Distorted Travesty

Distorted Travesty is a "Fast Paced Satirical Action Platformer" made in Game Maker by Dark Yoshi (aka. Zephyr Burst). It follows the story of two gamers with no clear goals in life. These two are Jerry, the most hardcore of hardcore gamers, and Jeremy, who partakes in some light hacking and playing jokes. You control Jerry, while Jeremy sits on the fourth wall and gives you aid throughout the game.

One day, when they break into the Integrated Electronics Factory to teach its CEO about the greatness of Jerry's favorite game, a mysterious entity known as The Darkness comes and steals him away to another world, one which is composed of all the games the two have played since their youth. Their only hope of returning home is to collect the Seven Magical Flavored Muffins throughout the world and use them to defeat The Darkness once and for all, lest they miss a new episode of the best series ever. The game was completed on November 5, 2010.

A short sequel, Distorted Travesty 2: The Sequel To The Prequel was released on April 7, 2011, and can be downloaded from the same site. In it, you play as Claire, Jerry's ex. Both Jerry and Jeremy make appearances in the game as well.

A third entry in the series, Saved Game, is currently in development, though the final version is unlikely to be released anytime soon. This entry in the series revolves around Jerry and Claire, chronicling their struggle to save the Darkness and defeat the Virus introduced at the end of Distorted Travesty 2. Jeremy and his sister, Chao, return to provide help, guidance and (in Jeremy's case) snarky comments. A demo showcasing the first portion of the game was released on March 25, 2012.

You can download the trilogy here. But be warned, they ain't easy.


Tropes used in Distorted Travesty include:
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: Averted. The level cap is 64, and you will likely get close to that if you're shooting for 100% Completion.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: On a train, nonetheless!
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: Two of them, both created by Hexor. The first one is in Distortion, the second in Distortion WTF.
    • And of course the multiple advancing instakill spike walls in levels that would already qualify as Platform Hell without the extra time pressure.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with. Once you figure out that The Darkness is nothing more than a video game maker, you begin to think this, but then you find out that it's only trying to protect itself. Once a greater threat appears, it actively helps you defeat it, since it would be protecting itself.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The Artist's notes scattered in the Black Rock Fortress seem to be this at first.
  • Arc Words: "Distortion" and its derivatives.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Meta Knight has an AI that's very easy to break. Attack, back dash, run up to him, attack, etc...
  • Autobots Rock Out: One of the boss themes.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level: Very few maps are this. Two of them are in Metropolis, and another is a hidden map.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Kudeku, due to its pitifully short range and high cost.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: Hurricane and Wildfire. But especially Hurricane.
  • Awesomeness Is Volatile: The reason for why Jerry can't enter Rave mode during boss battles—Jeremy says that if the boss can enter it too, the game would crash due to an overload of awesomeness.
  • Back Tracking: Certain items in some areas become obtainable after learning a new technique improving your mobility.
  • Bacon Addiction: The final muffin is bacon flavored, which Jerry calls the best muffin to ever exist.
  • Badass Longcoat: Jerry.
  • Bait and Switch Boss: In the Maverick Factory, you see Zero standing before you in the third map. Jerry, however, doesn't want to fight him. Just then, a giant robot comes and squishes him, so you get to fight it instead.
  • Barrier Change Boss: The Quick Time Distorter and the Data Collector.
  • Big Bad: The Darkness. Subverted. It actually helps you defeat the real Big Bad.
  • Big Good: The Artist. Subverted. He's actually the Big Bad.
  • Bonus Boss: Two of them, one in the Maverick Factory and one in the Spire.
  • Bonus Dungeon: Multiple, unlocked during the game. But the most notable one is the Spire of Forgotten Souls, a 100 floor but not really dungeon.
  • Bottomless Pits: Plenty of them.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Plenty of times. In the tutorial level, Jeremy complains about text boxes blocking his view, for starters.
  • Briar Patching: After The Darkness adapted to Jerry's Bullet Hell weakness by giving many bosses bullet hell abilities, Jeremy tries to do this.
  • Bullet Hell: Many of the later bosses, as well as the Unexpected Shmup Levels.
    • Especially the Shroud Lord once it gets down to its final life bar. This screenshot speaks for itself.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Jerry says he's terrible at bullet hell games, so naturally the Darkness would take notice and fill up the harder areas with it!
  • Check Point Starvation: The main source of torment in the Secured Data Segment.
    • Also a constant source of Fake Difficulty throughout the game. Want another try at that pixel-perfect jump? Enjoy replaying the punishing minute of almost as hard jumps before it!
    • Worse still in the bonus dungeon where you have to clear 5 screens at a time without one.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: The Flame Instigator.
  • Classic Video Game "Screw You"s: The game basically celebrates them, revelling in throwing increasingly elaborate and longer sequences of pits, advancing walls and tricky jumps for minutes at a time between checkpoints.
  • Cliff Hanger: Subverted and parodied.
  • Climax Boss: Necrobane.
  • Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Most rooms in the Secured Data Segment are this. There are various objects in the background which flash different colors. In order to avoid taking a very large amount of damage, you must get into a colored zone which matches the color the objects are currently flashing.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Artist, as well as most of the people on his team.
  • Critical Annoyance: It's not too annoying though.
  • Critical Existence Failure
  • Crossing the Streams: When The Artist makes himself invincible, the only way to stop him is to enter Rave Mode during the boss fight. Jeremy notes that you'll only get one shot at this (not that it's hard to kill The Artist once you activate it).
  • Damage Increasing Debuff: Cripple temporarily drops the victim's defense.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: The Darkness. The first thing it does after causing the Phase Distortion is capture all the heroes and gamers, as they would be the ones most likely to stop its plans.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Just self preserving.
  • Deadly Lunge: Both the Shrouds and the ordinary enemy type called "Dark Variant" do this.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Both Jerry and Jeremy, though especially the latter.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Zig Zagged. In short or easy rooms, it's not a big deal, as there's a checkpoint each room and the only thing you lose is Internetz dropped by enemies. But in lengthy rooms where you're certain to die a lot, death is NOT a slap on the wrist, as it forces you to go through the level all over again.
    • The game also mocks you. Mercilessly... (*sniff*)
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Go on, just try and hide behind King Mech. I dare you.
  • Difficulty Spike: Black Rock Fortress. Full stop. And it only gets worse from there...
  • Disc One Final Dungeon: Black Rock Fortress. This is also where the story tends to get more serious...
  • Disproportionate Retribution: You break into a company and cause thousands of dollars in property damage, all because its CEO said your favorite video game sucked.
  • Doing In the Wizard: The Darkness isn't a living being, it's a program designed to make video games.
  • Double Jump: Averted. Instead, you get an ability that creates a block for you to jump off of in order to increase your jumping height.
    • ...Then later played straight, however, as there is a fire spell with this effect.
  • Down in the Dumps: Not the most literal example, but all the Distortion worlds are supposed to be this. They're more or less a location for worlds which don't have the Muffins in them.
  • Dummied Out: The Conjure spell, which originally let you summon allies to your side to help you out.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Jerry and Jeremy fight an uphill battle against The Darkness for pretty much the entire game.
  • Easy Mode Mockery: Jerry calls easy mode "Wussy mode" after beating the boss of Dark Depths, and there's even two extra game over messages you can get if you play on easy mode, both of which mock the player for being on easy mode.

