MetaChat - drezdn's crazy business ideas #4: Undead Presidents, the fighting game

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10 April 2007

drezdn's crazy business ideas #4: Undead Presidents, the fighting game →[More:]My friends and I developed this in high school. It would be a street fighter/mortal kombat style fighting game where the players control dead presidents. Each president has a special move or move based on a quick read of the wikipedia entry.

With special techniques, it's possible to unlock living presidents.

post by: drezdn at: 08:43 | 34 comments

This is hilarious. I love you, drezdn.

Could you elaborate on some special techniques? George Washington could yield an axe (like the one he used to cut down that cherry tree), or he could attack with his wooden teeth in the same way that Oddjob uses his hat in the Bond movies.

Lincoln could inflict lethal paper cuts with copies of The Gettysburg Address. Madison could freeze people with tubs of his wife's famous ice cream.

posted by iconomy 10 April | 08:54

Iconomy, I will do by best to try to remember them.

Ideally each president will have a catchphrase too, like Truman would yell "The Buck Stops Here."

posted by drezdn 10 April | 09:10

Followed by a Nuclear explosion.

posted by hadjiboy 10 April | 09:40

House rule #1: No fair picking George Washington, what with his 30 dicks and all.

posted by mullacc 10 April | 10:08

Oh, and JFK is also off limits.

posted by mullacc 10 April | 10:14

Dead Prez: Teddy Roosevelt
Weapon: Bō (i.e., quarterstaff)
Special Attack: San Juan Hell Charge
Catchphrase: "I speak softly, but I carry a BIIIIG stick!"

posted by Atom Eyes 10 April | 10:17

Was it Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson that ran somebody over?

posted by box 10 April | 10:18

Also, Bill and Hillary Clinton are both playable characters in Ready to Rumble: Round 2. So are Michael Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal. Yeah, I don't know either.

posted by box 10 April | 10:22

Was it Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson that ran somebody over?

I thought that was Grant.

posted by cobra! 10 April | 10:28

Dead Prez: Richard Nixon aka The Shredder
Weapons: Paper Shredder and 18 minutes worth of razor sharp cassette tape, used to whip and strangle
Special Attack: Stinging Upper Lip Sweat Spray - he whips his head around 360 degrees and stings opponents with the huge droplets of sweat collecting on his upper lip
Catchphrase: "I am not a crook, but I will steal your soul!"

posted by iconomy 10 April | 10:32

One of Nixon's secret moves would be "The Silent Majority," which would mainly involve G. Gordan Liddy coming out and hitting you in the shins with a crowbar.

posted by drezdn 10 April | 10:33

Dead Prez: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Weapon: Pike
Special Attack: Eye Spike Ike
Catchphrase: "I just stormed your beach, bitch!"

posted by Atom Eyes 10 April | 10:41

Did I go to high school with you? My friends had the same idea, and even drew up a bunch of character sketches for it. Like, fatman Taft...

posted by klangklangston 10 April | 10:42

i love this idea extremely much. drezdn and iconomy you're both geniuses.

who here is a game programmer?

posted by lonefrontranger 10 April | 10:43

ooh Atom Eyes, nice!

yea you 3 should work this up. me, i don't know for dead presidents. well except for old hickory whatsizhame the duellist, i guess he could take out peeps with his blunderbuss.

posted by lonefrontranger 10 April | 10:46

Wouldn't that be wild if drezdn and klang knew each other in hs?

"I just stormed your beach, bitch!"

Hee....that's pretty much untoppable.

I know, lfr...it would make a killer game! I would so play it.

posted by iconomy 10 April | 10:49

'I'll ruin you like a Japanese banquet!'

posted by box 10 April | 10:55

William Henry Harrison
Weapon: bacterial
Special attack: drops dead; germs burst forth from corpse
Catchphrase: Tippecanoe and aww, fuck you.

posted by cobra! 10 April | 10:56

Calvin Coolidge
Weapon: noxious gas
Special attack: "Silent but deadly" emissions
Catchphrase: .

posted by cobra! 10 April | 10:58

Dead Prez: George Washington aka The Delaware Destroyer
Weapons: Axe, Razor-Edged Set of Wooden Teeth
Special Attacks: Valley Forge Deadlift, Powdered Wig Head Stomp
Catchphrase: "I cannot tell a lie; I'm going to kick your muthafuckin ass!"

posted by iconomy 10 April | 11:11

Special attack: drops dead; germs burst forth from corpse
Catchphrase: Tippecanoe and aww, fuck you.

Superb!

posted by Atom Eyes 10 April | 11:11

Coolidge catchphrase: You lose.

posted by box 10 April | 11:17

If you're playing as Truman and you're defeated, you can enter the button combination for the legendary "Dewey defeats Truman," which causes the opponent to loose instead.

It's more of a minor move, but Truman can also pull out "The Whistle Stop Tour" which causes your opponent to be hit by a train.

Klang, I'm guessing it's just a coincidence, unless you're originally from the Milwaukee-area

posted by drezdn 10 April | 11:24

lose

posted by drezdn 10 April | 11:25

Dead Prez: Lyndon Baines Johnson
Weapon: Dominant personality, oversized fists
Special Attack: War on Punkassery
Catchphrase: "Hey, hey, LBJ -- how many PUNKS did you PWN today?!"

posted by Atom Eyes 10 April | 11:39

This is a big tangent, but the process of trying to come up with more entries for this game reminds me of when I put this together.

posted by cobra! 10 April | 11:46

Re: Cobra!'s link - Kennedy's specialty has to be mobilizing The Strategic Hooker Reserve.

posted by iconomy 10 April | 11:50

Also, it would be nice if Kennedy had a special move where Marilyn Monroe would come out and sing Happy Birthday while wearing a see-through dress, thereby distracting the opponent and rendering him utterly helpless for the duration of the song (if the opponent is Bill Clinton then the match is automatically over), at which point Kennedy would unleash a special attack known as The Pill Box Hat Barrage, in which opponents would be suffocated under a huge pile of fetching Pill Box hats similar to those made popular by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

posted by iconomy 10 April | 11:57

One of which is leopardskin, prompting Bob Dylan to pop out and start singing about it.

posted by cobra! 10 April | 12:00

Reagan's signature move is the "Mourning in America" which causes the high school commandos to come out of hiding and kill Reagan's opponent.

Opponents facing Hoover can use the move "Great Depression" against him, which causes him to be unable to move until he is killed.

Potential secret/unlockable characters include vice presidents or people who have ran for president and lost. If you beat the last level, you can go back and play the entire thing as Jefferson Davis, his special move is the "Secession" where he rips the other player's body in two.

posted by drezdn 10 April | 12:04

see now, if i were a teacher, i'd totally encourage my (high school level) american history classes to work on conceptualisations for projects like this.

now, mind you, i'd quickly get fired for the un-pc-ness of it all. but still, don't you think this would spark more interest in learning than the standard lesson plans?

or maybe not.

posted by lonefrontranger 10 April | 13:00

Opponents facing Hoover can use the move "Great Depression" against him, which causes him to be unable to move until he is killed.

Hoover's battle cry: Damn!

posted by cobra! 10 April | 13:25

Oh god if only I had the time to do the programming for this, what a spectacular idea.

posted by cmonkey 10 April | 14:38

i would totally play this game.
And Lincoln better kick ass and do a fruity victory dance.

posted by ethylene 10 April | 14:41

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