Legends of Kong is an online 2D Flash Action RPG/Platformer game developed by Nerdook.
An unnamed city has devolved into chaos with the people seeming to act as brain-dead slaves! As well as other creatures being released into the fray — all with the same goal in mind, attacking unsuspecting citizens. You play as Jim Greer and his party of fellow unaffected civilians, hoping to destroy the twelve transmitters scattered throughout the city to free the populace of their mind-control and return the city back to a state of relative peace. Lead your party across a fairly large randomly generated city, and traverse across twelve zones (plus a final zone) the way you wish to. You can play violently by slaughtering everything that comes in your way, stealthily and pacifically by avoiding everything, or anywhere in between. With 96 upgrades to buy, 36 weapons to arm yourself with, several badges to earn, and a variety of characters to have in your party, can you save the city from a strange and shady villain?
This game can be played at here
. There's also a page in the Kongregate Wiki that covers the whole game.
Legends of Kong provides examples of:
- Achievement System: As expected for this game, which is nine badges divided into three tiers. You get permanent mechanic changes as you complete each tier.
- The Green Tier: Completing this tier makes Jim's allies no longer bound by Permadeath (see the listed trope below) and Jim himself now earns more money from completing levels. This involves completing the first level (The Genesis), opening 10 chests (Dead Man's Chest), complete 3 levels in pacifist mode (Value of Life) and kill 99 enemies (Merciless Killer).
- The Yellow Tier: Completing this tier grants your characters a 50 HP boost, enemy alert times are reduced by 2 seconds (Default 9), and you gain additional cash from completing Zones. This tier can be completed just by completing the final area (End of the road), as well as filling out all four character slots (The Usual Suspects) and buying 20 guns (Load of Guns). Its possible to get this tier last after completing the red tier.
- Red Tier: Completed by completing all levels via pacifist and wipeout mode (War and Peace) and buying all weapons, skills, and upgrades (Upgrade Complete). Completing this unlocks Overgrind Mode.
- Action Bomb: Slime mutants explode violently when you kill them, making it a bad idea to use melee attacks on them.
- BFG: The Rocket Launcher, Minigun, Flamethrower and Gauss Rifle. All of the examples can only be purchased in the last two zones, and all four of them are deadly.
- Boring, but Practical: In an Action RPG-Platformer as immersive as Legends of Kong, this trope will eventually show up.
- Firstly, the humble Fists (see below on Good Old Fisticuffs).
- Passive upgrades. While they don't seem to do much in the beginning (upgrades like increasing your melee resistance and increasing the amount of money earned with survivor or wipeout bonuses), eventually these will come in handy as you progress through the game when the upgrades become more expensive and the enemies get harder.
- All the playable characters's special abilities are either this and/or Crippling Overspecialization:
- The main character Jim Greer is initially the only character who can't be killed off, however he doesn't earn as much cash after completing levels when compared to nearly all the other survivors ($65 compared to $80), though luckily this gets rectified after completing all the green badges, when he gets a permanent 38% increase ($90). Even then, he's outclassed by Cassandra Khaw, who earns $100 per level, but must be found to be playable.
- Oksana and Jim Meenan both have a money-based special ability (Oksana gains a 20% increase in cash pickups from either collecting them on the map or killing enemies and Meenan always gets at least $25 from opening chests) that doesn't seem much at first, but much like the passive upgrades, they'll eventually becomes vital as upgrades become expensive.
- In fact, everybody else who usually has some form of Stats Increase as their special ability usually falls under this trope (Special mentions go to Everlovely with a +20% bonus on Shotgun damage, and SicMirx who's attacks are +10% faster (and +10% more damaging)).
- Bragging Rights Reward: Zig Zagged with Overgrind Mode, a mode which basically makes the mooks slightly stonger and stretchs the level, which is unlocked by collecting both red badges (Unlock all upgrades and complete all zones in both pacifist and wipeout run). As this almost certainly unlocks almost all the other badges along the way, this is the closest thing players will get to 100% completion.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: All of the people of the city who are hostile to you have been brainwashed by GlobalTek Industries' equipment and experiments.
- Canine Companion: With the "Canine Friend" skill equipped, Oliver the Kongredog will follow you around the map, attacking any alerted enemies.
- Crippling Overspecialization:
- The unmutated Mercenaries found near the end of the game all use firearms, so while they have a lot of health, they can be easily taken down with melee weapons.
- Some of the playable characters are also saddled with this at first as their special ability is only useful later on in the game.
- Hellraiser deals +10% damage in heavy weapons and explosives, however, he is useless in the beginning (where you'll probably find him) since the earliest suitable weapon he benefits from cannot be found until Level 7 (Frag Grenades) so he only becomes viable near the endgame.
- Sarsy's special ability lets him use cloak for twice as long (see Invisibility below). Downplayed as Cloak Trigger can be found after Level 4, making him more useful if you're going down that playstyle path, as Cloak and the Cattle Prod (also available in the same area) makes him a very good pacifist character.
