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Faux-Nostalgia: The Old Glory of Matt Hazard

Posted by John Constantine

Viral marketing is insidious and horrible. Anything that openly names itself after a malicious foreign body that invades organic matter, twisting it to its own torrid ends cannot be trusted. To make matters worse, it’s almost always more cloying than regular, old, huckster-with-a-smile advertising (let us never forget the late, not-great Sony “All I Want For Christmas is a PSP” campaign.) That said, I have to hand it to publisher D3. Their viral campaign behind upcoming (but still-unseen) title Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, is absolutely hilarious and brilliant in its execution. They’ve created two websites, a fan page and news blog, devoted to an imaginary classic gaming series surrounding a convincingly vintage character by the name of Matt Hazard. Starting with a 1983 arcade game named The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, D3’s constructed a full history of a non-existant franchise that hits on all of gaming’s milestones from the past thirty years. While the 8 and 16-bit parodies are well-trodden, sprite-based fare, the fake cover art and screenshots for Matt Hazard’s late-90s and early-aughts adventures are hilariously spot-on. Take a look at the obviously Nintendo 64-inspired packaging for 1995’s You Only Live 1,317 Times:



That is downright convincing. Who knows what Eat Lead will end up being, but D3’s managed to impress my cold, cold heart with its effort. Sending up gaming’s early years is old hat, but Matt Hazard has managed to send up the entire medium in just a few pictures and lines of HTML.

God damn it. Here I am, doing viral marketing’s bidding. That is just disgusting!

(Link: 1up via Siliconera)

Related links:


Horrors that Time Forgot: GamePro TV
Whatcha Playing: The Thirst For Adventure, Pointing At Things, and Not Knowing What to Say
My Last Mega Man 9 Post, I Swear
Yahtzee Presents A New Angle On Nostalgia (Sort Of)


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Demaar said:

Oh man, if there's one kind of viral advertising I can stand, it's fake reality ones. That fan site is awesomely authentic looking :D

September 26, 2008 3:22 AM

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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