‘Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Game’ To Launch Soon On Kickstarter
by Erik Amaya
We have game sign!
Launching in 1989, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a monumental shift in comedy. While some already engaged in the art of what would come be called “movie riffing” — that is, writing jokes timed to a specific cheesy movie — MST3K codified it for the generations to come. The premise: a man is shot into space by his cruel mad scientist bosses. In an attempt to cope with their experiment to see what happens when a test case is subjected to the worst films ever made, the man and his robot pals make fun of films like The Killer Shrews and Pumaman. Since its start on a local Minneapolis UHF station, the show has had four hosts, any number of a creative participants, a loyal fanbase known as MSTies, and even a big revival via Kickstarter and Netflix.
And now, at long last, it’s game time for the Riffers.
While details are scarce, Cryptozoic Entertainment has set up a landing page for the eventual Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Game Kickstarter campaign. According to the brief description on the page, it will see players aiding the test cases by helping them “make the best of their imprisonment in this all-new riff-tastic party game.” The plural words in use suggests all four hosts, Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson), Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson), Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray), and Emily Connor (Emily Marsh), will be part of the game. But our main question: will it require access to some of the cheesiest movies ever made? Knowing Cryptozoic’s other games, this seems unlikely. But, then again, a previous attempt to create a MST3K home game in the 1990s featured a specially-made short with Mike and the Bots. The game was never released, and when “Assignment: Venezuela” was made available to MSTies, it was not immediately clear how the game was to incorporate it.
That said, we’re quite excited to see some activity on the MST3K front. Things have been quiet since an attempt to crowdfund a 15th season of the show fell short. It is unclear when the campaign will go live, but you can expect us to be there to learn more.
