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[ Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 ]

PS2 'Guy Game' only for testosterone -laden fans

Collegian Staff Writer

Listen up frat boys and professors who haven't had a date since 1972 -- this one's for you.

The Guy Game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox is sure to be the most controversial console game of its era, making Night Trap (admit it, you remember it) for Sega CD look like Barbie Vacation Adventure.

The premise is this -- wait, there isn't one.

The goal? To see naked chicks. Simple enough.

It's Mario Party meets Girls Gone Wild with a touch of a certain drinking card game with a name a little too vulgar for publication.

First off, this game is only fun in multi-player mode. Sure, you can do it alone, but it's always more fun with multiple partners, right? Players answer multiple-choice trivia and also guess how real live spring break "hotties" filmed especially for the game answer the same questions. If the girls are wrong, they have to bare their chests to the audience.

Here's where the challenge comes in. You don't get to automatically see the goods off the bat -- you have to earn it by building up a "flash-o-meter," a gauge that grows from "soft and squishy" to "super stiff" as you correctly guess how smart (or dumb) the 60+ female contestants are. At first, an inconvenient censor bar blocks the view, but score high and you will be rewarded with naked co-eds. And of course, once you unlock an "episode," of which there are 20, you can always go back and view the sights and scenes that were hidden before.

There are a few mini games too, which are filler and act as a pretty lame attempt at variety. And, of course, they have to do with balls.

The whole idea of pounding, bouncing, or rolling balls while I'm playing a male-oriented multi-player game centered around a mutual attraction to the female body was a little off-putting to say the least.

As sad as it is to say, the most entertaining part of the whole game is not even the naked women, but the stuff that comes out of their mouths. When asked what RAM stood for, one particularly bright lady answered "rapid eye movement." Or did you know that we won our independence in a war against France? Or that we have 28 letters in our alphabet?

On a more serious note, no review of such a game would be complete without the "I'm not a chauvinistic pig just because I liked this game" defensive plea. I played The Guy Game with two girls to get their perspective on it.

One found the game fairly repulsive, arguing that it perpetuated negative societal stereotypes and promoted unhealthy body images. The other found humor in the game's absurdity and claimed that each and every girl knew what she was getting herself into, rendering the game harmless.

While I tend to be a member of the latter school of thought, I understand how many women (and even some men) could find this game offensive. Then again, being a Penn State student, I can also easily see this game being played in earnest by members of both sexes. It doesn't push any social boundaries, just perhaps electronic ones, being the first console game of its kind. It's dumb but it's fun in its own right as long as you always remember it's only a game.

 



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