Hogs of War - TV Tropes

The Turn of the Millennium saw the release of this game, where Commanding General I. P. Grimly guides the player and their army of pigs through a devilishly difficult campaign single-player mode, while there's also a "free play" single-or-multi player mode.

The plot, mirroring how meaningless wars are, is as basic as it gets: there's an island filled with swill, and your pigs' country wants it. Of course, you don't get to the island before having to conquer an entire country. Guess what the premise leads to.

A sequel was announced, but it then Infogrames happened to go through bankruptcy and therefore became yet another case of Vaporware.

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This game provides examples of:

• Affectionate Parody: Of various war films.
• Amusing Injuries: When a Made of Explodium soldier dies, well, he blows up - the catch, though, is that we have a pair of smoking boots left behind.
• Badass Boast: Several, including:
  • I straddle the battlefield like a mighty colossus!
• Colonel Kilgore: The Drill Sergeant Nasty briefing the pigs in the intro video.

  As soldiers, our job is to fight! Destroy! With guns... and bombs... and knives... and... and with YOUR BARE HANDS...! [unintelligible rabid gibbering]

• Death from Above: Airstrikes. You can also pull off this one with a Jetpack too, if your timing is good enough.
• Downer Ending:
  • The soldier has no house and girlfriend to go back to. The only alternative, possible solution is, of course, stick to being a soldier.
  • Weirdly, this is almost portrayed as a Bittersweet Ending, with I.P. Grimly, (who throughout the campaign was a ruthless combination of the Drill Sergeant Nasty and General Ripper) basically comforting the depressed soldier. Even though the soldier lost his girl, his home, and any chance of civilian employment, there's always another war around the corner, giving him plenty more enemies to fight. The soldier happily marches into the sunset, with Grimly wishing him luck in fighting whatever enemy lies ahead of him.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Commanding General I. P. Grimly is either an Affectionate Parody or a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of R. Lee Ermey's Sergeant Hartman "character". See him here.
• Excuse Plot: there's an archipelago filled with food for pigs (swill). Your country wants it. Cue war.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: The pigs give these when they die, the tropes they cover could have a page of their own;
  • Blatant Lies/Only a Flesh Wound: "Superficial damage captain!" "I'm just...winded."
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: "I feed on violence... and now... I'm... full..."
  • What the Hell, Player?: "Dis is all your fault, meester zo-called Cap-e-tane!"
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Each one with their own color and helmet!
  • Tommy's Trotters: UK, green uniforms and First World War helmets
  • Garlic Grunts: France, dark blue uniforms and army caps.
  • Sow-A-Krauts: Imperial Germany, grey uniforms and Pickelhaube.
  • Uncle Ham's Hogs: USA, light blue uniforms and cowboy hats.
  • Piggystroika: USSR, red uniforms and Ushanka.
  • Sushi Swine: Imperial Japan, yellow uniforms and tropical visor caps.
  • Team Lard: Developers, purple uniforms and Ushanka with horns.
• Gang Up on the Human: The final campaign mission consists of 5 computer controlled teams (the ones you didn't pick and Team Lard) all sending their best troops to kill you. They never go after each other, though it is justified in that you've more or less taken over the world.
• Gluttonous Pig: The main premise of the game is that massive armies of pigs fight a bloody war for a continent full of swill.
• Healing Hands: The Medic class. Literally, their "Healing Hands" move is them rubbing hands together and touching the patient in question.
• Healing Shiv: The Medic also has access to a variety of these.
• Jettison Jetpack Attack: The jetpack works like this - it can be jettisoned in mid-air, dropping it like a bomb below and allowing the pig who was using it to float to safety on a parachute
• Large Ham: A few of the pigs do this. Appropriately enough.
• Messy Pig: In the comic book included with the game, an early panel depicts a family of pigs at home before they have joined the army; the living room floor is covered with small piles of excrement. A later panel depicts the pigs about to parachute behind enemy lines; one of them says that he needs to use the toilet, but the sergeant says "You don't use the toilet! You're a pig! You do it on the floor and roll around in it! We all do!"
• Mobile Shrubbery: Pigs trained in espionage can use items to hide themselves.
• National Stereotypes: See Fantasy Counterpart Culture. Then browse the appropriate stereotypes from the list. Then throw is pig-related puns and... yeah, that's basically the majority of the joke fodder for this game.
• New Game Plus: On completing the campaign mode as one country, you can take it back from them as the purple Team Lard.
• News Parody: When completing an area, you get the front page of a newspaper with appropriate headlines and photos depending on how well you did.

  VICTORY! Tea and crumpets for leading generals!

• Permadeath: If during a mission one of your hogs are killed, on the post-mission screen their picture will be bruised and beaten, but they remain in your squad. If however three of your squad members are killed in battle, then one of them will be permanently deceased, which means losing all your precious promotions for that soldier as well (something which the player is usually unprepared for). If four squad members are killed in battle, two are permanently deceased.
• Punny Name: I. P. Grimly.
• Ring Out: When a pig gets blown clear out of the map, he explodes, quite undramatically.
• Shout-Out:
  • As noted above, both the cover art and the Drill Sergeant Nasty.
  • And the theme song is "Sousa Liberty Bell March".
  • Elvis and Chekov are present in all but name among the pig voices.
  • "Stay off the moors!"
  • Most of the various pig soldiers are either parodies of specific national stereotypes or Expies of famous characters of that nation from either history or popular culture, including seemingly half the cast of Star Trek.
  • At least one is aping Ivan Drago: "I must break you", anyone?
• Smoldering Shoes: what's left of fallen soldiers during gameplay; outside of combat, this is also Played for Laughs in a cutscene.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
• Super Drowning Skills: Anyone below commando level. They can swim, but even a full health pig drowns very quickly if trying to swim.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Pigs that rank commando or higher can swim safely.
• Take That!: In the Pig Pen map, you can see a tile depicting a worm cut in half. Messily.
• Toilet Humour: Pigs have a habit of farting when they disguise themselves.
• Trauma Inn: MASH tents and bunkers. Being in one for a set amount of turns heals a pig.
• War Is Glorious: The opinion of I.P. Grimley, and often promoted as such through the gag propaganda films. In reality, of course, it's more like War Is Hell.

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