Kotaku: Satire

Political Platforming In Super Obama World

Stuart Houghton — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:20:24 MST

Still buzzing after the Election '08 celebrations/commiserations? The nice thing about this topical SuperMario clone is the way it reaches out to appeal to both Red and Blue states.

Obama supporters can guide the new POTUS-elect on to another stunning victory - this time against Pigs (Pork barrel politics! Do you see what they did there?) and money bag toting lobbyists. McCain supporters can settle for repeatedly plunging the Prez off an Alaskan ice shelf.

The makers promise that Arizona, Illinois, and D.C. levels will be added soon. The Alaskan maps on offer did provide one moment of authentic Biting Satire - a several screens long Bridge to Nowhere that ends in an impassible barrier. Nice touch.

[Super Obama World] Thanks to reader UppityCracker for the tip.

Democratic Primary Determined By KO

Leigh Alexander — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:00:00 MDT

We often discuss the power of video games for change, for education, for enlightenment. How fitting then that the New York Post, a bastion of sophisticated and incisive political editorial, has created a video game as commentary on the Democratic race for Presidential nominee.

Hate Hillary? Want to beat down Barack? Whichever your pleasure, this NYP game lets you play as your candidate of choice and pound the opposition's face in by clicking your mouse a million times until you win. And yeah, that's pretty much the extent of it.

Ian Bogost is rolling in his grave. Oh, wait, he's not dead yet, though I'll bet this game will make him want to drive rusty nails into his eyeballs.

Beat Up Hillary Clinton! [Wonkette]

The Game Pitch to End All Pitches

Maggie Greene — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:30:00 MDT

I really dislike PowerPoint, so I appreciated this 'game pitch' that's poking fun at games, PowerPoint, and the industry at large:

A key part of the development process, I am told, is pitching your game ideas to studios and publishers. After some practice, I believe I am starting to get good at this. For instance, I know that if you want to be taken seriously as a professional, you need to use something called "Powerpoint". In fact, I have been writing all my game proposals in Powerpoint and I am starting to see a marked improvement in the quality of my ideas.

It's funny (I laughed — a lot) and worth a couple of minutes of your time.

The Pitch [Hit Self-Destruct via GameSetWatch]

Street Fighter: The Later Years

Drew Crecente — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:00:00 MST

Great production values + obscure video game references + man-boobs means that it's time for Street Fighter: The Later Years - Part 9. The final chapter has Ryu and E. Honda fighting as well as those slapstick gags that you've come to love. Those of you that are working today be aware that there's the bonus of a hairy man-ass.

Street Fighter: The Later Years, Part 9 [College Humor]

Satire For the Weekend: Harpooned

Maggie Greene — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:00:34 MST

Well, the world of little online games has just been rife with satire and social commentary the past few weeks - latest entrance into the game is Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator. It's been making the rounds the past couple of days to somewhat mixed press. But the creators aren't letting the nay-sayers get them down:

The game's creator Conor O'Kane told ninemsn he wanted to make people more aware of the current whaling situation.
"If people [are] offended by the game they should be even more offended by real whaling," he said.

"I hope people make the next logical step and realise that reality is much worse than a video game.

The game is available as a download over at the Harpooned website.

Fans hunt down whaling game [ninemsn via Water Cooler Games]

5 Gaming Industry Keynotes, In Short Form!

Maggie Greene — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:00:03 MST

From Magical Wasteland comes a hilarious (and quick) wrap up of five of the gaming industry's most popular keynotes. Maybe it's just because I've hit my saturation point with this sort of stuff, but I found it wickedly funny and oh-so-true. My personal favorite is the first:

Let's think about the future for a second. You probably don't understand the kids that make up the bulk of our audience, but I do. I call them the network MySpace remix 3.0 social generation. Unlike any other people before them, young people today like to interact with each other. They also like music. YouTube is the perfect example of whatever point it is I'm making. Everything should be online and customizable.

It's short. It's funny! It's worth a read. As someone in the comments section said, "You just saved me so much in travel expenses." Touché.

Five Short Video Game Industry Keynotes [Magical Wasteland via GameSetWatch]

New FPS - First Person Stacker

lsmith — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:00:15 MST

The Onion has a Swiftian bit up about Take Two Interactive's "latest" video game Stacker. Poking fun at uptight video game critics who blame video games for influencing children to do bad, bad things - Stacker wouldn't influence anyone, but that's by design. It's a clever read.

New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids' Behavior [The Onion]

For Trade: Al Gore, Humanitarian for George Bush, American Nero

lsmith — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:45:19 MDT

Katrina: The Gathering is a brilliantly poignant card game designed by Ubiq and Lum (who author Zen of Design and Broken Toys) with heavy tongue-in-cheek nods to Magic: The Gathering. Cards like Condoleezza Rice's (Puts a 3/3 token black creature into play) or Sean Penn's (Creature classification of Liberal Entertainer) take dead aim with biting sarcasm. We hope it gets to a playable state soon. If something like this offends you, we can only dream how offended you were with the government's response time in the wake of the Katrina tragedy. Lighten up.