the cutting room mirror

Pico's School

An infamous game in the world of Flash. Made just days after the Columbine shootings, Pico's School sees the titular Pico stop goth kids from shooting up his school. The end result is a game with lots of blood, gore, swearing, and any other offensive thing under the sun.

Regardless of the game's nature, Pico was propelled into stardom, turning him into (one of) the mascots of Newgrounds as he is today.

Only in 1999...

Off-Screen Graphics#

Lockers#

In most of the map graphics for the hallways, more lockers can be seen off-screen.

Blood#

In the sprite for the area in which Pico meets Nene, the blood on the walls and floor has a bit more of it off-screen.

Dead Kids#

In the area right before reaching the teacher's longue, not only can more blood be seen off-screen, but the pile of dead kids also continues off-screen.

Revisional Differences#

An updated version was uploaded to Newgrounds' Flash Portal on April 30, 2006. The game would later be updated again in late 2016.

Audio#

The biggest change between the two versions was the replacement of the original breakbeat samples with new, longer ones by ThatJohnnyGuy (aka RealFaction). This was done to make sure the game complied with the revamped rules regarding movies and games with unlicensed music.

School Halls (unarmed)

1999
Hive - Weapons of Mass Destruction

2016
ThatJohnnyGuy - Step 1


{|class=wikitable style="margin: auto;" |+ School Halls (armed) !1999
Hive - Weapons of Mass Destruction !2016
ThatJohnnyGuy - It's Go Time |- | | |}
{|class=wikitable style="margin: auto;" |+ Goth Punk Talks !1999
Hive - Ultrasonic Sound !2016
ThatJohnnyGuy - Talkin' Smack |- | | |}
{|class=wikitable style="margin: auto;" |+ Goth Punk Fight !1999
Hive - Ultrasonic Sound !2016
ThatJohnnyGuy - Boss Fight |- | | |}
{|class=wikitable style="margin: auto;" |+ Goth Punk Talks !1999
Godlike - KMFDM !2016
ThatJohnnyGuy - Talkin' Smack |- | | |}

The original version of Pico's School plays a snippet of "Godlike" by KMFDM when Cassandra talks during the opening cutscene. The 2016 update plays "Talkin' Smack" in its place.

1999

2016

The sound effects (and remaining music track) were replaced with higher-quality versions, with the exception of the gunfire.

Graphics#

1999

2000

2006

The "Newgrounds.com Presents" screen was replaced with the site's standard Flash loader. This resulted in the top-left URL being invisible while the intro cutscene plays.

In addition, the game window's height was increased from 350 pixels to 370, giving it a small letterbox effect.

1999

2006

Pico's_School-title.png

The 2006 version removes the Hive music credit and plea on the title screen, and also centers the "PICO'S SCHOOL" text.

1999/2006

2016

A similar change happened in the credits; the music credit was changed from Hive to ThatJohnnyGuy, and another plea was removed.

Gameplay#

  • Seven medals (and the API needed for them) were added in the revised version.
  • In the original version, the speed of Alucard and Cassandra's boss fights was based on the computer's hardware, a then-common practice in PC games. While this wasn't an issue on computers in 1999, the lack of an upper speed limit makes the battles nearly impossible on more modern and more powerful machines without the aid of an external throttler. The 2006 and 2016 versions replace this with a set speed for the fights.