Notebook Wars is a series of shoot-em-up games in Adobe Flash by Matakukos. The games have you control a plane (or a spaceship) and shoot down enemy squadrons while avoiding bullets. Coins earned from killed enemies can be spent on upgrades, new weapons, new planes, and add-ons to make future levels easier. The games also have stars for each level, available for shooting down special enemies in the first two games or shooting down as many enemies as possible in later titles.
Games in the series:
- Notebook Wars (2010)
- Notebook Wars 2 (2011)
- Notebook Wars 3 (2012), with Notebook Wars 3 Unleashed that same year
- Notebook Space Wars (2013)
- Notebook Space Wars 2 (2014)
- Notebook Wars Saga (2014)
- Notebook Wars Ultimate (2016)
These games provides examples of:
- Achievement System: Each game would have achievements earned for killing enemies, beating levels, earning stars, etc.
- Ascended Meme: A highly upvoted comment in the second game said "When I bought the Laser, I was pumped thinking I'd get some glowing red line of awesomeness, instead I got a gun that shoots uncooked hot dogs.", joking how it's not a straight up laser but just laser shots. The third game fixed it, with the upgrade description mentioning that "Now its [sic] real laser awesomeness!!"
- Big Bad: Emperor Rymulok III in Notebook Space Wars 2, who wants to enslave Earth and it's your job to stop him.
- Boss Warning Siren: Notebook Wars Ultimate displays a yellow "boss incoming" warning before a boss.
- Collision Damage: You take damage when you collide into other planes, though you deal damage to them as well (you won't get money from destroying them, but still).
- Completion Meter: Notebook Wars Ultimate has a completion percentage on the title screen.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Bosses become weaker as you destroy parts of them and they lose their attacks. The destructible parts can be wings, funnily enough.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: All enemies explode when defeated.
- Edible Ammunition: One of the endgame weapons in the third game is a sausage blaster. The game specifies they're radioactive, though.
- Endless Game: Survival Mode. The Level Progress bar stays at the beginning to show that it doesn't end. The game will spawn huge amounts of super powerful foes to overwhelm you eventually, making it close to impossible to progress after the 1400 enemies mark.
- Flash of Pain: Enemies flash white when hit, though it is unusual for paper and your plane turns transparent instead.
- Flunky Boss: Some bosses have enemies help them, mostly in the first and second games. The third boss in the first game spawns infinite enemies.
- Flying Saucer: The final boss of Space Wars 2 is a huge UFO with two guns and a satellite dish.
- The Goomba: Each game has their first enemy planes go down with one hit even with the unupgraded default weapon while being unable to shoot. Predictably, it shows up at the starts but not much more afterwards.
- Harder Than Hard: Xtreme mode, which turns your ship into a One-Hit-Point Wonder and makes enemies fast.
- Kaizo Trap: Subverted. It is possible to kill yourself by running into bullets after the "YOU WIN" message appears, which causes the "YOU LOSE" message to show up as well, but you still pass the level.
- No-Sell: If you haven't destroyed the bosses' additional parts in the second game, trying to shoot their main body will result in all damage getting shrugged off (later games would decrease damage significantly instead).
- One-Hit Polykill: The Gauss Gun's shots go through enemies, potentially causing this to happen.
- Palette Swap: Enemies in the third game are the same planes you can use with different colors. For instance, your Hindenburg is brown, while the enemies' is purple.
- Power Up Let Down: The H Bomb in the first game. Yes, its damage is through the roof, but the slow fire rate makes it unwiedly to use against enemies that spawn quickly and ultimately not worth it.
- Prolonged Video Game Sequel: Games in the series range between 13 to 20 levels. Notebook Wars Ultimate has 100, and all of them are still playable on three difficulty settings with three stars to earn for each.
- Recycled In Space: Space Wars and its sequel, which play just about the same as the original games, but have a space theme.
- Shout-Out: The intro of Space Wars has an opening crawl taken straight from Star Wars.
- Taste of Power: The first level in Ultimate lets you use a powerful UFO with late-game weapons, but then you lose it and start with a weak plane with the bullet weapon.
- Took a Level in Badass: Remember those pathetic planes that you've been shooting down with ease throughout the first few levels in 3? They're back in the last three levels, far more durable and packing Dark Matter weapons, being stronger than the normal endgame planes despite looking the same as they did at the start. There's taking a level in badass and getting a PhD out of it.
- Turns Red: In 3, when bosses have their parts destroyed, their attack density lowers but they start moving more erratically by moving fast and even attempting to charge you.
- Updated Re-release: 3 Unleashed, which came out five months after the original 3 and has some fixes, like removing the maligned gold bullions instead of coins in some upgrades, the ability to remove add-ons, hard mode, and a new world map.
- Voice Grunting: People talking in Space Wars 2 make noticeable beeping sounds.
- Warm-Up Boss: The first boss in each game is usually the one that introduces you to bosses, but is intended to be simple. The first boss in the first game is the clearest example, with a simple three-shot attack pattern and only one healthbar.
