Phoenix Strikers is a nonexistent 2D action-platformer themed after classic plastic-peddling cartoons of the 1980s and 90s, Silver Age comics, and classic games, wrapped in a layer of surrealism and hit-or-miss humor.
Tropes that would be present in this work and its universe include:
- Applied Phlebotinum: HZ-plasma, a rare energy source harvested from the Void Between the Worlds, is mentioned quite a few times in the ingame codex. It's a major component of Lord Frantic's plan, as he intends to harness it to pull the Moon out of its orbit, and when they reach his inner sanctum he uses it alongside a suit of Powered Armor to become a local Reality Warper and try to kill the heroes once and for good.
- All Your Powers Combined: Area 8's Optional Boss, Shader Black Aion, uses the abilities of previous bosses in his attacks, also visually represented by him wearing a costume resembling each boss.
- Bait-and-Switch: Usually done for a laugh.
- After the first part of Area 1's boss, Lord Frantic jumps out and starts kicking his Warsuit after it breaks down... to distract you from the real boss making its entrance.
- The volcanic Area 5's sub-boss has Lord Frantic piloting a dragon mech that breathes... liquid nitrogen.
- Bonus Level: After fully completing each stage (no deaths, all collectibles, par score achieved) in a world, a bonus level is unlocked for that world that puts a weird twist on gameplay.
- Book Ends: Both the first and final major bosses have an additional fight beforehand.
- Boss-Only Level: The third stage of each non-final area is a major boss fight.
- Boss Rush: Area 8's bonus stage is a boss gauntlet with every sub- and major boss, including the two Optional Bosses.
- Boss Warning Siren: Two kinds. A small alert klaxon plays before a sub-boss, and a more dramatic alarm accompanied by Boss Subtitles appears before a major boss. The Final Boss escalates things to an air raid siren accompanied by faux-EAS tones.ALERT - HIGH-DANGER HOSTILE NEARBY (When facing a sub-boss)
!!! WARNING !!! - GET READY TO BATTLE [Subtitle]: [Title] (When facing a major boss)
!!! PREPARE !!! - TO DIE BEFORE THE DIMENSIONAL CHAOS: OVERLORD FRANTIC (When facing the final boss) - Card-Carrying Villain: Lord Frantic is not ashamed of being an arms-trade kingpin and internationally-wanted terrorist in the slightest. Hell, his entire motivation is to make his status as such even more known.
- Cast of Expies: A majority of the cast is influenced by other works.
- Ouroboros has a very Mario-esque outlook on life, while they share Goku's hair style and general aloofness.
- Tomahawk has elements of Quote and Iji Kataiser.
- Lord Frantic is an amalgam of Miles Mayhem and Wario.
- The Triumvirate's designs and group dynamic are based on Hank, Sanford, and Deimos.
- Master Maverick is a more melee-based Allen O'Neil.
- Co-Dragons: Lord Frantic has Aion and Master Maverick as his right and left hand troopers.
- Colorful Theme Naming: The Triumvirate are an unusual example. Their names are Hubert, Saturn, and Lumine, alluding to hue, saturation, and luminosity respectively.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Lord Frantic's got the mustache and demeanor of one, and is later revealed to have the body type.
- Deface of the Moon: The finale of the game revolves around stopping Lord Frantic from pulling the moon out of its orbit. The big one, not the little one.
- Fat Bastard: Subverted with Lord Frantic - the finale reveals that he's been wearing an inflatable suit and his real build is Lean and Mean.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The playable characters play with this a bit, but fall into the three general roles.
- Ouroboros is the Thief of the team, specializing in agility and having both a dash move and dextrous aiming.
- Equinox is the Fighter with his melee-oriented playstyle, though he trades immovability for unstoppability.
- Tomahawk is a tanky Mage, with high health and considerable firepower at the cost of slow movement.
- Phoenix is a Universalist, having access to all the strengths of his subordinates at the cost of being on a constantly-ticking timer that can only be restored via Life Drain.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the Boss Rush, perceptive players will note that the ready room for the Final Boss displays "2 REMAIN", and Aion's full boss battle hasn't been faced yet.
- Justified Extra Lives: The player characters are equipped with teleporters that warp them back to their outpost and give them adrenaline/stun-gun counteragents to let them continue the fight. One of the characters also has Resurrective Immortality and just opts to self-destruct to restore themselves instead.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Equinox's only ranged attack, the Eviscerator, is a powerful beam that burns up his Aux Gauge to fire.
