If Presidential Candidates Were Old School Video Games

February 13, 2008

Game With a Brain has a bit of fun picking old school vido games to suit its view of the top four presidential candidates. Barack Obama is Final Fantasy VII, the site says:

...[FFVII's] slick graphics and presentation have led many to accuse it of being more style than substance. In fact, while Final Fantasy VII is often cited as one of the best games ever made, you are likely to find just as many who decry it as the most over hyped ever.

Meanwhile, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton equates to Donkey Kong Country 3, according to Game With a Brain:

The Donkey Kong Country series of games were huge blockbusters... many viewed them as the best games ever... Still, as the series progressed gamers grew weary of the titles... By the third title’s release gamers were seeking change...

On the Republican side, GWAB's selection of Bible Adventures for Mike Huckabee seems almost too obvious, given that the candidate is a minister. Still, it's clear that GWAB has old-school gaming sensibilities:

Huckabee, like Bible Adventures publisher Wisdom Tree, is a fighter. Wisdom Tree was one of those rare companies to release unlicensed titles for the original NES... The actual game may not impress you much upon first play, but there is a certain fun, winning charm to its weirdness...

Republican front runner John McCain? He's Desert Bus:

...Desert Bus tasked you with driving a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in eight hours of real time. The game could not be paused, and the bus occasionally would veer to the right. So, like the Arizona senator you set out on a grueling long journey (to your party’s nomination) and occasionally veer off to the right (frightening potential independent voters). Uncanny.

Posted in

Comments

Submitted by Josh Martz on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:42.

guidance*

Submitted by kurisu7885 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:33.

Over half ot them are ET for the Atari 2600, easy enough

Submitted by Josh Martz on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:11.

Godwin!

Submitted by Paulrus (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:58.

Huh. This one is harder to do than the console one.

Submitted by The Ninth Doctor (not verified) on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 11:02.

So, the republican party is comprised of games no one ever heard of? Ok. But McCain vearing off to the *right*?! This guy can't be serious. He's conservative on matters of foreign policy and the military, but that's it. He's scaring *conservative republicans*, many of whom are planning not to vote this year, not independents.

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:08.

What no love for Ron Paul???

Why is everyone ignoring this superb candidate???

/Ron Paul Lemming rant.

Very funny list. Never would have made these comparisons.

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Submitted by Dracis (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:10.

I think Game With a Brain could have done a little better. I'd try myself but I haven't slept yet. Oh and before I go pass out, 9 straight for Obama !

Eat that Hillary...

Submitted by nightwng2000 on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:13.

"Meanwhile, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton equates to Donkey Kong Country 3, according to Game With a Brain:

The Donkey Kong Country series of games were huge blockbusters… many viewed them as the best games ever… Still, as the series progressed gamers grew weary of the titles… By the third title’s release gamers were seeking change…"

Don't worry. At worst, she can only serve 2 terms. :P

:)

:: Personally wishing for a cancelled title to begin with. ::

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

Nightwng2000 NW2K Software http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Submitted by T5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:15.

Ron Paul would be Final Fantasy X-2. While it was a good game with sound mechanics, people would still prefer to ignore it and pretend it never happened.

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:22.

@ T5

If you think of it that way, I would have to go with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

It tried so hard to be a part of the Final Fantasy franchise, but no fan would give it the time of day, because it sucked.

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Submitted by TK (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:23.

I loved that line about "veering to the right" for McCain.

Submitted by Ken (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:32.

Obama as FFVII = Overrated, overhyped, and the only guy those morons on Gamefaqs would vote for
Clinton as DKC3 = I'd pick the GBA version. Completely screwed up and not as good as the original, plus overshadowed by something bigger.

Submitted by William (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:39.

So umm.....is he just some blogger or considered an actual reporter, b/c his basis shows pretty strongly. I guess we all know who he is voting for.

Submitted by T5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 07:41.

@E. Zachary Knight

Not a bad choice at all, but Ron Paul doesn't suck, unless you mean Final Fantasy as the Republican Party, in which case Ron Paul does suck at being part of this new party, but a fine example of old school like Mystic Quest

Submitted by Twin-Skies (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:16.

