History VideoGame / RiddleSchool

''Riddle School'' is a Website/{{Newgrounds}} flash game series created by [[Creator/{{Jonochrome}} JonBro]] following a boy named Phil Eggtree trying to escape numerous grades of school, and later on, a number of environments.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''RST1'', the CCTV monitor in Phil's cell that conveniently has his cell's keycode is a [[spoiler:TELEVIZION]] brand, foreshadowing Zone 5.1's true owners.

--> Mrs. Mooses was at a bank and a bank robbery suddenly took place. The robber told her to get down on the ground. [[TooDumbToLive She said the ground was awfully dirty and it wouldn't be good for her new dress]]. [[RealityEnsues She was shot multiple times]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and her dress was ruined]].

* ForbiddenZone: In every game, the one area that is always inaccessible is the Women's bathroom as Phil always refuses to go in. However, he makes an exception in Riddle Transfer 2 given the emergency situation. [[spoiler:It turns out to be an empty room, with nothing but a gumball machine and a lightbulb.]]

* RealityEnsues: In ''Riddle Transfer 2'', replacing Nit Wit's eye drops with the soap bottle won't work, as he points out that it's clearly where his eye drops used to be.

*** Entering 1337, 2012 or 9001 in the keypad at the beginning of ''Transfer 2'' cause Phil to berate the player for searching for easter eggs in such a [[TakeYourTime time-sensitive moment]].

** Phred's surname, Whistler, references his role in RS2.

** In ''5'', typing 1337, 1492, 9000, and 9001 on the keypad all have programmed responses from Phil.

** Smiley always tries to stay positive about things. Her last name, Sundae, references her cheery nature.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:[=RS5=] reveals [=RS2=] through [=RS4=] to have been this, as Phil was trapped in a LotusEaterMachine by aliens.]]

--> Mrs. Mooses was at a bank and a bank robbery suddenly took place. The robber told her to get down on the ground. [[TooDumbToLive She said the ground was awfully dirty and it wouldn't be good for her new dress]]. She was shot multiple times and her dress was ruined.

--> Mrs. Mooses was at a bank and a bank robbery suddenly took place. The robber told her to get down on the ground. She said the ground was awfully dirty and it wouldn't be good for her new dress. She was shot multiple times and her dress was ruined.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A "long division book" in ''Riddle Transfer 2'' appears very non-descript, but when given to Nit Wit, he spends a lot of time [[PornStash looking at a page that vertically flips open]].

* Area51: Zone 5.1, seen in Riddle Transfer, is an agency that captures cryptids to study them, and [[spoiler:captures the protagonists because they came in an alien ship]]. Unusually, [[spoiler:they actually work FOR aliens]].
* ArtifactTitle: Past [=RS4=], the series has very little to do with school.
* AstralFinale: [[spoiler:All of Riddle School 5, but especially Viz's freezer ship, and Riddle Transfer 2's final segment takes place in space.]]

* BlindWithoutEm: Mr. Soggy in [=RS3=]. [[spoiler:You have to knock his glasses off with the rubber band hidden in the vent.]]

* EnterSolutionHere: In ''Riddle Transfer 1'', you have to enter the codes on Phil and his friends' keypads to set them free. The codes are:
** Phil: [[spoiler:78255. You can see it by clicking on your TV screen.]]
** Phred: [[spoiler:51702. Phred's clue is a piece of paper with the word "Snoz". The letters are actually numbers, bunched up together. However his entire keypad is somehow missing.]]
** Zack: [[spoiler:12345. The clue he gives you sounds complicated, but it's actually a set of consecutive numbers. It was written on the side of his door.]]
** Smiley: [[spoiler:51333. The agent who locked her up was mumbling it to himself out loud. However, the 3 key on her keypad is inconveniently missing.]]

* FreezeRay: [[spoiler:This is Viz's ultimate plan: to freeze the planets by harnessing Zack's coldness. Fortunately, it backfires on him thanks to Phil's intervention. It comes back in ''Riddle Transfer 2'', this time controlled by Diz and fueled by comet ice.]]

** In Riddle Transfer, [[spoiler:not only do the Zone 5.1 Agents make very little effort to conceal the codes to open the prison cells from the prisoners, but every guard in the facility apparently gets the day off at the same time]].

** [[VideoGameRemake ''Return To Riddle School'']] has a gaping hole in Ms. Cophey's room that Zack thinks [[VideoGame/OneNightAtFlumptys a clown is hiding in.]]

* SpaceWhaleAesop: [[spoiler:Stay in school, or you'll be abducted by aliens!]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A "long division book" in ''Riddle Transfer 2'' appears very non-descript, but when given to Dummy, he spends a lot of time [[PornStash looking at a page that vertically flips open]].

* GettingCrapPasTheRadar: A "long division book" in ''Riddle Transfer 2'' appears very non-descript, but when given to Dummy, he spends a lot of time [[PornStash looking at a page that vertically flips open]].

** Phred: [[spoiler:51702. Phred's clue is a piece of paper with the word "Snoz". The letters are actually numbers, bunched up together.]]

