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Is Stalin vs. Martians a satire of a game that isn't bad?
Kieron Gillen at Rock Paper Shotgun tries to convince himself that Stalin vs. Martians isn't awful. Frankly, any time I read someone going through verbal gymnastics to avoid simply saying something is awful, a red flag goes up. And it doesn't have a hammer and sickle on it!
Mr. Gillen comes closest to sounding convincing when he suggests the game is actually satire.Would I recommend you buy it after my experience of five of its twelve levels? For fifteen quid? Not on your nelly. But there's certainly car-crash value, especially if you tie yourself in theoretical knots deciding exactly how much of the game is satire.
Ooh, I'm going to try that approach. The Godfather II is satire!
Rats, it didn't work. The Godfather II still stinks.
By Switchbreak at 11:34 AM ON 04/30/09
The thing about being funny is that it doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not the thing sucks. Godfather II: Bad and not funny. Life of Brian: Good and funny. Shaolin Soccer: Bad and funny.
Stalin vs. Martians: Awful and hilarious.
By Kieron Gillen at 12:02 PM ON 04/30/09
Does "a lot rubbish" not mean "awful" in Colonial now?
KG
By Zeus Poplar at 2:05 PM ON 04/30/09
I see this time and time again. A game comes out, it tries to be funny, and everyone hates it.
Granted, comedy is subjective, and one man's LOL is another man's heh. But it seems when estimating the overall worth of a game, most people don't take humor into account.
I can't imagine if films were treated the same way: "Yes, such-and-such Judd Apatow movie is hilarious, but did you see the spotty camera work? Poor editing? Iffy acting? Bad set decoration? There are simply too many technical flaws to recommend this film."
Walking into a comedy, Roger Ebert probably doesn't expect fine filmmaking. He's probably just hoping for a laugh.
By Justin Fletcher at 2:22 PM ON 04/30/09
Kieron already gave props in the article, but here's another shout out to Troy Goodfellow for bringing up the satire bit on Twitter.
By tiolawa at 2:15 AM ON 05/04/09
Go Martians!!! Stupid Communists!
tiolawa:
Go Martians!!! Stupid Communists!...More »