Bush shoe throwing inspires new games
The recent shoe throwing incident with President Bush has become instant fodder for a flood of new on-line games.
Mind360’s reaction speed game
Mind360’s offering, a reaction time speed test, has scored quite a hit on-line within the gaming community and current events watchers in general, receiving positive feedback in on-line press coverage from leading publications and tech blogs.
Defending Bush
While the majority of games enable the user to throw the shoe at President Bush, or pick which shoe, or how many shoes, or where exactly to aim the shoe, Mind360 has chosen a game designed to “protect” Bush.
Increasing reaction time
In the Bush Shoe Incident Game, the user gets to be Bush, “defending” him by clicking on his image at the podium each time the shoe is thrown at him. The object is to make Bush duck before the shoe hits, with the shoes coming at him at increasingly rapid speeds. The game is designed to test and develop the user’s reaction times in a lively and topical environment, giving the user a reaction time score at the game’s conclusion.
Key game
Blog network Wired.com, in its review of the glut of new Bush shoe throwing games that have cropped up on-line, called Mind360’s Bush Shoe Incident Game one of the “key” Bush shoe throwing games (Attack of the Bush Shoe-Toss Games Continues: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/12/attack-of-the-b.html).
Prominent screenshots
Screenshots of the game have been added to popular gaming sites such as the innovative MMOsite.com (Bush Incident-Throwing Games Continues: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2008-12-20/20081220113956750,1.shtml), while Zimbio, in it report on current internet memes, led off its coverage of the many on-line shoe games with a screen shot of Mind 360’s Bush Shoe Incident(http://news.mmosite.com/content/2008-12-20/20081220113956750,1.shtml).
Engaging users through current events
The Jerusalem Post was also effusive in its review of Mind 360’s BSIG in their report on Bush shoe games released, lauding Mind360 for using current events for brain training (Internet Flooded with Shoe-Throwing Games in Wake of Bush Incident, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellitecid=1229868841420&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull). The game measures response time, a capability that science has revealed is reduced with age.
High rank for Mind360
Dvice, the prominent tech review site, ranked Mind360 a very strong fourth in its top ten rankings of the wide range of Bush shoe throwing games that the incident inspired (Top Ten Bush Shoe Throwing Games on the Web: http://dvice.com/archives/2008/12/top_10_bush_sho.php).
Embedded at other gaming sites
Many sites also embedded the game in their sites for users to start playing instantly, among them Fishflash (http://www.fishflashgames.com/play-games/7/Bush-Shoe.php) and y8 (http://www.y8.com/games/Bush_Shoe_Game).
Overwhelming User Response
The game received particularly favorable responses from users at y8.com, where at last count the game has been played 16,520 times since it was submitted only four days ago on December 21, 2008. Of y.com users polled, Mind360 received an overhwelmingly positive landslide of 85.74% of the votes, 1281 for to 213 against.
Many YouTube visits
The game has also been a hit on YouTube, with 5,247 views and enthusiastic initial user comments (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0FJwwPDrwU).
Raising mental fitness
All in all, the strong response was an extremely encouraging sign for Mind360 as it continues to find new ways to bring topically relevant and engaging games to its users to train their brains and raise mental fitness.
Here you go, enjoy the Bush Shoe Game!