The Wild World of Flash Games: Revisiting “:the Game:”
Before support for Adobe Flash was officially ceased in 2021, it was the delivery method for some of the wildest and most bizarre interactive games the internet has ever seen. Some creations led to amazing things. Some floundered in obscurity. Others were simply too strange to ignore. Whatever they may have have led to, these games deserve to be illuminated once more.
It’s time to take a look at a game that didn’t necessarily originate on Newgrounds, but it’s one that certainly stuck out when it originally released in 2008. The Game, styled as :the game:, is a strange exercise in comedy, satire, and 2008 socioeconomic conditions, so much so that it genuinely captured the period it was made in. This is even true in the face of other games this series has taken a look at, like Crunchdown. Its pop culture references are so of their time, its gags are so steeped in the wild west of internet culture, and its over-the-top presentation is so firmly entrenched in the spirit of the time, that it’s difficult to imagine something else quite like it.
Playing :the game:
:the game: is simple to play. It’s a series of one-off minigames that fixate themselves around a central theme or concept, while mostly sharing numerous elements between them. Each minigame is prefaced with its theme (ex. CAPITALISM: the game), followed by a witty alternative title below. From there, you’re treated to a variation, big or small, on a very simple gameplay formula: one figure, one platform, and an endless void below. Often times, the end goal of each minigame is to simply fling yourself off the edge of the cliff. Sometimes you’ll have to collect items, or complete other miscellaneous objectives before accomplishing this, or you’ll have to experience a completely different game mode. These can vary significantly.
It’s not exactly stunning stuff, but what’s there is engaging to a point. There’s some satisfaction to be found in the game’s central loop. It’s one that consistently invites you to keep playing, just to see where it will take you next. It’s not a long game by any means, thankfully, but what’s here draws your attention enough to see it through to the end. It’s also noticeably shorter than its eventual sequels, made shorter via having every minigame available to play from the very start in any order you want.
A Product of Its Time
A lot of the references featured in :the game:. will probably be lost on the audience most likely to experience them today, sadly. It’s not a stretch to suggest that the current youth wouldn’t get Shooting Lawyers in the Face: the game, an over-the-top and blunt joke at former vice president Dick Cheney’s expense. Likewise, Couch: the game sees acclaimed actor Tom Cruise circa 2005 and Rick James (or rather, Dave Chappelle’s depiction of Rick James via The Chappelle Show) competing to see who can destroy a couch the fastest. You had to be there to get it. We’ll give them bonus points for also recreating the beginning of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up in with simplistic animation.
Like a lot of other flash games from the time, the :the game:’s audio mixing leaves something to be desired too. Granted, the way free-to-use or otherwise illicitly-obtained sound effects blend with each other to form a collaborative, disconnected soundscape here adds to the overall charm. In both its gameplay and in its presentation, it really is an encapsulation of how creatives took liberty of freely-available resources and the growing commonality of near-instant communication, even if licensing agreements weren’t necessarily adhered to. On the other hand, it can also hurt your ears.
Thankfully, other areas of the game more than make up for this little pitfall. The game’s artistic assets weren’t incredible for the time, but what they lacked in extreme detail, they made up for it with a simplistic yet appealing style that would be relatively maintained in its follow-up games, even if they cranked up the level of detail and interactivity substantially. If anything, the limited character animation and otherwise simplistic art assets make the game’s gags work even more effectively, more so when it deviates from the norm for a particular joke.
Who Made :the game:?
Unsurprisingly, the talented author behind :the game: would go on to produce other incredible games, even going beyond those related to this flash oddball. But you may be surprised to learn what exactly they made in the years afterward. Nicky Case originally developed the game in their teens, as mentioned in their official website, and though they would publish REPLAYING :the game: and Reimagine :the game: in 2009 and 2011, respectively, their creative output would diversify immensely throughout the 2010s.
:the game: itself was a viral hit with players and internet personalities alike, but that similar level of incredible popularity wouldn’t be replicated until the release of 2016’s We Become What We Behold. It’s a game that shares some surface-level similarities with :the game:, but with an earnest attempt at tackling something in a mature way. Specifically, it explores media influence, news cycles, and how the two intersect in ways that can affect the general population. It’s a fully open-source title that enjoyed some incredible, if not short-lived, popularity when it originally debuted in 2016. The timing of this release, which coincided the same year as a certain controversial presidential election win in the United States, couldn’t have been better.
Case is still active online, albeit in a smaller capacity. Aside from making interactive games, their personal website is host to a plethora of intriguing content, ranging from informative blog posts to a handful of their presentations at Stanford and GDC. Though :the game: isn’t directly hosted on their site, they do make a small mention of it and its unexpected level of popularity.
While :the game: is just a very small piece in an otherwise prolific series of projects for Nicky Case, it’s still worth acknowledging. The dry humor got a few laughs out of me, and its plentiful array of pop culture references act as an irreverent slice of not just flash game culture at the time, but also the wilder state of the internet at the time. Chaos reigned for the longest time, and while the works produced during this period weren’t necessarily always the highest quality possible, it still led to memorable little games like this. It’s a piece of history, at the end of the day — one you can interact with and replay to your heart’s content.
:the game: is currently available to play on Newgrounds.
