Throwing Shade

Tombstones are a focus for mourning and remembrance, but video games often use them to take light-hearted shots at the competition. With a simple epitaph, you can make it seem like characters from competing franchises are dead! This sort of thing happens quite often. A tombstone in Primal made reference to Lara Croft, Altered Beast had a shout-out to Alex Kidd, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had tombstones that simply read, “R.I.P. Opposition.” The most noteworthy example occurs in Final Fantasy. In the original Japanese version, players could find a tombstone that read, “Here lies Link.” When Nintendo localized the game for American audiences, the Zelda reference was edited out and the grave read “Here lies Erdrick” instead. Erdrick was a legendary hero from the Dragon Quest series, so he was probably a more appropriate target. After all, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy were direct competitors in the RPG space, and the games had much more in common than Final Fantasy and Zelda did. Square and Enix eventually merged, of course, so the rivalry between their RPG franchises doesn’t make a lot of sense in hindsight. Final Fantasy can no longer throw shade at Dragon Quest without Square Enix casting a shadow upon itself.

Shadow Warrior was 3D Realms’ follow-up to Duke Nukem 3D, and it was created with the same sense of humor in mind. The game didn’t break a lot of new ground and wasn’t especially memorable, but its twisted Tomb Raider reference feels like a snapshot in time. Prior to the release of the 2012 Tomb Raider reboot, an executive at Crystal Dynamics suggested that players would be feel compelled to protect Lara in the game. This drew the ire of unhinged keyboard warriors who were apparently insulted at the concept of strongk women being placed in perilous situations. When Shadow Warrior was released in 1997, nobody batted an eye when a Lara Croft expy was literally chained to a wall. Upon finding her, the main character laughs and happily declares that “she’s raided her last tomb.” Shadow Warrior and Tomb Raider weren’t competing franchises and didn’t even fall into the same genre, so some would argue that the Lara Croft reference was a little forced. It was a faithful representation as far as the visuals were concerned, but it was objectification at its worst. I’d imagine a lot of people would feel uncomfortable with the notion of an iconic sex symbol being depicted as a helpless victim. In case you’re wondering, the imprisoned Lara has no barring on the game’s story and there’s no way to save her. You can put her out of her misery by shooting her, however. Given the commotion surrounding the Tomb Raider reboot, I’m curious if Shadow Warrior could have survived in this climate.

The stealth-based gameplay in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell has been compared to Metal Gear Solid from the very beginning. The Splinter Cell development team had a specific goal of creating a Metal Gear killer, so I’m sure they would welcome the comparison. Splinter Cell games often take subtle swipes at rival stealth games, and the most blatant example can be seen in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. At one point, Sam Fisher demands ammo from one of the guards he is interrogating. The guard is unreceptive and flippantly explains, “It’s not like you can shake me and make my ammo fall on the floor to pick up.” This is a reference to the guards in Metal Gear Solid 2, who’d start to shake when guns were pointed at them before eventually dropping their ammo. This lighthearted jab was just for laughs, but it did illustrate the differences between the two franchises. Ultimately, Metal Gear Solid is more willing to venture into the realm of the absurd while Splinter Cell is content with making fun of the absurdities. Chaos Theory also took shots at Half-Life and James Bond, so Metal Gear Solid 2 was in good company.

In the final act of No More Heroes, aspiring assassin Travis Touchdown comes face-to-face with his most dangerous opponent yet – his ex-girlfriend, Jeane. When Travis learns that Jeane killed his family, he demands an explanation. Jeane is reluctant to honor his request, and contends that her incest-filled story would “jack up the age rating of this game even further.” When Travis persists, Jeane raisers concerns about the game being delayed and says, “You don’t want this to become No More Heroes Forever, do you?” This was a thinly-veiled reference to Duke Nukem Forever, which had been delayed on several different occasions. The game had been in development for over a decade by that point, and it had become a running joke for the entire industry. Jeane’s light-hearted jabs broke the fourth wall, but they weren’t misplaced. Incidentally, Travis conceded Jeane’s point and agreed to fast-forward through her explanation. Nobody wants their game to become the next Duke Nukem Forever.

When Activision revealed Call of Duty: Ghosts to the world in 2013, one of the “next gen” features they chose to highlight was a new A.I. system that would cause fish to move out of your way if you got too close to them. This technology did not seem especially impressive considering that it was something other games had already been doing for the better part of two decades. Heck, even the fish in Super Mario 64 would move away from the player. The Internet had a field day with the whole thing, and a number of industry insiders even decided to get in on the action. One of the devs of Battlefield 4 explained that they had to “cut fish A.I. to make way for collapsing skyscrapers and other large-scale destruction.” The developers of Payday 2 decided to have a little fun as well, but they put their joke into their game instead of making a snarky post on social media. Payday 2 featured an achievement titled “Fish A.I.” that could be unlocked by throwing bags of money and making the fish move out of the way. Now that’s what I call next gen technology!

