Minimum Wage: Influence The Election

In Minimum Wage, you play as the night janitor for the White House, a week before election day. Through some fairly straightforward stealth mechanics, you can sneak onto the premises after your work is done and plant various bits and pieces – top secret documents, environmentally-conscious snacks, a basketball, you know, normal stuff – to influence the (legally-distinct, orange-toned) President’s business the next day, along with the public perception of him. You can choose to make him look better or worse, and when election day comes his fate is in your hands. All seems a rather whimsical fantasy these days, doesn’t it? The game is fairly modest – the art style is simple, reminiscent of a classic Newgrounds Flash game, and there’s about an hour or two’s worth of gameplay in there – but the animation is smooth and the escalation of the obstacles works out nicely. On your first night you just have to avoid a single camera, but by the end there’s several more, along with a dog running around the Rose Garden, sleeping members of the First Family and extremely poppable balloons to stir up your mission. The difficulty curve is certainly manageable – despite the hectic nature of the final night I rarely felt overwhelmed, even with all these disparate threats at play, as I’d had enough time to get used to each one over the previous levels. I found the controls a little finicky, but it was only really an issue for me in the very low-stakes sections where you were cleaning up trash, when my character would sometimes get caught on a piece of furniture. In the higher-tension moments such as sneaking past cameras, infiltrating the master bedroom, and the like, things felt a lot smoother. Speaking of the story, the game features an ongoing radio commentary voiced by Barth himself. It’s a combination of hints, story details and GTA-style ads for fictional (though worryingly believable) products and services. The news segments feature lawyer-friendly substitutes of people like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift, and the humour generally has a bit of a South Park-esque bent to it, mixing pithy satire with extreme ridiculousness. Barth also voices a few a cappella parodies of pop songs which are amusing but do draw attention to the lack of any sort of background music in the game at large. Overall though, Minimum Wage was a fun little diversion and an enjoyable first game from Matt Barth. I can’t necessarily say you’ll come back to it years from now – it’s certainly designed as a game for the times in which we’re currently living, and feels a little like a time capsule for the 2020 zeitgeist – but it’s entertaining, amusing and gets extra kudos for alluding to November’s election without making me drown in despair.

Ever wanted to try and clean up the mess that is the White House? NOW YOU CAN. Great little indie game. I also love the way the radio is used to convey funny messages and direction. Very well executed.

Super funny game. Hilarious voiceover work that narrates the experience, and presents a branching narrative that depends on the decisions you make. A joy to play just to explore and listen to all the different narrations. Definitely recommend!

Five Nights at Trumpy's. Good for a couple hours of decent political humor, a solid 8/10.

OMG, I love this game! I am so thankful that my math teacher introduced me to it! It's very intuitive and a new innovating idea brought into the gaming world. It fits so perfect with the political climate out in the real world, and I find this game to be a sort of comedic relief/satire!

Minimum Wage is a pleasant little experience. There is certain amount of charm in the game's MS Paint-style graphics, alongside the single voice actor (presumably the developer) playing multiple roles and inelegantly singing lines from modern pop and R&B songs with no backing instrumental track. I found it satisfying to collect and sort the White House trash, laughing at the little jabs at our current "leadership." My only issues were: [list] [*] Although I had watched the trailer, it didn't stick with me that you could hold envelopes beneath the magnifying glass to open them. So, you know, do that if you want to read their contents. [*] I do wish I was able to move and listen to the MWBC broadcast each morning. Sometimes it seems that you can work and listen at the same time, while other times you can't. [*] I often got caught on the mop bucket while I was moving around in the White House, which either jammed me up completely or substantially slowed me down. This was actually the game's most irritating flaw. [*] Stop reminding me that the space bar opens the doors! The radio DJ reminds you of this over and over while you're playing. They're opening up just fine when I click the handle in the corner! [/list] While this is obviously a rather political point, I found it comforting to be transported to a world where actions again had consequences. When a visitor has a poor experience at the White House in-game, the voters who trust that figure begin to take a more negative view of the President. When the president's finances are revealed in-game, voters are taken aback by his poor acumen. In our world, however, the President calls such revelations "fake news" and calls the motivations of the speaker into question, always further reiterating that he is the only one that can be trusted. While the developer seems to see the fall of the Fairness Doctrine as a turning point for the way that Americans get information, misinformation has long been a hallmark of the right (see the documentary Merchants of Doubt). I would argue that the divisiveness displayed ever since his campaign's inception, coupled with the president's relentless dishonesty, has led us to this new low that we find ourselves living in. I got a little off topic. If you need a little levity in the lead-up to this tremendously-significant election, give Minimum Wage a try. It's free!

Мужики, спасайте, если наберём 10 лайков и 5 наград, то жена подарит ящик пива