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"Can't you see that none of this is real?!" This article contains information about media that, although official, is not canon to the main series. |
The Amazing World of Gumball Vol. 2: Cheat Code is the second graphic novel of The Amazing World of Gumball comics. It was released on June 7th, 2016.
Synopsis
While Gumball and Darwin are grounded, their classmates advance ahead of them in the new, super-popular video game called Monster Fight Friends. A mysterious and forbidden cheat code is just what they need. Too bad it unleashes a gigantic, tech-crazy kaiju onto the streets of Elmore!
Plot
The novel begins with Gumball and Darwin seemingly in jail, Darwin comforting the former as he complains about missing the outside. Nicole walks by, revealing that the two are just boredly sat on the sofa due to being grounded for another three days for having a water fight inside the house. This only worsens the boys mood, until they notice that Anais has sat down on the sofa alongside them playing her "Monster Fight Friends" game. Nicole reminds the two of them that they aren't allowed to play any video games due to their grounding, but they explain that they simply wish to watch their sister play her game. With some convincing from Anais, Nicole agrees.
Scotting over to watch Anais play, Gumball and Darwin are shocked at far into the game she is and how strong her monster fight friend has already become. They begin to panic, as due to their grounding they haven't even gotten a chance to play their copy of the game yet and thus everyone else is way ahead of them. When Nicole goes outside to do some gardening, Gumball seizes the opportunity to sneak into the kitchen and find his and Darwin's copy of the game which Nicole had hid from them in order to play it early. Knowing they won't have long until their mother is done, the two quickly load up and start the game, wanting to get as much play time in as possible. They watch excitedly as their monster fight friend hatches, a lava type friend which they call Sparky. Anais explains that their lava type is a really good one to start with as lava is strong against plant types, which the start of the game has a lot of.
Beginning the game Sparky successfully defeats a plant type boss, and Gumbal and Darwin feed him a cupcake to celebrate. The boys consider having a fight against Anais, until she reminds them of how strong her monster fight friend is. They decide to wait and fight against people at school instead. Before they can play anymore of the game Gumball hears their mother walking back inside, so dashes into the kitchen and hides the game again. Nicole is a little suspicous of his absence, but he quickly makes up the excuse that he was getting her a glass of water. Meanwhile Anais gets bored of the game and decides to go upstairs to work on her project for the school science fair, something the boys didn't even know the school had.
The next day Gumball, Darwin and Anais get on the bus to school. Gumball reveals that he snuck out their copy of the game again. He is disappointed, however, when Penny refuses to fight their monster fight friend as she doesn't want to dissapoint them by beating them so easily. They insist that their friend is strong enough and, although reluctant, she agrees to fight them. As she predicted, Penny's monster fight friend defeats Sparky in a single hit. Seeing how upset the two are at their loss, Penny suggests they fight against someone with a creature that's a difference element since hers was the strongest type. She suggests Leslie, who just started playing and has the weakest element in the game, and the one that that Sparky would be effective against, but they still lose in a single hit. They continue trying to fight everyone else at school, hoping to level up their fight friend to get stronger and win at least one battle. They fail to win a single fight, however, much to their dismay. Penny explains that if they want their friend to get stronger they'll just have to spend a few hours fighting wild creatures to get stronger. Gumball explains that they can't as they aren't supposed to have the game right now, and they don't want to hurt Sparky either.
In class. Darwin suggests the two just play the game at their own pace and let Sparky get stronger organically, but Gumball complains that if they do that they won't be able to fight their friends before the game becomes uncool. After more discussion, the two finally decide to give in and do whatever they can to make Sparky stronger, believing that the creatures enjoy fighting and thus they'd be helping him by doing so. Meanwhile Anais talks to Mr Small about the progress of her science fair project. Although he's happy to see her so enthusiastic, he explains that everyone except her and a new student called Mario quit the fair after realizing reaching level 100 in Monster Fight Friends wouldn't count, and thus the fair is likely to be cancelled if no ene else signs up. Though annoyed, Anais is determined to make the science fair go ahead. Mario meanwhile explains his own theoiry about Monster Fight Friends, suggesting that aliens put cheat codes into the game with the intent to control earthlings, and Anais is the one destined to stop them. Ignoring him, she walks away and leaves the school.
