Fancy Pants Adventure

Fancy Pants Adventures
Fancy Pants Adventures
Developer(s)	Brad Borne
Publisher(s)	Armor Games
Composer(s)	Geier Arnold (World 1); TommyLM (World 2)
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Fancy Pants Adventures is a free online side-scrolling flash game, created by Brad Borne. Two worlds have been released so far, World 1 (14th March 2006) and World 2(9th January 2008). Its a fluid combination of discovery, speed and fun. Both Worlds have featured on numerous "Best Games" articles; including TechCult's^[1] , ExtremeTech's^[2] and both (as well as the Mirrors Edge 2D BETA) have featured on GamesRadar's list^[3].

Fancy Pants Adventures features "Fancy Pants Man" as the main protagonist of the series.

Character

The main character, Fancy Pants Man, is depicted as a two dimensional stick figure. He is shown without any facial features. His hair is shown sticking up, and is can be affected by the direction he is running or something in the game's environment. True to the game's name, he is seen wearing only a pair of triangular-shaped pants, which can change color. When left alone for a few seconds, Fancy Pants Man will begin to fall asleep.

Story

In World 1, there wasn't much plot or story to drive the game forward. The game was mostly driven by it's gameplay. Although in World 2, Brad explained there would be a light plotline (through his blog) to the game to make it more enjoyable. It didn't affect the gameplay but was there for comedic purposes. This involved a rabbit stealing your ice cream while you were talking to the mayor of Squiggleville and the you faced him/her as the end boss.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Fancy Pants Adventure is kept simple by it's use of employing only the directional keys and the "S" button on the keyboard to jump. This is true for both Worlds that are currently released.

The wall jump was obtainable in World 1 Level 1 as a secret power-up from a pit that you travel to through a cardboard box and was noted by Brad that it was still work in progress. Quickly after obtaining the wall jump, you had to employ the uses of it straight away to avoid an inevitable death from the slowly filling pit of ink. The wall jump became an official move available in World 2's increasing repertoire of moves. This was first shown in a demo that was made available by it's creator, Brad Borne, on Newgrounds on 13th March 2007.

Snail Shell

World 2 introduced the snail enemy, which retracts into its shell when jumped on. Afterwards FPM can kick it around. Originally this was merely a novelty feature in the World 2 demo, and when the shell hit spiders it stunned them. Then during the development of World 2, BETA testers made a game out of getting the snail shell to hard-to-reach spots. Brad used this as inspiration to incorporate "Snail Shell Golf" which adds replayability to World 2 by providing an intuitive way to unlock different colour pants. It is also possible to get a combo by keeping the snail shell in the air.

Trophies

Both Worlds of the Fancy Pants Adventures contained small trophies that could be collected on the side when playing the game. According to Brad "Trophies were my way of giving a nod to a few Flash artists whose work I really enjoyed." In World 1, these trophies would be out in the open, or at the end of a simple level designed by Brad. In World 2 however, Brad worked with the person each trophy represented to design a unique level just for obtaining that trophy. ^[4]

Enemies

As Fancy Pants man explores the different levels within each world, there are small enemies that try to hinder your progress. These enemies include spiders, snails, dragons, and even rats with guns. You can get rid of these enemies simply by jumping on them (S button), and even launch off them by holding the jump button.

The main type of enemy in both worlds seems to be spiders. Originally World 1 also featured a rat with a gun that shot projectiles at the player, as well as some enemies that look similar to dragons. World 2's variety of enemies originally only consisted of the spider, which returns as an enemy from World 1, and the snail used as part of the snailshell golf minigame. But during some updates made by the developer (Brad Borne) the rat was added to World 2 in Update 1.5, similar to in World 1, it is rarely seen and appears only once per level.

Bosses

At the end of each world of Fancy Pants Adventures, you have to fight a final boss. In World 1, the final boss was an angry penguin, who you accidentally fell upon and woke up from sleeping. The penguin was originally named "Pauly Penguin" who was named after one of Brad's friends: Paul; who also featured in the 'Behind the Fancy Pants' feature video^[5]. In World 2, the story was a bit more complex. After an angry rabbit stole your ice cream reward, the purpose of the game was to run through to the end and fight the angry rabbit and reclaim your ice cream prize.

World 3 Speculation

As of yet, not much is known about World 3. It is also unclear if Brad has even started working on World 3 yet. What is known is that it will utilize the same engine that was employed in World 2; possibly with a few tweaks.

Due to Brad having several other games in the works (currently Mirrors Edge 2D and Fraser's Ride), World 3 will probably not come out during this year. As of the 20th February 2009 Brad (in cooperation with many others) has released the full Mirrors Edge 2D game^[6]. Although it is noted that updates will continue to arrive therefore it is unclear how long Brad will stay on the project. After Mirror's Edge 2D he will reportedly continue work on Fraser's Ride.

BorneGames.com

Bornegames is the hub for Brad's work and blog. Brad's blog quickly became an integral part of the BETA process. With new BETAs being released on a fairly regular basis that no other websites had. Brad employed the use of his blog-goers as BETA testers and bug-reporters. It became the central hub for the latest bug-fixes and BETA news.

Brad has also used his blog to post Q&A videos to reply to questions sent in by fans, he has also posted a "Behind the Fancy Pants" video as well as an "Official Snailshell Golf Guide"^[7].

Reception

As of February 2008, World 2 has been played almost 6.5 million times on Armorgames alone. World 2 had been played over 9 million times on Addicting Games, and 2 million times on Kongregate. World 1 has been played about 3 million times on Armor Games, almost 3 million on Addicting Games, and over 1 million times on Kongregate. Both worlds have been released to critical success and stellar reviews. Both instantly becoming internet sensations shortly after release. World 2 has also been nominated for a 2008 Newgrounds Tank Award^[8]

References

External Links

[1] "The 150 Best Online Flash Games".

[2] "The 20 Best Free PC Games".

[3] "The BEST FREE games to play this holiday".

[4] "Cameo Levels".

[5] "Behind the Fancy Pants".

[6] "Mirror's Edge 2D".

[7] "Videos at Bornegames".

[8] "Newgrounds Tank Awards".

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