First off, the game (in a mechanical sense) was moderately well done. The artwork was great, rendered in all its 8-bit splendor with amazing variety and detail. The level design was solid and the boss battles were very entertaining. My only gripe was that the levels felt truncated towards the end and too many extra characters were introduced before they really served a purpose.
I didn’t always agree with everything that was said, but I do give the creators credit for sticking to the facts (at last the ones that supported their argument) right up until the last few stages or so. The character roster was extremely eclectic, but some choices were quite puzzling. The fact that you could play as Michael Moore (in all his rail-thin glory) but not Robocop was simply an injustice. Watching Christopher Reeves hurl shurikens at the former President and Barbara as she squirted projectile Bush fetuses was one of the most surreal experiences I ever had playing a game. That alone made the 45 minute ordeal somewhat worthwhile.
The message of the game boils down to idiotic leftist tripe that insults the intelligence of the audience it aspires to inspire. Let me save you nearly an hour of your time and break it down for you:
--Everyone who supports John Kerry is a romantic crusader, draped proudly in the tattered cloth of rebellion.
--Everyone who supports President Bush is evil.
The game also spends a great deal of time portraying CEOs and cooperate executives as ravenous beings consumed by avarice and spite. Nevermind the reality of honest entrepreneurial enterprise, the true dynamic of Capitalist economics, the ideals and theories that our nation was predicated upon. All subtly and nuance are swept away by the broad stroke of hatred, painted by the petty. You know how they say there’s two sides to every argument? Well, this game picked one and ran with it...
And maybe it wouldn’t be of any concern of mine if the game didn’t come off as some crass, pseudo-intellectual crusade against the injustice of everything not-progressive. Propaganda is just entertainment with a message, and I find it ironic that a game fighting the good fight against indoctrination and narrow-mindedness is, itself, guilty of the aforementioned. Not to mention the simply insipid way it passes off surreal nonsense as satire. Voltron fucking the Statue of Liberty. Yeah kiddies, look real deep for the meaning behind that one...
Oh, I almost forgot... John Kerry turning into Voltron. Stupidest. Fucking. Moment. Ever.
