Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm (video game)

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm is a video game based on the Adobe Flash cartoon series Happy Tree Friends developed by independent software developers Stainless Games and published by Sega. The game is rated M for Mature by the ESRB, T by the OFLC, and 12+ by the PEGI for blood, gore, and violence. It was scheduled to be released in autumn 2007 and then April 2008, but was delayed and released on June 25, 2008 on Xbox Live Arcade and on PC through Steam.

Xbox 360
Steps to obtaining Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm:
 * 1) Turn on the Xbox 360 Console and navigate to the game marketplace (you must have at least a silver Xbox Live Membership).
 * 2) Go into the Game marketplace and select "Browse" on "All Games".
 * 3) Scroll down to "H".
 * 4) Select "Happy Tree Friends".
 * 5) From here you can download it for 400 Microsoft Points, you will need at least 150MB free space on a storage unit to download the game.

PC
Steam: False Alarm is no longer available for purchase off Steam.

General Information
"Single Player, HD (High Definition). Based on the popular and twisted Web series, Lumpy and his accident-prone friends are faced with one gory, horrible disaster after another!"

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm is an action-adventure game utilizing a "physics-based reactive environment". It is similar in some regards to the game Lemmings. In the game, players control almost everybody. Stages include a mine shaft, candy factory, hospital, and a museum. Also, there is an exclusive episode in the game, however it was eventually aired on the HTF official website and is displayed on YouTube.

The game itself features a HUD with Lumpy in it, four ability icons (Fire: burning objects, scaring the Happy Tree Friends along; Nitro: destroying obstacles; Water: Freezing objects and Happy Tree Friends; and Action: allows interactivity with the environment), and an ability meter, which prevents over-use of any ability (on the top-left), there is also, on the top-right a fire alarm with a meter around it, which has a gold, silver, bronze, and 'fail' zone, which relates to the end reward upon completion (or, if appropriate, lack of completion) of a level. The Lemming-like Happy Tree Friends who are being rescued, have their own icons (up to five) at the top of the screen in the HUD, with a health bar to indicate their condition. If the icon is frozen, it means the character is currently frozen. If the character's portrait is black and has flames coming from it, that means that the character is currently on fire. If there is a large red X through the portrait, it means they are dead.

On the Xbox 360 there are 12 achievements and 200 Gamerscore available (see below) The game also sports a Leaderboard system for Xbox Live and the PC, the leaderboard is the records that have been achieved around the world, the filters for the leaderboards are: "Level", which will consist of all levels, and every individual level; "Period", which is either "All Time", "Monthly", or "Weekly"; and "Filter", which filters between everyone on the leaderboards (starting at # 1), friends only, showing only you and your friends, and My Score, which shows your score in relation to other players. The Leaderboards allows scroll up and down commands, and a refresh command.

The scoring for the game is based on multiple factors (there may also be others):
 * 1) The speed at which you complete the level (as the bar slowly drains from gold to silver to bronze to fail)
 * 2) How many Happy Tree Friends get out alive (multiplying your score by the amount alive at the end)
 * 3) Happy Tree Friends reaching the end of the level fills up the bar slightly, to help reach the gold award, Happy Tree Friends dying drains the bar and lowers your reward, and can cause a fail the level.
 * 4) An award multiplier which multiplies your score dependant on how full the bar was at the end of the level (1X for Bronze, 2X for Silver, and 3X for Gold)
 * 5) Which maximizes the multiplier up to 15X

Playable Characters

 * Lumpy (HUD)
 * Giggles
 * Nutty
 * Toothy
 * Flippy
 * Flaky
 * The Mole
 * Russell

Levels
A list of all of the levels in the game, there are 10 zones, and 3 stages in each zones, so there are 30 stages, and there are always five Happy Tree Friends in each stage. There is also a tutorial level, this level has only one character: Flippy.

Note: Lumpy is not counted, seeing as he is controlled in every level, and due to him not being in the way of the hazards.

Tutorial Level
Note: The controls written in the tutorial boxes are in the XBOX 360 format.

The Tutorial level is in the theme of a warehouse, and you have only one character to direct, which is Flippy. This being a tutorial level, it is overwhelmingly easy to complete, and upon completion, you will unlock the Beginner's Luck achievement.

Onto the level: Flippy will move towards a large door that opens by switch, keep pressing the switch to open it, and let Flippy move through, next, detonate the rock in the way with the Nitro ability on a stick of dynamite, then get Flippy onto the platform and freeze him, when he gets on, the platform will move right, unfreeze him when it gets to the end, and move him off. Next is a pipe, first use the nitro ability on the iced part of the pipe, then use the action ability on the valve to fill the pool with water, so Flippy can swim through, and it doesn't have to be full when he gets in. Freeze the vent so flippy can get past it unharmed, then you will see two buttons to the left of another door, click the top one with the action button, then the one below to open it. After the door, there is a sludge on the floor, use nitro to destroy it to speed Flippy up, then pull the level above a platform to the right of the sludge, now the platform can be crossed, Flippy will now get onto a ramp, press the button nearby to flip him over the wall when he is near the end of it. Lastly, destroy the two wood barriers with nitro and let Flippy walk through, he will then stand on a platform activates a heavy-duty roller, so put fire behind Flippy to get him away from it and to the finishing zone.

