Pico's School

Pico's School
Developer: Tom Fulp Publisher: Newgrounds Platform: Adobe Flash Released internationally: June 1999 (original), April 30, 2006 (update) This game has unused graphics. This game has revisional differences.

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.

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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

School Halls (armed)

1999 Hive - Weapons of Mass Destruction	2016 ThatJohnnyGuy - It's Go Time

Goth Punk Talks

1999 Hive - Ultrasonic Sound	2016 ThatJohnnyGuy - Talkin' Smack

Goth Punk Fight

1999 Hive - Ultrasonic Sound	2016 ThatJohnnyGuy - Boss Fight

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	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

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. The 2006 and 2016 versions replace this with a set speed for the fights.