You could always try the game on an easier difficulty... oh no, wait, you can't.

This is only to make you Back Tracking a few rooms and lengthen gameplay.

  • Final Boss: Subverted with the Shroud Lord, who is set up to be the final battle and is the hardest boss in the game. However, the actual final boss (and Big Bad) is The Artist.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: The Aero Scanners have auto-hitting ones.
  • Fridge Logic: The material the Metools' indestructible helmets in the Mega Man series are made of? Jeremy wonders why Dr. Wily didn't make entire robots out of this stuff.
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere
  • Global Currency: Internetz.
  • Gone Horribly Right: The Darkness.
  • Ground Pound: Jump attacks and the Grand Slam technique.
  • Guide Dang It: A chest in Black Rock Fortress, which requires you to use an in-game glitch to get. To get it, you have to use Earth Shift to create a stone block on the floating platform next to the moving platform. After that, jump on the moving platform, and run into the block you created underneath it. Since the platform moves according to time and not variable checking, it'll move down eventually and let you get the chest.
    • Also the method for dealing with the Ultimate Phalanx for the first time, if you don't pay too much attention to Jeremy's comments.
  • Harder Than Hard: Distorted mode. The game even warns you that it's completely unfair.
    • It's so difficult that even Dark Yoshi himself can't beat its final boss!
  • Have a Nice Death: The Game Over screens contain mocking one-liners. It's implied that Jeremy is actually the one who says them.
  • Healing Factor: There are healing spells and MP regenerates, but they eat MP so take a long time to recharge. Made all the more boring when you realise checkpoints don't restore HP and MP so you have to hang around save rooms for minutes at a time to fully heal.
  • Heart Container: You have to collect four of them before they do you any good, probably as a Shout-Out to how they work in The Legend of Zelda.
    • There are also powerups that increase your Mana, and a rare type of powerup that increases both.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Sonic. He's in such a depression after his disappointing games that he just doesn't want to wake up. Even when Abstracity has been practically destroyed.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Samus or Jerry's ex. The game doesn't tell which.
    • According to the sequel, it was Claire, though she survived.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Jerry looks awfully like Allen from D Gray Man... Justified, as right before the beginning of the game, he went to an anime convention dressed like that and didn't change before breaking into the first level.
  • Homage: Many of the levels are homages to various Nintendo and Sega games.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first time you fight the Ultimate Phalanx, it's protected by the Muffin it's guarding. In order to progress, you have to kill yourself, return to the room's entry, and try to leave the dungeon.
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Beginner, Veteran, Hardcore, and Distorted.
  • Idiot Ball: Trusting The Artist with the muffins before the Shroud Lord fight, for both Jerry and especially Jeremy. Not only was he the one who gave them the idea to destroy The Darkness in the first place, but they also figured out that he was corrupt as hell. At least we got the most epic final boss ever out of it, though.
  • Inner Monologue: At the end of the game, Jerry has one. But then it's quickly subverted when Jeremy says he sucks at monologues.
  • Interface Screw: Hexor messes up a lot of things in the final level and boss fight to deter you.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both Jerry and Jeremy, to varying degrees.
  • Ki Attacks: Physical techniques like Mental Insurrection, Wave of Awesome, Kudeku or Grand Slam.
  • Killer Game Master: The level comments paint the creator as this, hinting his amusement at the horrors to come.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Constantly, by both Jerry and Jeremy.
  • Last Chance Hit Point: The Revenge Bead retaliates Collision Damage, but cannot take an enemy's last HP.
  • Last-Disc Magic: Wildfire and Hurricane.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jeremy's literal position.
  • Like a Fish Takes to Water: Jerry is an avid gamer who gets thrown into the worlds of the games he played.
  • Locomotive Level: The Fright Train.
  • Lucky Seven: The seven Muffins.
