Who Wants to Beat Up a Millionaire?
Sega Dreamcast
2000
At the turn of the century, Regis Philbin’s primetime trivia game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was wildly successful. Often when popular phenomena reach critical mass, they tend to be parodied and that is just the case with Who Wants to Beat Up a Millionaire?
Who better to portray Regis than the fictional character Egregious Philin? The game intro plays off the classic show The Six Million Dollar Man, with doctors hunched over a subject operating on network’s newest Moronic Man, because, you know, they have the technology.
Players start the game by selecting their victim, be it Ronald Hump (a parody of adventure capitalist Donald Trump) worth $400 million and the $1 he sold his mother for, or Daisey Mae LePlume (a parody of Anna Nicole Smith) waiting for her sugar daddy to die. Also parodied is American business magnate Bill Gates, rebranded as Mr. Melvin Dotcom.
Other game contestants include a spoiled brat college student named Rich Littleweasel the third and his trusty trust fund as well as the Middle East oil tycoon Sheik Abdul Chickpea, worth $50 billion… roughly a dollar for each wife.
Similar to the television game show the game parodies, the player is asked a series of multiple choice questions. Contestants buzz in and if the correct answer is chosen they get to physically assault a millionaire. The battle sequence plays a lot like a first-person boxing match, and every hit subtracts money from the opposing millionaire’s pool if the player’s aim is true. Pummel your challenger enough and they will eventually drop off the game show’s question ladder. Choose the wrong answer and prepare to defend yourself against the opponent’s hooks and uppercuts to protect your own riches.
The irony lost on this game is that if you purchase this title, you will be poorer financially and mentally. Now, Who Wants to Beat Up a Millionaire?
Check out more of these in Michael Thomasson’s Book Downright Bizarre Games book available at Good Deal Games and make sure to sign up to get Old School Gamer Magazine for free by clicking here!
