If subway delays have you stuck underground, you might as well monkey around.
The minds behind such satirical online games as “Thoughts & Prayers: The Game” and “EpiPen Tycoon” released their subway-centric “MTA Country” on Tuesday. The free game parodies Nintendo’s 1994 hit “Donkey Kong Country” — only this time, instead of a rickety wooden cart, players guide a jumping subway car over track fires and broken rails.
Chris Baker, 35, of Cobble Hill, is on the three-person team at Everyday Arcade and said the idea came from, well, being stuck underground.
“I think [it was] our collective experiences, getting trapped on the F or the 6. When we finally decided to do it, there had been a spurt of really bad news out of the subway, you know, videos of people trapped,” Baker said by telephone Tuesday. “We were tossing around ideas and we said, ‘Remember that old level in ‘Donkey Kong Country’ with that ridiculous broken-down mine shaft,’ and we immediately knew that was the right, easy fit.”
The game starts when “Gregg T.” — of MTA ad campaign fame — Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are launched from a platform trash can into a rolling subway car.
To a custom soundtrack “inspired by the rhythms of the original ‘Donkey Kong Country,’” players collect old MTA tokens and glittering letters on their journey that ultimately spell out “PRIVATIZE.” The car and tracks then transform into a futuristic hyperloop, ala Elon Musk.
“All of our other games have been very overhanded in their ideologies, and we were trying to figure out what the gag would be here. I tossed out the idea, ‘What if Elon Musk took over the subway system?’” Baker said, laughing. “And that became the joke.”
