Nitrome Must Die

Nitrome Must Die is a platformer-shoot 'em up released on November 24th 2011. The game stars the two characters Austin Carter and Justin Bennet. The game is Nitrome's 100th game, and currently the largest non-premium Nitrome game so far, having 102 levels. Twin Shot 2 is the second largest with 100 levels, 50 of which are premium. Nitrome told fans they were making the 100th game on November 1st 2011, releasing a video preview for the game on November 7th.

Controls
Player 1:

Up - W

Down - S

Left - A

Right - D

Shoot - Q

Player 2:

Up - ↑

Down - ↓

Left - ←

Right - →

Shoot - SHIFT

Players can change their controls by clicking a control and changing it.

Plot
After getting a 'Game Over' once again on another Nitrome game, Austin starts chatting with Justin, sharing their rage together against Nitrome. During the chat, Justin mentions "Wishing someone could shut them down for good". Austin thinks and asks Justin if they really should and Justin responds quickly and tells them to meet outside Austin's house. Austin ends the chat with "NITROME MUST DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111", then smacking the desk hard and heading outside. Then, meeting up with Justin, the two head on to the high-security Nitrome Towers. On arriving, Justin accidentally finds some weapons to use, and they both enter the building to shut down Nitrome for good. However, an employee spots the two intruders and starts using a machine to bring characters in past Nitrome games to life, in hopes of killing the two.

Weapons
Nitrome Must Die has over 40 weapons. Below is a list of them:
 * Bang†
 * Banana Bomb
 * Barrel
 * BC Bow
 * Bubble
 * Bullethead
 * Buzz Saw
 * Canary
 * Chisel
 * Cluster Bomb
 * Dragon Ball
 * Fart
 * Fireball
 * Helmet
 * Homing Missile
 * Machine Gun
 * Mega Laser
 * Mine
 * Mini Gun
 * Molotov
 * Nanobot
 * Ninja Star
 * Nitro
 * Nitrome
 * Penguin
 * Pea Shooter
 * Pistol
 * Pixel Gun
 * Points
 * Rocket
 * Shotgun
 * Slap
 * Spring†
 * Sucker Punch
 * Toast
 * Triple Arrow
 * Twin Shot Arrow

†: Only used in one particular level of its own

Publicity
More than a week before the game was announced, two people (Austin and Justin, from the game) posted on Nitrome's Facebook wall about how much they hated Nitrome. Nitrome then posted in their blog that a person had created a site called Nitrome Must Die. This site was talked about a lot in the Nitrome community before it was revealed "Nitrome Must Die" was the name of the game. Mat Annal said that the effort that some fans went to to counteract the hate site made them 'feel a little guilty knowing it was all a hoax'.

Gameplay
Nitrome Must Die is a platformer shoot 'em up game. The player plays as Austin Carter or Justin Bennet. The goal of each level is to kill every enemy that will appear, using several weapons that appear in the screen.

Overview
There are 102 levels:
 * 80 'normal' levels (including 20 'challenge' levels)
 * 9 boss fights (not including the final boss)
 * 3 levels (100, 101 and 102) fighting the Boss of Nitrome Towers, the final boss

Challenge Levels
In challenge levels, the main objective to kill all the enemies in the level remains. The difference between challenge and normal levels is that the player has an infinite supply of one type of weapon. The player must take advantage of that weapon to kill the enemies. After the challenge level is completed, the player regains the same weapon and ammo from the previous level.

Bosses
Bosses are encountered on every tenth floor (10, 20, 30, etc.)
 * Floor 10: Nose & Snot (from the game Snot Put)
 * Floor 20: Parasite & The Moon (from the games Parasite and Cheese Dreams)
 * Floor 30: Squish Block in Crusher Guardian in Big Daddy (from the games Enemy 585, Onekey and Hot Air 2)
 * Floor 40: Scientist holding Blue (from the game Test Subject Blue)
 * Floor 50: Knuckleheads (from the game Knuckleheads)
 * Floor 60: Cat & Owl (from the game Fat Cat)
 * Floor 70: Warthog Sky Serpent (from the game Sky Serpents)
 * Floor 80: Mecha Saur (from the game Rubble Trouble Tokyo)
 * Floor 90: Steamlands Tank (from the game Steamlands)
 * Floors 100-102: Nitrome Boss (original enemy, uses an original robot too)

Scoring System
Nitrome Must Die has a unique scoring system. Upon completing a level, the player is given the option to bank their score (save it) or gamble it. When they gamble their score, they multiply there score by how many levels they completed at that point without dying. For example, the player completes three levels without dying, the multiplier is 3. If they at any time die, the multiplier will drop down to 0, going back to 1 once the player completes the level. When the player gambles their score, they cannot save it until the next level. If the player at any time dies, they lose their gambled score.

