"Five, four, three, two, one—blast off!"
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is the video game adaptation of the film of the same name, albeit with a somewhat different plot. It was initially released in 2001 for PC, with PS2 and GBA versions following in 2002.
The science fair is coming up and boy genius Jimmy Neutron's entry is a teleportation system using the city's phone booths. He asks his friend Carl to test teleporting from one phone booth to an adjacent one. He declines, saying the contraption looks "dangerous". Jimmy then resorts to his Robot Dog Goddard, who is also reluctant at first. Jimmy lures him in with some foil. Goddard's (robotic) animal instincts kick in and he strolls in the phone booth... and comes out the other one unscathed. With this, Jimmy is confident he'll eventually be capable of teleporting anywhere, "even to outer space". Surely this will win him first place at the science fair!
This game's sequel of sorts is Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius contains examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Subverted. The opening into the sewer is too small for Jimmy, so he uses Goddard's remote control function to navigate through the otherwise spacious environment and find the part he's looking for.
- Alien Abduction: Like the film, the Yolkians abduct people. Unlike the film, they are trying to abduct Jimmy alone and repeatedly fail to get him."We are sorry, sir. All of the humans look alike to us."
- Alien Blood: The Yolkians have green blood.
- Aliens Speaking English: The Yolkians speak English, use English idioms ("[Jimmy]'s slipperier than a greased rooster in a chicken coop"), and even have signs on their ship (including a "Wanted!" Poster for Jimmy) written in English.
- All-Natural Gem Polish: Jimmy has a machine that converts coal into diamonds. The diamonds come out perfectly cut.Jimmy: "Nice! Almost a perfect diamond!"
- Area 51: One of the game's locations.
- A Winner Is You: The end of the game is a "Welcome back to Earth" party at the Candy Bar in which the cast applauds and congratulates Jimmy. Now where have we seen that before?
- Broken Record: The Yolkian guards, whenever they notice you, say "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" over and over. You can shut them up by shrinking them or turning invisible.
- The (unseen) Retroland employees repeat things like "See the one and only Ultra-Lord!" "Popcorn! Get your popcorn here!" "Show Me The Mummy ride here!" "Octa-Puke! Hey, maybe you will puke! Ride the dizzy ride here!"
- Special mention goes to one particular voice in the Midway that repeats "Measure your IQ here! I did!" ad infinitum without pausing.
- Cast from Hit Points: Most of Jimmy's inventions deplete his neutron energy meter, which doubles as a Life Meter.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Jimmy does many mundane tasks, such as rescuing a cat from a rooftop, return bird's eggs to their nest, and saving a school bus full of children from a rampaging dinosaur.
- Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: If you wander up to a cage labeled "DINOSAUR", Jimmy will say urgently, "Gotta get my creature back to the lab—quick!" However, this is completely irrelevant to the game's plot and can be completely ignored with no consequences.
- Critical Existence Failure: Averted. Jimmy can still live with his neutron meter at zero, but he can't use most of his inventions, save for the grappler and scooter.
- In this state, his shrink ray makes a generic buzzer sound.
- It is played straight in the Yolkian ship, at which point you go back to the beginning of the level.
- Elite Mooks: This game has both regular Yokian guards and Elite Guards, Ooblar even calls them that in-game.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Jimmy claims "red neutrons have a thousand times as much energy as the blue ones". In-game, however, a red neutron adds 25 points to the meter, while a blue neutron adds 5. So either it's this trope, or game Jimmy sucks at math. Maybe both...
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The Yolkians. They have no mentioned motivation to speak of for finding Jimmy.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: One of Jimmy's inventions is a handheld grappling hook. The interface implies Goddard acts as the grappler, but the in-game model reuses Jimmy's shrink ray.
- Flash of Pain: Jimmy flashes red for a short time after being hit. He flashes green if he touches acid.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: In the practice mode, VOX explicitly explains to the player how the inventions work—specifically what keyboard/mouse commands are needed to use them.
- Hollywood Acid: The power plant—inside and out—is filled with the stuff.
- Hydrant Geyser: Once or twice, a fire hydrant in Jimmy's neighborhood may be spewing out water. You can collect a wrench to fix it for a few extra points.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Jimmy can switch to his rocket ship at almost any time in an instant.
- Invisible to Normals: The blue and red neutrons are invisible to the naked eye without an application of a special lens spray.
- I Want My Mommy!: A shrunk Yolkian mook may exclaim, "He-e-elp! Mama! Mama!", complete with flailing arms.
