Well, that didn’t take long. The foaming outrage over the arrest of Kim Dotcom and the shutdown of his MegaUpload empire needed all of five days to result in this, MegaUP: Upload If You Can, a protest title released Wednesday on Xbox Live’s Indie Games service. Proceeds from the sale of the game (after Microsoft takes its cut) benefit its maker. Kim would be so proud.
Here’s the narrative setup to MegaUP, which sounds like a Stephen J. Cannell remake of Zero Wing [everything sic’d]:
In 2012 four men owners of a known uploader web were sent to prison by the government of freedom for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from prision. Today, still wanted by the government of freedom, they survive as uploaders of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire them.
The game, by Bionic Thumbs, costs 80 Microsoft Points, unless you can pirate it, of course! It also plays like something built in five days. Your heroic defender of piracy, theft and copyright infringement is outrunning a SWAT van, tasked with leaping over barriers, cops, cop cars and most difficult of all, other SWAT vans. He never escapes, which is probably the most ironic statement this thing makes.
It only gets tricky when the game spawns an obstacle behind the foreground scenery. Otherwise, it’s one-button simple. After one try I’m already on the global top 10 leader board, just like Kim Dotcom in Modern Warfare 3!
MegaUP: Upload If You Can [Xbox Live Indie Games. h/t bugashi]
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