- Mana: Playable characters have an Aux Gauge that governs different aspects of their abilities:
- Ouroboros: Stamina for their dash move. Regenerates over time.
- Equinox: Energy for his special abilities. Built up by dealing damage.
- Tomahawk: "Coolness" for her overclocking ability. Drains when in use and is restored by dealing damage.
- Phoenix: Energy for his suit. If it hits zero, it's an instant life loss. Drains over time or special use, and can be restored by grabbing enemies.
- Mini-Mecha: The Warsuit, the fake-out boss of the first area, is this. By the time of the Final Boss, it's upgraded to Humongous Mecha status. And it's still a Trick Boss!
- Mission Control: Phoenix takes this role with his team, flying them to where they need to be with his helicopter/hovercraft and providing what information he can.
- Multiple Life Bars: Boss vitality is measured with multiple bars, each bar indicating a major shift in boss tactics. In ascending order, they go yellow->green->cyan->blue->pink->red->rainbow.
- Narrator: There's two of them, who interact with and correct each other.
- Optional Boss: Both 4-Bonus and 8-Bonus feature two unique bosses - Titan Crusher and Shader Black Aion.
- Out-of-Character Alert: After disabling all of Lord Frantic's plans and forcing him to rely on a petty backup plan, Tomahawk notes his usually well-prepared taunts have become more, well, frantic as he scrambles to buy time for his real superweapon to be prepared, but concedes that neither her team nor she aren't going to stop him since they know next to nothing about what he's stalling for.
- Player Headquarters: The Situation Room is the area players return to after levels, where they can practice their abilities/weapons, select levels, swap out characters, take on challenges, view their stats, or just generally hang out.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Asha and the Triumvirate are only really antagonists because they're being paid to protect Lord Frantic's latest scheme, and would be more than happy to do other things. This trope does not hold for Doc Moonrise, who is an independent villain getting paychecks from Lord F.
- Pure Energy: Equinox jokes that his Eviscerator is such, though it's more accurate to say it's multiversal chaos energy in beam form.
- Recurring Boss: Lord Frantic in his Oppressor helicopter and his right-hand man Aion make up the game's sub-bosses.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The world's inhabitants look incredibly humanoid.
- Secret Character: Attaining full completion of every stage in the game unlocks the ability to play as Phoenix, who is Purposefully Overpowered.
- Sequel Hook: The game's stinger shows a silhouetted Doc Moonrise discussing his own plans to Take Over the World with some equally silhouetted lieutenants of his.
- Shout-Out:
- There's quite a few to Madness Combat.
- The Triumvirate's existence is a wholesale reference to three of the four Madness protagonists.
- Overlord Frantic's armor is called the Improbability Suit and gives him a white aura similar to Tricky's demon form.
- Aion introduces himself in his final battle as being an "auditor" of time and sends the player character to a hellish warzone under his control similar to the Auditor's realm
- Area 4 has posters littered about the place of similar surrealism to Madness's posters, including an advertisement for hot dogs.
- When in the Situation Room, a plush toy and poster of Serial Designation N can be seen in the stats room.
- Unearned secret achievements have the title and description of Mystery Achievement - You're on my mind....
- The sub-boss warning splash for 4-1 displays "MAY YOU ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT" instead of the usual readout.
- There's quite a few to Madness Combat.
- Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: The game remains firmly planted at the Silly end of things, but isn't afraid to get Serious every now and then. The game world runs on the Rules of Funny and Cool.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: The Narrators both have text-to-speech dialogue. Aion also uses TTS, indicating that he's a human.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: 4-1 turns into a vertical-scrolling underwater shmup, complete with fancy screen borders. The player's chosen character has an effect on subweapon and starting life count.
- Villain of Another Story: Doc Moonrise borders on being a Lone Wolf Boss, considering he has his own personal army and differing goals for the planet than the person who hired him. Sure enough, The Stinger sets him up as a new potential main antagonist for future works.
- Wolfpack Boss: The Triumvirate are fought as such. First Hubert by himself, then a Dual Boss with Saturn and Lumine, and finally a brawl with all three.
- Xanatos Gambit: Lord Frantic has contingencies. Heroes take out your battlesuit? Drop a giant mechanical eagle on them. Heroes stop all your ways to cause ecological disasters? Good thing those devices they "disabled" doubled as generators for your gravity ray that can pull the Moon out of its orbit! Heroes destroy your gravity ray, even after all that? Just harness the stored unreality energy and become a Reality Warper, why not?
