Animation Throwdown: the Quest for Cards - TV Tropes (2024)

Animation Throwdown: the Quest for Cards is a Free-to-Play card game released in 2016. It is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover featuring characters, locations and cards based off some of Fox's most iconic animated series.

Series Represented

Tropes that apply to Animation Throwdown: the Quest for Cards:

• Action Bomb: Certain cards have the Bomb ability, which causes them to explode upon attacking an enemy card. This doesn't harm the user, but the explosion will also damage cards right next to the targeted card.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • You have the option to surrender at any point during a match. If you do so, you'll lose less trophy/arena points than if you lost all your health, making it a good option if you're stuck in an unwinnable situation.
  • If you repeatedly lose on a single level in Swole Club, the CPU will start using weaker decks to give you a better chance against them.
• Anti-Wastage Features: The Mythic cards, the rarest and most powerful cards in the game, cannot be recycled, and the game actively admonishes you for even trying to recycle them.
• Armour Piercing Attack: Cards with the Jab ability can bypass the Bunker, Shield and Sturdy abilities by dealing separate damage to both the shield and the card itself.
• Art Attacker: The Artistic attribute has each character using items such as paintings, paintbrushes and sculptures to attack with.
• Ascended Extra: Some secondary characters like Jimmy Jr. and Snot initially appeared on item cards before being given their own character cards.
• Ascended Meme: The description for the "Shut up and take my money!" card references its memetic status in the Futurama fandom.

  Do what the meme says!

• Baseball Episode: Many characters like Hank, Bobby and Leela have baseball-themed cards referencing specific episodes from their shows. These cards usually come with the Athletic attribute.
• The Beastmaster: Cards with the Animal attribute usually involve the character in question working with an animal to fight. Some characters like Brian and Klaus are the animal and so get the attribute by default.
• Boring, but Practical: Some of the best card combos only have one or two abilities and are produced from a wide variety of item cards, such as Street Fighter Peter (Punch/Shield) or Swat Bob (Sturdy/Heal). While not as flashy as cards with three abilities or characters who have multiple combos, these combos are extremely consistent in the meta because of how useful their abilities are.
• Cap:
  • Heroes cap at Level 15, after which no more chips for the character will spawn.
  • Cards cap at Level 6** and cannot be upgraded any further afterwards.
  • The Arena mode caps at Rank 16, at which point it becomes the Secret Fight Club.
• Counter-Attack: The Payback ability causes the user to unleash a powerful counter attack if attacked but not knocked out.
• Decomposite Character: Roger and his alter-ego Ricky Spanish are separate playable characters and can even fight each other in the Arena mode.
• Developer's Foresight: Trying to recycle a Mythic card results in the game chiding you and refusing to let it go through.

  You can't recycle Mythic cards. Are you insane?

• Dual Wielding: In the Arena mode, Bob wields a knife in one hand and a spatula in the other.
• Drunken Master: Character cards with the Drunk attribute like Drunk Amy, Moonshine Roger and Drunk Peter, achieved by combining a character card with a Drunk attribute card, are just as capable of fighting as anyone else. Peter and Bill are unique in that they start out with the Drunk attribute by default.
• Even Nerds Have Standards: Even Steve, who's gone out with countless women in the hopes of getting laid, is disgusted by Tina's advances.

  Steve: I think I'm out of your league. Believe it or not.