Obama as FFVII..

Damn it, now I keep imagining him as some shirtless dude with a vest, and a gatling gun for a right arm.

Submitted by Davian2K5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:19.

@Twin-Skies

Better than imagining him as a long haired chick in short shorts and a rather skimpy top. And apologies for being crude, but that would also give him a rather large chest, which would be very, very confusing to many males. And probably a lot of females too.

Submitted by Twin-Skies (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:28.

@Davian2K5

Better him the Hillary.

Submitted by MacBoy (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:29.

Referring to Donkey Kong:
Wow, that's a lot of indirect praise for one of the most scandalous Presidents in the history of our country.

Submitted by Twin-Skies (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:30.

Pardon the double-post.

That's:

"Better him than Hillary."

Submitted by Josh Martz on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 08:37.

I would say Ron Paul is like Zork. It appealed to only a select subset of people, there really weren't any rules or too much guidane on what to do or where to go in the game, and if you followed it around blindly, you got eaten by a grue.

Submitted by Davian2K5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:20.

@Twin-Skies

Thanks, you just made my brain try to climb out through my ears for the inadvertent mental image. :-P

@ Weighted Companion Cube

The polling place is upstairs. It appears the light is turned off upstairs, and it is nearly pitch black. What do you do? > Climb stairs.

You cannot see the booths to place your vote. It is pitch black and you are likely to be eaten by a grue. What do you do? > Try to find booth.

Fill in the finish as you wish :-P

Submitted by Shaesyco (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:45.

Obama is more like Super Smash Bros

Submitted by Overcast (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:46.

They are all more like cheap, poorly coded copycat versions of pong that cause GPF's in Win95 if you ask me.

Submitted by SimonBob on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 09:56.

The first thing that comes to mind is that somebody should do a mock-up of Obama as Sephiroth and Clinton as Aeris. Phoenix Down won't save your campaign now, Hilary!

Also, Ron Paul is clearly EarthBound: they're both loved by cultists.

---
Fangamer

Submitted by PHOENIXZERO (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 10:07.

Earthbound is awesome though, hmmm...

Obama wishes he was FFVII but he's more like a hundred games that are all style (or just pretty graphics) and no substance. If Hilary was a game she's be a buggy unplayable mess. McCain and Huckabee would be boring and tedious.

SIIIIGH, I guess I'm voting "None of the above" this year...

Submitted by Bustahwolf (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 10:40.

Guess no extremist right-wingers read this site. On most webpages you'd have to gotten at least 3 "NOOOO McCain is really a scary leftist demon!" comments by now. Apparently he's a staunch liberal, and Obama/Clinton are Lenin. Or something.

Still hoping that Bloomberg changes his mind and throws his hat into the ring...

Submitted by Austin Lewis (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:09.

Wow, so this isn't really a fair shake for McCain.

I hate the man, true, but he's not that boring. Hell, I don't see how Hitlery is Donkey Kong anything, when it comes dow to it.

Submitted by Davian2K5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:21.

@ WCC:

http://xkcd.com/261/

Only 20-some odd replies to Godwin's Law the convo. Is that a win, or a lose? :-P

Submitted by Josh Martz on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:24.

Yeah, I love xkcd. I guess the probability that this was coming closer to 1 happened pretty quickly this time, eh?

Submitted by Davian2K5 (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:55.

Apparently so, although given the fact that I've seen that nickname for Hillary before - repeatedly - we were probably dealing with influenced statistics.

Hrmmm... I wonder if we could make use of a giant elliptical dish for dealing with politicians....

Submitted by point09micron (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:20.

I think I'd have to equate Hillary with Wii Sports:

Women love it, but it's bad for the industry (country) in the long run.

Submitted by mogbert (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:22.

See, this kind of comparison makes my descision (as if I hadn't already made it) a lot easier.

I'm the guy who has the victory music from FFVII as my cell phone ringtone.

Submitted by If Presidential Candidates Were Old School Video Games &mdas (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:33.

[...] If Presidential Candidates Were Old School Video Games February 13th, 2008 Game With a Brain

Submitted by Orange Soda (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 13:10.

