Video Gaming Blog

Submitted by Gaming Briefs and Nostalgia Bits

The headline for this article says that the new political game called DC Smackdown skewers politicians even-handedly, but I’m not impressed. Let’s see what we have here:

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - If you’re tired of watching Mitt and Mike, Hillary and Rudy, and Colbert and Coulter limit their swipes to words, pick one and go for it in the new video game “DC Smackdown.”

Featuring signature moves like the “Intern Trample,”"Mormon Conversion” and “Barack Your World,” the 17-character game skewers bipartisanly. A pantsless Bill Clinton chases a herd of Monica Lewinskys, Jesse Jackson hurls Hasidic Jews and Anne Coulter has a special “verbal diarrhea” attack.

What makes them think that I find the idea of Jackson attacking Hasidic Jews impressive or even appropriate? It’s not. He may be a corrupt politician, but that doesn’t mean their whole notion of how to depict him is suitable. And I don’t like how they depict Coulter either.

“It’s a real simple game - we’re talking Street Fighter, circa 1994,” said Dave Holbrook, a freelance producer and former Disney animator who made it, with help from friends, in his spare time. “It’s nothing crazy, but it’s a fun little commentary on what’s going on. And everybody’s special move has to do with their political stance or what they’ve said.”

It sounds to me like they’re alluding to the Street Fighter movie! Don’t they recall that it was BAD?

Now available just for PCs, the game costs $4.99 to download. Holbrook said he initially wanted to charge an extra buck for donation to the customer’s political campaign of choice, but changed his mind because of regulatory paperwork.

If it sells, Holbrook wants to expand to the Xbox or Wii and include historic politicians and pundits.

Ugh, I hate to think of that this’ll end up on all the major consoles.

Holbrook said he and the other creators tried hard to poke evenhanded fun on a cast narrowed from 30 choices.

Evenhanded is not the problem here, it’s poor taste and vulgarity that is.

“Glen Beck started becoming more popular, so we switched him with Sean Hannity,” he said. “We almost had Stephen Colbert in there, but we chose (Jon) Stewart. (Colbert) is in the game, though - he’s actually Jon Stewart’s attack. He throws Stephen Colbert.”

The game has eight levels - the first six randomly generated from the list of characters and the last two involving combat between former Vice President Al Gore and President George W. Bush.

Bush’s special attack is “nuclear” - with his signature pronunciation - while Gore’s is global warming. Gore has a “CO2 fart attack,” while Bush has a Karl Rove attack. Dressed like the grim reaper, Rove passes through and steals the opponent’s soul.

Oh, shut up! This is a truly tasteless game, and I’m not sold upon it at all. Poor taste like this isn’t new to games, but it most certainly is getting worse and worse.

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