By: Erin
Posted: February 01, 2024
The other day, Mandy reminded me that I made a gag gift for our friends, something that doesn’t quite fit in the EMN Home Video gallery but should be highlighted nevertheless: Coyote Ugly for the PlayStation 2. Click the thumbnail to see the full image, or click here for the massive PNG version.
…’Nuff said!
I made it in about two hours because dammit, Mandy wanted to make sure they had it for Christmas, and I went way harder on it than I remembered going. Honestly, there’s nothing funnier to me than licensed games that shouldn’t exist. There’s a reason we own a legitimate copy of Beastly for Nintendo Wii.
For context, the whole thing started because of RPG Maker game Division Blade, a video game created by a member of Wrestlezone Forums. It’s a uniquely poorly-made game and I love it to pieces, every single piece of weird dialogue and bad map design. One day I would absolutely love to do a long-form Let’s Play or something with it. I think about it constantly, I love showing it to people, and it’s thanks to this latest stream that this game became a reality.
There’s a portion very early on in the game where the characters visit a movie theater, leading to discussion from both party members and NPCs about it being about “girls in a bar”. It seemed to be a reference, but one that none of us could really place. A lot of the dialogue is like that. Knowing that the creator started this game in high school before finishing it in adulthood and knowing what I did about the creator, we quickly decided from the timeframe that it was Coyote Ugly. I have never confirmed this and I never will.
I can’t remember what I based the box art design and back copy on, if anything, and looking at our conversation that started all of this it seems to be because I was extremely drunk on egg nog while making it. I swear the “‘Nuff Said!” part is directly referencing some bad video game box art but I do not remember what. The screenshots are from Steambot Chronicles, SmackDown vs. RAW! 2006, Final Fantasy X-2, and the PS2 Pimp My Ride game, with the Division Blade Sampler CD graphics based directly on the advertised Final Fantasy VII Sampler CD that was included with Tobal No. 1.
I really should finish Division Blade some day. I’ve streamed it a thousand times and I’ve never made it to the end. Could this be the year?! I kind of hope so. I’m tired of playing that first town over-and-over again. I’m tired of Coyote Ugly.
Funny story – this isn’t even the first time I’ve dedicated absurd effort to a fake game gag. There’s an entire menu option on our RetroPie dedicated to Reading Rainbow For The Game Boy Advance, created after someone we knew tried to pull a fast one by requesting we add it.
The screenshot is from Spy Kids 3, and it boots into That’s So Raven.
The moral of the story: don’t test Mandy and I, because we will pour all of our effort and energy into a cheap gag. Thank you and good night!