Pico's School

"Pico's School"
Author:	Tom Fulp
Audio used:	Godlike - KMFDM, Weapons of Mass Destruction - Hive, Ultrasonic Sound - Hive (original version) Pico's School - Step 1, Pico's School - It's Go Time, Pico's School - Talkin' Smack, Pico's School - Boss Fight (updated in 2016)
Origin:	July 25, 1999 (Original) April 30, 2006 (Portal Re-release)
Size:	487.4 KB
Score (As of August):	4.72/5.00
Awards:	Daily 2nd Place
Author's comments:
Goth kids have shot up your school, and it's up to Pico to save the day! Originally featured on Newgrounds in 1999, I finally refactored the .FLA to accommodate faster computers. The problem with this game was that it was meant to run at 24fps, but boss battles slowed down and made things easier. As computers got faster, so did the boss battles. Pico was made in Flash 3, before the availability of variables (or just about any code, for that matter). To simulate stored data, I weaved a complex web of movie clips that gave orders to the main game. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of frame labels, so all the commands referred to frame numbers. This meant making changes to the flow of a boss battle (ie inserting frames to slow down movement) caused MASSIVE problems to arise. I finally muscled through it, so now you can beat the bosses on a fast computer!
Note	This information only refers to the official release on the Flash Portal.

Pico's School is a point and click game created by Tom Fulp in 1999. Made in Flash, it was also the first game to feature Pico, who has since become one of Newgrounds' mascots. It was inspired by school shootings such as the Columbine High School massacre, as it was also made 3 months after Columbine as a direct response to the event.

Walkthrough

The game begins with Pico in the classroom learning about apples and bananas before Cassandra comes and shoots up the classroom, killing everyone except for Pico. Leave the classroom and go right. Grab the fire extinguisher off the wall, because you will need it later. Then, keep going right until you see the janitor's closet.

Go inside and grab the assault rifle off the table. Exit the closet and go right once more to meet Cyclops. Blast the gun out of his hands and then choose to spare his life or kill him. Either way, go back to the door you heard shooting coming from. Cassandra is inside, along with a psychic boy by the name of Alucard.

Alucard has a telekinetic shield that blocks Pico's bullets, so shooting him does nothing when it's up. His primary method of attack is to throw dead kids at you, which you will need to blast out of the air. His main pattern is to throw one kid high, one kid mid-height, and one low. Blast them out of the air in this order, and Alucard will become distracted and lower his shield. This is your cue to blast him. Once Alucard is down to half his energy, he will drop a chair down on you that you have to blast out of the air as well. Keep repeating the process until you get Alucard’s energy meter all the way down. When this happens, he will lose control of his powers and pull all the furniture in the room toward him like a human magnet. Once he is defeated, Alucard will give you his school key and tell you to leave him alone. You can either leave him behind after taking the key, or you can blast the furniture out of the way and finish him off.

Leave the room and go right until you reach a gate sitting in the middle of the hallway. Click on the key in your inventory to raise the gate. Then go into the girl's bathroom to start the next boss battle.

The lights go out and a kid with a very scary-looking sword and night vision goggles attacks you. This is Hanzou. Defeating them is relatively straightforward — their path is traced by the red glare of their goggles. Follow the glare and blast them as they move across the room. If you are fast on the trigger, you should be able to take them out before they can rob you of all your health. Once you kill Hanzou, they will leave you their goggles.

Keep going right to meet Nene. She begs you to mercifully end her life. Whether you choose to kill her or not, keep going right and head into the teacher's lounge. There is a huge fire blocking the doorway. Use the fire extinguisher that you picked up earlier to put out the blazes. But wait! The door's locked! Hmm... go back to the classroom you started out in, and put on the night-vision goggles. Grab the now-visible key and go back to the locked door. Use the key, go through the locked door, and get ready for the Final Boss!