Outside she finds Gumball and Darwin crying, upset that they can't level up Sparky fast enough to be able to fight their firends before they get bored of the game. Seeing an oppotunity, she explains that she knows a way for them to get a cheat code to make Sparky stronger. Gumball asks her what the catch is, and she explains that she'll only help them if they sign up for the science fair and get other people to do so as well. After a little persuasion with an adorable look, the two agree and sign up. Gumball asks how they can get the code, and Anais explains she has a contact. She takes them inside to the library where they meet Mario. He hands them the code, warning them to be careful as it could bring great danger to the town. They pay little attention, taking the code and heading home with Anais.
Back home Darwin asks Gumball if they should be worried about Mario's warning, as it looked like he wanted them to take it seriously. Nicole overhears, asking what it is they should be taking seriously, and Gumball quickly lies about them taking the science fair very seriously and trying to come up with ideas for it. Though suspicous she doesn't want to discourage the boys from the good life choice they've somehow made and thus her and RIchard encourage them to win, even though they know that the two stand no chance against Anais.
Later, in the middle of the night, Gumball and Darwin lay in bed awake. Darwin asks if Gumball got anyone else to agree to attend the science fair. He hasn't, but he's sure they'll be able to get some people to join tomorrow. He then asks when Gumball wants to do the cheat code, and the latter decides that they should do it now whilst everyone is asleep. Sneaking downstairs Darwin trips on a large piece of Anais' robot science project. Whilst Darwin complains about it, Gumball ponders if anyone else has issues with their four year old sisters leaving giant robot science projects on the floor. Leaving it where it is, Gumball heads into the kitchen and grabs the game. Whilst Darwin reads out the instructions to him, Gumball peforms the cheat code. They are soon rewarded with a rare magic candy, which they feed to Sparky. The creature glows intensely and transforms into an incredibly strong level 100 fire-lion. The two imemdiately test out his new power on a random wild enemy and he defeats it in a single hit, leaving the boys confident they can beat their friends.
The next day in class the two ask Penny for a rematch. Though reluctant due to what happened the day before she agrees, only to be left shocked when her creature does little damage to the newly empowered Sparky. She is even more shocked when Sparky somehow switches types and uses a water type move to instantly defeat her creature, something that should be impossible. Even more concerningly, her game glitches and freezes after the fight. She doesn't have time to dwell on this, however, as Miss Simian arrives to start the class. At recess Tina, Alan, Idaho, Tobias, Carrie and Teri all attempt to fight Sparky, only to encounter the same oddities as Penny. As Banana Joe tries his luck Penny goes over to chat with Anais, noticing the robot arm she's working on. The latter explains that she's making it for the science fair and that she should consider joining it, something that the fairy actually considers. Joe, meanwhile, storms off furious as he too was unable to beat Sparky. Whilst Gumball and Darwin celebrate everyone else complains that their games are now badly glitched and frozen. Unfortunately for them, the bell rings for class, and thus they no longer have time to argue.
Later, Anais and Mario sit in a classroom with Mr Small, waiting for everyone to arrive for a meeting about the science fair. Mario senses that his theory has started to come true, though brushes it off as nothing when Anais asks about it. Checking the sign up sheet, Mr Small sees that Gumball and Darwin simply wrote a bunch of fake names. Just as he's about to cancel the meeting and fair, Penny arrives, hoping she isn't too late to sign up. Seeing that there's still interest, Mr Small agrees to continue on with the pre-fair meeting the following day. But if no one else shows up, the fair will be cancelled. Relieved for now but furious with her brothers. Anais storms outside to see Gumball and Darwin messing around with Sparky. She berates them for not attending the meeting and for not signing up, both of which the boys completely forgot about in their excitement. Anais, fed up, tells the two that if they don't show up for the meeting tomorrow, and get more people to sign up, she'll tell Mom that they've been sneaking out their game. Terrified, they assure her that she won't need to do that and that they'll fufill their end of the bargain. The three head home, Gumball telling Sparky that they'll see him tomorrow and to have a nice nap, before he powers off the game.
