10 Apr 08
Play Rescue The Band for free
Viral marketing needs to have a good hook now we're wise to advertisers' myriad methods. Only the fittest controversy sells, as does jaw-dropping CGI and anything to do with kittens. In this case they're selling a band's music, so the hook is the, er, hook.
The game is simplistic. A straight road, a third-person viewpoint and old-school dodge-the-traffic gameplay: it's vaguely reminiscent of ancient arcade game Chase HQ without the cool machine guns... or bends in the road... or, indeed, almost everything else.
So, all you do is keep up with the blue van and ram it until its damage meter hits zero. Hitting other traffic depletes your own damage meter, but you can replenish this by collecting the spanners that appear at random on the road. Just like real life.
That's it, really. It's a momentary distraction that's a bit of fun for a couple of goes, but only fans of the music will bother to stick around, such is the ephemeral nature of the game. They're preaching to the converted, missing the point of marketing by a country mile.
Rescue the Band is unlikely to appear as a forward in your inbox any time soon. Sort it out, marketers.
Controls
Arrow keys, plus space to use turbo.
Tips
Pick your moments to attack the van - mindlessly ramming it along with everything else is a surefire quick death.
Play Rescue The Band for free
4Car: More driving games
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