The title screen.
Scrap Metal Heroes is a Real-Time Strategy flash game made by Overworld Labs, a one-man development operation headed by Sam Raski. It was published in 2010.
The gameplay consists of customizing robots using a variety of parts and... well, putting them against other robots. You unlock more parts as you complete the story missions.
It can be played here
on Overworld Labs' website. though it can played on many other websites, like Kongregate and Armor Games.
Scrap Metal Heroes contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Even after his true colors are revealed, Johann Krauss remains polite and friendly to the Player Character, calling him a Worthy Opponent.Krauss: You know, Mr. [last name], I do admire your abilities. It's unfortunate we had to end up on opposite sides.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Big Bad, Mobius, is a smart artificial intelligence developed by Max Mobius. Seeing humanity "in all its pointless violence and stupidity", he aims to overthrow humanity through violent means.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: While you can store up to 15 robot designs, you can only bring 4 into battle. This applies for the enemy as well.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Robots with the Armor Piercing ability ignore all Armor and Block abilities on their target. Robots with the Armor Breaker perk take this a step further- not only do they ignore Armor and Block, they deal double damage to any robot with Armor.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Flavor Text calls Oddball Otis (the 3rd opponent in Division C) this, saying that "his designs are usually powerful but impractical." In-game however, this is Downplayed; his robots are fairly normal aside from a few odd design choices which make them less cost-efficient.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. Mobius is defeated and he can't fully complete his plan to overthrow (and possibly eradicate) humanity, but the computer virus he created launches anyway and halts most of the world's robots, throwing the world economy into chaos and greatly reducing human reliance on robots.
- Boring, but Practical: The Optimized Ammo Battery and the Optimized Arm Servo. All they do is increase damage dealt by 20%- ranged and melee, respectively- but they're cheap, available at the start of the game, and scrap cost-efficient.
- In terms of items, the Scrap Box and Large Scrap Box, which give you an instant 300 and 600 scrap when used, respectively. Not as flashy or destructive as a barrage of missiles down a lane, but it'll help you gain an edge in resources, especially in a pinch.
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: Parts come in four levels of rarity: Common(White), Uncommon(Green), Rare(Blue), and Legendary(Yellow). The higher the rarity, the later you'll get access to them, and the more money they'll cost.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the story missions, the game gives the enemy early access to parts. For example, in “Prototype Testing” (the 2nd story mission) an enemy robot uses the Hammerhead part, but you don’t unlock said part until you beat “A Test of Skill” (the 6th)
- On top of that, in the later story missions the game gives the enemy exclusive parts that you can't ever get access to, particularly Rare and Legendary parts.
- It doesn't stop there, either; some of the enemy robots blatantly violate the rules by breaking their weight cap. Thankfully, it doesn't happen often and it's usually only by 1 or 2 points.
- However, in the story missions the opponents don't have access to items, unlike in the Robo League.
- Cyber Cyclops: Since a lot of the Head parts only give the robot one eye, most of the robots are this.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Robots with the Scanner ability scan the robot they're attacking, increasing its damage from all attacks by 25%. Robots with the Scan Disruptor ability are immune to this, however.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: The gameplay loop; you build robots from 5 types of parts (head, body, arms, legs, and internal) and command them against other robots.
- Evil All Along: Johann Krauss initially seems like the Reasonable Authority Figure of the task force tasked with investigating the robot malfunctions, but he's actually working for the Big Bad.
- Evil, Inc.: OmniCorp is a subversion of this. Initially, they seem to be the perpetrator behind the robot malfunctions, but it's just misdirection by Krauss.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Light and Heavy Flamethrowers, as well as the Talos Flamecasters.
- Flavor Text: Every part has some, usually explaining what the part is, its origins, or what it specializes in. For example, the flavor text for the MSU Triple-Cam notes that it was based on an old surgical bot and has impressive targeting capabilities.
- Each opponent in the Robo League also has some, most of which are overviews of their careers or backstories.
- Genius Bruiser: Lars Thurgood, the champion of Division D. His Flavor Text states that he used to be a football player before brought down by a knee injury. He now builds robots to remind him of his Glory Days.
- Glorious Mother Russia: Implied with Ivan Vodkov from the side mission "A Worthy Challenger". We're never told if he's Russian, but his robots use stereotypical Communist names like "People's Fury" and "Iron Hammer". And his name? Yeah.
- Gradual Regeneration: Robots with the Auto-Repair ability do this per second: 5 hit points with Auto-Repair I, 10 with Auto-Repair II, and 20 with Auto-Repair III.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You can choose your first name and your last name, as well as the names of your robots.
- Joke Item: Downplayed with the Can Head. The Flavor Text notes that it was built from a large beverage container, and "If only it weren't nearly useless it would be the would be the perfect head." Stat-wise, it's pretty bad, decreasing both damage and range. However, it's fairly cheap at only 15 scrap, so even though there are much better options out there, it can be used seriously.
- Mole in Charge: Johann Krauss. See Evil All Along.
- Nail 'Em: The Dual Nailguns.
- Properly Paranoid: In hindsight, Stanton's stockpiling of heavily armored robots is completely justified, considering the kinds of death machines Mobius had under his control. Too bad it's used as evidence by Krauss that he can't be trusted.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The rogue robots found in the side missions "Urban Evacuation" and "Refinery Mishap" all use the NIT Tiger Shark, which has red eyes. As for the evil part, in said missions they attempt to assault a large urban centre and threaten a large refinery.
- While some head parts have red eyes, no part is this trope better than the K-1000 Death Head- a legendary head part which not only increases stats across the board (except speed), but gives a hard 40% buff to damage dealt.
- Starting Units: While there are many ways you can customize your robots, the game gives you 4 pre-built robots to start: The Hammerbot, the Tankbot, the Gunbot, and the Speedbot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never told what happened to Jeremiah Stanton after he was interrogated by Krauss.
- You Are Too Late: After explaining his plan to control the world's robots, Mobius bluntly states that "The process has already begun. There is nothing you can do." He's half-right; his plan can't be stopped fully, but it can be stopped partially by defeating him.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: In-battle, you require Scrap to deploy your robots. Scrap is passively gained over time, but is also gained by destroying enemy robots and using the Scrap Box and Large Scrap Box items.
