Idea Info Name: The Pad Index: Secondary Category: Other Submitted: 10/7/2003 11:59:47 PM Written By: Gemini8970

So, you've seen Shadow the Hedgehog, right? And you've drooled at Cowboy Bebop's Faye, I'll assume? Well, what if I told you that there was a way to see them TOGETHER? No, not like some highly disturbing fan fic, ya PUNK! I mean this (hopefully) ground-breaking adventure!

Enter The Pad, the world where this tale begins. This world contains all existing cartoon and video-game characters, the widest known in our world belonging to an elite society. Naturally, their faces have digital mosaics. The story begins with the players taking control of a stereo -typical hero, fighting against this gargantuan boss. Regardless of whether you beat the boss or not, the player soon learns that the boss is a mechanical, yet organic beast, controlled by a smart-ass teen by the name of Sketch (BAD PUN ALERT!!). Sketch works in The Pad as a boss character, paid to beat the snot out of any player at his 'office' (read: game).

One night, he finds a lovely anime girl hiding at his house, bearing a giant paintbrush. On being discovered, she quickly dabs herself with a silver paint on the brush, causing her to disappear. The reason that I said 'anime girl' is because different villages have their 'style', as in the art style an animator used, and whenever a character transfers to another village, he/she/it must submit to a Style Warp, changing the character in style, working much like passports. As you can probably guess, the girl did not go through the warp, and is the equivalent of an illegal immigrant. Sketch thinks nothing of this. Then, a mysterious virus begins affecting the villagers, who are kind enough to let her stay. Of course, the villagers turn against her and blame Sketch for the mess.

The girl (who later reveals herself as Izumi), taking out her brush as if it were a samurai blade, paints a large hole in a wall, and jumps into a dark abyss. Sketch, confused and wanting answers, jumps in after her. The two land in front a Style Warp, which, before they can react, are transformed into 16-bit, 2D versions of themselves and are placed in Legend of Zelda II-like world (Classic Zelda outside, Side-scrolling indoors) with the styles backwards in appearance. The world they have been forced into is a 16-bit 1970s LA-NY crossbreed, complete with disco dancers and the Golden Gate Bridge.

They run into the undeniably smooth Ace Hotfoot (All names are temporary until I think of something better) and Izumi explains herself. She belongs to a peaceful village of artisans- or at least, she did. The village was soon destroyed by an odd cartoon that (as she describes it) resembles the (thought-to-be) long defeated Mister Dark, of Rayman fame! Why, of all villains, does this one want revenge? And what connection does he have with Izumi’s fear of the Style Warps? Thus begins the rule-bending adventures in The Pad!

The worlds ( of which they will exist several, HUGE quantities) are called Easels (Get it?). Inside the levels, what character you pick not only determines the attacks and whatnots, it also determines how the game plays. Example: If you pick Izumi, the game becomes Action/Puzzler, with puzzles resembling those of Ratchet & Clank's. Switch to Sketch, and the game becomes pure brawler, with Sketch getting the chance to fight in his BOMB- BioOrganic Mechanical Beast- to fight the BIG baddies. The BOMB (Depending on which one you're using) can use a gargantuan club, smashing the fully destructible enviroments and squashing the wee baddies with full bad-assery. You may now commence drooling. Finally, switch to Ace and you get down with a system based on Space Channel 5's, dishing out bad guys with disco. If it sounds wierd, so did SC5 when it was first announced.

The reason this is divided up this way is because for those who don't like certain types of games can pick the one of the heroic trio that suits him or her best. Finally, certain bonuses, like little videos of chats between the Elite Board mentioned earlier, and minigames of course, along with trailers. The videos will be the Fanboy's Heaven, as there shall be enough vids that there gonna have a few favorites, like political campaigns for Link, Mario, and DK, or a discussion with "Mr.Dot", ending with the nervous Pacman gobbling him up in realization- It's a Pacdot in disguise, given away by complaining that he was 'trampled by ghosts and eaten day after day by [points at Pacman], by that, that thing!", or maybe a documentary about NiGHTS- The Retiree! *Sure to be a hoot!*