Spybot: The Nightfall Incident is an online game released in 2002, made to complement LEGO's "Spybotics" product. The game has very little to do with the toy line itself; you have a choice of Spybot at the start of the game, but this choice is completely cosmetic.
You play as a newly-recruited SMART agent, and are tasked with hacking into various systems to disable security to help retrieve locked files or remove corrupted security programs. However, intermittent interruptions plague the network, courtesy of a "Nightfall" hacker, and you have to work your way through the net to find leads on the hacker and how to stop the outages.
The main game, once you access a node, is a turn-based strategy. You have limited upload points and your units to deploy are your programs. The health of your programs is tied to their movement: As programs traverse the board, they take up more space up to their maximum capacity, leaving behind "trails" that only they can move through but are vulnerable to attacks. This is a double-edged sword; larger programs take more firepower to take down but can are a bigger target and obstruct other programs, while smaller programs can slip past enemy attack ranges but are much more fragile. Your programs have multiple types of actions that can be used to attack, heal, buff, debuff, or alter the battlefield. Certain actions have a space requirement, demanding that the program have at least that many sectors on the field before that action can be used.
The game has long since been taken down from the LEGO site, but is being preserved here
and here, among other places.
Spybot: The Nightfall Incident contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: The Buzzbomb's Kamikazee skill destroys it in exchange for doing 5 damage. The Logicbomb's only attack, Self-Destruct, destroys it but does 10 damage.
- Anti-Frustration Features: When Disarray unleashes Nightfall, the only node you can access is his. If you're not prepared and get beaten, Superphreak intervenes with a temporary fix to let you access all the other nodes to get more credits and programs.
- Artificial Stupidity: Sometimes the AI doesn't realize it can move its programs through their own sectors, so you have instances of enemy programs being sitting ducks until you've freed up enough space or stray too close.
- Boring, but Practical: The Bit-Man is the only program that can create and erase terrain for programs to travel over. Most of your other programs obsoleted by better versions, but the Bit-Man is the first-level program that remains relevant across the whole game.
- Cast from Hit Points: A few of your program abilities consume their own sectors as a cost. Take care that it doesn't erase the program in the process.
- Evil Counterpart: Common hostile programs mimic the behavior of some of yours — for instance, the Warden series is your Golem programs in a different skin. Some levels even feature enemy-controlled copies of programs available to you.
- Featureless Protagonist: You don't even get to see your chat avatar.
- Fragile Speedster: A few programs behave like this, with high speed but low maximum capacity. The best example is the Bug series of programs, with 5 movement, 1 max size, but deliver strong melee damage.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Disarray leaves a request for you to retrieve some files from a couple of level 3 nodes. They're dead-end nodes so you are free to ignore them, but the plot will still assume you've done them anyway.
- Glass Cannon: Some units you discover have a damaging ranged attack, but are lacking in movement speed or maximum size. Immobile turrets are exemplars, as they have very long range to strike opposing programs, but without any way to gain extra sectors they can be erased by the weakest of attacks.
- Hollywood Hacking: This game wouldn't be as fun otherwise!
- Instant-Win Condition: If a level requires you to collect a file, all you have to do is to escort a unit to it. It doesn't matter if there are enemy programs left over.
- Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: Credit squares cannot be traversed by enemy programs until your programs have collected them. They can serve as temporary blockades in some situations.
- It's Up to You: Despite SMART being a large organization, it falls to you, the recruit, to track down and defeat the Nightfall hacker. There is an initial justification — the hacker first hits SMART's network to disable their agents, but you are unaffected as your data has yet to be entered into the database, giving you the freedom to search for clues as the rest of the agents recover. Subverted at the end — after the Nightfall hacker's personal node is hacked into, the other SMART operatives trace his location and apprehend him, while the protagonist gets to unwind after a long battle.
- Jack of All Stats: The Hack series programs have a good balance of speed, size, and damage for a melee unit. The Seeker series is their ranged counterpart, with their stat balance offset by their small range of 2.
- Leet Lingo: Most of the people you contact pepper their messages with internet chatroom abbreviations. The Guru program's description also contains this.
- Lightning Bruiser:
- With enough buffs you can turn any of your programs into a super-unit that traverses half the map in a single turn and leaves a very long trail that soaks up damage.
- Attack Dogs are fast, durable, and hit hard, with a movement speed of 4, max size of 7, and a 3-damage melee attack.
- The Final Boss program has the best of all worlds, with high speed, size, and a hard-hitting long-range attack. It's difficult to take it down without losing a program along the way.
- Mighty Glacier: The Golem series programs (and the enemy counterparts, Wardens) deliver powerful melee hits but have sluggish to average movement speed. The Sumo programs can be tougher than the Golems, but are held back by their main attack having a space requirement.
- Not Completely Useless: The Memory Hog only serves to be a meat-shield in most circumstances, with 5 speed, 30 max size, but no special abilities whatsoever. It's also the perfect unit to grab the level 4 security codes, as it can just waltz right to the end goal while shrugging off chip damage from the enemy turrets.
- Playful Hacker: The protagonist plays as one, hacking into various nodes to clear out corrupted security programs or to assist with retrieval of files behind heightened security.
- The Red Mage: The Guru and Wizard programs are multi-purpose units, each possessing a ranged attack and a ranged support skill. The Black Widow and Tarantula programs also fit the bill, as they can attack or debuff, but only at melee range.
- Smug Snake: Once you've found him out, Disarray drops the act and smugly tells you there's no stopping him.
- Stone Wall:
- Enemy Firewall programs have a colossal maximum capacity of 20, but a pathetic movement rate of 2 and a melee-range 1-damage attack. They're meant to obstruct your programs over anything else.
- The Memory Hog has no offense to speak of, but it's got a high movement rate of 5 and a maximum capacity of 30.
- Support Party Member: Some programs you can find have no attacks of their own, but instead have special abilities indicated by cyan action squares. The Clog series is specialized for slowing enemy programs, the Data Doctor series heals programs, and the Turbo series raises movement. Bit-Men have the unique ability to create or remove terrain, and their field-altering actions are indicated by green action squares.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: The moment you get to security level 5, Disarray unleashes Nightfall on the web. Your only choice is to attempt to defeat him once and for all, but Superphreak intervenes with a temporary fix if you are defeated.
