A form ofDeconstruction, which has apparently become a rising fad inflash games.

A deconstruction game is a game that deconstructs aspects ofVideo Games in general. At the minimum, it takes one aspect, and blows it up to suchridiculously exaggerated proportions that it simply becomes laughable, as if to make a point that "You can't make a game based just on this!" or with some,"If you enjoy games because of this one reason then you are an idiot!"

In order to qualify, a single part of the game at the minimum must take at least one single trope, mechanic, or gimmick, and either explore it exhaustively to the possible point ofMind Screw, or play it far too simple and flat to be taken seriously. Typically they rely heavily on their nature as a parody to be entertaining, but on rare occasions they're fun to play as well. They often make use ofPlaying the Player.

Action Adventure

• Shadow of the Colossus:Boss Battles. The game is almost nothing but boss fights, and what little bit of plot the game has makes most players question whether they're really doing the right thing by killing them.

Adventure Game

• Harvester: A deconstruction ofEvil Is Cool andVideo Game Cruelty Potential, not through heavy-handedVideo Game Cruelty Punishment, but through a heavy-handed ending that asks,What the Hell, Player?
• META: Amateur adventure game design.
• Flower, Sun, and Rain: Sidequests, convenient puzzles, event flags and adventure game mechanics in general. The game,and often even the characters, will deliberately waste your time while your actual mission is to stop a terrorist from blowing up a plane. No one's really clear on why you need to solve math puzzles at every turn, either, but they seem to accept it as normal. In the end, your reward is mostlymockery.

First-Person Shooter

• Haze is a Deconstruction of First Person Shooters. It was a failure however, due toExecutive Meddling forcing them to rewrite the plot several times until the message was completely gone.
• Duty Calls:First Person Shooters in the vein ofCall of Duty...that is when it is not outright parodying thetrends and tropes.

Interactive Fiction

• +=3: Standard intfic assumptions
• In the End:Unwinnable by Design
• Ramses:But Thou Must!
• Rematch:Trial and Error Gameplay
• Spider and Web:Second Person Narration

Platform Game

• I Wanna Be the Guy: Difficulty / Unfair deaths
• You Have to Burn The Rope:Portal. The game consists of a short hallway which serves as a tutorial, a boss fight, and a catchy theme song that plays over the credits. The song mocks the short length of the game, including suggesting that you just try playing it over again. There is no story given outside this, and there are only two characters (the player character and boss). And the theme song is longer than the game itself.
  • Arguably a failure, as it misses one important part ofPortal --the part after the furnace where the game stops telling you what to do.
• You Only Live Once: Platformers in the vein of Mario.
• Level Up: Leveling up in games.
• Sonic the HedgehogOmoChao Edition:Stop Helping Me! (This game actually has added challenge—you have to avoid everything that triggers Omochao's comments as much as possible forRank Inflation, and forSpeed Run enthusiasts, there's the fact that the timer won't freeze whenever Omochao speaks.)

