The Iguana Projective

Prologue: Evil Beckons

We start in a cold, darkened dimension, a rock castle placed amidst a swirling vortex of dark energies. The castle is massive, clearly whoever owns it is compensating for something. Armies of rock creatures are shown moving throughout the castle as we zoom in, golems patrol the walkways, and stone lizards crawl on the walls. A massive stone dragon clings to the castle’s center spire, and lets out a roar.

Inside the castle, we are introduced to the owner of the castle, and what appears to be the partner. One is a tall, dark figure, head wrapped in bandages. The other is an average sized iguana, riding on the human-like being’s shoulders. These are Iguana and Knight, and both are examining a crystal ball in the middle of the darkened, stone room they reside in.

“Finally!” The iguana says, climbing to the top of Knight’s head. “Using my magic, I have broken through the boundaries of my own universe!”

They gaze into the orb, a modern, metropolitan city appearing from the haze. Iguana continues, rubbing his lizard feet together. “And with my newfound powers, I will spread my dark seed throughout the entire multiverse, and claim it all as my own!”
“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Iguana looks down at Knight, who has not reacted at all. “Got it? That’s the third time I’ve explained this to you today.”
Knight remains silent.

“This would be a lot easier if you ever talked to me.” The iguana mumbles. “Anyway, I have sent the evillest beings I could find to take over other universes, whilst I prepare… our project.”

Knight gives a nod, throwing Iguana off balance. “Warn me before you do something like that, alright?” Iguana barks as he climbed back to Knight’s shoulder.

“I say we sit back and enjoy the fun for now, though.”


Chapter 1 – Marvel-ous Heroes
Level 1-1: New York, New York

New York City, Avenger’s Tower

Captain America and Iron Man stand on the heli-pad, looking out over the city. “She sure is beautiful, huh?” Cap says.

“I know, we both live here.” Iron Man replies.

“I just like to appreciate the city sometimes.”

“I mean, that’s great and all, but you said we were going to train.”

“Right!” Cap says. “Let’s do that right here then!”

The two quickly enter battle positions, and prepare to fight.


CPU BATTLE 1 – IRON MAN vs. CAPTAIN AMERICA
Music: https://youtu.be/LaZq1aWclbg

No civil war here, only a civil battle! You can choose between either Captain America or Iron Man here, and for once they’re fighting without any political reasons behind it. This is basically a simple Smash match, you have 3 stocks, while the opponent only has 1. The stage is the most interesting part, though it is mostly flat. The fight takes place on the heli-pad, with the top of Avenger’s Tower in the background. The stage is around as wide as the main Battlefield platform. All you need to do is KO the opponent once, and you move on.


Cap and Iron Man continue to clash in the cutscene, but are interrupted from their scuffle by a crack of lightning. They look out into the city, the sky darkened. A massive screen appears over the city, displaying the face of GOLDMAN!

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.” The business man laughs, awkwardly. “Greetings, friends. I am Goldman. I have come to spread terror throughout your city with my ZOMBIE GAS.”

The screen disappears, and there’s another flash of lightning. A massive green machine, marked with an egotistical looking “N” marking, falls from the sky, landing in the middle of the city. There’s a burst of green gas from the machine, and the sound of people screaming in terror.

“Well, looks like that dinner date I had is going to be delayed.” Iron Man says, hovering into the air. “I’ll head out first, you call the rest of the team.”

Cap nods. “I’ll meet you down there.”

Captain America runs off towards the tower, while Iron Man quickly dives into the city.


1-2: X-Treme Circumstances

New York, X Mansion

Wolverine is lazing about in bed, rolling over uncomfortably. He suddenly gets a headache, as Professor X telepathically sends a message into his mind.

“Logan, we need your help.” The professor says. “There’s been an attack from… something. I’ve already sent out a few others to help, but I don’t know if they’ll be enough. Head out for the center of the city.”

“Finally, something to do!” Wolverine says, quickly getting out of bed. He heads for his closet, and quickly puts on his classic yellow suit. There’s a sudden loud noise from downstairs. “The professor might be in trouble, I need to go check if he’s alright. Maybe I can cut some guys, too.”

Wolverine heads to the main hall, spotting that a mob of zombies has burst through the front door, and have started to shamble around. “Well, its easy to slice, but I’m not that picky!” Logan says to himself, before leaping down from the stairs, and into the crowd of zombies.


ENEMY BATTLE 1 – WOLVERINE VS. ZOMBIE HORDE
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shfGrxgvl1Q

This is another simple arena to start off with. Zombies are the simplest enemies in the game, being zombies and all. They have 10% stamina, and move along slowly. Their only attack is swinging their arms at you when they get close, which deals an incredibly pathetic 2% damage. With Wolverine’s recovery power, this makes it even easier. You get 3 stocks, and simply have to beat 20 zombies to move on. The arena is flat, taking place inside the X Mansion, and in its main lobby. The only blastzones are walkoffs, making it difficult to get KOed, even if you let the zombies hit you.


