I beat Hideo Kojima. Not in a physical fight, because he's probably across the other side of the globe right now and, if I did ever bump into him, my first instinct wouldn't be to throw hands. And not in a metaphorical, "I overcame Death Stranding" kinda way. I beat Hideo Kojima, or his memeified counterpart, in a videogame demo.
Steam Next Fest always brings hundreds of playable demos to the digital storefront, and among the festivities this month was Meme Mayhem, an idle roguelike that has you fight internet trolls by chucking emojis at them across the battlefields of social media.
After a couple rounds fighting trolls, you eventually scroll across a minor or major internet celebrity who serve as boss fights. Sometimes they come in the form of a generically cute cat that might have gone viral, or the perennially depressed toad meme, or a Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson lookalike called The Stone, who didn't hesitate in the slightest to bully me on the in-game social media board.
That's when I came across Kideo, a spectacled man with instantly recognizable hair and a knack for short-form film reviews. He wanted to fight me for unclear reasons, but at least his defeat gave him painful inspiration for his next "great game story," or so he says.
Meme Mayhem's main menu teases a bunch of other playable characters that were locked in my demo (that or I didn't manage to unlock them in time), including a Strong Doge and... Gaven, a big-bearded character who bears an uncanny resemblance to Gabe Newell, Valve's very own co-founder and an internet meme in his own unique way.
Meme Mayhem's general concept and its slightly cringe execution might turn a lot of folks off, but the promise of playing as Gabe Newell while fighting Hideo Kojima is too alluring to resist. You can try Meme Mayhem's demo now on Steam or wait to make Kideo fight Gaven when the full game comes out this July.
Check out our upcoming indie games list for more cool, unexpected surprises.
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