The Decline of Video Gaming (also known as the Decline of Gaming, or just Decline), is a Flash cartoon series which has developed a large fanbase within the gaming community. The series follows the adventures of Dim, Dan, JT and Tom (avid video gamers who enjoy making fun of video games). The first Decline was developed and released in 2004 by Super Flash Brothers (Dim and Tom) and Double Helix (JT and Dan) as a parody of the current state of video games. Each episode features a commentary by "Dim" which contain his own views on the games and the making of the episode. The series currently consists of three episodes and a Christmas special, as well as three short mini-games; some based on the parodies of games that were featured in earlier videos. All of the Decline series is viewable on Newgrounds and UGOPlayer.

Decline of Video Gaming

The first Decline is a futuristic look at the history of video gaming. Taking place in 2059, Dim, Dan, and JT visit a local EB Games store and reminisce about "old" games whilst browsing through the new releases, which include Devil May Cry 4: Who Wrote This Crap?, numerous Mario specialty games, Grand Theft Auto: Traffic Jam Edition, and Metal Gear Solid 7. The trio come across a bargain bin full of copies of Alien Hominid, a console port of the infamous Newgrounds Flash game. Although this episode is well animated compared to other flash videos, it still lacks the detail of the later episodes.

Decline of Video Gaming 2

Decline 2 focuses more on having a plot, while still maintaining the randomness of the original. It takes place in the present day, where the characters from the previous episode (including Tom Connolley, Dim's brother) get tickets to the "Electronically Exaggerated Entertainment Show" (a take on E3), sent by the evil developers Capcom, Square Enix/Squaresoft, and Konami, who feel that the group is too critical of their games. The fake company the developers make is the Gaming Ordinators National Association of Developing Systems, (aka G.O.N.A.D.S.). The group tries to tell the viewer but are cut off before they can finish talking. The story proceeds with the boys going to E-3 with a nod to the fact that all famous videogames come there- Samus Aran comes in her space ship (the creators considered bringing in Hideo Kojima in Metal Gear). The three proceed to go inside and rip on all the games and systems:

N-gage - Ripped on the design. Besides this, they discuss the ridculousness of actually "buying" games for an N-gage

Onimusha: Blade Warriors - was called yet another Super Smash Brothers Melee (the animators said that it was actually like SSBM when they bought it)

MGS:3- riduiculous disguises (badger, tree)

FFX- according to the animators, things take a long time to translate into Canadian (a parody of South Park follows)

FFVII- shows that the ATB system is only fun if everybody is using it (JT moves out of the way while Square-Enix is casting in the ATB.

FF Online- kids about the indherent hardness of the game; and how everything is too expensive (the point behind this supposedly is that the higher level you become and the more well known you are, the less things cost). Square Enix reposesses the Gamer's computer when he misses a payment on his phoenix down (Gamer: But it's an online game! SE: You didn't read the fine print!)

Resident Evil- States that at every loading screen, there are advertisements for everything from anti-zombie spray to music.

Nintendo DS- makes fun of the opinion that the Nintendo DS is just an SP with an extra screen (with multiple screens- health bar, ammo, etc. and accessories- scissors, sunbed, etc.)

Spider-man- rips on some of the "supposed failures" of Spiderman's spider half (afraid of newspapers, can't get out of a wet bath tub.)

As with the previous episode, the video features parody vignettes of certain games (i.e. advertisements in Resident Evil Outbreak). The characters also show some rudimentary development, like JT's skill with the light gun and Konami's utter stupidity. The developers try their own approach at killing off the group, but only one attempt was successful. The head of Square Enix, despite targeting JT, manages to light Tom on fire, spawning the running joke of "OHMYGODIMONFIRE!".

A Decline Christmas

This video is noticeably shorter than Decline 2, and may not follow the timeline of the series. The episode starts with the group in PC World, where they joke about several concepts not directly relating to video games (the high price of Director MX 2004 and software piracy). In the store, someone tries to sell them "illegal crack," (a pun between illegally "cracked" software and "crack" as in a slang term of the drug cocaine) but is run over by a police car and mauled by the cops almost immediately. They return to a house and give each other very random things for Christmas including a wireless light gun and a pac-man from EBay, which promply eats JT's head for claiming its a bad quality, unofficial toy. While everyone else is opening up presents Tom sits in the chimney, and seconds later falls into the fireplace and screams "OHMYGODIMINAFIRE!". Later, they hang up their memory cards and discuss how Santa Claus levels up their characters. When they imagine that, Santa remarks at how hard they have been working on their games, but then finds a Game Shark. "Somebody has been a naughty boy this year!" Santa says and destroys their PS2 with a coal launcher.