Back home Gumball puts the game away, the family have their dinner and everyone goes to bed. Unbeknowst to the boys, however, their game suddenly turns on by itself inside the cupboard. The next day on the bus Gumball takes out the game, only to find it already turned on, much to his confusion. A prompt appears on the screen as Sparky asks to fight someone. Gumball refuses, but promises they will later on. When Gumball asks his friends if they want to fight at recess, however, they all refuse. They berate and throw balls of paper at him for ruiining their games, saying they had to delete their saves and restart the game from the beginning after their fights with Sparky as their games were so badly glitched. Darwin instead takes the opportunity to ask if anyone wants to join the science fair, but they simply remain silent and give annoyed glares at him and his brother, who is now buried in the mountain of paper that was thrown at him. At recess everyone avoids the boys, making them feel like outcasts. They aren't too bothered however and simply put it down to them being upset that they lost to Sparky. Sparky again asks to fight someone, but as none of their friends will agree to do so Gumball and Darwin are again forced to refuse and power down the game.
Throughout the rest of the day the boys focus on trying to think of a way to trick their friends into signing up for the science fair. At the same time Sparky keeps turning the game back on and asking repeatedly to fight someone, only to be refused and turned back off each time. Finally, the two begin to get concerned at how much sentience their monster fight friend seems to be showing, Penny too is concerned, telling the boys that her game also got messed up. She intends to talk to them about something else as well, bui is interrupted when Sparky yet again turns the game on and asks to fight. As Penny continues to try and talk to Gumball and Darwin, the two notice the battery on their game console is running low as they forgot to charge it. Sparky also notices this, and to Gumball, Darwin and Penny's horror smashes the console's screen open and emerges from the game into the real world, towering before the three terrified children. He again asks to fight, to which Darwin timidly refuses. Furious, Sparky smashes through the school's wall and runs away.
Anais runs over, furious that the boys and their friends haven't shown up to the science fair meeting yet. Darwin explains that they have a much bigger problem to deal with right now, before he and Gumball run away, much to their sister's annoyance. They follow Sparky's trail of destruction, only to stop in their tracks as they realize they don't actually know how to stop Sparky. After Gumball suggests they start by putting out Sparky's fires, Darwin has the idea to use the element effectiveness rules from the game. Water is effective against lava types, so water should be Sparky's weakness. The only issue is that their water guns are still locked away because they're still grounded, and they can't telll Nicole or Richard why they need the guns otherwise they'll be in even more trouble. This leaves them with only one option...sneaking in and stealing the guns. The two get by Richard easily as he's asleep, but as Gumball reaches up to grab the guns the boys hear their mother's voice and realize that she's home. Darwin distracts her until she leaves for groceries, whilst Gumball hides in the cupboard. One she's gone the former emerges with their water guns, which they quickly fill up in the garden.
Going back to Sparky's trail of destruction Gumball and Darwin eventually find him near Food N' Stuff destroying the town's clocktower. The two fire their water guns at him, beginning to drain his HP very slowly. Eventually their guns are emptied, but Sparky is still only at half HP. Furious, As all seems lost, Anais suddenly arrives in a giant rabbit mech suit, the project she had been working on the entire time. Gumball and Darwin find both her and the mech suit incredibly cool, and are pleased she's here to save them. As she begins to fight Sparky, Darwin notices that some panels at the back of her suit are exposed, which she explains is because she didn't have time to completely finish the mech before coming to save them. He is horrified when he realizes that Anais' mech is electric and because of their cheat code Sparky knows ocean types moves, the most powerful in the game and ones that are effective against electric types. Anais begins to lose the fight with Sparky, getting knocked to the ground by a shopping cart with her unfinished panels exposed and vulnerable. Sparky goes to use the most powerful move in the game, the water-charged punch blast, to finish off Anais and her mech. Anais closes her eyes and braces herself and Sparky goes to unleash the move, when Gumball and Darwin suddenly run in the way of Anais' mech and call out for Sparky to stop.
