Vice, “‘Antifa’ the Video Game Wants to Teach Gamers About Antifascism”

A new game lets players fight a ridiculous caricature of the Trump regime, but is nevertheless backed by serious politics.

Welcome to Dumpland, where Humpel Dumpty rules supreme! Reigning from the thousands of televisions scattered across the land, Dumpty has deployed his henchmen to imprison swathes of the population in impenetrable darkness. As “Antifa,” our gas-mask-wearing, Molotov-cocktail-wielding hero, you know what you must do: free the people by smashing Dumpty’s TVs and crushing—literally—his prison guards by jumping on their heads. Advertisement

Such is the world of Antifa, a new game that lets players fight a thinly veiled Trump in all of its ridiculousness. Players smash televisions to discover hit points and “spicy cocktails” that set henchmen ablaze, all on their way to releasing the imprisoned inhabitants of Dumpland and confronting Humpel Dumpty himself. It is of course a silly satire, but the anti-fascists politics of its creator and their union are no joke.

Antifa was created by a developer who goes by the pseudonym Wobby Dev. Released for free on itch.io, a popular platform for independent video games, the Super Mario World-style side-scroller is meant to be a friendly introduction to antifascism for gamers who might otherwise only know the movement from sensational media coverage.

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