Wolverine slices through the last zombie, and steps towards the door. He tries to head out, but a large, winged creature swoops down into his face, knocking him back into the mansion. He glances up as a shadow overtakes him. A massive, headless beast wielding an axe steps through the door.

The monster attempts to take a swing at Wolverine, but he ducks out of the way before the axe can hit him. “What the hell are you supposed to be?” Wolverine says as he gets up.

“Hee! Hee! Hee!” The winged monster laughs, perching on the headless monster’s shoulder. “Do not interfere, human! We have been sent to stop you from stopping our plan! Kuarl! Get him!”

The monster groans and steps forward again.


BOSS BATTLE 1 – WOLVERINE VS. KUARL AND ZEAL
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwzyL7WiLQg

This fight takes place in the same area as the previous section, except instead of generic zombies, you have to fight Kuarl, a big honking zombie. To see Kuarl’s stats, check out his section in the Goldman set. He’s similar stat-wise, but his attacks are considerably weakened, being a first boss and all. All of his AND Zeal’s attacks from the set are present here as well, as Zeal will join in the fight alongside his brother. But there is a bit more to taking Kuarl out than in the set.

Kuarl is actually invincible, though he still has 120% stamina. Well, how can you defeat him then? If you can’t tell, you actually want to be focusing on hitting Zeal rather than Kuarl, for the moment, as the little chirper hangs out at the top of the screen, and will use his attacks fairly often. After each attack, Zeal will pause and rest, giving you a chance to hit him. Despite Kuarl’s HP buff, Zeal actually has an HP DE-buff. He has 1% stamina, meaning that a single hit will knock him out.

When knocked out, Kuarl will pause and clutch at his neck stump, letting out pained groans as he does. This signifies that he’s been weakened, meaning you can now directly damage him. However, Zeal doesn’t remain knocked out, and will recover after 5 seconds. Deal as much damage as you can during this time.


After delivering the final hit, Wolverine will glance up at Zeal. “Kuarl! Nooooooo.” The winged zombie lets out. “You better stop it.” Zeal says, looking at Wolverine. “Or else we’ll make you suffer like Scott did!”

“Get out of here before I carve you like Thanksgiving dinner.” Wolverine threatens.

Zeal quickly flies out of the door. “That sounded pretty ominous.” Wolverine mutters to himself. “Better go figure out what’s going on.”

Wolverine quickly runs out of the manner, and out into the city.

Level 1-3: Marvel Zombies
Iron Man dives into the city, landing in a ruined street. Windows are broken, lamp posts have fallen, and cars have been turned over. Zombies crawl through the landscape, giving it that apocalyptic feeling.

“Yeesh, someone didn’t invite me to the party.” Tony mutters to himself. He only hopes that he isn’t too late.


PLATFORM LEVEL 1 – NEW YORK STREETS
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNPxaeiXsDE

A fairly basic platforming level to help get more used to the platforming aspects of the game. There isn’t much interesting to describe here, but there are a handful of new enemies to go over. In addition to the regular zombies, there are now Grabber Zombies. While normal zombies wear blue shirts, these guys wear red shirts. They are considerably faster than normal zombies (In that they can run at all), and if they catch you, they will lock you into a grab struggle. This gives other zombies nearby time to attack you, and guess what, these guys are mostly placed in areas with lots of enemies. Other than that, Grabbers can’t actually hurt you. They only have 10% HP as well

The other new enemy is the Gargoyle, resembling Zeal, but greyer. They behave nearly exactly like zeal as well, waiting at the top of the screen before swooping down to attack you. The difference is that they’re actually stronger than Zeal, having 20% stamina, and attacks more comparable to the Goldman set rather than the nerfed ones in the boss fight. The level ends with a brawl against all three different types of enemies, and you need to defeat 25 of them in order to reach the goal, represented by a flag with the Smash logo on it. There is no cutscene after this, as it transitions into the next level immediately after.


Level 1-4: Avengers, Assemble!

Iron Man walks into the middle of a plaza, finding Captain America waiting for him, alongside Hulk and Thor.

“Glad you guys got here so fast.” Tony says. “Got any intel on what’s going on yet?”

“That machine sprayed gas out that brought the dead back to life.” Cap explains. “You know, standard stuff.”

“Yeah, I think we’ve all dealt with zombies by this point.” Iron Man says.

“Do we have a plan?” Thor asks. “What shall we do to defeat these cadavers and rescue the city?”

“Well, the machine is a good place to start.” Cap says.

“HULK SMASH ZOMBIE MACHINE!” Hulk roars.

