It's Faderhead: The Video Game!

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Heaven forbid we waste anyone's time, Mr Faderhead!

People may already be familiar with this as V1.0 was released waaaaay back in 2012. V2.0 was released in late April this year so it has become relevant again. In any case, I did not know this game even existed until a friend (and Fellow DecaDanse and Cybermorph DJ) told me about it. So now I am here to tell you about it too.

The game is Faderhead's Fistful Of Fuck You!

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Can you feel the Faderhead?

The game is a throwback to 1990s style beat em ups. Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Bad Dudes - you get the idea. Faderhead and his band are on the way to perform in a club and their van breaks down in spectacular fashion. So the goal is to make it to the club and perform the gig.

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Yes, the dog peeing on the van helped destroy it. What did you expect from a Faderhead game?

You can play four different characters - Faderhead, Joe, Daniel and The Lord. In the V1.0 download of the game there is a PDF that explains what each character's strengths and weaknesses are but many of these don't seem to apply in 2.0. I have a feeling 2.0 was made a little easier to beat as I beat it fairly easily on my playthroughs and couldn't trying 1.0.

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I'm so vain I probably think they named Joe after me

Faderhead

He is a brawler. His special move is screaming into a bullhorn. No matter who you play all the cut scenes between levels are about him. It is his game after all.

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I cheated and grabbed this screencap from the video clip of the song

Joe

Joe is also a browler but he has some fire-based attacks. One move throws a smoke whirlwind and his combo punches end with a burning punch. His special move is a burning uppercut. In spite of Joe having a more interesting move set than the others I found him a bit boring to play as it is temping to just keep throwing whirlwinds even though they do very little damage.
 

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Burn baby burn!

Daniel

Daniel uses electric attacks. His special move is an energy beam that takes a few seconds to fire. I found his special move to be useless but his electrical attack is pure button mashing mayhem. I enjoyed playing him the most.

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Yep, it's one of those games with foreground stuff that gets in the way

The Lord

It's pretentious wanker: the video game character. I thought Faderhead was bad until I played this guy. Faderhead, Joe and Daniel come off as street punks. This guy is more like a bald Criss Angel with a Neo from The Matrix complex. But what do you expect from a dude with a name like "The Lord"?

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Behold The Lord as he out-douches Faderhead!

The Lord uses attacks that feel like a cross between psychic/spectral forces and the Green Lantern. His attacks mostly use giant green fists and giant green palms. Unlike the other charcters he floats above the ground so he can't fall in holes. His special attack is a green energy burst. This guy was really good to play vs bosses but gets overwhelmed eaasily vs mobs of bad guys.

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Behold The Lord's green fist of douchebaggery!

I only played through V1.0 once using Daniel just to see if there were any differences to V2.0. The game is pretty similar but instead of limited special moves they drain your health bar. Probably why it felt harder. I am glad I got it though as the PDF that comes with it is interesting.

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That's right. I played it without you, Mr Faderhead. Deal with it!

I played through 2.0 three times. The first time as Faderhead and later The Lord. The second time as Daniel. Third time as Joe and The Lord.

You only get 5 Credits (continues) and 3 lives per credit but the game is pretty generous with health refills (Vodka) and 1 ups (Cocaine piles). This is a Faderhead game, surely you expected items like this.
 

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Bouncers. The bane of Faderhead's existance.

The enemies are pretty repetitive - dogs, bottle-throwing bums and bouncers for the most part. The bosses are members of other industrial-electro bands.

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 Exhibit A : Combichrist

The music in the game is all Faderhead. If you aren't into his music you are going to have a bad time. That said, it suits this style of game very well and adds to the atmosphere well.

 

Does anyone else hear "Dance on light beer" during the choruses?

The main differences between V1.0 and V2.0 is the change in difficulty and extra features added in V2.0. After you beat the game a few times you can unlock stuff like Survival mode and watch the video clip for the song "Fistful of Fuck You" - though you can cheat and simply watch it in  media player. Apparently you can play as boss characters too.

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I'll cheat if I want to

Overall Faderhead's Fistful of Fuck You is a fun little game (it only takes about 30 minutes to beat it once) and a brilliant way to promote a new single as it was likely used in 2012. I haven't unlocked the special features yet (I am writing this article instead of playing it through) but I plan to.

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Best use of a keytar ever!

I was laughing most of the way through during  my first playthrough. If there is nothing else it is good for a single play like that. Plus the price is right.

The game is free to download. V1.0 and V2.0 can be found here

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Aytakk

Aytakk has been active in the goth scene since the mid 90s both online and in real life. He firmly believes in the old line "if you don't get the joke, you are the joke". As well as this he produces music for a couple of music projects: Corpulence On The Catwalk (goth/darkwave/coldwave) and Hypnophile (aggrotech/power noise). He is also a club DJ and nemesis of DJ Jelly.