The line of games can be found here
, though with Flash no longer being widely supported the games have also found a home on archive.org, albeit converted to executables.
These tropes will not be slaves to some demented corporation:
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: You can backfilp and sommersault in mid-air all you like but your gun will always be pointed where the cursor is. It kind of helps that thing-things have Floating Limbs.
- Ace Pilot: The Mysterious Watcher leading Project 154 through Thing Thing 3 is revealed to be one at the game's climax — or rather, he was designed to be one, as he's actually a loyal Systems Corp. experiment intended to be the ultimate pilot.
- Ambiguous Robots: Poseidon and Zeus look very much like robots due to their heavy armour and overtly robotic appearance. However, the games refer to them as "Alpha-Class Bio-Androids" in dialogue, and Poseidon appears to bleed when shot during the flashback opening of Thing-Thing 4.
- Ammunition Conservation: In Thing Thing Arena 3, the first two rewards for One Hit Polykills are called "Ammo Efficiency" and "Ammo Conservationist", since killing multiple enemies with one shot means you use less ammo.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Project 153 has shades of being this; they repeatedly boast about how they're superior to 154, even after being repeatedly defeated in both straight fights and ambushes. This eventually gets 153 killed during Thing-Thing 4 - they order a Systems Corp. strike team to Leave Him to Me! despite having 154 dead to rights, with the subsequent car/helicopter chase ending with 153 being shot out of the sky.
- Artificial Stupidity: Particularly jarring in Thing-Thing Arena 3, when mooks will rather try to shoot you through the wall/floor than walk around it to get a clear shot.
- Also, every time you see a mook with proxy mine launcher, expect him to blow up himself and/or his companions.
- Same with gas grenade launcher. Often its wielder first creates a large cloud of Hollywood Acid and then happily walks into it.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The arrow gun in Thing-Thing Arena 3. Sure, it shoots arrows. But they're about as weak as a standard pistol bullet, and you can't dual wield them.
- Bad Boss: System Corps' CEO doesn't feel any remorse from treating his employees as a disposable garbage. Project 154 even remarks on this in 4's opening, noting that Systems Corp. will keep on pursuing him no matter how many people die.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The fourth game ends this way, with Project 154 trapped in a gas-filled room (ensuring their health will not regenerate) and pitted against an endless onslaught of enemies until their eventual death. Naturally, the CEO of Systems Corp. gets away with his crimes scot-free, and 154 never even meets him face-to-face.
- BFG: As a result of the characters having weird proportions, the weapons they use are often larger than they are.
- If this game from the same producer is any indication, Thing-Things are about three feet tall, and their hands are the same size as ours.
- If this game
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The behaviour modification techniques (including brainwashing and behavioural suppressants) used by Systems Corp. enabled 154's transformation into a sociopathic mass murderer.
- Bioweapon Beast: Vahl Dreig, the Hades Prototype, is a massive reptilian creature genetically and cybernetically modified for combat. Unlike the other Alpha-class bio-weapons, he shows no sign of higher intelligence or even an ability to properly use his weapons.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The protagonist is a ruthless, somewhat sociopathic Phlebotinum Rebel who has no qualms with his purpose as a Super-Soldier and fights against Systems Corp. for his own selfish reasons. The main antagonists are an extremely amoral MegaCorp that specialise in creating Human Weapons to be sold to the highest bidder, throw away their employees' lives by the hundred to capture an escaped test subject living in seclusion to avoid them, and condition their Projects to embrace their purpose through a mix of Brainwashing, behavioural suppressants, and psychological abuse.
- Boring, but Practical: Many of the best weapons in the games, mainly the pistols, shotguns and assault rifles, are not flashy or Systems Corp prototypes. Instead, they fire bullets, but they are solid, dependable and do reliable damage.
- Boom, Headshot!: From Thing-Thing 2 onward, killing an enemy exclusively with headshots causes their head to explode. (In Thing-Thing 2 itself, body parts explode when destroyed, so their head will eventually pop regardless.)
- Bragging Rights Reward: The N.U.K.E. from Thing-Thing 4. One shot, and the entire screen is pretty much cleared of mooks. In order to even obtain it, however, you must get 100% Completion, meaning that you need every achievement in the game. By then, you've already seen most of what the game has to offer.
