he land on the ground naturally. If he touches the ground in the third level, he panics as a car comes driving towards him. Touching the lower ground or colliding with Alex in Coming of Age results in the now-feral lion stealing Mort from Melman and running off to eat him.
** Marty to the Rescue has several fail states, as most of the level is timed:

* OffscreenTeleportation: Mort somehow made it all the way to the end of a cave in Marty to the Rescue despite having been right next to Marty when they entered together.

* OneHitKill: If Melman falls into the muddy construction site in NYC Street Chase, he dies instantly rather than being subjected to a [[NonStandardGameOver fail cutscene]] like when he lands on the road.

* PaperThinDisguise: At one point in Penguin Mutiny, Skipper can hide under a cardboard box to walk by the sailors without them noticing him. Even if he walks while under the cardboard box in the sailors' plain sight, they will somehow never notice him.

* PrecisionFStrike: Both subverted and played straight at separate times; it's subverted in Marty to the Rescue and Penguin Mutiny when after Wilbur pushes a boulder out of the way, Marty says he's about to "lay a can of whoopa-[[LastSecondWordSwap butt]] on you, Warthog!", and whenever [[ArcVillain the Zoohunter]] catches Skipper in his cabin or just before the last tranquilizer shoot em up in the bridge (since he already knows the penguins are there in the latter, just walking up to him or leaping onto the desks will trigger this), in the resulting fail cutscene he shouts "What the [[LastSecondWordSwap duck]]!" before emitting an EvilLaugh (or saying "I won't let you get away this time!") and tranquilizing him, and played straight in New York Street Chase when an NPC says [=Manhattan=]'s "full of freakin' animals!".

* SimonSaysMiniGame: In Jungle Banquet, Alex must complete a variation of this. In a cave, there are four giant mushrooms which each play a different sound. The player must memorize the tune and [[SpringySpores bounce on them]] in the correct order to repeat it.

** The giant mushrooms in Jungle Banquet and are the focus of one segment to obtain one of the dishes.
** The following level, Coming of Age, sees Alex, at that point a RogueProtagonist, jumping up on many mushrooms to try to catch Melman and Mort.
** There is a minigame segment in Marty to the Rescue where Mort must bounce on mushrooms to collect fruit for Wilbur.
* StealthExpert: In Marty's Escape, which temporarily turns the game into a StealthBasedGame, Marty gains the ability to sneak, allowing him to crouch down as well as crawl into small spaces. Starting in "Save The Lemurs!" and then all the levels where Marty is playable afterwards, Marty is also able to slide while sneaking if the button is pressed while he is moving. For some reason, this isn't acknowledged by the game.
* TerrifiedOfGerms: Melman's germaphobia in the films becomes a major game mechanic in the level Jungle Banquet, where if he walks or glides into mud or mudslides, the game cuts to black then resumes gameplay with his back facing the source of the mud and him complaining about the mud.

** One scene in the NY Street Chase has Alex, Melman, and Gloria tracking Marty down after finding his poop in an alleyway. The poop is very detailed and even gets a close-up, and Alex is shown clutching his foot giving the impression he may have stepped in it.

** During the Penguin Mutiny level, Skipper has to cause a distraction by overloading some toilets, causing them to spray waste everywhere.

** Marty can kick people outside the enclosures in King of New York, which causes them to run away in terror. You can also do this by roaring at them as Alex during his section of the level. Marty can also kick the ostriches that Gloria races against in her section, which Gloria calls him out for doing.

** There is a bonus with ten coins awarded in the New York City Street Chase for destroying 30 cars with Gloria's moves.
** Additionally, and what might be most cruel, is in the level Penguin Mutiny, there are a couple points where you must eliminate sailors by using the ship's crane to drop them into an cage, trapping them. However, you could instead drop them '''overboard the ship''' to '''''drown them'''''. In the second crane segment, in addition to having to get rid of sailors you also need to pick up and drop large crates that are in the way, to smash them. You could kill two birds with one stone by dropping the crates ''onto'' the sailors which leaves them collapsed on the ground, all but explicitly dead.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Makunga never tries to usurp the title of king from Zuba at any point, and seems content with merely being a jerk to Alex rather than doing anything evil.

** King of New York has a brief segment where you play as Private as he - under Skipper's orders - fishes for different objects.
** The level Penguin Mutiny has you playing as Skipper the penguin rather than Alex, Marty, Gloria or Melman. This is the only level where you play as him.
** Marty to the Rescue has one segment where you play as Mort, who has to bounce on mushrooms to collect fruit for Wilbur.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The "baobab worms" which appear in Coming of Age are enormous pink caterpillars. Given their size compared to Melman, they're as large as a human.

** Melman has some choice words for the player if they keep trying to make him go into the mud slides scattered around Jungle Banquet:

** In King of New York, you can have Marty run on the treadmill in his pen. If you leave him there idle, he goes from subtly nudging the player to stop by telling the player that they should maybe check out the rest of the zoo, to declaring "animal abuse", to outright yelling for Alex to help him. He will eventually bribe the player with three gold monkey coins that appear near the treadmill, worth 30 total. You're actually required to do this to 100% the level.

* BubblegloopSwamp: The final section of Mysterious Jungle is a swamp that Alex must traverse. Already in a foul mood, Alex begins ranting as he passes through. You can also spot Melman rushing through at points, and the ensuing cutscene reveals he panicked after feeling something brush his head.

* DayInTheLife: The first level, King of NY, shows a typical day in the NYC Zoo from Marty's perspective as he interacts with Alex, Gloria, Melman, and the penguins.

** At one point in NY Street Chase, Gloria has to collect power cards to unlock her butt bounce ability and defeat the cops that try to force her to the ground. Normally, you're expected to get all of them as you go along the road, but if you skip the two cards before the right turn by repeatedly jumping and rolling past the obstacles, then those two cards will reappear alongside the third one after the turn.

* DisgustingPublicToilet: Invoked in Penguin Mutiny when Skipper flushes all the toilets on the ship, causing them all to spurt water. This distracts nearby crewmen enough for him to sneak past.

* EasingIntoTheAdventure: The first level, King of NY, is very simple, acting as a tutorial for each of the four main characters with no real danger or enemies to worry about.

** In Coming of Age, Melman flings coconuts and exploding durians to kill off baobab worms and to destroy their nests.
** Briefly in Marty to the Rescue, Marty can kick exploding durians at spiders.
** King Fossa's vulture henchmen sometimes attack Alex with durians in the final battle. The vultures in Coming of Age also do this as a way to stop Melman from throwing coconuts at the worms.

** The final segment of Save the Lemurs tasks Alex with escorting a group of lemurs down [[IronicName The Perfectly Safe Path]] while protecting them from the attacking fossa. Letting all of the lemurs get taken away results in instant death for Alex. The level can actually be completed if at least one lemur survives, however.
** The final segment of Coming of Age has Melman carry Mort across varying high platforms, while Alex, driven by hunting instincts into being a RogueProtagonist, attempts to jump on [[SpringySpores mushrooms]] to reach them, also coming onto two platforms himself. Melman will have to start all over if he falls to the ground or touches Alex (triggering a fail cutscene where Alex delights in taking Mort, then snatches him to run away).

* GiantMook: On the Penguin Mutiny level, there are several larger crewmen, named Big Louie, wielding wrenches which can't be taken down by the player directly, requiring other objects such as a crane or bowling ball. Big Louie is also playable in the shuffleboard minigame.

--->'''Melman''': I've been touched by filth!

* OneHitKill: If Melman falls into the muddy construction site in NYC Street Chase, he dies instantly.