The history of adult video games (if we can call them that) is extensive, but they have not had great successes beyond – perhaps – the Leisure Suit Larry franchise or the infamous Custer’s Revenge. However, there is a legendary banned video game that has been missing for twenty years. You may have never heard of The Guy Game, but you should know that it has suddenly reappeared.
The pleasure of the forbidden
The Guy Game was released on August 31, 2004 for PS2 and Xbox, and later for PC. The game itself consisted of answering questions and winning mini-games. If you succeeded, you could see young women in bikinis (or even without them if you earned enough points in something called Flash-o-meter). The idea seems to be the work of a novice in video games looking to make easy money, but the truth is that it was directed by Jeff Spangenberg, founder of Retro Studios and developer of Metroid Prime.
The Guy Game had nothing to do with Samus Aran: it was the first title released with their new company, Topheavy Studios. In the end, it would be the only one. And it’s not just that it encountered a sales flop and very negative reviews, but it also ended up facing the law, sued by one of the women who appeared in the videos without clothes.
It turns out that the girl was underage when those sequences were filmed, and she did not give her consent to appear anywhere, so they ended up removing it from all sites. The game sold 60,000 units and was never heard of again until the other day when it reappeared at a retro gaming convention in its Xbox version for $250.
And you might think “Well, but can you buy it online, right?” It is worth noting that even eBay prohibits its sale on its website due to the scandal, so if there is someone who is a big fan of banned games, they will have to start preparing their wallet. Although, frankly, I don’t think it’s worth it.