Decline of Video Gaming 3

This episode inexplicably starts with the characters in Japan, with the Evil Developers stalking them looking for revenge. We see several of Capcom's bizarre ideas for reality shows. The credits play, then the guys run about the town eating ramen, running amok and generally having fun in a manga style montage. Finally Tom enters, with a more complex gag then his simple "OHMYGODIMONFIRE" (he is deflecting fireballs throughout the movie with Link's shield). The group finds a copy of Soul Calibur III, but they have no money. The head of Konami attempts to capture them with the promise of free money. When this fails, he uses Plan B (which is always the better one) to tranquilize them and put them on a game show about video games. Then the head of Konami, attempting to assassinate them during the show, overdoses on Pentazetamin, a muscle relaxant from Metal Gear Solid, which causes him to collapse with the head of Capcom saying: "Wow, I didn't know it was possible to overdose on those things." The Developers attack with giant robots, which, due to various (video game-related) glitches, are defeated. After incorrectly guessing the number of "Metroid" games (11 in all) in existence, the host reveals to the three that he is the head of Square-Enix (though this is obvious to the audience). Square-Enix proceeds to summon Ifrit in order to burn Tom once more. When Tom escapes, he casts a water spell, causing JT to slip and fall. The three fail to take the developers seriously and after much pleading on the part of Square-Enix, the cartoon ends with a montage of things the gang would like to do other then play crappy video games.

Jokes

Maddy (Dim and Tom's sister) appears in the audience at the game show on the right. Rubber Ninja is on the left.

Dim is not featured in any of the "outtakes" at the end, like "Watching metal rust". This is presumably because he is narrating. Either JT, Dan, or Tom is injured in each of those scenes as well (crushed by a domino, hit in the face with a crowbar, having a flamethrower pointed directly at the face and turned on, etc.).

The two robots at the end is a parody of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, including the quote and the air guitar.

Nightmare from Soul Calibur is parodied as an incompetent McDonald's worker- because he says his catchphrase "SOULS!" to everything his customer says.

Development

Throughout the series, both the quality of the characters, and the storyline, increase significantly. The characters in Decline 2 have better joints and hands, and Decline 3 gave Dim more realistic hair, in which the way it moves when he moves is similar to that of Howl's hair in the anime film, Howl's Moving Castle. The exception is Decline Christmas, which didn't advance the art or the story-telling.

Recurring Characters

Dim, Dan and J.T (All)

Square Enix (2, X-Mas, 3)

Capcom (2, X-Mas, 3)

Konami (2, 3)

Tom (2, X-Mas, 3)

Guy From Crowd (2, 3)

Jim and Kyle (2, 3)

Snake (1, 2, 3)

Running Jokes

Although not technically a running joke, there's always some small and humorous details that you need to look for. Examples include a can of "JT Snacks", or a cereal called "Hal-O's".

They have stated repeatedly that "Nightmare 2" will never exist, but they continue to have posters in the cartoons. Many of the posters have captions like "I'd have to quit school, but..." or "The game doesn't exist." (Though at one point they forgot to put a 2 in the poster.)

"OHMYGODIMONFIRE" is a somewhat obvious joke about the fact that Tom is set on fire during almost every episode. In Decline 3 they almost decide to quit using this joke, but the fire itself doesn't seem to give up.

Metal Gear Solid is a frequently parodied series, mostly because it is the creators' favourite series.

Monotonous or boring tasks like "Watching grass grow, watching paint dry , etc." are a callback to the original.

* This joke was parodied in Decline 3, when they mentioned that "Watching Tom burn" would be one of said tasks.

Each of the cartoons ends with Dim saying, "...we'd have more fun..." followed by a cliché way to get rid of boredom. This could explain why the Head of Square Enix got so upset at the end of Decline 3, knowing it would end the cartoon. This could also be explained if you look at Dim's comments about the tasks, "We'd have more fun", that the Head of Square Enix was so into his games that he "couldn't take anymore" after Dim's side comments.

Rubber Ninja is placed as an extra in many places, including in a Trash can, a plane passenger, and an audience member.

Guy in crowd is another one, including the time he was "questioning" the Tanooki powerup in Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES, and was then stabbed to death while being held in place by a "Fan Appreciation" Device. Also, he questions the answer for how many Metroid games there have been in Decline 3 during the game show.

Another joke is at the end of Decline 1 and 2, where the authors make fun of themselves by pretending to be upper-class Brits, to signify how many americans in cartoons and in online forums, consider Brits to be upper class and arrogant.

"OHMYGODIMONFIRE" was also in Kingdom Hearts Chronicles 1.2.

References

[580] The super Flash brothers' (Temporary) Website.