Deconstruction Game

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    A form of Deconstruction, which has apparently become a rising fad in flash games.

    A deconstruction game is a game that deconstructs aspects of Video Games in general. At the minimum, it takes one aspect, and blows it up to such ridiculously exaggerated proportions that it simply becomes laughable, as if to make a point that "You can't make a game based just on this!" or with some, "If you enjoy games because of this one reason then you are an idiot!"

    In order to qualify, a single part of the game at the minimum must take at least one single trope, mechanic, or gimmick, and either explore it exhaustively to the possible point of Mind Screw, or play it far too simple and flat to be taken seriously. Typically they rely heavily on their nature as a parody to be entertaining, but on rare occasions they're fun to play as well. They often make use of Playing the Player.

    Examples of Deconstruction Game include:

    Action Adventure

    • Shadow of the Colossus: Boss Battles. The game is almost nothing but boss fights, and what little bit of plot the game has makes most players question whether they're really doing the right thing by killing them.

    Adventure Game

    First-Person Shooter

    • Haze is a Deconstruction of First Person Shooters. It was a failure however, due to Executive Meddling forcing them to rewrite the plot several times until the message was completely gone.
    • Duty Calls: First Person Shooters in the vein of Call of Duty...that is when it is not outright parodying the trends and tropes.

    Interactive Fiction

    Platform Game

    • I Wanna Be the Guy: Difficulty / Unfair deaths
    • You Have to Burn The Rope: Portal. The game consists of a short hallway which serves as a tutorial, a boss fight, and a catchy theme song that plays over the credits. The song mocks the short length of the game, including suggesting that you just try playing it over again. There is no story given outside this, and there are only two characters (the player character and boss). And the theme song is longer than the game itself.
      • Arguably a failure, as it misses one important part of Portal -- the part after the furnace where the game stops telling you what to do.
    • You Only Live Once: Platformers in the vein of Mario.
    • Level Up: Leveling up in games.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog OmoChao Edition: Stop Helping Me! (This game actually has added challenge—you have to avoid everything that triggers Omochao's comments as much as possible for Rank Inflation, and for Speed Run enthusiasts, there's the fact that the timer won't freeze whenever Omochao speaks.)

    Role-Playing Game

    • The Modron dungeon in Planescape: Torment: Dungeon crawlers in general. Complete with enemies who don't know their motivation and leave items like, "A goody!"
    • BioShock (series) deconstructs several gameplay mechanics as part of a Genre Deconstruction of Shooter-RPG hybrids (such as System Shock and Deus Ex). Mission Control, Notice This and But Thou Must! are a product of being under Trigger Phrase-induced mind control, and Death Is a Slap on The Wrist because you're the son of Andrew Ryan and the game's ressurrection devices are keyed to your genetic code as a result (thus making you the perfect puppet to carry out the whims of the Big Bad).
    • Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. Item shops and.
    • Progress Quest: RPGs that assign players randomly generated quests. The game automates grinding and fetch quests which is all the game is.
    • Ginormo Sword: Arguably, grinding and the emphasis on weapon upgrades.
    • Yume Nikki: Exploration and sandbox gameplay. The entire game is a Beautiful Void and there is no plot to speak of, which has prompted elaborate Fanon and Wild Mass Guessing on behalf of the players, in an attempt to invest the game with externalised meaning.
    • Super Press Space to Win Action RPG 2009: RPGs in general, and overly-linear Quick Time Event-heavy action RPGs in particular. The credits specify that the game was "inspired by God of War".
    • Devil Survivor: Mons games. As in, how would something like Pokémon play out in a more realistic setting? Answer: Poorly.
    • Parameters is all about distilling an RPG to its purest bare-bones form: all the enemies and quests are represented by simple boxes and numbers and all you need to do is to click repeatedly on them. It manages to be pretty enjoyable nonetheless.
    • NieR: Protagonist-Centered Morality and Dark Is Evil. Especially given how there are no real enemies in the game, with the "Shades" being the actual humans and the supposed "humans" being their intended vessels. Not to mention that the supposed Big Bad is Not So Different to the protagonist but with conflicting goals and the closest thing the game has to an actual villain has been dead for centuries. It also deconstruct the concept of dungeons and the absurdity of the rules most RPG have.
    • Undertale: EXP, LV, saving and reloading are actual, relevant plot points. Also, it brutally deconstructs 100% Completion on its Genocide route, where not only the game kepps giving you the You Bastard treatment with every step you takes on the extermination of friendly and quirky game characters, actually murdering every killable character irrevocably ruins your next playthroughs.

    Shoot Em Up

    • Don Pachi series: One Man Army. Which is made possibly only by killing wave after wave of your own comrades, resulting in the ultimate soldier. And if you refuse to carry out your orders? Prepare to Die.
    • Thunder Force V: The premise of a One Man Army going up against a rogue AI menace. Except that the AI in question's still loyal to humanity despite its compromised programming and deliberately left gaping holes for the protagonist to exploit, making it possible to go after said AI at all and deliver a Suicide by Cop.

    Simulation Game

    • Desert Bus, from Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors: Simulation Games. The simulation aspect is carried so far that the game is somehow less fun than it would be to actually drive a bus through a desert.

    Stealth Based Game

    Survival Horror

    • Nanashi no Game uses the cursed, nameless game to deconstruct RPGs. There's no battles to win, levels to grind or heroics to engage in—you just walk around, talk to people and collect hidden items that must be found to reach the good ending.

    Web Games

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