History VideoGame / Noctropolis

The game was released to little fanfare, with physical copies long out of print for years. Fortunately it was finally re-released digitally by Creator/NightdiveStudios on January 21, 2016 on Website/GOGDotCom and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. The re-release features widescreen support and an enhanced soundtrack.

* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: A rather blatant attempt to cash in on it.

* FanDisservice: The back of the box for the original game tried to titillate potential players with shot of a part where Stiletto flashes her breasts for the player. [[spoiler: This does indeed happen, but it only lasts for a second before the malformed face of the Drealmer replaces hers and taunts the player, while still letting her nipples show.]]

* AscendedFanboy / SummonEverymanHero: The everyman comic book fan is called to save the world of a comic book.

* LoveAtFirstSight: Peter's smitten from the minute he meets Darksheer's sexy sidekick, Stiletto. It's kind of implied he had a crush on her character from being a fan of the comic book.

* NonActionGuy: [[spoiler: Despite supposedly being a worthy successor of the Darksheer mantle, it turns out the main villain's plan actually hinges on Peter completely failing at catching villains, getting his ass handed to him in every encounter and repeatedly having to hurry back to the lair and subject himself to a healing bath in magical liquid darkness. It works like a charm.]]

* ButtMonkey: Peter, a sad sack with an unfaithful wife and failed business whose only escape is a comic book on the verge of cancellation. Even after he becomes a superhero he constantly gets his butt kicked by the villains.

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:The game ends on the triumphant note of no less than primordial beings telling Peter he's a worthy inheritor of the Darksheer name. It totally ignores how the previous Darksheer went evil from a soul-destroying addiction to liquidark, and that by warring on the forces of evil with the same tools, there's no reason the same won't eventually happen to Peter even if he does turn out to be a worthy successor.]]

* MoonLogicPuzzle: One of the earliest examples consists of: To enter a cathedral guarded by a lethal flying gargoyle, the player must A) locate the couple pixels representative of the only loose bar in the iron-wrought fence, B) open utility panel of a nearby streetlight, C) attach fifty-pounds worth of cable to connect the fence post to an arbitrary lead, and d.) throw the bar, like a spear, some 20 yards so that it lands upon the fountain on which the beast occasionally perches so that it is electrocuted the following time it does. This puzzle was one of the first in the game and significantly simpler that laten examples.

* {{Stripperific}}: Stiletto.

* SuperheroesWearCapes: Darksheer wears a cape, to help draw parallels to caped heroes like Batman and Cloak. It might qualify as BadassCape, except for how Peter decisively loses almost every encounter with a villain or needs somebody else to do the work the times his side wins.

* ButtMoney: Peter, a sad sack with an unfaithful wife and failed business whose only escape is a comic book on the verge of cancellation. Even after he becomes a superhero he constantly gets his butt kicked by the villains.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Peter, a sad sack with an unfaithful wife and failed business whose only escape is a comic book on the verge of cancellation.

But then Peter finds out he's the winner of the "I Want to be Darksheer!" contest and receives a new issue showing a new villain named Flux breaking the worst members of Darksheer's RoguesGallery out of jail, as well as a magical coin that teleports Peter to Noctropolis itself. After bumbling through a beginning adventure he assumes Darksheer's mantle, but is he up to the job of saving the city from the forces of evil?

The game was released to little fanfare, with physical copies long out of print for years. Fortunately it was finally re-released digitally by Creator/NightdiveStudios on January 21, 2016 on Website/GOGDotCom and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} thanks. The re-release features widescreen support and an enhanced soundtrack.

* SuperheroesWearCapes: Darksheer wears a cape, to help draw parallels to caped heroes like Batman and Cloak. It might qualify as BadassCape, except for how Peter decisively loses almost every encounter with a villain or needs somebody else to do the work times his side wins.

** True of most of the villains, actually: they'll show up, beat Peter within an inch of his life, then just kind of wander away never to be seen again.

* SummonEverymanHero: A replacement Darksheer's recruited by holding a contest in a parallel universe where he's just a comic book character.