“Calm down, we’re not there yet, pal.” Iron Man says.


PLATFORM LEVEL 2 – DOWNTOWN NEW YORK
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YR7PNOgEs

Another standard platformer level, with nothing remarkably interesting, and the same enemies from the first one. The big change here is, of course, that you can now pick between Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor. You can pick them in any order, but all four need to be used for the first run of the level. Like in Brawl, these act as your stocks.

Partway through the level, you’ll enter a building, heading for the rooftops. You need to get to the fourth floor of the building, but there are tons of zombies of all three varieties. There’s even a new enemy here, small spiders that crawl along the ground. They’re weak, only having 5% stamina, and can’t deal damage. Instead, they crawl onto you and slow you down a bit, slowing you down the more cling onto you. You can shake them off like Pikmin, however.


Once the fourth floor is reached, a cutscene will start. The four avengers will run through, but be stopped by the sudden appearance of Knight.

“Well, if it isn’t the heroes of this world.” He greets.

“Well, if it isn’t a broody teenager.” Iron Man jokes.

“Child, you must get to safety!” Thor warns.

“Nah, I have business to take care of.” Knight explains. “My boss saw you guys trying to stop all this, so he sent me along to give you a bit of a ‘parting gift’, as it were.”

“Wait, you know who caused this?” Captain America asks, surprised. “You know who that… Goldman guy is?”

“Not really, came off as a bit of a weirdo in meetings, even for my group.” Knight says. Spiders are beginning to converge around the floor, Hulk visibly getting annoyed and squishing a few. “My boss is far more powerful than that. Anyway, you four are going to LOVE this…”

Knight slashes his knife, causing a massive red hole to open up in the sky, right in front of the windows the Avengers were standing in front of. Knight vanishes as a roar is let out. A massive spider monster climbs out from the hole, and clings to the building, smashing its head through the wall and window.


BOSS BATTLE 2 – THE AVENGERS VS. THE LOVERS
Music: https://youtu.be/GgP-DP2yv8o

The Lovers are a massive spider boss from House of the Dead 4. Yes, there is a second one, a much tinier spider clinging to the top of the larger one’s head. The zombie spider is kind of a background boss, as you can run in front of its face no problem. However, the head is the weak spot, and unlike Petey in Brawl, you can’t hurt it from the foreground.

At the start, the only two solid objects are The Lovers’ front legs, which are jabbing into the floor. Not coincidentally, the first attack the spider has is lifting one of his legs up, and then attempting to slam it into you. This is fairly telegraphed, but deals 10% damage if it does manage to hit. These are also The Lovers’ weak point, or at least one of them. By dealing 50% damage to one of the legs, you’ll cause it to weaken, making the spider pull it back so it can recover. Do this to both, and the head will have no choice but to attack you itself.

The head has one attack, which is horribly gnashing at your character, attempting to bit them and deal 15% damage. Nearly the entirety of the boss’ head is a hitbox at this point, and one with much higher priority than most attacks, meaning you need to find a weakness. That weakness is the smaller spider on the top, a very small mark to hit, but once its hit, the spider will fall unconscious for a moment, letting you beat on it.

The Lovers have 160% HP, but you only have a few seconds before they recover. At around half health, the monster will gain two new attacks. The first is rapidly striking its claws into the ground, which behaves like the normal claw strike, but can deal a lot more damage. It will only rapidly strike one place, however. It can also perform this move in tandem with its other claw. The other attack is something it can use at any time after this period, which has the tiny spider shake around on the large one’s head, causing it to puke up an army of the spider enemies. They behave as normal, and ten of them can easily flood onto the screen. Their slowing properties can make it much harder for you to dodge the claw strikes.


When The Lovers are defeated, they’ll let out a screech, before sliding off the side of the building, to their death. A single tiny spider runs across the ground, Hulk squishing it.

“Hulk hate spider.”

“Come on,” Cap orders. “We need to head to the top of this building, it’ll give us a better vantage point.”

They continue to run up the building, unaware that Knight has reappeared behind them. “Hm, looks like I haven’t given them enough credit.”


Level 1-5: What I Do Best

PLATFORM LEVEL 3 – DOWNTOWN NEW YORK 2
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YR7PNOgEs

No cutscene, straight into the action. You play as Wolverine through another standard level, really, with most of the enemies from previous levels, including the spiders, showing up. Simply chop and light platform your way through the goal flag.


Wolverine enters the plaza that the Avengers met in, now abandoned. He glances around, seeing an army of zombies coming towards him from all angles. Wolverine unsheathes his claws, and readies for a brawl.


ENEMY BATTLE 2 – WOLVERINE VS. ZOMBIES
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shfGrxgvl1Q

Again, just cut through zombies until you win. This is more difficult than the first one, due to the additions of the Gargoyles, Grabbers, and Spiders, but they’re all still easy to take out. You need to finish off 50 of them, however, so it might still be a bit difficult. The stage is the same layout as the X Mansion, but with a different background, basically. No cutscene, it transitions directly into the next level.

