I just finished watching King of Kong and besides my overwhelming enjoyment in the story, and direction of the film, I was struck with a second response, an unanswered question in that has stuck with me…
Is there a High Score record for Revolution X?
For those unaware, Revolution X is the Aerosmith arcade game, brought to you by Midway. (The urge to put some part of that in quotes to highlight how completely and utterly absurd it is betrays my plan to remain objective on this one.) It’s a post-apocalyptic, part live-action, light-gun shooter that features brief but badly acted cameo’s by Aerosmith, and is punctuated with a whopping 4 songs, most of which are broken into few-second loops.
I would like to state here that I am by no means an avid “gamer”, and as I’m not, I would not normally tread the dangerous ground of commentary due to lack of experience. I haven’t actually owned my own console since an N64 that is in a box somewhere. I can count the games I’ve beaten on all of my digits, most likely without removing my shoes, and even when I lived with someone that owned a “modded” console filled to the brim with emulators I mostly started games of Earthbound never to be finished, or came home drunkenly from a bar and played the Punisher Final-Fight rip-off while giving myself unlimited credits. If you want to ask me about a rapper, an obscure noise band, or an episode of CSI Miami, I will probably be quick to have an opinion, but generally I try to leave stuff like video games to those that have knowledge to back it up. I’m usually content to watch them play anyway. It’s less frustrating.
But Revolution X is different. It’s overwhelming stupidity was so… well overwhelming, that even though I have only played it a couple times, right after it got installed into our neighborhood arcade, I remember it clearly. It had terrible controls, an insanely muddled plot, clumsy tie-ins (you shoot CD’s at people!!!), and painfully boring loops of music and characters. I would go on, but it’s had a better, and more elaborate skewering by multiple others. A quick google search will get you plenty.
The point I wanted to make is that It DOES have a high score registered on the Twin Galaxies web-site. This makes me so happy. There is nothing that speaks more highly of man’s (and in this case, it looks like one women’s) quest to compete and be the best at something, that there is an actual entry, as well as for two runners up, for what may be the WORST arcade game ever hoisted on the quarter palmed masses. That two individuals dueled to the death (the top two scores are the same date and time, and in front of a referee) at a game that is offensive on every possible level of taste and decency, one that’s almost un-playable, speaks not just of the human will, but the human spirit. Someone get a camera ready.
Tags: Aerosmith, Arcade Games, King of Kong, Revolution X, Twin Galaxies