- Afritana is a hacker who, if she's equipped with the skill Auto Hack, deals damage to Mechanical Enemies three times quicker without ever touching them. Good luck getting by until Level 9, when that's available!
- Critical Hit: Melee criticals can do up to 200% more damage and ranged criticals can do up to 200% more damage, and buying certain skills increases the chances of attaining one.
- Critical Status Buff: When you have the "Revenge Rush" skill equipped, when your health drops below the 25% threshold, you deal 200% more melee damage.
- Disc-One Nuke: Speed Reload (Reduces reload time of ranged weapons to 1 second) can be purchased as early as Zone 3 and is practically a must-have if you're going to use a ranged weapon, especially in the later zones with the tougher enemies.
- Developer's Foresight: If you unlock a new gun/ranged weapon and you don't have ammo, the chest will also provide you with 2 rounds of ammo.
- Double Jump: By default, you are able to jump twice with no height penalties between the two jumps. The equippable skill, "Power Jump", boosts this ability by allowing you to jump twice as high.
- Elite Mook: Any of the uniquely named enemies (or mini-bosses to be exact), mercenaries, and all super-soldiers. Though, the former's spawn rate is very low and when you reach a screen where one is located in, a warning message will come up asking whether you want to battle him or her on, or attempt evasion (50% chance normally, or 100% chance with the "Sneak Expert" skill equipped). Once you are spotted by the elite, you cannot leave the screen without taking every Mook out regardless of how long you hide and wait (for normal enemies, the time is 10 seconds).
- Expy: Mr. Waffles is one for Issac Clark, however instead of being an zombie-killing engineer, Waffles is the zombie-killing Owner of a Breakfast fast food chain!
- Gatling Good: One of the strongest weapons in the game is the minigun, which is unlocked very late in the game.
- Because of Hellraiser's passive (and see why below), this is basically his signature.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: You begin the game with your primary weapon being Fists, which quickly get outclassed by almost every other weapon attained. However, with certain upgrades, they (along with Brass Knuckles and the Power Glove) can become rather deadly and effective weapons.
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Goddamned Bats: The Hunter Seekers, first introduced in zone 6. They have a mobility advantage in that they fly around the screen (and aggressively if provoked) focusing in on the player, making them difficult to drive off. Zone 9 introduces Winged Mutant, who can fly AND have a far-range attack in the form of acid spit. - The Goomba: Citizens. First encountered in zone 1, they do negligible damage to you, their walking and attacking patterns are simple, and can easily be taken out in a few hits (regardless of the zone) - even with the non-boosted Fists. They get increasingly rarer as you progress through the game, to the point the last 3-4 levels do not have them at all.
- Goomba Stomp: The "Impact Landing" skill allows you to deal damage to an enemy when you land on top of it. It even non-lethally knocks out humans below 0 HP.
- Healing Potion: Or in this case, health syringes. When you start, you can only hold one (any more collected will be automatically used), and when used, they restore 50 HP. By buying certain upgrades, the maximum number of syringes and amount of healing increases. Moreover, by having the "Auto Healing" skill equipped, you will automatically use a health syringe (if available) when your HP drops to less than or equal to 0 instead of normally dying.
- Invisibility: The "Cloak Trigger" skill once equipped, allows you to become invisible to most enemies once per screen for 1.5 seconds (twice as long for Sarsy) by pressing C. If you take damage while you have one usage left, you get three seconds of cloaking. With the "Sneak Expert" skill also equipped, the "Cloak Trigger" skill can be re-triggered every 10 seconds.
- Instant Sedation: Subverted here. The crossbow can fire tranquilizer darts. However, any enemy that is hit by one will not instantly collapse but, will eventually collapse depending on the enemy's current health. It still acts rather quickly though.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted. once the katana is acquired and equipped, it provides a significant boost to your melee DPS compared to the previous equipable melee weapons. However, it is only the fourth strongest melee weapon in the game. On the other hand, the katana is the fastest melee weapon in the entire game, which makes it work wonders with certain skills - leading it to be the strongest melee weapon in certain circumstances.
- Mecha-Mook: All enemies that are mechanical. The ones encountered are Security Droids and Hunter Seekers,
- MegaCorp: GlobalTek Industries. They are the main source of trouble for Jim Greer and his allies, as well as devolving the city into a state of chaos.
- More Dakka: There are lots of automatic guns to choose from, as well as skills that let you shoot faster, reload faster, and carry more ammo.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Hellraiser is a survivor who specializes in heavy weapons and explosives.
- No Peripheral Vision: Zig-zagged. Every enemie has a vision cone that, when facing forward, players must avoid to not render them hostile (if they do, they must avoid their vision for 10 seconds to pacify them). They can't look up though, so you can jump over them (just don't land on them though).
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Jim Greer and Jim Meenan. Truth in Television, as Greer was the co-founder and former CEO of Kongregate and Meenan was the former Kongregate vice president of Product, and both of them were working together during the time the game was made.