Anais is horrified, as the two are now puitting themselves in danger to protect her and her mech, They explain that they won't allow Sparky to destroy the mech she spent so long working on, They then give a speech to Sparky reminding him that they're his friends and that they raised him, before admitting that they were bad friends to him as they got so carried away with wanting him to be strong and powerful that they forgot that he was also supposed to be their friend, before apologizing to him. Now crying, Sparky picks them up and allows them to hug his head, the three reconciling. Gumball admits that he wishes there were a way to change Sparky back to his old self, only for Penny and Mario to drive up on a moped, the former calliing out that she managed to find a reverse cheat code. Plugging their console into Anais' mech for power, Gumball enters the reverse code "just kidding" and Sparky shrink back down to his original self and re-enters the game. The two cry upon seeing their old friend back to his normal self, only to ask what they're supposed to do now.
Nicole arrives in the family's car, concerned as to why Gumball, Darwin and Anais are in a pile of rubble caused by a giant monster, but more so upset that they didn't call her to help them fight it off. They explain what happened and are promptly extra-grounded by Nicole. They insist that she can't ground them yet, however, as they promised Anais they would go to the science fair and they really don't want to let her down again. Anais hast lost hope that anyone will be there, but the boys insist they go and literally push her into the car after Darwin realizes they only have fifteen minutes to get back to school. Typing her robot suit to the roof of the car, Nicole hurriedly sets off for the school, Penny calling out that her and Mario will met them there.
Arriving at school, Gumball, Darwin and Anais run inside to the meeting room. Anais insists that there isn't any point, only to enter the meeting room and find to her astonishment that all of Gumball and Darwin's classmates are there. Overjoyed, she hugs her brothers and gratefully thanks them for pulling through and keeping their promise to her. Gumball and Darwin, however, are confused as they didn't get anyone to sign up. Penny arrives and explains that technically they did, with a little help from herself, as when the two of them ruined everyone's Monster Fight Friends games they were left with nothing to do and thus when Penny showed them the flyer for the science fair they all decided to sign up. Gumball gratefully thanks Penny, who epxlains that she didn't do just for them, but for Anais as well as she didn't deserve to have to put up with everything they put her through, which Darwin agrees is fair.
Later that evening Gumball and Darwin offer to help Anais fix her mech before the science fair the following day, as they feel like thewy owe her, to which she accepts. She asks about their own project, and they reveal a potato with a clock drawn on it. The following day at the science fair Gumball and Darwin sit and check in on Sparky, who is now his normal, happy self again. Meanwhile Nicole and Richard celebrate Anais winning the gold trophy for the fair, much to her embarrassment, The boys ask their mother is they're still grounded, and she decides that they're already learnt their lesson from their sister to be more responsible in the future. The two, relieved that everything worked out, celebrate with Sparky who gives a thumbs up.
Hidden Value
Ovrr a week before the events of the main story, everyone waits in line to get their copies of Monster Fight Friends. Carrie and Rachel debatye which version of the game is better- Muave or Chartreuse. Rachel asks Penny for her opinion as the tiebreaker, and the latter explains that she pre-ordered the game a year ago and thus her answr is whichever version she gets with it. Carrie reveals that Muave is the pre-order version, and thus that version is the winner. Another voice suddenly interrupts, explaining that Monster Fight Friends is "old hat". his is revealed to be Bobert. Anais berates him for trying to cut in line, but he explains that he isn't and flaunts his original version of the game from Japan that he's had for months now. Gumball and Darwin are incredibly excited, and begin to bombard the robot with questions, whilst the girls stand and watch unimpressed.
Penny asks if Anais wants to meet up in game and play with them, but the latter explains that she's been planning her own solo adventure for a while now. Penny, disappointed, hopes she might see her in game at a later time before going to get her game. Back home in her room Penny starts the game and picks the ocean type starter monstwer fight friend. In game, she explores the town of Sleepy Shores, where she meets up with Rachel and Carrie. She apologies for being late, before the three sett off to leave the town and fight some low level creatures. They are frusted, howevber, when they find the exit blocked by Bobert. Penny asks for him to let them through but he refuses, stating that they must beat his monster fight friend 'Champ'. He easily wipes out all three of their fignt friends, before agreeing to a rematch in a weeks time after Penny complains about how unfair the fight was.