After a little smack-talk between Pico and Cassandra, the latter will kill her goth-kid cronies and transform into a huge alien monster. Cassandra has three primary methods of attack. The first attack is to throw an explosive barrel your way, which she does whenever she moves all the way to the left, where the barrels are. Shoot it out of the air, but don't let it get too close before doing so. The second attack is to fire twin swastika blasts from her eyes, which cannot be shot out of the air, but which you can see coming by her eyes charging up. Shoot her in the eyes to nip this attack in the bud. Finally, when Cassandra gets down to certain points of her life bar, she'll stomp on the ground like a sumo wrestler and send a chunk of the ceiling crashing down, which you will need to shoot out of the air. To defeat her, concentrate your fire on the "purple thing" (if you know what I mean) between her legs after shooting her in the eyes, while keeping your eyes open for her other big attacks, repeating the process until you bring her down and save the day.

The ending takes place six months after Pico defeats Cassandra. Pico's dead teacher has been replaced by Mr. Flacit, who tells him that they found new students to replace the dead ones, and they're bussing them in from the ghetto. Shortly afterwards, the Ghettobots appear in the classroom and Pico takes out his assault rifle. The game then ends on a black screen with "THE END.".

Bonus

• Click on the red locker that has a little yellow on it. There will be a Medicinal Herb (a.k.a. a weed pack) inside. Use it when you have taken damage, as it completely restores your life.
• Go to the boy's bathroom. Click the bottom toilet stall, and someone inside will ask if you can close it. If you do not, they will throw a lot of shit at you, and you'll receive the Scat Man achievement, where the game remarks "You sure do like shit!". However, you are able to kill them.
• Click on the handle of a urinal to flush. Doing this repeatedly will get you the Marc Summers achievement.
• Click on the sink handle to overflow the sink, and you'll receive the Tap That achievement. The same thing can be done in the girl's bathroom, but not with flushing the urinals.
• After you kill Cyclops, you can continue to shoot his corpse. The text "BRUTAL!" will also appear over him, and you will get the Brutal achievement.
• When Alucard is defeated and pulls all the furniture in the room towards him, you can blast away the furniture and finish him off. This nets you the Overkill achievement.
• At the part where you see Nene praying to end her life, you're able to kill her. The first time you shoot at her, her face will be blown off, and she will bleed out heavily. The second time you shoot her, she will be reduced to a pile of blood and viscera.
• During the final battle, blast the tank to the upper right that says "Flammable" until it explodes. This will blow open the wall behind Cassandra to the outside, where the police have gathered in their squad cars and will join the fight. This gets you the Bruckheimer achievement. The cops outside will be able to make the final battle a bit easier, thanks to their gunfire whittling away at Cassandra's health along with your own efforts (though you can kill them and blow up their police cars if you wish).

Medals

• Save the Day: Beat the game.
• Brutal: Continue blasting Cyclops after you kill him.
• Marc Summers: Flush a urinal at least three times.
• Overkill: Kill Alucard after defeating him.
• Scat Man: Continue talking to the kid on the toilet until it says "YOU SURE LIKE SHIT!"
• Tap That: Turn on the sink in either bathroom and cause it to overflow.
• Bruckheimer: Blow up the tank behind Cassandra.

Reception

It is difficult to determine the popularity of the original Pico's School, due to the fact that it was released before the modern Flash Portal was created. The April 2006 re-release alone has over 6 million views as of December 2011, as well as an average review of 9.3/10. Although it only won the Daily Second Place award, it is important to note that it was submitted on the first Pico Day, and only lost to Luis' famous movie Pico vs. Convict. FGN called the game a "Flash classic," and gave the game an impressive score of 8.6/10. [1] Additionally, Pico's School is featured in the Pico and Adventure Games collections. In the rhythm game Friday Night Funkin', Pico appears as a semi-tribute to Newgrounds.

The game was updated on 2021, as part of the April Fools Celebration.

External Links

• Play Pico's School
• Play the original release of Pico's School (archived)