- Pacifist Run: It's possible to complete all zones without killing anyone. In fact, it's required for achieving all badges as well as getting the $150 bonus per zone. Unfortunately, this means using only non-lethal weaponry - if a lethal-weapon is used on a living-enemy, then the pacifist run is void. Moreover, non-lethal weapons are usually the weakest ones available and are partially hard to aim. Thankfully, mechanical enemies don't count in these runs.
- Permadeath: Played with. Until you attain all four green badges, any character other than Jim Greer once killed, will be removed from the party. Once the four green badges are attained, the only way to remove characters is to manually kick them out. However, it is possible to find them again if they're "killed".
- Pistol Whip: An equipable skill that lets you use your gun to push melee attackers away. Very handy for keeping them at a distance while you shoot them.
- Poisonous Person: Slime Mutants and Flying Mutants all have the ability to use acid-based attacks. The latter once defeated explodes into acid, and the latter spits out acid. Technically, almost all mutant enemies have poison or acid-based powers.
- Power Fist: The Power Glove. It is the most powerful melee weapon in the game can can only be purchased in the 12th zone. With certain skills equipped, they can become even more deadly.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Blade Boomerang, an equippable weapon purchasable in Zone 8.
- Randomly Drops: Chests usually contain money and/or ammo. However, a few of them contains an upgrade that permanently boosts your maximum health by 2 HP. And a very minute percentage of them contains an upgrade that increases your maximum melee and ranged damage and DPS. All the enemies may drop ammo or some money when killed as well.
- Randomly Generated Levels: All zones of the city are randomly generated. There are some similarities in terms of level design (the latter the zone, the bigger and more complex the generated level is) and enemy difficulty and placement but, for the most part, it's random.
- Regenerating Health: Your health will slowly regenerate when outside of combat to the nearest quarter maximum total. If you have purchased enough "Syringe +1" upgrades, then it will also slowly regenerate during combat.
- Robot Buddy: KongBot, obviously. He gives you intel on the current level and advanced the plot.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Played straight. The Sawed-Off Shotgun is the most notable example.
- Shout-Out: You fought like a dairy farmer!
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- Very downplayed, and possible to subvert. In the game, it is recommended that using melee weapons is more effective when fighting ranged enemies and vice-versa. However, this doesn't matter if you replay an earlier zone with certain upgrades or a late-game weapon, where you can effortlessly mow your way through completion.
- A more complex example in the case of ranged weapons is that it's possible that the same kind of weapons that are more useful at a further distance can be outgunned by weaker, but more convenient small arms at closer range. The more powerful firearms have slower reloading speeds, though this can be remedied with the skill "Speed Reload" (reduce all reloading speeds to one second).
- The Handgun lacks damage, but is generally good at mid-range with decent attack speed and accuracy and carries a reasonable amount of ammo (5). The Magnum and Revolver trades for Damage in lieu of speed, range, and ammo, while the Silencer has none of the drawbacks from speed and range (as well as being able to use it without alerting anyone), but still retains the weakness of having less ammo.
- Shotguns are generally worthless at far range and have less ammo, but are more effective at close range and can hit more than one target (unlike handguns), and are reasonably fast. The late-game Flamethrower is similar, but it's more powerful and eats through ammo faster.
- Automatic rifles and sub-machine guns sacrifice accuracy for speed and range. While it carries more ammo, this is also a drawback since the rate of fire generally eats it up anyway.
- The Hunting and Sniper Rifles excel best at damage, accuracy, speed and long-range, but suffer from being rather cumbersome at close range, as well as the lack of ammo space.
- Taking You with Me: If you die with the Kill Trigger skill equipped, every nearby enemy will explode and give you a cash bonus.
- Technically-Living Zombie: The "zombies" in this sense are people brainwashed by some unknown force, possibly electromagnetism and are not undead. KongBot even pulls a Not Using the "Z" Word, referring to them as psychos.
- The Cameo: All of the unique minibosses are characters from Kongai.
- Tuckerization: All the playable characters (20) are named after people who have either been working in or associated with Kongregate or were playtesters for the game.
- Video Game Caring Potential: All of the zones can be completed without having to kill anything. In fact, there are achievements for achieving a pacifist run, money bonuses for leaving survivors ($150 for first completing a pacifist run in a zone, and the survivor bonus can be raised), and certain zones become easier to complete. On the other hand...
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: The zones can also be completed by murdering everything hostile in sight. Like with pacifist runs, there are achievements for attaining a "wipeout", money bonuses for each hostile killed ($150 for first completing a wipeout run in a zone, and the kill bonus can be raised), and certain zones become easier to complete. It should also be noted to get 100% in the game, the player has to complete a few achievements with both methods.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Downplayed with the Flamethrower, it has a similar range to the shotguns, but it's as justifiably damaging for a late-game weapon and won't burn you.