The next day at school, the three secretely share notes between each other with the beat tips for training their creatures. They spend the entire week training their creatures. Confident in their rematch, the three meet up with Bobert and their battle ensues. To their shock, however, Bobert still easily beats the three of them. Penny is confused, as the three trained and levelled up their creatures, but Bobert explains that he abused an exploit that was only in the original Japanese version of the game in order to power level his creaturfe to absurb levels of strength. He goes to finish off Penny's creature, only for another creature to suddenly swoop in and knock Champ over. Bobert, confused, turns around to find Anais, who is disappointed in Bobert for abusing such a glitch, before asking Penny to tag team Bobert with her. She agrees, and the two begin to fight him. Although Penny's creature is unable to do any damage to him, Anais' is able to stand up to and overhwhelm Champ. Bobert is shocked and confused, and this shouldn't be possible, but Anais explains that all creatures in the game have a secret stat that makes them more effective through actual training. Bobert's unbalance max level creature therefore stands no chance against Anais' properly trained one. With a final blasdt of water from Penny's creature Champ is finally defeated. Furious, Bobert rage quits.
Penny gratefully thanks Anais for her help and treats her to the friend cafe to repay the favor. As they talk Penny realizes that she hasn't seen Gumball and Darwin in the game all week, and asks if they're okay. Back in the real world, Anais is sat on the living room table, which is now floating in water as the boys have flooded the house during the water gun fight. Nicole grounds them for a week. setting into motion the events of the main comic.
Characters
Main characters
Supporting characters
Minor characters
- Nicole
- Richard
- Rose bush
- Carrie
- Teri
- Tobias
- Alan
- Juke
- Hector
- Leslie
- Miss Simian
- Mr. Small
- Tina
- Idaho
- Gary
- Archie the Duck
- Larry
- Donut Cop
- Chicken Bucket
- Rocky
- Martha
- Karen
- Librarian
- Pantsbully
- Baby's mother
- Cowboy
- Hexagon lady
- Daisy
- Felicity
- Billy
- Harold
- Green bear
- Banana Bob
- Banana Barbara
"Hidden Value"
Main characters
Supporting characters
- Anais
Minor characters
- Gumball
- Darwin
- Alan
- Tobias
- Banana Joe
- Carmen
- Nicole
Preview pages
Trivia
- This bonus story of this comic is one of (if not the only) piece of media that is not “The Party” where Rachel has a major role.
Cultural references
- The game Monster Fight Friends shares many similarities with the Pokémon game series,
- Creatures are show to be able to evolve, much like Pokemon after they reach a certain level
- The game's creatres have different types, each with strengths and weaknesses against others in the game, much like the Pokemon games
- The game has magic rare candies which level up the game's creatures, just liek Rare Candies in the Pokemon series
- Rachel states that her creatures won a popularity contest in the game, very similar to Pokemon's beauty contests
- Anais states that the game's finall bosses are called the Formidable Four, a parody of Pokemon's Elite Four.
- There are two different versions of Monster Fight Friends, both with exclusive legendary monsters. Every new generation of Pokemon always releases with two different games, each with their own exclusive pokemon and legendaries
- The game starts with the player being greeted by a professor and being asked to pick a starter fight friend, exactly like the pokemon games.
- Anais mentioning that the Monster Fight Friends have a secret stat that makes them more ffective through training is very similar to EVs and IVs in Pokemon.
- The cheat code Gumball and Darwin use is a direct reference to a method used in Pokémon Red and Blue to find the glitched Pokémon MissingNo., which involves talking to an old man and surfing up and down on the side of an island.
- Much like MissingNo., the code can cause various glitches and corrupt the save game data, forcing one to start over.
- Idaho's glitched screen also resembles a typical MissingNo. corruption.
- Bobert having an original Japanese version that released before the two US versions is a reference to Pokemon Green, which was Japan exclusive and released two years before Red and Blue in the US.
- The password that Gumball and Darwin enter, "Rosebud", is a direct reference to a Simoleons/Money cheat in The Sims 1 and 4
- The game consoles everyone is seen using are very similar to the Nintendo Game Boy.
| v • e The Amazing World of Gumball Comics |
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