Think back ten years. Done? Good, you’ve survived the hideous form of time travel known as long-term memory. Do you see a creepy first-person shooter out there, full of memes and intentionally terrible font choices? Congratulations, you may remember 420BlazeIt, a strange game that was created during a 7-day game jam by one of the creators of Crossy Road. He briefly made the YouTube rounds, back when YouTube wasn’t yet the anxiety-inducing ad factory that it is today.
Now I will ask you to return to the present. But get ready for a little shock – the sequel to this bong-chugging shooter is coming. 420BlazeIt 2 has been teased for several months, but now a demo has been released for you to play.
“The Illuminati stole all the memes in the world!” we were told. “You are a former secret service agent who lived a quiet life of painting, but now you need to fight again.”
The first thing you do is kick the piano to pieces. Nearby is a sign that reads “Live, Laugh, Illuminati.” When you break down doors and shoot guys in suits with shotgun shells and AKs, you will hear dubstep ringing in your ears and it will look very comical. Probably the depressed moment comes when you defeat the swamp ogre with a bucket “Sherk”, while in the clutches of a multi-colored trance that punishes your eyes. Sherk lies bleeding, in pain and dying. The sadness of this moment is somewhat undercut by the constant vuvuzela horns blaring over the ogre’s dying words.
So yes, cruelty to the visual and auditory nerves. The thing is… he’s actually doing really well? The guns are smoothly animated and have a nice sense of recoil, a tough kick into a door feels appropriately powerful, and enemies’ bodies react to the shot of pellets in just the right way, whether that’s by stumbling backwards in pain and shooting backwards in the wrong direction or clawing across the floor in violent spasms of mortality. Don’t be fooled, this game is a terrible crime against your ears, eyes and brain. But it is extremely silky to the touch. Hmm.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise. Andrew Sum, game designer and studio head of Normal Wholesome Games, has previously said that he is a gigantic fan of shooters. He also seems to be aware that this is very different from another game he is known for, the popular Frogger-like telephone game, Crossy Road. “If players are surprised, confused, or feel strong emotions,” his studio’s website reads, “the team can call it a success.”
420BlazeIt 2 will also feature a meme slider, possibly allowing you to adjust how saturated your gameplay is. The original game did something similar, including a “dubstep controller” that ran in the background, detecting how many enemies were dying and placing a “dubstep” accordingly. If you like the sound of it, you still can play the original 420BlazeIt game Today.
Or better yet, download the sequel demo that we’ve collected along with all the other Steam Next Fest demos. That’s an impressive crop, my friends. Fantastic yield.