• Excuse Plot: One of Professor Farnsworth's inventions has malfunctioned and brought together several different worlds, and now they're all fighting to determine who's the best through cards! Nothing more is made of this plot, as it's just an excuse to have them all interacting.
• Fartillery: Some cards have the Gas status effect, which causes any card it attacks to take additional damage after each turn.
• Glass Cannon:
  • Certain character cards (such as Professor Farnsworth and Leela) have pathetically low health, but high attack power.
  • As a playable hero, Dale has the hard-hitting Punch and Payback abilities, but the lowest health in the game.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: It's possible for characters like Stan, Peter and Leela to go toe-to-toe in cards with their enemies Ricky Spanish, the Giant Chicken and Zapp Brannigan.
• Hated by All: True to form, everybody hates Ricky Spanish. Even Nice Guys like Bobby, Tina and Fry won't treat him with anything less than pure contempt in their arena dialogue.
• Home Stage: Each series has a location that's seen in the background when you fight a character from said series:
  • American Dad!: The Smith residence.
  • Bob's Burgers: Mort's funeral home, Bob's Burgers and the store next door.
  • Family Guy: The Griffin residence.
  • Futurama: The Planet Express building.
  • King of the Hill: The Hill residence.
• Joke Character: Fitting how useless the scooter was in the show, Scooty-Puff Jr. Fry - created by fusing Fry with certain Toy cards - is hilariously awful in-game, possessing no abilities and mediocre stats.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Between several of Fox's most well-known animated series: Family Guy, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, Futurama and King of the Hill.
• Mirror Match: Once you are on a large enough streak in Arena, you will end up fighting your own deck over and over again until the streak is broken.
• Musical Assassin: Musical cards usually involve the character either playing an instrument of some kind or singing. Fitting his love for the keyboard in the show, Gene's Legendary and Mythic cards start with the Musical attribute by default.
• Mythology Gag: All over the place:
  • American Dad!:
    • One of Ricky Spanish's interactions with Tina references "Ricky Spanish" by implying that she was the Tina mentioned in his apology letter that he taught how to kiss.

      Ricky Spanish: Sorry I gave you some bad advice on kissing, and never corrected it.

    • One of Steve's interactions with Tina mentions his ex-girlfriend Debbie.
    • The generic Toy card features Mary's doll from "Surro-Gate".
  • Bob's Burgers:
    • Bob's combat stance in the Arena mode has him dual-wielding a knife and spatula, just as he did when Gene glued his hands to them in "Beefsquatch".
    • The win screen for Bob's Burgers characters has Tina's Chariot pony doll from "The Equestranauts".
    • The Join the Siege! screen has Mr. Fischoeder surrounded by water balloons, referencing "The Oeder Games" where he forced the entire town to compete in a water balloon fight.
    • The store screen features the Belchers' food truck from "Food Truckin".
  • Family Guy:
    • The win screen for Family Guy characters features the elephenguin from "You May Now Kiss the... Uh... Guy Who Receives", 'Til Death the horse from "Family Gay", Allison Janney the giraffe from "Barely Legal", the merman from "Lois Kills Stewie", the Iraq lobster from "Screams of Silence: the Story of Brenda Q.", Eddie the ostrich from "Ocean's Three and a Half", Billy Finn the dolphin from "Be Careful What You Fish For" and the seagulls from "Friends of Peter G.".
  • Futurama:
    • The research menu has Fry sharing a pizza with his dog Seymour from "Jurassic Bark", surrounded by the cryo-chambers that transported Fry to the future from "Space Pilot 3000".
    • The win screen for Futurama characters features the Planet Express ship and Zapp Brannigan's Nimbus.
    • Marianne, Zoidberg's girlfriend from "Stench and Stenchability" appears in the Valentine's Day loading screen.
    • One Animal card event was called Get A Loada Dese Animals Ova Here, which was the tagline for the Bronx Zoo seen in "Meanwhile".
• Naked People Are Funny: Chapter 26 of Adventure (based off the Family Guy episode "Yug Ylimaf") features a fight against a naked Stewie Griffin.

  Description: Got a sweet man-cave in Lois's uterus.

