1 | [[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/game_over_super_rabbit_boy.jpg]] |
2 | |
3 | ''Press Start!'' is a series of children's early chapter books written and illustrated by Thomas Flintham as an AffectionateParody of video games. |
4 | |
5 | Set inside the world of a series of {{Fictional Video Game}}s a boy, Sunny, plays as part of the FramingDevice, the book series follows Super Rabbit Boy, your stock video game hero, and his video-game-esque adventures facing off BigBad meanie King Viking, all while common (and usually [[GenreThrowback classic]]) VideoGameTropes and {{Shout Out}}s to familiar video games are thrown around (even the characters are a CastOfExpies!). |
6 | |
7 | Not related to the 2007 film ''[[Film/PressStart2007 Press Start]]'', though both the book series and film are about video games. An AnimatedAdaptation was announced for NBC's Peacock streaming service. |
8 | ---- |
9 | !!! Books released so far: |
10 | # ''Game Over, Super Rabbit Boy!'' (2016) |
11 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy Powers Up!'' (2017) |
12 | # ''Super Rabbit Racers!'' (2017) |
13 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy vs. Super Rabbit Boss!'' (2018) |
14 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off!'' (2018) |
15 | # ''The Super Side-Quest Test!'' (2018) |
16 | # ''Robo-Rabbit Boy, Go!'' (2019) |
17 | # ''Super Rabbit All-Stars!'' (2019) |
18 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy's Time Jump!'' (2020) |
19 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy's Team-Up Trouble!'' (2021) |
20 | # ''Super Cheat Codes and Secret Modes!'' (2021) |
21 | # ''Super Rabbit Boy World!'' (2022) |
22 | # ''Super King Viking Land!'' (2023) |
23 | # ''Super Game Book!'' (2023) |
24 | ---- |
25 | ! ''Press Start!'' series provides examples of: |
26 | * AffectionateParody: The series is an affectionate parody of video games as whole. |
27 | * AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Jody Racer is light-green skinned. |
28 | * AmbiguouslyBrown: Sunny of the FramingStory and his family has brown skin, yet have no specific racial characteristics. |
29 | * BewitchedAmphibians: {{Inverted}} with the sad prince, who turns out to be the Frog Knight bewitched under the Evil Wizard's curse. |
30 | * BigBad: Meanie King Viking, who just wants to defeat Super Rabbit Boy and [[FunHatingVillain destroy happiness]] again and again. |
31 | * TheBigRace: ''Super Rabbit Racers!'', which parodies ''VideoGame/MarioKart'', has Super Rabbit Boy racing in the Super Cup Grand Prix with friends and foes. |
32 | * BlandNameProduct: [[Platform/GameBoy Super Funston]] and [[Platform/{{Playstation}} Funstation]] [[Platform/Nintendo64 64]]. |
33 | ** Some of the ''Super Rabbit Boy'' games are also this: [[VideoGame/SuperMarioLand Super Rabbit Boy Land]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI The Legend of Super Rabbit Boy]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart Super Rabbit Racers]], and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins Super Rabbit Boy Land 2]]. |
34 | * CardCarryingVillain: King Viking is evil and proud of it, and reminds his younger self that villains are ''always'' mean. |
35 | * CastOfExpies: A majority of the characters are based on the familiar video game characters people know and love. |
36 | ** Simon the Hedgehog is the most obvious. [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog He is blue and fast.]] |
37 | ** Super Rabbit Boy himself is based on [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]. They both, when consuming a PowerUpFood item, become taller, stronger, faster, and can jump higher, and of course are your familiar video game hero archetype. |
38 | ** Singing Dog, a white singing dog, is likely based on [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing K.K. Slider]]. |
39 | ** King Viking resembles [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Doctor Eggman]]. They are both mustachioed [[FatBastard fat]] {{Big Bad}}s who engineer [[MechaMook a robot army]] and sometimes ride HumongousMecha. He also resembles [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Wario]] to a lesser extent, for their designs and roles as {{Foil}}s to the hero. |
40 | ** One of the Animal Town villagers, a white mouse, wears Mario's classic "red-overall" outfit. |
41 | ** Pilb the Plob[[spoiler:'s disguise]] is based on the ''VideoGame/PacMan'' ghosts. |
42 | ** The ghosts in ''Robo-Rabbit Boy, Go!'' and their Queen Spooky are based on [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Boo and their King Boo]]. |
43 | ** Billip from ''All-Stars'' resembles ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and has a PowerCopying ability like ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}''. |
44 | * ChekhovsGun: In ''Super Rabbit Boy's Time Jump'', it's mentioned that the Time Crystal takes 20 years to charge, which allows [[spoiler:Super Rabbit Man, Old King Viking, and Super Rabbit Gramps]] to join in the fight from the future. |
45 | * ADayInTheLimelight: The 13th book revolves around King Viking, who finds himself stranded on an island and needing to get home by fixing Captain Trevor's boat. |
46 | * DemonicPossession: Queen Spooky's ghost army possesses King Viking's robots, turning them against him. |
47 | * ElementalPowers: The Blue, Red, and Yellow Power Ups bestow the powers of [[WaterIsBlue wa]][[MakingASplash ter]], [[FireIsRed fi]][[PlayingWithFire re]], and [[LightEmUp light]]. |
48 | * EvilVersusEvil: King Viking hates villainous competition and tries to defeat Queen Spooky himself, especially after she kidnaps Super Rabbit Boy. |
