Keineged an nor is a video game by Anto80 for browsers and Pico-8 virtual machines released in 2018. It's an Adventure Game in which you have to make it through several rooms and avoid traps, and boy, there's plenty of them.
That big rock in the first room? Those holes in the corner? That torch in your inventory? Those skulls on the title screen? The game over screen itself? All of them are probably traps. One thing's for certain - you will die.
That said, the deaths are ridiculous and actually progressing leads to satisfaction. You're also on the run at all times, as you have 25 seconds before the torch goes out (and you can replace it once, but it's not recommended), which means restarting doesn't send you back too far and there's no need for a save feature.
The game is clearly inspired by Shadowgate, and could be considered a compressed version of it with pretty much the same amount of deaths and one eighth of the rooms.
Play it here
and it is recommended to do so before reading the trope list, as it is rather short.
This game provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: To Shadowgate and other adventure games. It takes The Many Deaths of You common for the genre up to eleven and Plays It for Laughs.
- Brown Note: You die when you hover the mouse over the tuning fork in the third room by hearing an irritating noise that literally blows your mind and causes total dementia.
- Darkness Equals Death: Once your torch runs out, you wander the labyrinth for a bit before being devoured by some bloodthirsty monsters.
- Debug Room: You can access debug mode which shows locations of objects and other things by pressing start on the title screen and immediately holding the right mouse button.
- Easter Egg: Try searching for the third scorpion. If you find it, it'll start dancing to a catchy little tune.
- End-Game Results Screen: The end screen shows you how many endings you've discovered, how many times you died, and your best time.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The skulls on the title screen, random passageways, mosquitos, unholy tuning forks, the game over screen itself.
- Golden Ending: Pick up the glove without taking another torch with it and you get the good ending, where you repel the evil spirit, get the gem and everything is fine.
- Indecisive Parody: Much like the genre it parodies, it is still a trial-and-error, everything-killing-you-no-matter-what-you-do,
incredibly difficult-to-play game. One could say it was a little too affectionate of the genre. - Killer Gorilla: Pulling a lever to the left in the third room releases a bunch of gorillas to trample you.
- Man on Fire: You turn into a walking flaring fireball after touching the torch.
- The Many Deaths of You: There are almost 30 unique ways to die, with many showing up where you'd least expect them and having unique sound effects.
- Mosquito Miscreants: Trying to rush to the door in the third room leads to you getting dazzled by a white flash of light and a random mosquito shredding all your body parts.
- Multiple Endings: Not counting deaths, there's an okay ending, a great ending, and a special ending.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: One of the deaths involves 26 black-magic-vampire-cannibals.
- Nintendo Hard: You better believe it. Touching anything may result in you dying and having to start over. It's like the I Wanna Be the Guy of adventure games.
- Player Nudge: Trying to click on the sword three times in room 2 replaces the message to "Hold your strength?", indicating that you have to hold the mouse button to pick it up.
- Press Start to Game Over: The very first room you enter has four ways to die, one achieved by just waiting three seconds. And before that, there are two ways to die on the title screen.
- Stalked by the Bell: Take too long to leave the first room and you die as well.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Several deaths. The most painful one has to be the black scorpion which stings you 153 times.
- Timed Mission: You have 25 seconds to beat the game before your torch runs out.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: You are meant to screw up a couple of times before you do figure out a solution. You don't know which skull to pick in room 1, or which door to pick in room 2, etc., not until you try it.
- Unwinnable by Design: Missing any crucial item will get you screwed. For instance, if you don't get the sword in room 2, you won't be able to open the right lock in room 3.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: In the normal ending, you end up getting haunted by an unholy spirit inside the gem and with your soul consumed.
