They don't give money to people with a sense of humor anymore.

In modern day, a video game being endorsed by a celebrity can only mean one of two things: It's either a sports game or the worst piece of shovelware you've ever played. It's a shame! Just 30 years ago, a game being endorsed by a celebrity could mean one of three things: It's either a sports game, the worst piece of shovelware you're ever played, or the most batshit crazy thing ever designed.

The most obvious comparsion point would of course be The Ultimate Challenge from Beat Takeshi, as both are video games developed by comedians as essentially one big joke, but I think a more apt one would be Don't Buy This, a semi-obscure british pc game that was a collection of bad indie-developed games publisher Firebird was sent. All three of these, however, do have the same central thesis: This is all a joke. The key difference is who the joke is on; For Kitano, it's the poor shmuck who bought the game, for Firebird, it's the poor shmucks who developed those games in their homes, and for Penn and Teller, it's everyone.

Most obviously, it's a joke on your friends. The majority of these games solely exist to fuck with onlookers by way of convincing them that the game is a psychic, that they suck at video games, or just that your tv broke. Very cool how they implemented these through secret codes you would input, but they're more a novelty now than anything else, especially Sun Scorcher, which basically wouldn't work on any modern TV. They do at least come packaged with very entertaining FMV segments, so it's not a full bust even if you're playing them alone.

Then, you get to Desert Bus, the most infamous part of this package by a long margin, the ultimate video game simulation. Iconic, incredible, insane, it still stands as the greatest genre deconstruction in video game history. Just drive the fucking bus, dude. Finally, there's the title game, Smoke and Mirrors. While not as much of a punch in the face as Takeshi's offering (Nobody can beat the master), it's a very effective piece of "literally what the fuck is going on" platforming: Movesets barely make any sense, enemies and puzzles are frustrating, levels are designed like ass, about what you'd expect. Once again, the FMV is the real highlight, shout out to Lou Reed blowing Penn and Teller the fuck up in the impossible level, from one shit eater to another (Any Metal Machine Music fans in the audience tonight? I'm not one, I'm just curious).

Finally, in the most cosmically apt way possible, the ultimate prank was played on Penn and Teller themselves, as the company publishing the game went under right as the game was ready to ship, leaving it unreleased for 10 years until some journo who was sent a review copy leaked the rom online. It's as if some kind of divine intervention prevented them from pranking anyone, which in turn made the game the ultimate prank: Seeing as it's literally impossible to play the game now without knowing what you're getting into, it's only truly possible to prank yourself by playing it now. It's the embodiment of "Dead Dove, Do Not Eat".

Go fuck yourself.

i called this a AA game the first time i saw it but honestly the visuals are the only thing that are not AAA here. disgusting and wonderful amount of optional dialogue showing a radiant, infectious love for its cast, a soundtrack that lives up to its reputation of "an album that comes with a game", one of the most genuinely interesting and fun combat systems ive tinkered with in a long time (i played on the highest difficulty and i had a blast snapping this thing in half and riding the razors edge of knowing anything kills me in one hit. i cheered whenever i saw an enemy 20+ levels higher than me guarding a chest). it handles some topics i would trust pretty much no big studio to handle well with flying colors in ways that brought me to tears (gin's final few character episodes hit me really hard in particular). and god the seiyuu work in this! i cannot believe this is a cast of mostly unknowns because they all fucking nail it. such a good time. i think about it and already get so many warm memories