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings contains a rather obvious reference to another assassin-themed video game. During the prologue, Geralt of Rivia comes across a body that’s dressed in a distinctive white robe. The body is laying in a haystack, and it’s implied that the poor sap had fallen from a great height. Geralt doesn’t seem surprised by the event, and he simply says, “Guess they’ll never learn.” The entire scenario is a reference to a central mechanic from the Assassin’s Creed games that allows players to make leaps of faith from high places. Regardless of how high up they are, the assassins will escape unscathed if they happen to land in one of the haystacks that are conveniently placed throughout the game. The assassins can jump from the top of the highest cathedrals and live to tell about it, but such tactics are apparently ineffective in Geralt’s world. Although Geralt has little time for the would-be assassin, his backstabbing abilities will increase as a reward for finding the body. This, of course, is another reference to the Assassin’s Creed series.

Duke Nukem 3D was a controversial first-person shooter that made a mockery of Hollywood action heroes and the tropes that define them. The game was filled with satirical pop-culture references, and it was something of a deconstruction of FPS genre itself. At the time of the game’s release, DOOM was the undisputed king of the FPS mountain. (So much so that games like Duke Nukem 3D were simply referred to as DOOM clones in many publications.) If you were in the business of lampooning popular franchises, it made sense to take aim at DOOM. On that note, one of the missions in Duke Nukem 3D had a secret room in which players would discover a mangled corpse that looked suspiciously like the protagonist from DOOM. Duke is unmoved by the scene and wryly notes that “that’s one doomed space marine.” Duke Nukem 3D was filled with Easter eggs, and this was not the last time that the series made fun of one of its competitors. In the 20th Anniversary World Tour edition of the game, Duke stumbles upon a familiar corpse and asks, “Why so serious, Sam?” This, of course, was a thinly-veiled reference to the eponymous protagonist from Serious Sam dressed up in a quote from The Dark Knight.

After saving the day in Donkey Kong Country 2, Diddy Kong is given the opportunity to enter Cranky Kong’s prestigious Hall of Fame for video game heroes. To be eligible, Diddy must find special DK tokens that are hidden throughout the game’s stages. Mario, Yoshi, and Link are names that Diddy has to surpass if he wants a place on the podium. (Cranky’s not exactly an unbiased curator.) The scenario suggests that Diddy could potentially outshine popular characters from yesteryear, and it also paints Nintendo’s competitors as complete losers. Sonic the Hedgehog’s trademark shoes and Earthworm Jim’s distinctive gun can both be seen near a trash can at the bottom of the screen. A sign suggests that these characters are “no hopers” and implies that they’re not even in the same league as Mario and company. Sega and Nintendo frequently exchanged barbs in advertisements, but it was rare to see blatant in-game references to the competition. It was all in good fun, and Shiny Interactive was probably happy that Earthworm Jim was made part of the conversation.

Serious Sam is cut from the same cloth as Duke Nukem, and he could be described as a parody in some respects. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that the Serious Sam games take potshots at the series that inspired it. The most egregious examples can be seen in Serious Sam II. One of the characters that you help in the game mentions that he was “waiting forever for that blondie guy” to save him. Later in that same stage, Sam encounters a skeleton hanging in a wooded area and remarks, “Dude, you’ve been hanging here, like, FOREVER.” The line is a reference to the fact that Duke Nukem Forever had been in development for five years (at that point) with no sign of release in sight. The skeleton had Duke’s distinct hairstyle and was even wearing a pair of shades, so it was impossible to miss the reference. Adding insult to injury, Duke’s skeleton had a rocket shoved up its ass in an unceremonious fashion. Maybe that’s just what he needed to get moving again, but it still took another nine years before Duke Nukem Forever saw the light of day. Duke Nukem would later give Serious Sam a receipt in the 20th Anniversary edition of Duke Nukem 3D, but the comeback didn’t sting as much as the original jab.

In the world of comedy, it’s well established that you only roast the ones you love. If that’s true, then we can assume that Technos really loves themselves. Renegade is one of the earliest examples of a beat ’em up, but Technos outdid themselves the following year with the release of Double Dragon. When River City Ransom launched a few years later, Technos decided to play tribute to its spiritual predecessor. Before reaching the final boss in River City Ransom, players must first contend with the notorious Dragon Twins. Randy and Andy are an obvious homage to Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon. They have the same squinty eyes that the Lee brothers had in the NES version of Double Dragon, and the Game Boy Advance remake of River City Ransom took things a step further by changing their hair color to better match their forebears. These references might not seem especially obvious on paper, but all subtlety is throw out the window when the unmistakable Double Dragon theme starts blaring in the background. If you’re in the mood to over-analyze things, beating up the Dragon Twins was allegory to River City Ransom dethroning Double Dragon.