- Invisibility: One of Jimmy's inventions.
- Jet Pack: One of Jimmy's inventions. You can't fly nearly as fast or as long as Jimmy does in the film, however.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Near the game's climax, Jimmy says, "This game is almost over."
- Upon seeing a bunch of balloons tied to a fence from the rooftop of the school, Jimmy says, "I bet I can hit all these balloons [with baseballs] and get more points from up here!"
- Le Parkour: Jimmy can vault over hedges, fences and crates much taller than him with ease.
- Life Meter/Mana Meter: Both meters are represented by a neutron energy meter, which can be filled with red and blue neutrons.
- May the Farce Be with You: Let's just say that the lead designer must have been a huge Star Wars fan.
- The Yolkian commander's first line suggests they are looking for a "rebel base", much like the Empire in A New Hope. And if Darth Vader were to transform into a giant frog held in an egg-shaped armor, that would probably be what he would look like.
- At one point, the Yolkian commander, fed up with his subordinate's incompetence at capturing Jimmy, says, "You have failed me for the last time, lieutenant." The lieutenant's metal shell explodes, leaving behind a mess of green goo with eyestalks. The commander then says to a random guard, "You are now in charge. Bring me that human boy! NOW!"
- Upon being abducted by the Yolkians, Cindy exclaims that Jimmy is her "only hope".
- The cutscene of Jimmy and Goddard's escape pod launching is reminiscent of the scene of the escape pod launch early in A New Hope.
- The Yolkian commander, upon learning his men had captured someone, says, "Excellent. Our first catch of the day."
- Meanwhile, Back at the…: Several cutscenes switch to the perspective of the Yolkians, usually to show the Commander's frustration with his subordinates for failing to abduct Jimmy.
- No OSHA Compliance: The power plant has exposed electrical currents, uncontained corrosive acid spills, and hazardous materials dangling precariously from claws all over the place. Jimmy finds the plutonium just lying around in a control room. Turning off the cooling fans is as simple as pushing a poorly-placed button. Somewhat justified in that all of the technicians have been abducted by the Yolkians, so there's no one around to maintain the place.
- No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Averted. While the game's story is wholly linear, there's a plethora of entirely optional side paths, exploration, and collectible items for extra points.
- No Name Given: The Big Bad is only referred to as the Yolkian fleet commander.
- Noodle Incident: Jimmy apparently loaned his rocket ship to Ultra-Lord when his was stuck in customs in Tokyo some time before the events of the game.
- Painfully Slow Projectile: The projectiles from the Yolkians' energy cannons travel much slower than any energy projectile would. Despite this, it's not always very easy to dodge them.
- Reformulated Game: The console versions are a linear, level-based platformer while the PC version is an open-world sandbox.
- Shrink Ray: Another of Jimmy's inventions.
- Space Mines: The Yolkian ship that's kidnapping Carl will leave mines behind as Jimmy pursues in his rocket ship.
- Suddenly Voiced: Goddard, surprisingly enough. He expresses apprehension at going into the sewer to retrieve Sheen's discarded computer part and briefs Jimmy on how to handle the power plant part.
- Telephone Teleportation: Basically the foundation of a Portal Network made by Jimmy, using phone booth systems, is the most convenient mode of transportation, although you can go to most locations on foot if you are so inclined.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Yolkian guards will immediately stop pursuing you the instant you turn on your invisibility.
- One guard on the first Yolkian ship merely bounces up and down slightly and moving his arms as if he were walking (floating?), without actually moving at all.
- Humphrey acts the same way.
- The Stinger: The credits end with a shot of Jimmy yodeling on the moon, with a sparking phone booth behind him.
- Time Travel: If your neutron energy reaches zero in the Yolkian ship, an "automatic time travel feature" is activated, sending you back to the last auto-save point.
- Timed Mission: Jimmy has fifteen minutes to clear the power plant and retrieve the necessary plutonium.
- We Will Meet Again: Said by the Yolkian Commander after Jimmy escapes.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out for sure whether or not Jimmy wins the science fair.
- The "rebel base" the Yolkian commander mentioned at the very beginning seemingly ceases to be an issue immediately after it's mentioned.
- You All Look Familiar: Outside the power plant, a Yolkian ship is seen in the distance abducting people. On closer examination, it's the same person every time.
- Likewise, the Yolkian guards have Only Two Faces, while the Yolkian commander and his lieutenant have a unique model.