• Out-of-Character Moment: The displayed image for the Grill Battle Challenge has Hank Hill - who loves propane to the point of demonizing any and all other cooking methods without exception - cooking a burger on a coal-based grill.
• Power Equals Rarity: There are five different tiers for cards: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary and Mythic, with each being more powerful than the last but also harder to obtain. Mythic cards in particular are stronger at level 1 than their Legendary equivalents are at level 7**, but can only be obtained once while Legendary cards can have duplicates.
• Product Placement: July-June 2022 featured a Swole Club event to celebrate the release of The Bob's Burgers Movie, with a new combo for Linda (Burger Suit Linda) directly taken from the movie.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: The Secret Fight Club has a blood-red sky to represent its higher difficulty compared to the Arena. Notable in that it's the only mode with this background; every other mode uses a standard blue sky.
• Rule of Three: At launch, each series had three playable heroes. Family Guy has Peter, Stewie and Brian, American Dad! has Stan, Steve and Roger, Bob's Burgers has Bob, Tina and Louise, Futurama has Fry, Bender and Leela and King of the Hill has Hank, Bobby and Dale.
• Secret A.I. Moves: In the Arena mode, the player's opponent will start off with a special defense card. These cards amplify the character's main abilities, will automatically be placed on the field before the player's turn starts, and cannot be obtained or used by the player in any way. The developers have gone on record as confirming this was done to counter how the player always starts with the first move.
• Ship Tease:
  • The "Brian's Crush" challenge teases Brian/Hayley: the challenge image shows Hayley pouring a drink for a noticeably drunk Brian, and the backstory for the challenge involves Brian trying to take down as many opponents as possible to impress her.
  • One of Tina's Arena interactions with Steve implies she has a crush on him, with her complimenting his face and butt. Steve, on the other hand, finds her repulsive.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Drunken Clam card's description references several events from The Simpsons:

    The best moments happened here. Bart jumping the canyon, Mr. Plow...

  • Several characters' stances in the Arena mode are based on characters from Street Fighter II:
    • Brian - Ryu
    • Leela - Chun-Li
    • Bobby - E. Honda
    • Hank - Balrog
    • Zapp Brannigan - M. Bison
    • John Redcorn - T. Hawk
  • Sniper Zoidberg's card directly mentions The Professional:

    Like that movie The Professional, only no one likes me.

  • Water Polo Steve's card description references Ratatouille:

    It's like Ratatouille, but with a lot more pube-tugging.

• Shown Their Work: A lot of cards reference extremely minor events from each show, such as outfits or objects that only appeared for a few seconds in one episode.
• Situational Sword: Some card effects only activate on friendly cards with certain conditions. Effects denoted with a blue, three-point star only activate on cards from the same show, while effects denoted with a yellow, four-point star only activate on cards with the same attribute.
• Starter Mon: At the start of the game, you get to choose from one of five heroes: Bob Belcher, Roger Smith, Brian Griffin, Turanga Leela and Bobby Hill, which also determines the cards your starting deck will use. The heroes you don't choose will be unlocked later on in the game through the Arena mode.
• Status Buff: Several abilities allow the player to buff their cards' attack or health in some way:
  • Cheer (represented with Gene's megaphone) buffs the attack for another card on the field.
  • Motivate (represented with the golden turd) buffs the attack of any cards next to it.
  • Crazed (represented with the Evil Monkey) permanently buffs the card's attack whenever it successfully deals damage to an enemy card.
  • Boost (represented with a red syringe with a hammer icon) buffs the card's attack whenever the user plays a card combo on the field.
  • Recover (represented with a syringe with a heart icon) buffs the card's health whenever the user plays a card combo on the field.
  • Enlarge (represented with a pizza) buffs the card's health for every enemy card currently on the field when the card is played.
• Stone Wall:
  • As playable heroes, Bob, Tina, Bender, Zoidberg, Consuela, Hank and Ricky Spanish all lack any offensive abilities, but are capable of debuffing the enemy team's attack and healing or shielding their own cards.
  • Drunk Leela has extremely high bunker (to the point where she's capable of essentially stopping anything that doesn't have sufficiently high attack or jab in its tracks), but no other abilities, meaning stalling is all she can do.
• Take That!: During the opening to the game, Peter insults Candy Crush:

  Peter: Oh god, I hope this isn't one of those dumb candy crunching games...

• World in the Sky: Most of the menus are represented with locations ripped straight from each show, floating in the sky as a result of the dimensional merge.