Role-Playing Game

• The Modron dungeon inPlanescape: Torment: Dungeon crawlers in general. Complete with enemies who don't know their motivation and leave items like, "A goody!"
• BioShock deconstructs several gameplay mechanics as part of aGenre Deconstruction of Shooter-RPG hybrids (such asSystem Shock andDeus Ex).Mission Control,Notice This andBut Thou Must! are a product ofbeing underTrigger Phrase-induced mind control, andDeath Is a Slap on The Wrist becauseyou're the son of Andrew Ryan and the game's resurrection devices are keyed to your genetic code as a result (thus making you the perfect puppet to carry out the whims of theBig Bad).
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. Item shops and.
• Progress Quest:RPGs that assign players randomly generated quests. The game automates grinding and fetch quests -- which are all the game 'is.
• Ginormo Sword: Arguably, grinding and the emphasis on weapon upgrades.
• Yume Nikki: Exploration and sandbox gameplay. The entire game is aBeautiful Void and there is no plot to speak of, which has prompted elaborateFanon andWild Mass Guessing on behalf of the players, in an attempt to invest the game with externalised meaning.
• Super Press Space to Win Action RPG 2009: RPGs in general, and overly-linearQuick Time Event-heavy action RPGs in particular. The credits specify that the game was "inspired byGod of War".
  • "THIS GAMEIS SO ESSY!"
• Devil Survivor:Mons games. As in, how would something likePokémon play out in a more realistic setting? Answer: Poorly.
• Parameters is all about distilling an RPG to its purest bare-bones form: all the enemies and quests are represented by simple boxes and numbers and all you need to do is to click repeatedly on them.It manages to be pretty enjoyable nonetheless.
• NieR:Protagonist-Centered Morality andDark Is Evil. Especially given how there are no real enemies in the game, with the "Shades" being the actual humans and the supposed "humans" being their intended vessels. Not to mention that the supposedBig Bad isNot So Different to the protagonist but with conflicting goals and the closest thing the game has to an actual villain has been dead forcenturies. It also deconstruct the concept of dungeons and the absurdity of the rules most RPG have.
• Undertale: EXP, LV, saving and reloading are actual, relevant plot points. Also, it brutally deconstructs100% Completion on its Genocide route, where not only the game kepps giving you theYou Bastard treatment with every step you takes on the extermination of friendly and quirky game characters,actually murdering every killable character irrevocably ruins your next playthroughs.

Shoot'Em Up

• Don Pachi series:One-Man Army. Which is made possibly only bykilling wave after wave of your own comrades, resulting in the ultimate soldier. And if you refuse to carry out your orders?Prepare to Die.
• Thunder Force V: The premise of aOne-Man Army going up againsta rogue AI menace.Except that the AI in question's still loyal to humanity despite its compromised programming and deliberately left gaping holes for the protagonist to exploit, making it possible to go after said AIat all and deliver aSuicide by Cop.

Simulation Game

• Desert Bus, fromPenn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors:Simulation Games. The simulation aspect is carried so far that the game is somehowless fun than it would be to actually drive a bus through a desert.

Stealth Based Game

• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Sequels withsuspiciously similar premises to the original, linearity and the illusion of choice in video games, and the concept of video gamesas a power fantasy.

Survival Horror

• Nanashi no Game uses the cursed, nameless game to deconstruct RPGs. There's no battles to win, levels to grind or heroics to engage in—you just walk around, talk to people andcollect hidden items that must be found to reach the good ending.

Web Games

• Achievement Unlocked: Achievements.
• Frog Fractions starts as anIn Name OnlyEdutainment Game, but quickly goes hilariouslyOff the Rails.
  • From the same author:Futilitris.
• Upgrade Complete: Upgrades.
  • The sequel addresses some things they forgot the first time around. You can now upgrade the part limit on your ship, among other things (includingyour heart rate).
• :the game: andREPLAYING :the game::Cut and Paste Environments.
  • Also,This Is the Only Level.
  • Averted inthe threequel.
• Help the Hero:Grid Inventory
• 50k Racewalker: The same.
• Steamshovel Harry:Forced Tutorials.There is no game. The earth will be destroyed in fifteen minutes-- and that's how long the tutorials take!
• Execution by Jesse Venbrux can be seen as a deconstruction of Flash "assassin" games. The only way to "win" is to quit.Restarting after you've killed your target results in an "it's already too late" message and shows you the failure screen,even if you delete and reinstall the game. This is becausethe game records your loss in your computer's registry.
• Don't Shoot the Puppy:Press X to Die.
• The Stanley Parable: Narrative and choice, along with several smaller aspects of games that promise an open world but confine you to a linear story progression.
• QWOP:Some Dexterity Required.
• Cow Clicker deconstructs the idea of social games likeFarmville, by distilling it to just the simple mechanics. You have a cow, and you can click on it after set intervals. You can click on it more often by paying real world money. And you can post it on your Facebook feed and invite friends.

• Trope
• Meta Concepts
• Deconstruction Game
• Deconstruction Tropes