Level 1-6: Eye for an Eye

As Wolverine looks over the zombies he’s slain, he hears fighting. Coming closer. All of the sudden, Storm and Beast come into view, Beast running across the ground and Storm swooshing through the air. They both stop as they see Wolverine.

“Logan, thank god we found you.” Beast says.

“I know, things are getting pretty crazy right now.” Wolverine says. “I was having a bit of trouble back there by my self.”

He glances around.

“I heard something about Scott earlier. Where is he?”

“Scott’s what we need your help with!” Beast yells.

A sudden laser beam sweeps across the plaza, cutting through a fountain placed in the middle. They crouch as it passes. Cyclops walks into view, looking like a zombie himself with several scars, and an eerie red glow.

“Hell’s gotten into him!?” Wolverine yells.

“A dark wind seems to have possessed him.” Storm claims. “He changed suddenly while we were fighting the zombies.”

“Well, if he wants to fight, I say we knock some sense into him!”


CPU BATTLE 2 – X-MEN VS. INFECTED CYCLOPS
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJKQhDYMgaY

Infected Cyclops is functionally how Cyclops would look while infected with Knight’s virus status effect, though he doesn’t suffer any of the negative side effects of it. He also has a red glow, but its entirely aesthetic. This stage takes place in the plaza area from earlier, the fountain in the background having been sliced in half. You can now choose between Wolverine, Storm, and Beast for this match, and have to KO Cyclops once.


Once the fight is finished, the three gather around Cyclops to check if he’s okay. Cyclops is fine, completely returned to normal. He sits up and shakes his head.

“Ugh, what happened?” He mumbles. “I remember this kid showing up, and…”

“We got bigger fish to fry, Scott.” Wolverine interrupts, helping Cyclops up. “Like this whole zombie pandemic.”

“Right.” Cyclops continues. “There was some machine in the middle of the city that started making these monsters. We should head for that first.”

“Hold it right there, freaks.”

The four turn around to see Knight, walking up to them. “Hey, you’re that kid from earlier.” Cyclops says.

“Hm, looks like the Versaxis Virus doesn’t work as well outside of my dimension.” He mutters to himself, before glancing back up at the X-Men. “You heroes need to quit getting in my way, or I’ll have to start getting serious. I’m only half serious when I do this.”

He slashes his knife again, causing another red portal to appear next to him. An armored creature with an axe shambles out. “Til’ I see you all again!” Knight mocks. “Which will hopefully be never.” He vanishes as the monster approaches.


BOSS BATTLE 3 – X-MEN VS. THE CHARIOT
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Nf8xysEWw

The Chariot is the first boss of the House of the Dead series, an armor wearing weirdo who swings an axe around. Here, he’s slightly taller than Ganondorf, with a slightly wider model thanks to his odd movements. The Chariot has a rather low 120% stamina, fairly low for the third boss, right? His weak point is his chest.

However, there’s a bit more to it than that. As The Chariot moves around the stage, he will constantly be swinging his axe around. This functions as a hitbox, which deals 5% damage to whoever gets in close. In order to actually hit his weak spot, you need to wait for an opening. Luckily, each of his attacks has an opening. The first attack has him spinning to axe above his head, to potentially ward off aerial attacks, dealing 10% damage with upwards knockback. He’ll do this when you’re above him, but it can be avoided, and the entire time the attack is performed, his weak spot is vulnerable. It is a very slow attack, so it’s easy to get in a hit. Once hit, The Chariot will be stunned for a moment, allowing you to hit him some more.

His second attack is to sweep the axe in front of him. Which has a large hitbox, and deals 15% damage. Its also very fast, but has lag at the start that makes him vulnerable. The final attack is a pretty standard heavy axe swing, which deals 20% damage, and can KO very early on, especially on higher difficulties. However, it has lag at both ends of the move that leave it vulnerable.

However, even once his HP is drained, it still won’t be the end of the fight. He’ll enter an invincible period, as he sheds his armor to reveal his true form: A massive, shambling, rotten zombie carcass. This is arguably easier than the first form, as the entirety of The Chariot is now its weakspot, with every hit removing some of its skin to reveal bones. It also only has 100% stamina, but its attack is considerably stronger. He’ll shamble towards you at decent speeds, and then slash at you with both his arms. This deals 20%, and can KO even earlier than the axe swing. However, its highly telegraphed, having a lot of start-up lag. Once the monster has been reduced to mostly a skeleton, the battle will end.


The Chariot lets out a roar of pain, before dropping to the ground, dead. The X-Men stare at him for a moment, before quickly setting off to the center of the city.