** Smiley: [[spoiler:51333. The agent who locked her up was mumbling it to himself out loud.]]

* BigWhat: Phil's reaction in ''Riddle Transfer 2'' when [[spoiler:Smiley says he always had better grades than her, despite her being more passionate about learning]].

* BrainyBrunette: Smiley enjoys school and grows a full head of brown hair in [=RT1=]. [[spoiler:{{Downplayed}}, since she admits at the beginning of ''Transfer 2'' that ''Phil'' always did better in school than her - something which [[BigWhat understandably shocks him]]]].

* BrilliantButLazy: Phil hates school, but is very clever in how he escapes from it in each game.

* ChekhovsGunman:
** [[spoiler:Diz in ''Riddle School 2'', ''Riddle School 4'' and ''Riddle Transfer 2''.]]
** [[spoiler:Quiz as well; he very briefly speaks in the intro to ''5'', then turns out to be the main antagonist of ''Transfer 2''.]]
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: [[spoiler:The ending to [=RT2=] has Phil confess his love for Smiley.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Phil is full of dry wit and wisecracks, as seen in the page quote.
* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Viz decided Earth was evil enough to be destroyed because one kid left school early, though he also spent time researching some of the kids at the school.]]

* DroneJam: Chubb serves this purpose in the first three games, sitting right in front of the Principal's Office where you need to go to get the key to escape. [[spoiler:In ''Riddle Transfer 2'', the aliens [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this by deliberately setting him down there so Phil can't get to Quiz.]]

* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Diz]].
* ExtremeOmnivore: In the first game, Phil claims that Chubb once swallowed his refrigerator. In the third game, he eats a bowl of pudding--bowl and all.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:You have to invoke this on the alien guarding the Quiz's office in [=RT2=] in order to get in.]]
* {{Faceship}}: [[spoiler:Viz's personal spacecraft is made in the likeness of his head.]]

** TheSmartGuy / SixthRanger: [[spoiler:Diz the alien who can operate all of Vizion's technology.]]

** TheChick: Smiley Sundae, [[TokenGirl the only girl of the group,]] and the most optimistic.
* ForbiddenZone: In every game, the one area that is always inaccessible is the Women's bathroom as Phil always refuses to go in. However, he makes an exception in Riddle Transfer 2 given the emergency situation. [[spoiler: It turns out to be an empty room, with nothing but a gumball machine and a lightbulb]].

* TheGenericGuy: Phred. When giving the characters last names, [=JonBro=] just gave him Whistler, since he had no real personality before then and was only known for giving Phil his whistle in the second game.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy:
** Apparently par for the course where Zone 5.1 (Transfer) is concerned. Not only do they make very little effort to conceal the codes to open the prison cells from the prisoners (see EnterSolutionHere above), but every guard in the facility apparently gets the day off at the same time.
** The staff in the schools Phil has gone to aren't much different. In [=RS2=], [[spoiler:Phil enters the principal's office, takes the key to the front door, and bolts... all ''directly in front of the principal'', who ''just stands there the whole time'']]. In [=RS3=], [[spoiler:the principal is too busy playing video games to notice as Phil swipes the key.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Quiz in [=RT2=] tries to take over the school when Phil confronts him with a quiz, causing him to break down and give up trying to continue Project Vizion.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Viz is killed by his own ice ray.]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Viz:''' [[{{Irony}} Because evildoers deserve a taste of their own evil!]]]]

** In [=RS5=], shortly before the final series of puzzles in the game (and by extension the entire original series), [[spoiler:Viz says "Prepare yourself... for the Grand Finale."]]

* LiterallyShatteredLives: Happens twice in [=RS5=], [[spoiler:to Zack and Viz]].

** Smiley always tries to stay positive about things.

* MustHaveCaffeine: Ms. Cophey loves drinking coffee, to the point where she is in a near-constant state of CaffeineBulletTime.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's not revealed until [=RS5=], but if Phil hadn't [[spoiler:escaped school way back in [=RS1=]]], the entire series' overarching plot would've been nullified.

* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler:Phil and Smiley at the end of the series. The ending shows them growing up together.]]
-->'''[=JonBro=]''': Fans asked me if [[spoiler: Phil and Smiley]] were in a relationship. I always said "No, they could both do so much better". But after [[spoiler: Phil's newfound acceptance of school]], I figured maybe they're perfect for each other.

* PluckyGirl: Smiley, of course.
* ThePollyanna: Smiley, to a T. Though the events of Riddle Transfer 2 break it more than usual. [[spoiler:Until the end.]]
* PungeonMaster: Phil has his fair share of puns throughout the series. One running gag is remarking "Now THAT was A SHARP idea!" whenever he solves a puzzle using something sharp (be it a pencil or a music note), immediately followed by him shaming himself for being so lame.
* RecursiveCanon: The second and third games contain advertisements for themselves, and Phil plans on playing them as soon as he gets out of school. The epilogue of [=RS4=] mentions one of the teachers playing [=RS3=] on the internet [[spoiler:and being driven insane by the monkey doll's curse.]]
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Quiz]] in [=RT2=].

