Meme Run

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About

Meme Run is an endless-running 2D platformer video game developed by Ninja Pig Studios for the Nintendo Wii U console and released via Nintendo's eShop in December 2014. Upon its release, the game has drawn much derision within the online gaming community for its overuse of internet meme references, including many outdated specimens such as rage comics, commercial exploitation of the Internet culture and its subpar gameplay experience.

Origin

The game was first announced in September 2014 via Ninja Pig Studios' official account on Nintendo's Miiverse, along with a trailer video featuring in-game footage (shown below). According to the developers, the game was heavily inspired by a variety of internet memes and in-jokes that are often referenced on Reddit's /r/montageparodies, including swag, rage comics, 360 no scope, WOMBO COMBO, Illuminati conspiracy theories, GET OUT Frog, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) / Lenny Face, U WOT M8 and Airhorn Remixes among others.

"This was a game created by me Jordan (20) and my 14 year old brother Garrett. We love the Montage Parody subreddit, and wanted to create a parody game based off that subreddit. In our free time, we made the game. We ended up sharing the game on Facebook amongst our friends for free. Everyone we knew loved the game and thought it was so funny. We then asked some people on Miiverse what they thought of the game. The reaction from the younger audience was amazing, thus we want to bring the game to the Wii U. Me and my brother wanted to make the game very difficult to beat, and the trailer doesn't even showcase all of the crazy events that happen during the song so you will just have to play it for yourselves to find out how crazy the game gets."

Spread

On the day after the announcement, the trailer was picked up by NintendoLife and Kotaku Australia, and on December 18th, the game was released on the Wii U's Nintendo eShop for USD $5.00. Since its release, the game has been met with backlash and negative reviews from the online gaming community, as well as video game critics and review sites like Nintendo Life^[1], Nintendo Enthusiast^[2]. Meanwhile on YouTube, many MLG montage parodies of the parody game began to surface, taking the joke to the meta-level.

Despite the negative feedback from indie gamers and critics alike, Meme Run drew a lot of attention from the video game news blogosphere. By the end of December 2014, the title had climbed up the chart to the fifth best-selling title on Nintendo's eShop.

Removal From Wii U eShop

On March 3rd, 2015, Redditor DerpDino reported that Meme Run had been removed from the Wii U eShop in a post on the /r/nintendo^[10] subreddit, where it gained over 746 votes (90% upvoted) in the first 24 hours. Later that day, Twitter user @BalrogGameRoom^[12] posted a screenshot of an eBay auction listing for a Nintendo Wii U console pre-installed with the title, gaining over 265 retweets and 250 favorites in less than 24 hours (shown below).

On the following day, Carlos Ramirez, the Oakland-based artist and creator of the Trollface better known by his online moniker Whynne, issued a statement on /r/Nintendo^[11] to reveal that he was responsible for the removal of the title, which directly resulted from a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice that he had sent to Nintendo as the copyright holder of the Trollface meme. Whynne added that the game’s removal may be only temporary if he can work out a licensing arrangement with Ninja Pigs Studio.