Game Grumps Tease New Game With Bootleg Russian NES Clone

As society advances, so does the way we advertise. Magazine pages and billboards aren't as strong as they once were. If you want to catch eyes, you need something more complicated. 

A perfect example of this is with the recently revealed Soviet Jump Game, a retro battle royale game published by YouTube creators Game Grumps. They didn't settle for a simple reveal trailer. Instead, they leaned on the mystery of a 20+ year old Russian rip-off of the NES to build a story and establish hype.

Let me explain. About two weeks ago, the Game Grumps YouTube channel, which specializes in video game letsplays, uploaded a video of founder and co-host Arin Hanson playing bootleg NES games on an old Russian NES clone known as the Dendy. Half of the games didn't work and what remained were of as much quality as you might expect.

A few days later, they uploaded a second video, this time with co-host Dan Avidan. They managed to play more games. All except a single, unlabeled cartridge that showed an error screen in Russian. The case only had a handwritten name that, again, was in Russian.

Then things became suspicious. 

Earlier this week, the YouTube channel uploaded a video claiming to have uncovered a lost piece of gaming history. The video followed Hanson as he did deeper research into that one remaining game. It implied that it was part of an experimental, non-public version of the Dendy that used an internet connection to play. After some tech experimentation, they managed to get a glitchy version of the game running. Inspired by this, they invited an associate to break down the game's code and revive it. They had discovered that it may have even been a battle royale game.

A few days later, Soviet Jumping Game was formally revealed.



While the story they were developing is a fictional one, it'll still serve as the game's main theme: a retro, Russian-style multiplayer battle royale game. Based on retro game themes, players will navigate a 2D platforming world similar to classic Mario games, trying to jump on the heads of their opponents.

Personally, this has been one of the most interesting augmented reality gimmicks done for a video game I've seen this year, with Fortnite's real-life statues appearing around the world sitting at the top.

Under development by Fantastic Passion, Soviet Jump Game will be free to play when it releases on Steam in 2020. If you can't wait that long, you can apply for access to their closed beta. They're allowing select folks to play the game ahead of time as they squash capitalist bugs and refine the game. Sign up here.

More information about the game can be found on the official website. This will be the second game that the Game Grumps publish. The first was a fairly successful "dad dating simulator" called Dream Daddy.