Parody

At the beginning of Ultima IV Part 2, Mondain (the villain of Ultima and Minax (the villain of Ultima II) appear on Jerry Springer remonstrating with their offspring, Exodus (the villain of Ultima III), until the Avatar, a young man in America watching this on television, is called by "the gypsy" and told they really need him in Britannia.

Which leads into a IV-like set of bogus questions to establish your alignment with "the eight virtues," but which I think are irrelevant here.

Anyway, you wind up in Lord British's throne room and, after looting everything in sight and talking with him to find the secret exit, off you go. Apparently all three of the previous baddies have returned to Britannia and through some hugger mugger they've replaced the eight virtues by new ones. Like, say, "passion" for "compassion" hence the come-on in the screenshot at upper left.

As a game in se, Dude, Where's My Avatar is not spectacular; in fact, though supposedly an RPG, in fact it's it's close to a graphic adventure, the game pushing you to follow through the story and talk to characters in sequence and perform actions with no real choice in the matter, if you wish to unlock the story. There aren't even the random monster fights of the original, nor the multiple and simultaneously pathed quests, to alleviate the linearity of the plot. There are some actual fights in the end game, but the game is calibrated so that if you've done the obvious RPG things (taken everything in sight and spent any money you've earned buying as much crap as possible), you will win.

But it's amusing in its depiction of an altered and depraved Britiannia, and in its parody both of the tropes of Ultima, and of the continuity problems between episodes of the series.

In short, if you are not an Ultima fan, you need not bother (although it would not hurt you to find and play the older games, which have strong virtues); and if you are, you will find yourself chuckling frequently.

No, you didn't misread the title. Yes, this game is made by PETA. Yeah, the game sucks. Moving along.

After talking a 'mainstream' gamer 'friend' of mine into downloading Super Meat Boy
off of XBLA last month I got a brief hit of its sweet dankness. Now, I just downed some Melatonin and Nyquil to combat a bitching cold so I'm on a timer, but I will say that (with a few, sorta long, qualifying statements forthcoming) it's the most fun I've had with a platformer in a decade. Given my usual tardiness expect Patrick to beat me to a proper review of said masterpiece. Super (heh) Tofu Boy is, surprise surprise, *not* the most fun I've had with a platformer in a decade. I mean, fuck, the last time I saw an internet game with spacebar as the jump button I was in middle school, sneaking past shoddy security measures and installing Shockwave just to break up the soul-crushing monotony that is public education. It's also a good idea, developers out there take note, to not have a vertical screen scroll at a faster rate than your protagonist can jump. Just saying.

The single-sentence plot is thus: in a Donkey Kong Jr-esque twist Meat Boy has captured Bandage Girl, and her fate rests in the hands (er, stubby legs) of a wad of bean curd. The game plays out as a shitty-yet-thankfully-short parody of Edmund's opus, which is ultimately a vehicle for wafer-thin vegan propaganda like "(r)ed meat can lead to impotence, obesity, and loss of girlfriend". Uhh... ok? You should know I'm half Inupiaq Eskimo, and that if I were to become vegetarian I would most likely be violating some law of nature, but I'm sympathetic with most vege(n)/tarian viewpoints (but my BEST FRIEND is vegan, etcetera, etcetera). HOWEVER, using an unrefined and slippery vidyagam is not the best method of operation here. As a game it sucks, and as propogands it sucks harder. Playing this thing only made me realize that I need to download the PC version of SMB, and maybe also polish off the rest of the caribou jerky I have stashed near my bed.

On the bright side Tommy Talarico's soundtrack ain't too shabby.

Jason Nelson has made games that are weird, laden with text, and obsequiously obsequious obsequity. They are enjoyable if you're into that. His latest isn't so heavy on the light gameplay but it does lampoon the joys of Christmas well enough. You roll a slot machine, lining up modular bits of text that combine to tell a funny and dynamic story. Certain combinations yield secret videos similar to videos hidden in his other stuff.

Rohrer's Passage has always polarized gamers; either you appreciated its attempt to elevate the medium past primal urges or you thought it was pretentious fluff. Developer Lurk falls into the latter camp, and did the most indie thing you could do in response: make a parody game poking fun at it. While Rohrer's piece is heartfelt and earnest, Lurk's anti-Passage is absurd and nihilistic -- and elicits a chuckle or two as well. While he claims that games can never be art he inexplicably made a game that would qualify as such, albeit in a satirical Dadaist sort of way. If you've ever participated in one of those "iz gaimz aart" arguments in a forum (or here!) it'll whack your funny bone.

No, you aren't going crazy. Yes, that picture is accurate. That is Mario, and he is indeed fighting an MS Paint shit monster. I should add that a MIDI rendition of The Phantom Menace battle music is played throughout this scenario. I should also add that this boss fight is broken and obtuse, and so far I can't figure out how to pass it. I think this segment encapsulates the experience of Mario's Adventure for me, and is pretty fucking hilarious. Super Marco (Mario's autistic cousin) is also entertaining in the same MST3K kind of way, and is tantamount to playing a platformer made by Andy Warhol circa 1986. Today is an exploration of amateur design, a meditation on the earnest and unintended Shit Games out there.

From the maker of ROM Check Fail comes a parody of Little Big Planet that subverts the gameplay as well as the nameplay -- like a lit'ol something I did when I was high.

I nominate Edmund McMillan as the Aleister Crowley of games. The man is a master of molesting fine sensibilities, using a yoga that combines gameplay with warped aesthetics. His meditation on human sexuality turned genitalia into projectile-lobbing warships, his platformers delightfully revel in needless violence with a twist of the absurd, like the eskimo-skinning revenge of Clubby the Seal.
He also turns around and does totally whimsical, non-offensive work, like Gish or Aether which evokes the pure spirituality of dreams. I can only conclude that his aim is throw conflicting symbols of obscenity and friendliness, gameplay and absurd aesthetics, to tease a fraction of the audience into premature ejaculightenment -- and Meat Boy continues the tradition.

Fraid is a quick parodic riff on Jonathan Blow's brilliant Braid. It features completely impenetrable "puzzles" that you essentially "solve" by doing random things until something happens, along with vaporous story text with the illusory feeling of literary depth but that ultimately means nothing.

It's short -- five, ten minutes at most -- and far from deep, but a cute little goof from our own Patrick Dugan.

It's a World of Warcraft screenshot, right? Well, no -- it's a screenshot from WTF?!, a Flash-based sidescroller parodying WoW. And it's note-perfect, too -- every interface element and the backgrounds and characters look like they're ripped straight from Azeroth.

Syobon Action hates you. You’ll find this out the hard way: every jump, platform, mushroom, pipe... even the cloud in the background is out there to kill you. In time you will hate Syobon Action. And that’s why you’ll love it so much.