This Flash Game Is About a Red Knight on Shrooms
“Red Baron” is a straightforward beat ’em up that combines community-driven art with crude humor.
November 3, 2006. The front page of Newgrounds is fairly eventful today. A parody of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, Super Mario Hardcore, sits along original titles like the morbid adventure game Arrival In Hell and the aptly titled Save My Nuts, a game about defending the male genitalia from a ravenous dog. One title in particular, however, stands out not only for its incredible visual style, but for its unique incorporation of the wider Newgrounds community.
Red Baron, programmed by FrostedMuffins and primarily illustrated by prominent Newgrounds staffer MindChamber, tells a straightforward tale of violence punctuated by the prominence of pungent hallucinogens. An opening cutscene sets the stage. At Middle Aged Times, a lofty arena is hosting staged battles in front of an uproarious audience. The true action, however, takes place behind the scenes. In the employee lounge, a loose pizza intended for an anniversary party is accidentally laced with psilocybin mushrooms. The Red Baron, a hulking man who engulfs fistfuls of the Italian cuisine, slams slices down his gullet until the hallucinogenic effects hit him like a gunshot.
The world has turned. The cheering audience has turned to snarling monsters, and the Red Baron’s opponent in the arena has suffered a similar fate. Clutching his sword, he leaps into the banisters, forcing him to strike down anything and anyone that approaches him. One way or another, his bad trip will come to a violent conclusion.
It’s the kind of irreverent and lackadaisical framing device that was commonplace for the time. Not in a bad way, mind you. It was a reflection of a certain kind of culture that had made up a plethora of submissions to Newgrounds; a mutual understanding of why everyone is there. You don’t really care about the Red Baron, and if you do, you know better than to expect any dramatics. Instead, you’re here to swing your sword at things and have a laugh at his violent, drug-themed antics.
Swords, Monsters, Pizza, and More
Red Baron isn’t really the most technical of brawlers, though its execution is certainly more than acceptable. You’ll play as the Red Baron, running from left to right while beating down colorful creatures that get in your way. Enemies often come in a handful of varieties in each stage, with a total of four stages available to play. Each stage ends with a boss, with their respective weapon being added to your own arsenal after their eventual defeat.
Your controls are limited, but effective. You have a generic melee attack that contributes to a combo counter with every successive strike. Timing your attacks carefully will allow you to keep the combo going, eventually swapping out your sword for other boss weapons as well as raking in additional cash bonuses. You also have a shield, which can be used to block attacks. Overusing the shield will lead to it breaking outright, demanding that you use both it and careful positioning in tandem to avoid damage. After scoring enough successful strikes on a monstrous foe, you can unleash one of two special attacks: a shield bash, or a special series of attacks that deals a ludicrous amount of damage.
Cash, earned either by finding it in the world, scoring a high combo, or by defeating a boss, serves a number of purposes. For one thing, it acts as your “rank,” with your total cash being tallied up at the end of the game should you successfully complete it. You can purchase different variations of your sword from a dejected-looking shopkeeper at certain points as well, with each sword’s attack power sharing a direct relationship with their respective cost. But you’ll quickly realize that cash is most effective for a single purpose: continues.
Red Baron is a one-and-done kind of brawler: die once, and it’s all over. The earliest stages can be the most difficult to surpass because of this, as the cost to either start a stage over or jump right back to a challenging boss will often surpass what you’re able to accrue by a significant margin. It’s worth pushing through to the end, however.
Everything, By Everyone
The game’s colorful bestiary encourages you to press onward, as the collection of creatures you’ll face are almost-entirely generated by the Newgrounds community. Submitted as entries into Mindchamber’s “Animation Idol” contest, which has seemingly been lost to time, the 14 beasts you’ll beat down are all bursting with personality and unique attacks. Their clashing animation styles even fit the bizarre world the Red Baron lives in, emphasizing the complete detachment from reality he’s undergoing.
The bosses are also a visual powerhouse. While the Red Baron himself is beautifully animated with frame-by-frame detail, each of the bosses you’ll face share this distinction, making their weighty attacks and intimidating patterns feel all the more intense as a result. It’s almost as if it’s a signifier of their strength; the fun, community-driven stuff is over. It’s time to get real.
Looking at the Author Comments section on Newgrounds, you can find even more integrations of community-driven content. Mindchamber linked directly to a blog post by fellow Newgrounds user “jakbaronking,” who provided a detailed walkthrough of the game along with its additional game modes. He also linked to jakbaronking’s animated tribute to the game, a short cartoon with some spectacular frame-by-frame animation for the time.
What Have We Learned?
Red Baron is more than just a competent brawler. It may not be the most technical of projects, but what it lacks in diverse gameplay, it makes up for in its collaborative methodology and its focus on crude fun. It’s a showcase, really. The many different artists and legitimate talents that went into Red Baron allowed for the creation of a game that embraced Newgrounds’ relaxed and occasionally immature demeanor, the kind of game that embodied the site’s main appeal throughout the 2000s.
Is it unrefined? Yes. Is it silly enough for an afternoon’s worth of entertainment? Absolutely Is it worth playing nowadays? Sure, if you’re interested in one of the most enduring online communities to date.
Where Can You Play Red Baron?
Red Baron is currently available to play on Newgrounds.