  • MacGuffin: Lampshaded, as they're the 7 Magical Flavored Muffins.
    • In reality, they are the seven Data Allocation Segments, specific pieces of code that grant almost total control over the program. Why they look (and apparently smell) like muffins is anyone's guess.
  • Malevolent Architecture: Found especially in the Black Rock Fortress.
  • Mercy Invincibility: Getting hit, dashing, and using Grand Slam all give you invincibility. The second is essential for beating the game.
  • Meta Powerup: Awesome points don't do anything, other than increase the EXP you gain.
  • Mission Control: Jeremy, though he starts taking a more active role towards the end of the game.
    • He is also separated from Jerry for the first half of Distortion Reckoning.
  • Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Hexor performs a similar role to Jeremy, except he wants you dead so taunts and manipulates levels into death traps.
  • The Mole: Clone Syrus.
  • Nintendo Hard
  • Noob Cave: The IEF, which also serves as the game's tutorial level.
  • Noodle Incident: At the beginning of the game, Jerry talks about a time when Jeremy's teleportation transformed him into a girl, and Jeremy did something to him because female Jerry was hot.
  • "No Warping" Zone: Several times in the story, you cannot warp out to the world map because the Shrouds or the Darkness blocked this function..
  • No Peripheral Vision: At the end of Dark Depths, The Informant and another antagonist talk, and the other antagonist initially can't see Jerry standing behind The Informant, as if the world was two-dimensional - which, given they are in a videogame, might as well be the case.
  • Obstructive Foreground: Lampshaded with text boxes. Also a difficulty enhancer in the Shady Woods/Shady Caves.
  • One-Hit Kill: The instant death spikes which start at Metropolis and appear throughout the rest of the game.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You / Blood Knight: The Shroud Lord. Before you fight it, The Darkness says that it's absolutely obsessed with defeating Jerry, and must be defeated before The Darkness can come to a peaceful solution with Jeremy.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: Due to the different coloring text boxes have, you can generally tell whether or not someone is a good guy or bad guy pretty effortlessly. Jerry even uses this fact once.

Jeremy: What would he want them for? He's not even with the darkness.
Flame Instigator: How would you know?
Jeremy: Your text box isn't red.

Because I'm nice, you can have a restore point here.

Jeremy (garbled): The Darkness has tricked us all.

  • What Could Have Been: Dark Yoshi stated that he wanted the worlds to work similarly to how they did in their original games (Like being able to use the Goomba Stomp in the Mario worlds), but he had trouble programming many of these aspects.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: If the Syrus that Jerry and Jeremy rescued from Black Rock Fortress was a clone...what happened to the real Syrus?
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Jerry.
  • Wind Is Green
  • Write Who You Know: The names of the protagonists, Jerry and Jeremy, are the names of Dark Yoshi's roommates.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: At the beginning of the game, Jerry and Jeremy's only motivation is to get back home, though of course, they soon find that there is more to the world than that...
    • Subverted once you do reach Jerry and Jeremy's home and find that they can't go home because it's already been caught by The Darkness.

Tropes provided in the sequel

Tropes provided in the third game, Saved Game

  • Early Game Hell: The early game is more difficult than that of its predecessors, thanks in no small part to the absence of weapons for the first few chapters of the game and the loss of the dash until Gate 3.
  • Guide Dang It: The Water Temple in Gate 2. It is a labyrinthine dungeon full of complex water-shifting puzzles that can take a very long time to fully wrap your head around.
  • Oxygen Meter
  • RPG Elements: They're back, but more subdued than in the first game -- Skill Points obtained from enemies can only be used to make specific, minor improvements, and there are fewer collectibles.
  • Sequel Difficulty Spike: Far fewer mistakes are allowed than in the previous games. Couple this with the fact that Jerry and Claire have smaller arsenals than their previous appearances, and Distorted Travesty 3 might just be the toughest game in the trilogy.
    • The game also doesn't hand out healing stations at the start of every room.
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