So, whuch candidate would be Lemmings?

Submitted by mogbert (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 13:25.

Now that I think about Ron Paul would be Lair. Technically superior, the previews look great, far and away a good looking choice on paper... but horrible in practice, critically lambasted, but with a very few extremely vocal supporters.

Submitted by Zero Beat (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 14:23.

Since when is FFVII old-school?

Submitted by Lair (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 14:23.

Hillary and McCain would be "King of Fighters" .

Mogbert you will see at the upcoming march how many people support Ron Paul. There are more than you have been led to believe.

Submitted by Monte (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 16:39.

@E. Zachary Knight
The reason they don't include Ron Paul is because he doesn't stand a chance... there's really no point in talking about a candidate that has no hope of winning at this point

Yes a couple of months ago it would be/was unfair for him to be ignored, cause back then anybody could have become a surprise frontrunner if given their fair share of time and good campaigning; like how Huckabee went from the near bottom of the list to hop up to the top 3 (top 2 by default of Romney dropping out)

But now, we are halfway through the primaries and it is clear that he has no hope for getting the republican nomination and really no hope of getting into the whitehouse even if he ran under a third party... he might make a fairly impressive stand compared to previous third party, but in the end he doesn't have the chance... only way a third party candidate would stand a chance is if they were like Liberman; in that they only barely lost the nomination for their party, but were popular enough between citizen's of both parties that they could win despite not having the former party's nomination

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 18:01.

@ Monte

I was kidding about the no love for Ron Paul thing.

I still stand by my Ron Paul = Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

A sub par game that only few people could love, only because they have no idea what Final Fantasy is supposed to be.

It wants to be a part of something bigger, but the franchise has disavowed its existence.

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Submitted by Loudspeaker (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 19:24.

Hehehhe! Good article with a unique spin.

Submitted by MonkeyPeaches (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 20:50.

Jack Thompson would be Pong.

Submitted by point09micron (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:34.

Nah, Jack would be Custer's Revenge -- best forgotten by the world.

Submitted by Joe Bob (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 13:36.

Wow and look so unbiased too. So from a non rep = evil dem = good view point.

Obama: Tony Hawk (original). Plays on youthful and different image. Plays well but there are those annoying bugs.
Hillary: Dikatana or Lair. Hyped, Hyped, get it home and suddenly not so great
Mcain: Everquest 2 play either side, shiney, talks about war alot.
Huckabee: actually super bible adventure and its creator are a pretty good analogy scrappy and God fearing
Paul: Mighty final fight. small man in a big fight and alot of people don't remember it.

Submitted by | If Presidential Candidates Were Old School Video Games (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 18:10.

[...] Original post by GamePolitics Related Articles Fatal error: Call to undefined function: related_posts() in /home/gamerblast/domains/gamerblast.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/SlickAdsense/single.php on line 26 [...]

Poll

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

Zen: Is it just me or is call of duty hitting the "uncanny valley" with their nicely modeled faces and dead looking eyes? I found it distracting and seemed actually "less" real to me lol.05/21/2013 - 4:10pm

james_fudge: it sounds like if you have an HD reciever you'll be able to use it with a pass-through cable... not 100 percent sure yet05/21/2013 - 2:41pm

james_fudge: happening now http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/05/21/2013 - 2:20pm

E. Zachary Knight: Some reading material for Microsoft on its used games blocks. That will hurt the console more than helping. http://ezknight.net/?page_id=20505/21/2013 - 2:18pm

james_fudge: yeah good luck with over the air TV05/21/2013 - 2:12pm

E. Zachary Knight: But what if I want to only watch over the air tv? I don't subscribe to pay tv. I never will. If that is a requirement, then MS wasted 45 minutes telling me how great TV will be.05/21/2013 - 2:08pm

james_fudge: EZK it will depend on your provider, just like HBO Go i'd imagine.05/21/2013 - 2:05pm

PHX Corp: @IanC there's also a chance that those titles might be Xbox one exclusive, but it's too early to tell afaik05/21/2013 - 2:03pm

All shouts

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