- The Brute: The three main Alpha-class Bio-weapons of the series function as this to Systems Corp., acting as enforcers for the corporation and being charged with hunting down renegade experiments like 154.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Poseidon and Zeus both contrast Project 153. While the former two are mostly Flat Characters with no personality to speak of, the latter is much more talkative and even egotistical, bearing a personal grudge against Project 154 for his choice to abandon Systems Corp. and a view that he should have embraced his purpose.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Systems Corp., as run by the unnamed CEO, is an extremely amoral company specializing in the manufacturing of super soldiers and other bio-weapons. To make things worse, they seem to be in charge of the setting.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Killing Zeus in Thing-Thing 2 triggers a cutscene of him slumping over, then exploding piece-by-piece.
- Disposable Intern: In 2 the final boss, Zeus, doesn't care a single bit whether there are any other Thing-Things in his line of fire. In fact he blasts his gun completely at random with no regard for anybody.
- In a greater scope System Corps treats their employees like disposable garbage.
- Critical Existence Failure: When the enemies in Thing-Thing 2 die, their entire body turns into Pink Mist. Even if they were punched to death. In addition, the enemies survive until either their head or their three midsection parts are destroyed, leading to situations where you can be chased by a dude consisting of a head, an arm and a pair of feet.
- Downer Ending: Project 154's Healing Factor is removed by a special gas, and your character puts up a futile Last Stand against endless waves of elite Systems Corp. mercenaries. The CEO and Systems Corp. get away scot-free with their evil practices, with the Thing-Thing Arena series and Thing-Thing Classic/Pro heavily implying that Project 154 is resurrected as an obedient slave to the company for use in tests.
- Escaped from the Lab: Project 154 was created by Systems Corp. as a Super-Soldier to be sold to the highest bidder, but he broke out of the lab and decided to make his own path.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Systems Corp. is a company which creates super soldiers and other bio-weapons, conditioning their Projects into being cold blooded killers.
- Evil vs. Evil: Project 154 is a borderline sociopathic mass murderer who goes up against the evil, Umbrella-esque Systems Corp. Neither side could be considered heroic by any stretch.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The ending of 4. Not only is 154's Healing Factor removed, there's also an endless stream of mooks coming in to destroy him. The game's ending only occurs after they finally succeed in killing him.
- False Friend: The Mysterious Watcher of 3 is actually a Systems Corp. loyalist luring 154 to him so he can kill 154 and prove himself the stronger bio-weapon.
- Flat Character: Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, and Vahl Dreig are never really given much in the way of personalities, despite their nature as the Corp's main enforcers and Final Bosses for the games. Justified as they're all living weapons more than actual people, with the last of them being essentially non-sentient.
- Flawed Prototype: Vahl Dreig is implied to be one to Hades, as 153 had to dig him out of a waste disposal chamber and reactivate him. 4 indicates his flaw was a highly-explosive power core that the company stopped using due to their instability.
- Floating Limbs: Having these enables thing-things to keep aiming at their target while performing stylish acrobatic stunts in midair.
- Foil: Project 153 to 154. They're a Human Weapon just like Project 154, but they stayed loyal to Systems Corp. and are hell-bent on killing 154, who they consider a traitor for refusing to serve Systems Corp. By contrast, 154 hates Systems Corp.'s guts and is hell-bent on getting revenge against his creators, regardless of how many people he has to gun down along the way.
- Freudian Excuse: Considering the abuse that 154 suffered in the laboratory, it is hard to blame him for having such little regard for other lives.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Good lord, the falling through the floor and teleportation glitch in the fourth one. It happens without warning and makes you have to reload the page.
- Gone Horribly Right: Systems Corp. created Project 154 as a cold blooded killer. Unfortunately, he is too good at killing, and moreover is thirsty for vengeance regarding his mistreatment.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: You really don't have to, but in Thing-Thing 4, collecting every new gun you find makes it available in the armory for future playthroughs.
- Hand Cannon: ALL the guns are huge, but the Magnum is this compared to the rest of the pistols.
