Down in The Dumps (video game)

A 1997 Adventure Game developed by Haiku studios.

The story is about the Blubs, a diminituve alien family who is going on a holiday trip throughout space. Unfortunately, they are being attacked by Space Pirates. After a chaotic chase, both of them crash on planet Earth, in a large wasteland near New York City.

Now marooned far away from home with their ship wrecked to pieces, the Blubs are forced to spend some time here. First thing to do: find back missing parts of the ship so they can build it again to go back home. In the meantime, they need to thwart the plans of the pirates...

Tropes used in Down in The Dumps (video game) include:

• Bigger on the Inside: The Blub's washing-liquid-bottle home and the Bum's hair on his head.
• Bumbling Dad: Although he does prove to be more than that in "The Abominable Robin Blub".
• Down in the Dumps: Duh.
• Expy: The Blubs are basically expies of The Simpsons.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Nope, that "part" that Sonny Blub has found is just an old trashcan and the bum's earring is useless since the ship has already been built.
• Frogs and Toads: Who live in Robin Hood-Sherwood style.
• Innocent Bystander: The introduction shows a worker who is repairing a part of the Statue of Liberty. As the alien ships fly by, they distract him enough for him to fall down, presumably to his death.
• Mad Scientist: Spike creates a machine that can twist people's minds, so he uses them on Papa Blub and Grandma Blub - respectively turning them into a neurasthenic slob and a savage berserker.
• No Name Given: The family is called Blub, but none of the members are given an individual name. They are just referred to as their family status.
• Robin Hood: The third chapter is a retelling of the Robin Hood story, with frogs and toads as the characters, except with the father from the Blub family as Robin.
• Swallowed Whole: Papa Blub is swallowed by a fish when going fishing at a pond, and he finds King Richard inside.
• Unwinnable By Mistake: Let's hope you didn't lose the electrocuting hand. Because you'll need it to defeat the bad guy inside the bum's head.
• You Dirty Rat: The first villain that you have to defeat in the game is a sunglasses-wearing rat who steals a part of the ship.
• Your Size May Vary: All the time. This is especially Egregious in the "Bum" chapter, where the Blub kids are about the size of a third of the bum's shoes but get suddenly small enough to walk inside his hair, being the same size as the lice.