* SchmuckBait: A poem book in [=RS3=] warns "Don't beat this game two times straight, or else you'll meet a certain fate." Opt not to heed the warning? [[spoiler:You have been possessed by Monkey Doll!]]

* SequelEscalation: Probably one of the best examples of this trope. The first game was made as nothing more than Pico's School-inspired point and click that could be beaten relatively quickly and had the production values of a typical Newgrounds Flash game. With each game though, the plots got more and more intricate and the animation became progressively better. And of course that's to say nothing of the fifth game onward, which turned it from being a simple "escape school" game to [[GoingCosmic something much, much deeper.]]

* TheSociopath: [[spoiler:Diz doesn't want to destroy planets because he thinks he should judge which civilizations are moral or not, like Viz did; he wants to destroy planets just for the ''[[CatharsisFactor sheer catharsis]]'' of it.]]

* StockNessMonster: One of the five animal residents of Zone 5.1 (Transfer) is [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Messie, the Mock Mess Monster]].
* StuffedIntoALocker: Richy in [=RS3=]. It's not at all clear how he actually got in there in the first place; maybe he did it to himself by accident.

* TakeYourTime: [[spoiler:Vizion's freeze ray is never fully charged unless it is pointing away from Earth.]]
* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Smiley has a ''mouth'' as her characteristic. As a style choice, [=JonBro=] made all the children bald and gave all the adults hair. Since Smiley didn't have the usual TSC of hair, he tried giving her a mouth instead. It didn't work: The special features section in ''Riddle School 5'' lists "Smiley is a guy" as the biggest misconception about the series. Come Riddle Transfer, he just gives her a ponytail and some small eyelashes.

* TriangleShades: [[spoiler:Viz]] sports a pair. [[spoiler:So does his spectator pod.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Viz. Technically, he ''was'' trying to eradicate evil. He was just a little misguided about where he could find it.]]

** Riddle School 4 has one that can be viewed after the game ends, accounting for each and every character throughout the series and how they eventually met their ends. [[spoiler:But since 4 was AllJustADream, none of it actually happened]].
** Riddle Transfer 2 has a photo album during the credits, [[spoiler:which shows Phil and his friends growing up and living happily ever after.]]
* WhenHeSmiles: [[spoiler:Phil when he returns Smiley's hug at the end of [=RT2=].]]

* YouAreFat: Chubb doesn't mind people making fun of his weight, as long as it's witty.

* AirVentPassageway: Very early on in [=RS5=], Phil slips through an air vent to escape his cell.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: [[spoiler:Viz, Diz and Quiz.]]
* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:[=RS5=] reveals [=RS2=] through [=RS4=] to have been this.]]

* AndThenWhat: The last part of [[spoiler:Mr. Munch's plan to kill Phil]] is just a note that says "[[spoiler:Killed Phil.]] Now what?"
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Phil invokes this [[spoiler:while interrogating Quiz]] towards the climax of [=RT2=]. [[spoiler:He challenges Quiz to a quiz, and asks several of these questions in a row, every single one of them one of these, to illustrate just how much he suspects about Quiz's motivation.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: When you have to [[spoiler:kill Smiley in her dream]] in [=RS5=] the camera focuses on [[spoiler:the sharp top of the globe you're about to knock her into. She instead swallows the entire thing and suffocates on it.]]
* BaldWoman: Smiley in the five Riddle School games. Eventually subverted when she grows brown hair in ''Riddle Transfer''.

** [[spoiler:Viz]] in ''Riddle School 5''.
** In ''Riddle Transfer 1'', [[spoiler:Zone 5.1 and its leader, Shaw [=DeLot=]]].
** [[spoiler:Quiz]] in ''Riddle Transfer 2'', [[spoiler:but his position gets taken by Diz near the end of the game]].

* RunningGag: Subverted the first two games both have Phil making the same terrible pun after leaving the first room; in the third game (where the method to leave the starting room involves rendering the teacher blind), Phil remarks that his idea "wasn't very sharp at all. In fact, it was kind of blurry."

** TheBigGuy: Zack Kelvin, who, while not stronger than the others, uses his powers to help the others.

* FiveBadBand.
** BigBad: Viz, head of Vizion.
** TheDragon: Diz, Viz's second in command.
** EvilGenius: Nit Wit, an InsufferableGenius who does grunt work for the others, and [=ShawDeLot=] the guy who runs Zone 5.1.
** TheBrute: Oswald, the monster used to guard the sleep chair.
** TheDarkChick: Quiz, Viz's third in command, generally thought of as "useless."

* SequelEscalation: Probably one of the best examples of this trope. The first game was made as nothing more than Pico's School-inspired point and click that could be beaten relatively quickly and had the production values of a typical Newgrounds Flash game. With each game though, the plots got more and more intricate and the animation became progressively better. And of course that's to say nothing of the fifth game onward, which turned it from being a simple "escape school" game to [[spoiler:something much, much deeper.]]