Candy Factory
The Candy Factory is the first zone in Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm. This zone being in a candy factory naturally involves candy-moulding machinery, such as presses and grinders, to cause potential harm to the Happy Tree Friends.

Better Choco-late Than Never
Completing this level at all will guarantee one achievement to unlock if you're playing on the Xbox 360, which could be either "Sweet Smell of Copper", "Hi Ho Silver", or "You're Golden", depending on how well you complete the level.

As you start, right at the beginning are two hydraulic presses, wait for them to start going up, and when the Happy Tree Friends can fit through the gap, force them to run through (you may have to do each press individually), next is a pair of faulty vents that need to be blocked with the water action, however, they only stay blocked for a limited period of time, so keep freezing them. Then get the Happy Tree Friends on the lift and freeze them, activate the switch just above, and the lift will rise, up top is a triplet of flipping platforms, when you see the platforms flip, get the Happy Tree Friends across quickly before they flip again.

Now let the Happy Tree Friends slide down a collapsed floor and activate the switch at the bottom to lower a ramp, after they have made it up the ramp, turn a valve above a group of grinders to fill it with liquid candy, so they can swim through safely and rush them to the exit.

Hospital
The hospital is the second zone of Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm. Normally hospitals are buildings where people go to heal and prevent wounds. However, this being Happy Tree Friends most of the machinery have broken down and become death-traps.

The Mine
The Mine is the 3rd level in Happy Tree Friends False Alarm. Mines are used to escavate certain materials from the ground. Naturally it requires heavy equipment that are dangerous if not handled correctly, that is where the Tree Friends come into play.

Saw Mill
The Saw Mill is the fourth zone in Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm. Saw mills are used to cut and transport lumber for various reasons and, much like the mine, the equipment required to do so is dangerous. Most of the machines from this zone on are hand operated so be careful.

Achievements
There are 12 Achievements for Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm on the Xbox 360, and this adds up to 200G (Gamerscore).

Hazards

 * Moving Platform: It is possible for the Happy Tree Friends to fall off of it to their deaths.
 * Faulty Vent: The steam that comes through the vent melts the skin off the Happy Tree Friends faces.
 * Revolving Platform: If the platform is not spun round correctly by a switch, the Happy Tree Friends will fall to their deaths.
 * Industrial Roller: The roller follow a predetermined path when a switch is stepped on, and it will roll over a Happy Tree Friend, flattening them.
 * Hydraulic Press:
 * Revolving Platform Triplet:
 * Candy Grinders:

Deaths and Injuries
Death and injuries in Happy tree Friends: False Alarm are not mandatory, it is possible for the Happy Tree Friends to be harmed and killed, but it is possibly for them to get through a level untouched.

Deaths

 * 1) Falling to their deaths from the many possible drops.
 * 2) Being burnt to death from the Fire Tool or from certain environmental objects.
 * 3) Being crushed by objects such as industrial rollers and presses.
 * 4) Sliced apart by various machines

Injuries

 * 1) Face melting off from steam in a faulty vent.
 * 2) Being flattened Looney Tunes-style.
 * 3) Being burnt from the Fire Tool or from certain environmental objects.
 * 4) Cut by various machines
 * 5) Falling from certain drops

Reception
The game received generally average to low reviews, getting a 6.2 on IGN, as well as a 4.5 on Gamespot. Both websites took particular offense at the game's Artificial intelligence. The game was also criticized for being short, only taking about 2 hours to complete. Despite this, the Happy Tree Friends episode available upon completion of the game was highly praised.

Trivia

 * The game itself only consists of a cfg (configuration), 2 exe, and a Half-Life Texture Package files. This suggests that the game uses Half-Life's GoldSrc engine.
 * The character animation file reveals unused animations, such as the character being killed by being impaled with a spike, and by being inflated until popped.
 * The objects used in-game are mdl files, which are commonly used in games running with the Goldsource engine and Source Physics Engine. The files can be extracted, but can only be opened with the Jet's Half-Life Model Viewer (GoldSrc engine models) or Source SDK (Source engine models).
 * Handy, Cuddles, and Disco Bear appear on the cover of the game, yet none of them are playable.
 * Flippy is featured in the game but yet he doesn't flip out.
 * On a screenshot of the game's beta version, the game was supposed to have 3 characters (Lumpy, Handy, Flippy) in HUD (possibly rotating between turns) instead of only Lumpy. In the real game, Flippy is one of the tree friends to be rescued, while the character Handy seems to be removed. Also, the abilities set were different from the real game.
 * False Alarm was originally another Flash game about rescuing the tree friends from fire using the help of Lumpy's match and The Mole's extinguisher.
 * The game was supposed to come out for Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, but was cancelled for both systems.