- Happiness in Slavery: Project 153 willingly serves Systems Corp. as a Human Weapon; a major part of the reason he wants to kill 154 stems from this, as he considers the latter a traitor for wanting freedom.
- Healing Factor: Only in the second and fourth games; the first and third operates on Heal Thyself instead.
- The Heavy:
- For the first two games, the Final Bosses Poseidon and Zeus fit this role, as the ones that 154 has to defeat to stop Systems Corp.'s latest effort to catch him.
- Project 153 takes this role from 3 onwards, as he becomes the effective field commander of Systems Corp.'s mercenaries and takes charge of the hunt for 154; this lasts up until his death in 4 when he attacks 154 in a helicopter and is shot down.
- How We Got Here: Thing-Thing 4 opens with Project 154 recapping the events of the past three games, framed as him thinking to himself while trapped in the Hades Prototype's containment chamber.
- Humanoid Abomination: Hades starts out looking like a regular (if sleep-deprived and ragged) Thing-Thing. Damaging him enough causes him to turn into a monstrous spider-like Cyborg with a trio of long, bladed mechanical legs erupting out of his torso.
- Human Weapon: While technically not humans, it still applies.
- Project 154 himself is revealed in 3 to be the ultimate infantryman, with significant enhancements to his physical capabilities and a Healing Factor that lets him shrug off gunfire. By contrast, Project 153 is the ultimate pilot, designed with an enhanced spatial sense and situational awareness.
- The Final Bosses of each game (Vahl Dreig excepted) are all either heavily-augmented humans or "Bio-Androids," designed to serve as enforcers and top-shelf soldiers for Systems Corp. and its clients.
- Informed Ability: Poseidon is supposed to be a powerful Human Weapon on the same tier as Zeus and Hades. Thing-Thing 4's How We Got Here intro shows 154 two-shot him without a scratch, using nothing but a stolen handgun and his natural skills. 154 even calls him "nothing but a bump in the road" after killing him.
- Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: In 2 and 4 especially. At certain points, a large number of enemies must be killed in order to open doors. Thing-Thing 2 has a kills tracker by the door, 4 does not.
- It's All About Me: Project 154 is not so much morally against Systems Corp's unethical practices as he is upset at the fact that he himself had to go through it.
- Karma Houdini: The CEO is able to continue profiting off of the unethical experiments of his company.
- Karmic Death:
- After two games of chasing down Project 154 while boasting about their supposed superiority and greater skill as a pilot, Project 153 dies while piloting a helicopter against a car-using 154, with the latter managing to balance driving and shooting simultaneously to a much greater degree than 153.
- After mowing down hundreds of Systems Corp. mercenaries, Project 154 dies by being trapped in a room and gunned down by the company's security forces.
- Leave Him to Me!: When 154 is attacked by a Systems Corp. fireteam in 4, Project 153 orders the team to cease fire and let them handle 154. This gets him killed when 154 blows his attack helicopter out of the sky.
- Ludicrous Gibs: In 4 if you make a kill with sufficiently powerful gun the result will be a bunch of meat chunks and a fountain of blood.
- Made of Iron: Project 154 can eat an entire clip from a rifle and keep fighting, despite most other Thing-Things going down to the same. Explained in Thing-Thing 3 where the stranger who contacts you reveals that you're the perfect infantryman, designed with a Healing Factor that lets you rapidly regenerate from gunshot wounds.
- Mook Maker: Pretty much every area in Thing-Thing 4 has one. It's never really described WHAT they are, but they nevertheless send wave after wave of Mooks at you.
- Moral Myopia: Project 154 kills numerous employees without remorse, and yet laments his original purpose as a bio-weapon. That said, they are trying to kill him, so his viewpoint is understandable.
- More Dakka: The Jackhammer is an automatic shotgun which fires 5 pellets for every press of the trigger, and has the second highest fire rate of all the guns of Thing-Thing Arena 3, only second to duel wielding the Glock 18c.
- Unfortunately, damage per shot is rather dismal compared to the other shotguns in TTA3. It won't stop you from hosing down everyone you meet however. The achievement for 100 kills with the Jackhammer is appropriately called "Buckshot Firestorm".