49 | * FictionalVideoGame: The ''Super Rabbit Boy'' games are all fictional, of course. |
50 | * FramingDevice: The outer-story has Sunny (and occasionally his family and friends) playing the video game, and his controls influence the main story taking place. |
51 | * FunHatingVillain: King Viking has never experienced a shred of happiness and wants to destroy the fun of Animal Town. |
52 | --> ''(from #1)'' He does not like happiness. He does not like fun And he really does not like other people who are happy and fun. Not one bit. |
53 | * {{Gamebooks}}: ''Super Game Book'' puts the player in charge of the game, guiding Super Rabbit Boy through challenges. |
54 | * GamerChick: In #2, [[spoiler:Rue, Sunny's younger sister, is able to find the pathway to the third Power Up without a walkthough. Sunny lets her play the rest of the game.]] |
55 | * GenreThrowback: To old video games of TheEighties and TheNineties. The video game world is presented in an 8-bit {{Retraux}} style, the stories are simple as the {{Excuse Plot}}s of old video games, and classic-style tropes are used often. Sunny even plays the games on {{Bland Name Product}}s of [[TwoDecadesBehind old game consoles]], often a Platform/GameBoy. |
56 | * GreenHillZone: Animal Town, an area of lush rolling hills serving as the first zone in #1. |
57 | * GoshDangItToHeck: Super Rabbit Boy often uses "bloop" in place of "OhCrap" or a similar interjection. |
58 | * HornyVikings: King Viking, obviously. A BigBad with a bushy beard and a horned helmet. |
59 | * KonamiCode: The Konami Code is used in the 11th book to make Super Rabbit Boy grow super tall. |
60 | * LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: FunnyAnimals, such as Super Rabbit Boy and the residents of Animal Town, are shown to be co-existing with humans such as King Viking and Jody Racer. |
61 | * TheLostWoods: Wise Woods in #2, a thick forest where the [[WiseTree Wisdom Tree]] lives. |
62 | * MacGuffinSuperPerson: The Super Power Up in ''Super Rabbit Boy Powers Up!'', said to be the most powerful [[PowerCrystal Power Up]], is what King Viking is pursuing to build his "unbeatable" robot and what Super Rabbit Boy has to find before Viking. |
63 | * MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: #9 has King Viking time-traveling to meet his past self and stop Baby Rabbit Boy from ever gaining his powers. |
64 | * MaliciousMisnaming: King Viking and his cronies often call Super Rabbit Boy childish misnames such as "Smelly/Pooper Rabbit Boy." |
65 | * MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover: ''Super Rabbit All-Stars!'' has Super Rabbit Boy competing with other video game heroes and villains in the All-Stars Games Tournament, a parody of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. |
66 | * MechaMook: King Viking's Robot Army are the main mooks of the ''Super Rabbit Boy'' games. |
67 | * MirrorUniverse: The Mirror World in ''Super Rabbit Boy vs. Super Rabbit Boss!'', where King Viking is the hero and Super Rabbit Boy, better known as Boss, is evil. |
68 | * MonochromePast: {{Flashback}}s are colored in pea green like the Platform/GameBoy. |
69 | * NintendoHard: In-universe, the first Super Rabbit Boy game is so tough by the end that Sunny doubts he'll ever beat it. |
70 | * PacManFever: {{Subverted}}. While there are plenty of classic video game tropes, akin to the stereotypical depiction of video games, they are played rather for nostalgia of a good old retro video game days, and the ''Super Rabbit Boy'' games become more complex like modern video games. |
71 | * ParentalBonus: The series packs plenty of video game references for the parents to be entertained with while reading the books to their children. |
72 | * PirateGirl: Pirate Princess. |
73 | * PowerCrystal: The Power Ups happen to be [[AnimateInanimateObject sentient]] examples, created by the Power Princess to reward her people. The Super Power Up is obviously the most powerful ([[spoiler:not really, in which the most powerful turns out to be the Super Mega Power Up, who was created for dire cases and disguised as Plib]]). |
74 | * RealityWarper: In ''Super Cheat Codes'', the codes Sunny enters in the game warp reality to the characters inside it. |
75 | * RighteousRabbit: Super Rabbit Boy is the hero of the world and to everyone (except King Viking and Queen Spooky). |
76 | * RobotMe: Robo-Rabbit Boy to Super Rabbit Boy, who debuts in ''Robo-Rabbit, Boy Go!'' |
77 | * SealedEvilInACan: Queen Spooky was locked inside the Moon Orb long ago, but Super Rabbit Boy accidentally frees her. |
78 | * ShoutOut: The location of the Moon Orb is a recreation of a typical ''VideoGame/DigDug'' stage. |
79 | * SpaceEpisode: ''Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off!'' has Super Rabbit Boy going to space on his rocket. |
80 | * StockAnimalDiet: Rabbit Boy becomes Super Rabbit Boy with {{Power Up|Food}} carrots. |
81 | * SuperMode: #2 introduces [[spoiler:Super ''Mega'' Rabbit Boy, Rabbit Boy's giant and rainbowy form as the result of AllYourColorsCombined]]. |
82 | * TimeTravelEpisode: A parody of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' and possibly ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', ''Super Rabbit Boy's Time Jump!'' has King Viking and Super Rabbit Boy traveling back in time. |
83 | * VillainTeamUp: ''Super Rabbit Boy's Team-Up Trouble!'' has King Viking join forces with Miss Business to create chaos in Underland, forcing Super Rabbit Boy to team up with Mega Mole Girl to fight them off. |
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