''Meme Run'' is an

endless running Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. The ...

video game created by American

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

developer Ninja Pig Studios (Jordan Schuetz and his brother) for the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

console's

eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was ena ...

service. The game features extensive use of

Internet memes An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

; for example, the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

is a stick figure with a

trollface Trollface or Troll Face is a rage comic meme image of a character wearing a mischievous smile, used to symbolise internet trolls and trolling. It is one of the oldest and most widely known rage comic faces. History Trollface was drawn in Micro ...

for a head, and the levels are made up of

Lenny face This is a list of notable and commonly used ''emoticons'', or textual portrayals of a writer's moods or facial expressions in the form of icons. Originally, these icons consisted of ASCII art, and later, Shift JIS art and Unicode art. In re ...

s. The game was designed to appeal to both hardcore and casual audiences, but has been widely criticized both before and after its release for its perceived low quality. The game was removed from the

Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...

on March 3, 2015 by artist Carlos Ramirez due to unlicensed use of the

by the developers.

Gameplay

In ''Meme Run'', the player controls a stick figure with a

for a head. The

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

runs through

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated assets and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. In ...

2D levels, jumping over and sliding under obstacles, until it is trapped between the continually sliding screen and an obstacle or falls into a bottomless pit. The player's total of " swag points" continually increases, and after a run, the player can post their high score to

Miiverse Miiverse was a social network for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, created by Nintendo System Development and Hatena (company), Hatena, and powered by the Nintendo Network. Integrated into many games, Miiverse allowed players to interact and share their ...

. The levels are made up of the repeated "Lenny face"

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

, and other memes appear throughout the game, such as a "

wombo combo Professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' competition involves professional gamers competing in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with ''Super Smash Bro ...

!" scream when the player collects an

item Item may refer to: Organizations * ''Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute * ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom Newspapers * ''The Item'', an American independent, morning newspaper ...

—a reference to a ''

Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...

'' match recording on

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Development and release

''Meme Run'' was developed by Ninja Pig Studios, a small

outfit consisting of 20-year-old (in 2014) developer Jordan Schuetz and his brother. The game contains copious use of memes, described as an "Internet meme-infused infinite runner (Yes, really)" by

Joystiq ''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...

. It was intended to appeal to both hardcore and casual gaming audiences by featuring both simple, intuitive controls and substantial difficulty once the character has run far enough. The game was widely criticized before its release; in response, Schuetz responded that it was a parody intended to "

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

" users and called it "Game of the Year 2014". However, Schuetz's friends in college enjoyed the game, and its description contains the quote "Tyrone rated this game 8/8 which means it's not b8 so come play m8." It was released on December 18, 2014 for the

online service, their second eShop release after the poorly received

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

game ''IQ Test''. Schuetz has stated that Ninja Pig's future plans are "a secret". On January 5, 2015, Meme Run was put on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Greenlight in an attempt to release the game on Steam, which never came to fruition due to the shutdown of Steam Greenlight on June 6, 2017. On January 19, 2015, "Bigley Mode" was added. By pressing B on the main menu, the user would be able to play as a character known as Bigley, an in-joke within the Miiverse community relating to the ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...

'' character Ridley and the reasons given for his absence from the video games ''

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS ...

''. On March 3, 2015, 'Meme Run' was pulled from the Wii U eShop with no public announcement. Its Miiverse community page was also taken down. A Reddit post purporting to be the copyright holder of the "trollface" meme claimed he sent a

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...

notice to Nintendo to take down Meme Run. According to Schuetz, ''Meme Run'' failed Nintendo's legal tests at least three times.

Reception

Prior to release, Mark Serrels of

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

called the game "terrifying" and opined that "just watching this video game being played is a genuine insight into what it is to be insane." The game was hated upon release, Nintendo Life staff writer Lee Meyer gave ''Meme Run'' an extremely negative review, calling it possibly "one of the worst releases on any gaming platform this year" and stating that it was certainly not worth its price of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

4.99. Meyer found the copious use of memes to be unpleasant and jarring and also criticized the finicky controls. He suggested that its intention may have been to lampoon the proliferation of banal Internet memes, but felt that it had not succeeded.

Sequel

On July 23, 2020, a sequel was released on

for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, and on the PlayStation Store for PS4 titled ''Meme Run 2''. It features similar gameplay to the original but with non-copyrighted content.

References

External links

{{Portal, Video games
Official page
at Nintendo.com (archived page)
Ninja Pig Studios' website
2014 video games Indie video games Internet memes Platform games Side-scrolling video games Video games using procedural generation Wii U eShop games Wii U games Endless runner games Single-player video games Wii U-only games North America-exclusive video games Video games developed in the United States Delisted digital-only games Video games involved in plagiarism controversies Works about Internet memes