Emo Game

Emo kids demand equality!


Emo Game is a series of free Flash games made by Jason Oda between 2002 and 2004. All of them can be accessed and played here. There are four games in the series:

  • Emogame 1: A Get-Up Kidnapping! -- The original, released in 2002. The emo band The Get-Up Kids gets kidnapped by Steven Tyler to be sodomized in his dungeon, and a group of Emo rockers set out to save them, going on an adventure through Suburbia, MTV Studios and Steven Tyler's dimension of evil that reveals the true origin of emo kids.
  • Alkaline Trio vs. Hell -- The three members of Alkaline Trio get run over while taking Rose McGowan home from a bar, and show up at the Pearly Gates. There, God tells then that, if they want a second chance at life, they have to go down into Hell and kill the Prince of Darkness himself, Skeletor. No, really -- Skeletor, not Satan. In addition to serving as a standalone game, Alkaline Trio vs. Hell served as a preview of sorts for the upcoming second game in the series, released later in 2003.
  • Emogame 2: The Epic Quest Continues -- A year after the events of the original game, the cast of Friends have formed a band so that they could use the combined power of MTV and Subliminal Seduction to force a soulless, corporate materialism onto the world, and it's up to our band of plucky emo heroes to save the world from yuppie Brainwashing.
  • The Anti-Bush Game -- Jason Oda created this game in the run-up to the 2004 election in response to what he saw as the corporate greed, warmongering and religious fanaticism of the George W. Bush administration. It features Hulk Hogan, Mr. T and He-Man going on a righteous rampage to claim the five keys to activate Voltron and take down Dubya. Sadly, it looks to have been taken down (perhaps as a result of Bush no longer being in office), as the link to it from the website is dead.

The games are 16-bit-style, action-adventure side scrollers that parody both popular culture and the Emo music scene. Most of the humor is derived from its over-the-top portrayal of media figures and TV shows, as well as in-jokes for emo fans, shout outs to '80s and '90s kids shows, and its willingness to cross every line of decency to make the player laugh.

A third game in the series, titled Super Emogame III, was announced in early 2005, and was originally planned for a 2006 release. Updates were released on occasion (including a demo), and it was planned to be on a music CD that would be available through the website. It has since entered the status of Vaporware, with Jason Oda putting a notice on his website saying that, with the game an incomplete mess with mostly outdated humor, it will probably never see the light of day. The game's site used to be accessible here for a look at What Could Have Been, but sadly, it's down (and the Wayback Machine doesn't work with its Flash-heavy page).

Jason Oda is still making games, which can be viewed through his website, Starving Eyes.


Tropes used in Emo Game include:
  • Adolf Hitler: Appears as a boss in Alkaline Trio vs. Hell.
  • All-American Face: Hulk Hogan himself, who's a secret character in one game and the lead protagonist of the anti-Bush game.
  • Anti-Villain: Jimmy Eat World in the first game. The reason they had for removing their ovaries (just go with it) actually makes sense -- they wanted to keep making good music without breaking up, even if it meant making emo mainstream. The player character's criticism of them basically boils down to "It's Popular, Now It Sucks" more than anything -- he even grudgingly acknowledges that the music is still good, and that the only reason he doesn't like it is because of the airplay it gets. Of course, knowing this game, this was most likely intended as a parody of elitist music fans who think that music can't be both popular and good at the same time.
  • Bait and Switch: The second game looks like it's going to recycle the plot of the first game, with Enrique Iglesias hacking into the TV set to announce that he has kidnapped the band Saves the Day to rape them. A few seconds later, the people watching reply:

Geoff: Dude, this is boring. Change it.
Matt: Yeah. I can't believe they canceled the Dawson's Creek marathon for this lame-ass show.

God, this plot is getting worse and worse.

  1. a simple push of a button in the first game, moving the mouse up and down in Alkaline Trio vs. Hell, and alternating, and shifting, button presses in the second main game
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