Posted in: Games | Tagged: games, kickstarter, NES, Super Russian Roulette
Super Russian Roulette On The NES
Man, Kickstarter isn't what it used to be, am I right? Before, you could find unique passion projects like Aw Yeah! Comics or some guy looking to make potato salad for the first time. But nowadays, a lot of Kickstarters are things that just have you wondering why someone would think anyone would contribute money to it. Whatever happened to the interesting? The unique? The fun?
Well, it's back. With a vengence. In the form of a new game for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System called Super Russian Roulette.
Yes. This is real.
It is, as far as I know, the only homebrew for the NES to actually use the light gun. Andrew Reitano is a longtime tech nut who loved his NES when he was younger. And just to fulfill his dream of making his own game for it, he started working on SRR. Each player takes turns holding the light gun to their head and pulling the trigger to see if they survive or not. Now, making such a game isn't that tough, you can knock it out for the Atari 2600 in a few hours and five cups of coffee. But Reitano went all out. For starters, there is a NPC anchoring the game. Designed by Alex Baderian, he's a cowboy that takes up the entire screen and is very well animated (if you know anything about the NES PPU, this is really really impressive) and has over four minutes of actual high quality voice (provided by Cowboy Rob Kurtz) that gets triggered throughout the game. There's some AI involved, the cowboy taunts you, there's a musical score by Nick Gargiulo, he went all out.
Reitano would take the game to any gatherings with his buddies, and it was a hit drinking game. And then, fate intervened. Last year, he took the game to Fantastic Arcade.
And the crowd lost it. It won the Audience Choice Award. And Reitano realized he had come up with something special.
And I'm looking at this and thinking, I'm weird, I'm sick, I'm a mutant, WHY DIDN'T I COME UP WITH THIS?!?
Reitano turned to Kickstarter to try and make this happen. Thirty days, his stated goal was $20,000. As of this writing, it has raised $64,836 with nine days to go and stretch goals available.
So, you can drop $60 on another major release on a current gen system that probably requires a Day One patch and that you'll grow bored with and dump on eBay in a couple of weeks….
…or you can sign up for what could be the ultimate party game, ice breaker, and light gun game all rolled into one.