Lo-fi video game about New York City's subway woes spells out a fix
Did Elon Musk secretly make this video game?
A simple, new browser game from called MTA Country (from Everyday Arcade) offers a very pro-business solution for fixing New York City's beleaguered subway system: Hand its management over to private interests.
The game, which plays like a subway-themed, side-scrolling endless runner, quite literally spells that out as you play. As you guide a single subway car along on a length of track, you collect old, now defunct subway tokens as well as a series of letters that, together, spell out "PRIVATIZE."
The game's basic premise puts you in the shoes of Gregg T., a living meme and NYPD lawyer with a questionable history, as you take the subway to work. Two smiling guys named Andrew and Bill -- NY governor Andrew Cuomo and mayer Bill De Blasio -- hop aboard to lend a helping hand.
As you play, the subway car moves ever-forward on its own. (So it's already nothing like the actual NYC subway, which stops frequently and without warning.) You click the screen to jump, which allows you to avoid obstacles like pits and track fires.
There's even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to New York's beloved Pizza Rat. A short playing time and generous checkpoints make it easy to "beat" this game.
When you do, however, a message is waiting. As soon as you collect the "E" in "privatize," the game greets you with a triumphant message: "HYPERLOOP UNLOCKED!" Hyperloop is a proposed mass transit solution cooked up by a team pulled from two Musk-owned companies: Tesla and SpaceX.
The game is making a not-so-subtle point that NYC's subway system is more trouble than it's worth to repair and maintain. Allowing a private interest like Hyperloop to take control of the situation could be a positive move in the long-term.
Whether or not you agree with the underlying message, the game itself is a cute waste of time. You can play it now at mtacountry.info.
Topics Activism Gaming New York City
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