- Mysterious Watcher: Thing-Thing 3's core plot revolves around 154 being contacted by one, who wants to meet with him for an unspecified job. When 154 actually meets them, they're revealed to be another Systems Corp. experiment who stayed loyal to the corporation.
- Never My Fault: Project 154 refuses to take responsibility for all the employees he has killed in cold blood. Since Systems Corp. is an extremely unethical company that abused him, it's hard to blame him.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Particularly jarring in Thing-Thing Arena 3. Enemies have to keep coming from somewhere to attack you, otherwise the game doesn't work. But it gets ridiculous sometimes, when enemies spawn behind you when you move the camera ahead a bit.
- One-Hit Polykill: In 4 the Hades Rifle and to lesser mooks the Laser Cannon. Then the aptly named N.U.K.E. can wipe the entire room regardless of enemies positions if you manage to hit anybody.
- One-Man Army: Thanks to his durability and combat prowess Project 154 is capable of singlehandedly dispatching virtually infinite number of trained military personnel.
- Person of Holding: An unusual case. Hades' mechanical legs are seemingly stored inside his torso, as they rather gorily erupt out through it when he's damaged enough. However, they're about four or five times his height and apparent bodily volume even when folded up, raising the question of how they fit in there.
- People Jars: Systems Corp.'s main genetics lab in Thing-Thing 4 has these, with a series of glass incubation tanks numbered from 110 to 154 located throughout the building. Most of them are filled with what look like half-made Thing-Things, though Project 154's and 153's chamber is notably cordoned off with hazard tape.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Project 154 was created as a super-soldier, but went berserk, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
- Punch-Packing Pistol: The starting pistol, the M1911, is pretty damn powerful on its own.
- Rated M for Manly: The game is especially designed to appeal to men who like playing action games, between the selection of weapons and bloodshed.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Played straight in Thing-Thing 4. Unless the enemy is very close to you, most of the shot will miss.
- Shout-Out: The Skull Drill in Thing-Thing 4 is basically the Cerebral Bore from Turok 2, being a weapon that targets the enemy's head and fires a lethal homing drill into their brain which then explodes their head.
- Smoldering Shoes: In Thing-Thing Arena 3 gibbing enemies tends to leave only shoes behind.
- The Sociopath: 154 has no moral qualms about butchering Systems Corp. mercenaries, expressing reluctance to do so only because it puts him at risk of discovery. He doesn't so much morally object to the purpose of his creation, as he does object for selfish reasons. Though after all of the abuse he had been put through, it's kind of hard to blame him.
- Spinoff: A Stinky Bean got its own game with art that looks like it's straight out of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
- Stripped to the Bone: Effect of the gas grenade launcher in Thing-Thing Arena 3. Surprisingly, the dead mook's weapon is unscathed.
- Theme Naming: The three main bio-weapons facing 154 are all named for Greek gods - Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades. Fittingly, they are considered extremely powerful bio-weapons, with 154 beating them mainly due to him vastly exceeding Systems Corp.'s expectations.
- There Can Only Be One: Project 153 strongly believes this, and repeatedly tries to kill 154 over it.
- Throw-Away Guns: In 4 and Arena 3 you can only carry two guns, so dropping is necessary if you want to try more or completely run out of ammo for the ones you currently possess.
- The Unfettered: Project 154 cares only about getting revenge on his creators, and is willing to do anything to get it.Project 154: "I'll have my revenge on whoever created me. Nothing is going to stop me."
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Thing-Thing 3 has your enemies using a wide assortment of guns, but you only get guns at the end of levels.
- Villain Protagonist: Project 154 himself shows a callous disregard for the lives of others, and has no moral qualms about going into an area where he knows he will have to kill others. The opening of Thing-Thing 4 makes it particularly clear that he cares only about revenge on his creators, regardless of how many people have to die in the process.
- You ALL Look Familiar: Averted in 1, 2, and 3, as the mooks have randomly generated appearances. In 4, they have templates.
- You Are Number 6: Systems Corp.'s bio-weapons are seemingly named in this fashion, with each of them simply being referred to by a number and the prefix "project."
- Zombie Puke Attack: The zombie mode of Thing-Thing Arena Classic features special green-tinted zombies which hurl a stream of acidic bile at you.