During 2-player, the player who completes the level with the highest score is deemed the winner, and the lowest, the loser.

November 1, 2011
Nitrome announced the game was being worked on, and also provided an image that read 100th game. The provided image was not part of the game at all.

November 3, 2011
Nitrome said that the game isn't a prequel or sequel of any game, and they say also that Steamlands Player Pack isn't counted as a game.

November 4, 2011
Nitrome brought our attention to the hate site, www.nitromemustdie.com which later turned out to be part of their advertising campaign.

November 7, 2011
Nitrome thank their fans for support against the hate website, and share a link to a petition against Nitrome Must Die, set up by John Niemann, and share a photoshopped screenshot of the hate website, made by Matthew Killick, turning their non-existent haters' text against them

November 8, 2011
Nitrome released a video preview of the game. thumb|300px|left|The video

November 22nd, 2011
Nitrome released a preview image of the game:

November 23rd
Nitrome announced how the "unique scoring system" would work, along with providing the below picture to show what the end of level screen would be.

End of Level Glitch
On an odd occasion when both players approach the level, the elevator will close with player 1 still outside the elevator. He then appears in the elevator with the 'bank or gamble' select screen.

Warlock Glitch
The Warlock Glitch is a glitch encountered in one level between 71 and 80. On one level 10 Warlocks are encountered. At the start of the level, everything was fine. Soon, many of the Warlocks spawn and cause the level to lag. This will cause the screen to freeze every few seconds. The sound effects could still be heard, and crates disappeared faster. This Glitch made the level very difficult to complete, but still completable. On the 28th of November Nitrome announced they had fixed this glitch, along with others including the boomerang looping glitch, and the spike-death problem.

Infinite Elevator Ride glitch
The infinite elevator ride glitch is a glitch encountered in any level of the game. After the player banks/gambles the score and presses the Fire button, the screen will move so that the elevator is at the very bottom. After this, the player will infinitely stay in the elevator, as well as hear a hazard from the level and see that they have infinite Motoval.

Trivia

 * In the teaser video, Austin Carter is playing on Nitrome.com 1.5 with the Classic Skin selected. The game he plays has a background that has the appearance of the background of the Menu of Nitrome Enjoyment System games.
 * Unlike most game trailers, this particular one did not show the game's startup.
 * This game has the longest startup so far, and features the words 'The 100th Nitrome Game'. The additional letters are soon blown up.
 * The game was hinted in the Nitrome 2.0 Skin, as 3 Employees appeared on a hill in the Skin.
 * Oddly enough, the "residue" enemies leave behind in this game doesn't appear to be blood, as it's color depends on the skin or fur color of the enemies being destroyed. Even more strangely, the "residue" is accompanied with an explosion.
 * The "residue" does not come out of robotic enemies, eg. Robots from Toxic
 * If the player's ammo hits the walls, the tile will crack
 * Throughout the game, it is shown that the in-game company called Nitrome is very evil, overworking and torturing there employees. This can be seen in the art in several levels.
 * On some level there is a chalkboard that reads "Game with Cats, Game with blobs, you have only 8 hours!".
 * In one level, there is a picture of "Failure of the Month", which shows a usual employee, and "Hard Worker of the Month", which shows a Employees with no flesh on his head and torso.
 * Throughout the game, there is a rack with tools that read "Employee Motivators". The rack consists of one Pitchfork, a level with a boot on it, and three chains.
 * Commonly there are three garbage cans grouped together, one for Toxic material, one for garbage, and one for "Fan Mail".
 * In levels where the player has to fight employees, there are usually two doors, one labeled "Torture", the other "Surgery".
 * Nitrome Must Die has the most dangerous glitches of any Nitrome game, beating Enemy 585 which previously held this record.
 * The challenge level on level 86 holds the record for the most enemies in Nitrome Must Die, pitting the player against 200 Slimes. The second level with the most enemy count is one level which has 150 Orange Squids.