I found myself on this crappy case, standing in crap filled water, facing down a piece of crap criminal for a paycheck that wouldn't be worth crap to a crap.
Nick Bounty is a series of point and click Adventure Games created by Mark Darin of Pinhead Games. The titular Nick is a wanna-be private detective with a fish tie in a black and white world full of noir clichés.
The games in this series are
- Nick Bounty: A Case of the Crabs
- Nick Bounty: The Goat in the Gray Fedora
- Nick Bounty: The Dame with the Blue Chewed Shoe
This game provides examples of:
- Adventure Game
- Any Last Words?: Before the two thugs leave him to die in the warehouse, one asks if he has any final words. Bounty then tries (and fails) to say "Rubber baby buggy bumper" three times fast.
- Art Evolution: The earlier games are coded in flash, the later in unity
- Chase Scene: The climax of "Blue chewed Shoe"
- Chekhov's Gun: The various salty foods throughout "The Goat in the Gray Fedora".
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: A whole closet of them in "Blue chewed Shoe".
- Deadpan Snarker: True to his profession as a hardboiled detective, Nick takes every opportunity to snark.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Comes in handy when you need to distract some hungry cops.
- Film Noir: The aesthetic for the games.
- Framing Device: "The Goat in the Gray Fedora" is framed as a story Nick tells to explain why he won't bet his watch in a poker game.
- Friend on the Force: The local police know Nick and are not impressed. In "Blue chewed Shoe" he is friend with the coroner, which comes in handy.
- Freeware Games: The first two games in the series are available for free by Pinhead Games website
- Gendercide: Kitty's ultimate goal is to paralyze all men, believing that women would do a better job of controlling the world.
- Genre Savvy: Nick is pretty clear on his place in the world, for example refusing to enter a dark alley because he knows that's where he will get the crap beaten out of him. It doesn't save him from getting the crap beaten out of him later in the game.
- Hardboiled Detective: Nick is this in the same way Guybrush Threepwood is a Mighty Pirate
- Idle Rich: The statue collector in "Goat with the Gray Fedora"
- If I Can't Have You…: Part of the motive in "Blue Chewed Shoe"
- Old-Fashioned Copper: Walter, one of your potential sidekicks in "Blue Chewed Shoe", has clear vibes of this trope.
- Moon Logic: Some of the puzzles, especially in "Case of Crabs" are better solved by brute forcing than anything resembling logic. Miligated by the fact that you have a fairly small number of items in your inventory.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- While the two goons looking for the Maltese Falcon aren't involved in Kitty's scheme, breaking the goat statue still leads to Nick discovering the key to Mr. Ledbetter's safe and the full extent of said scheme.
- Kitty giving Nick salty foods containing the paralysis agent ends up saving his life when she shoots him four times in the chest.
- Private Detective: You get to play one!
- Private Eye Monologue: Nick does this at every opportunity
- Puppet Shows: You take part in one as part of solving a puzzle in "The Goat with the Gray Fedora".
- Running Gag: Common between the games. Nick's fish tie is just one example.
- Straw Feminist: Nick discovers that Kitty has some pretty extreme views after exploring her home.
- The City Narrows: The developer noted how he specifically went out of his way to add a dark alley where the protagonist could be beaten up in "Blue Chewed Shoe".
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Kitty plans on spiking the world's salt supply with a paralysis agent that only reacts to testosterone.
- Totem Pole Trench: A plot point in one of the games.
- Villain of Another Story: The two goons chasing Nick in "Goat in the Gray Fedora" turns out to be under the impression Nick is in posession of the The Maltese Falcon. When the mistake is cleared up, they apologize and leave.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The big bad in "Goat in the Gray Fedora"
