Hitler's Revenge was an NES game scheduled to be released in 1986. For better or for worse, this game never saw release and allegedly was lost. Only 5 minutes of gameplay footage was recovered and uploaded on YouTube in 2008. However, after several years, the original footage was taken down, though a few copies still exist (the link in this article is one of said copies).
On November 11, 2014, footage of what seems to be another version of the game was uploaded, along with a link to an article detailing how the game was made. The video is almost identical to the first, but with several differences. The most noticeable difference is the title of the game - it is now Hoagie's Revenge. The copyright has also been changed from "Nintendo" to "Pretendo". It seems that the older video, ironically, shows the newer version of the game, as it has several subtle graphical features missing from the version in the newer video.
The game takes place in a bright colorful world, where an unnamed cook (referred to as "Cook" in this article) is trying to get to a leper colony, presumably to get treatment before it's too late. To do so, he has to avoid multiple enemies and devious traps.
Yeah, it's not a real game. As stated in the making-of article linked earlier, the game is actually a flash animation made for a movie.
This game provides us examples of the following tropes:
- All Deserts Have Cacti: And said cacti are after you.
- Asteroids Monster: When shot, the giant blob splits into many smaller ones.
- Big, Bulky Bomb
- Bottomless Pits
- Bring My Brown Pants: Right before the Big, Bulky Bomb explodes. This does not occur in Hoagie's Revenge.
- Chest Monster: After a boss is defeated, Cook tries to open the treasure chest prize - but before he can, the chest opens by itself, revealing a spring-loaded boxing glove that knocks Cook out cold.
- Drugs Are Bad: After Cook takes a mushroom from a "pi" block, he has colorful hallucinations which seem harmless - until he falls down a pit straight from the E.T. video game. Then the FBI logo shows up, as well as a message stating "Winners don't do drugs".
- Downer Ending: Cook never reaches the Leper colony in the end (unless that was just a Bad Ending).
- Driven to Suicide: Cook hangs himself when he faces a spiral path filled with spikes and no way to get to the doorway at the end.
- Electrified Bathtub: Someone decides to throw a TV into the ocean, with disastrous consequences for Cook.
- Enemy Mime: Eventually used as a superpower.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Oh yes. Ducks, mimes, descending ceilings, a TV dropped in water, oysters shooting pearls, clouds dropping like anvils, and hungry trees with faces and long tongues.
- Finger In The Barrel: Cook destroys the tank by plugging its cannon with sandwiches and blowing it up.
- Harmless Freezing: Averted - when water freezes around Cook, he dies.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cook's projectiles can kill him if they are deflected back.
- Guns Akimbo: Ghost used it.
- Improbable Weapon User: Cook throws sub sandwiches to kill enemies.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Some enemies are immune to cake throwing.
- Leap of Faith: Cook took one, but it went horribly wrong.
- Mad Scientist: Doctor Wiley makes a cameo as a boss.
- Naked People Are Funny: And they die of embarrassment.
- Ninja Prop: A cloud falls down, then a tree grows a face and eats both Cook and Ghost. The former also crushes a unicorn.
- Nintendo Hard
- Non-Indicative Name: Unless Hitler is the mastermind behind all the horrors Cook faces, there is no Hitler in the game and no revenge. The existence of Hoagie's Revenge suggests that the game does have nothing to do with Hitler, but the name was changed anyway (assuming Hoagie's Revenge is the earlier version).
- Orbital Shot: This occurs when Cook is trapped in a bubble, which leaves the Earth's atmosphere.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: They shoot you with guns (and one of them looks like Kurt Russell).
- Platform Hell
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Cook when he sees the mime.
- Shout-Out: A handful of them, such as blocks and mushrooms from Super Mario Bros., enemies from Bubble Bobble, the "Winners don't use Drugs" message and even a enemy type reminiscent of a character from early versions of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.
- Squashed Flat: Cook can get squashed between two giant gears.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: How is the player supposed to know what horrors lie behind the dungeon doors?
- Videogame Cruelty Punishment: After Cook kills baby penguins in the snow level, the gigantic mother penguin appears to punish him.
- Wheel o' Feet: Cook makes one before he jumps over the widest Bottomless Pit.
- Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: One type of death.
- X-Ray Sparks: This occurs when Cook is electrocuted by a TV thrown into the ocean.