Upgrade Complete

Upgrade Complete is a parody shooter that pokes fun at itself and the entire genre - the player doesn't just upgrade the ship, weapons and shields, but gradually also the user interface, the music, the credits, or even the game's own menu. This joke serves as the main driving force of the whole game: with every credit earned, something unlocks that would normally stay fixed in an ordinary game, and the player watches the game literally improve before their eyes. The joke also works because the player initially has no idea how many similar non-gameplay elements can still be upgraded, so unlocking each new one comes as a surprise.

The core gameplay is a classic vertical shoot 'em up - firing on waves of enemies and collecting money for further purchases - but the humor and self-irony are what make Upgrade Complete something more than just another clone of similar titles. The graphics deliberately look cheap at the start and gradually improve visually and audibly along with the player's progress, a joke that only works thanks to the format of a web game downloaded in real time. There's no shortage of self-mocking lines and item descriptions poking fun at the clichés of the entire space-shooter genre.

The title was released by studio Armor Games in 2009 and among Flash games it went down as one of the funniest self-reflexive parodies of the genre, rather than as a technically outstanding shooter. It's still remembered today as proof that even a simple concept can make an entire generation of portal-game players laugh.

Why play it: Anyone who enjoys dry gaming humor and genre self-parody will appreciate how wittily Upgrade Complete takes aim at itself and at the whole shooter tradition.