Video Game / Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron

Jimmy: Can't anything ever be different?!
Narrator: Oh, but it can be. And somewhere, in another dimension, things are different. Very different. [...] In this other dimension is a boy named Jimmy Negatron: evil boy genius. And if this boy has his way, things will change in Retroville.

Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron is a 2002 GBA game (ported to PC the following year), and a sequel of sorts of the video game adaptation of the animated film. The game follows a more linear storyline than its predecessor.

At the start of the game, the eponymous Jimmy Neutron is attending a class field trip to the Retroville Museum. He quickly finds himself bored silly by his teacher's lecturing. Thoroughly fed up with it, he exclaims, "Can't anything ever be different?!"

Meanwhile in an underwater base in another dimension, we're introduced to the eponymous villain of the game, the goatee-clad Jimmy Negatron, who is presently working on the final phase of his greatest plan: to dominate Jimmy Neutron's dimension.

Back at the museum, Cindy Vortex is fascinated by an exhibit on a theory concerning time travel, which Jimmy claims is full of gaps. Being a boy genius, he then shows that he has the theory perfected and, using a conveniently placed portal, attempts to go back 50 years. Negatron detects this and intercepts the signal, diverting it into a cage in his lab. Negatron explains that he intends to take Jimmy's place and change his dimension just for fun. He leaves his large robotic henchman, the Herminator, to guard his prisoner.

Jimmy, correctly guessing the Herminator isn't too bright, deceives him and escapes with relative ease. With only the items in Negatron's lab for him to MacGyver together into something useful, he has to get back to his dimension and revert Negatron's tampering.

Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron contains examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: VOX, while she's hacked by Negatron.
• Abnormal Ammo: Jimmy invents a water balloon launcher, a fast food-launching slingshot for his rocket ship, and an aptly-named burp-launching burpzooka.
• Absurdly Short Level: The Neutron house, returning from the previous game. The level's exit is right next to where Jimmy starts and there's nothing to do besides exploring the small house for optional collectibles.
• Animal Mecha: Negatron's last attack is sending the apparently robotic dinosaurs from the museum out to rampage through the town. Those same dinosaurs make an early-game cameo in Jimmy's room after Negatron takes over the Neutron house.
• Anything but That!: Invoked word for word after Jimmy realized that Negatron is in love with Cindy.
• Art Evolution: Compared to AWE Games' previous Jimmy Neutron game, the character models have been given subtle improvements, and the cutscene animations have been significantly improved.
• A Winner Is You: The game ends with a box saying "YOU WIN. PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE."
• Beard of Evil: Negatron's goatee, which is a blatant reference to Mirror!Spock's goatee in the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror".
• Big Bad: Negatron.
• Big "NO!": Jimmy lets one out twice. The first one happens when Negatron reveals he made Cindy fall in love with him. The second one happens when Cindy says "I think I L-O-V-E you" to Jimmy.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Negatron's to-do list.
  ☑ Have lunch.
  ☑ Clean parents cage.
  ☑ Pick up dry cleaning.
  ☑ Yell at robots.
  ☐ Dominate Jimmy Neutron's dimension.
• Brick Joke: Having realized he was tricked by Jimmy, Hermin teleports to Jimmy's front yard and spots his mailbox. Since it says "Neutron" on it, it must be Jimmy Neutron himself! He brings it back to Negatron's lab and puts it in a cage. It's still there during the endgame cutscene.
• Build Like an Egyptian: The Egypt exhibit of the museum features an authentic replica sphinx, an entire pyramid labyrinth, and real sandstorms.
• Bullet Time: The Slow Time invention. When activated, Jimmy continues to move at normal speed, but obstacles slow to a crawl, allowing you to walk past them with ease.
• Burger Fool: The employee at Sporko's.
• Call-Back: The time travel levels use a modified map of Jimmy's neighborhood from the previous game.
• Cast from Hit Points: The mini sub and the rocket's speed boosts and the Water-Balloon Gun and VR Tank's ammo (except when using Rapid Fire).
• Cave Behind the Falls: Jimmy and Goddard discover one of these, complete with an abandoned mineshaft.
• Chekhov's Exhibit: In the opening cutscene, a couple model dinosaur skeletons are seen on display at the museum. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that they're not just models, but robots. Negatron, after being trapped in a vat by Jimmy, activates them to rampage through the town.
• Chekhov's Gun: When setting the coordinates to return to his home dimension, Jimmy takes a little extra time at the computer, saying "So Negatron changed the coordinates on me, huh? Two can play at this game!" At the end of the game, when Negatron has been foiled and he returns to his home dimension, Jimmy does not follow him. Because he has set Negatron's return coordinates to inside the same cage that he was locked in at the beginning of the game. And Herman won't be tricked into letting out "Jimmy" a second time.
• Christmas Episode: The second time travel level.
• Cool Shades: Said verbatim by Jimmy on picking up shades that he ultimately uses as a rangefinder for a water-balloon launcher.
• Crystal Landscape: The deepest caverns underneath the pyramid are full of crystals.
• Cyberspace: At one point, VOX is hacked into by Negatron, causing her to abduct Libby into a virtual reality. Jimmy enters and fights off the literal bugs in the system with a tank-like vehicle.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If Jimmy runs out of Neutron energy or falls into a pit, he will instantly respawn with no penalty.
• Deflector Shields: One of Jimmy's inventions.
• Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Jimmy uses this to trick Hermin into releasing him at the start of the game.
• The Dragon: The Herminator, Negatron's loyal but incompetent lackey.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: One of Jimmy's inventions.
  Jimmy: "Alright! Radar!"
• Eternal Engine: On of the final levels takes place in a huge Purple Flurp factory, which Negatron has taken over to manufacture his own evil version of the drink.
• Evil Counterpart: Jimmy Negatron, EVIL Boy Genius.
• Evil Laugh: Negatron.
  Jimmy: "I really wish you'd stop laughing like that. It's annoying."
• Final Dungeon Preview: The encounter with a giant Carl midway through the game takes place in the same part of the city as the final showdown with Negatron's robo-dinosaurs.
• Giant Wall of Watery Doom: Jimmy uses Goddard's flycycle mode (which fans may remember from the movie) to evade one in a ravine after teleporting from Negatron's lab early on. It's so slow, however, that the only way you'd get caught in it is if you deliberately stop moving or turn around and head towards it.
• Halloween Episode: The first time travel level.
• Homing Projectile: The "auto-seeking subroutines" the VR tank uses to shoot down the bugs in VOX's virtual reality.
• Hover Tank: Jimmy somehow fabricates an interesting variety of one to fight the bugs plaguing VOX's virtual reality.
• Hub Level: The lobby of the museum serves as your gateway to various levels scattered around Retroville.
• Indy Escape: At one point, Jimmy is forced to slide on his bottom through a cavern with a rolling boulder behind him.
• Jet Pack: Jimmy uses his during the Independence Day level. It's much faster and lacks the fuel limit of the previous game.
• Just a Machine: Negatron seems to think of the Herminator as such.
  Negatron: "Yes! My dimensional portal is the key that will allow me to complete my list of objectives! [Evil Laugh]"
  Herminator: [also laughs]
  Negatron: "Hermin!"
  Herminator: "I know... I'm an imbecile. Go lock myself in the broom closet."
• Lame Pun Reaction: Negatron has one to a pun he himself made after locking Jimmy's parents into sarcophagi:
  Negatron: "Bye mummy!" Evil Laugh "Okay, okay, that wasn't very funny, but I'm pressed for time..."
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Negatron wears one to further distinguish himself from Jimmy.
• Levels Take Flight: The third and final section of the "Get Negatron" level gives Jimmy a jetpack to chase after Negatron's helicopter bot.
• Life Meter / Mana Meter: Both are represented by a neutron energy meter, which can be filled with blue neutrons, red neutrons, and/or red neutron segments.
• Mecha-Mooks: Negatron's lab is filled with flying bots that can be shot down with the water balloon launcher. A few of the same bots can be found in the warehouse.
• Mini-Game: The museum features one where the player lands Apollo 11 on the Moon.
  Jimmy: Woo-hoo! A bonus area!
• More Dakka: The Rapid Fire invention.
  Jimmy: "You want some of this?! Huh?! You want a piece of me?!"
• Nobody Poops: Averted. During the Egyptian exhibit, you can make Jimmy go into a bathroom, which triggers a cutscene of him walking in, the sound of a toilet flushing, him walking out and expressing his relief, most likely because he hadn't gone all day.
• Noob Cave: Negatron's lab, where the player first obtains the water-balloon gun.
• Oh, Crap!: Negatron gets this reaction when he realizes a copter won't help him escape Neutron during the final chase.
  Negatron: You have a jetpack, don't you.
  Neutron: Yep.
  Negatron: (Clearly panicking) Uh... gotta go, bye!
• Oxygen Meter: Jimmy receives one while he's underwater during a puzzle in which he has to press buttons scattered around a large chamber to move the water level up and down to exit the room. There are a few oxygen tanks he can pick up to somehow replenish his air supply.
• Palette Swap: Negatron looks almost exactly like Jimmy, but with a goatee, pointed eyebrows, and different clothes.
• Platform Game: A fair amount of the game's puzzles.
• Reverse Psychology: Jimmy uses this to trick Herminator into thinking he's Jimmy Negatron to make him let him out of the cage.
• Shout-Out: The King Carl level is a parody In Name Only of King Kong. The loading screen for the level◊ extends the reference a bit further.
• Slide Level: The caves under the pyramid include a long sliding section, complete with a classic boulder chase for good measure.
• Standard Snippet: Negatron's first appearance in the opening cutscene is accompanied by the beginning bars of Toccata and Fugue in D minor played on the usual Ominous Pipe Organ.
• Super-Speed: One of the inventions available in the game grants this to Jimmy for several seconds.
• Technobabble: The game mentions terms like proton shield, neutron field disruptor, fluxing codes, and dimensional coordinates.
• Thinking Out Loud: Jimmy, almost all the time. Justified, in that it explains to the player what to do.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In the virtual reality level, when rapid fire is active, hitting a bug repeatedly as it's dissolving away gives you extra points.
• Time Travel: The respawn feature is justified as time travel.
  • The museum has a time portal, which Jimmy attempts to utilize, but is instead teleported across dimensions to Negatron's lab.
  • Later, Negatron attempts to change Jimmy's past three times before running out of power and being forced to return back to the present day.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Jimmy hops through one at one point during the Egyptian level.
  • Upon finding the keys needed to free Jimmy's parents, they seem to teleport Jimmy back to his incarcerated parents, with the collected key in place.
• Underwater Base: Jimmy Negatron's secret lair is only accessible by submarine or teleporter.
• Underwater Ruins: Jimmy's submarine trip takes a detour through a nearby sunken city.
• Video Phone: Jimmy's PDA acts as one on a few occasions.
• X-Ray Vision: Another of Jimmy's inventions, allowing the player to see hidden areas in walls.

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