The Guy Game is an infamous 2004 trivia game that featured actual women flashing their breasts in the style of Girls Gone Wild videos. It was banned from sale in 2005 after the studio behind the game was sued for including footage of an underage girl. This weekend it showed up at a video game convention booth full of retro games with a price tag of $250.
TooManyGames is an annual convention held just outside Philadelphia, PA. It’s full of vendors, artists, competitions, and panels where enthusiasts go to celebrate their passion for gaming and maybe pick up a rare collectible or two. That’s where Torren Moreno, who goes by “Jab50Yen” online, was this past weekend when they spotted a copy of The Guy Game for the original Xbox at someone’s booth.
“We walked to this booth and a few games caught our eye and I noticed The Guy Game was there,” Moreno told Kotaku in a series of private messages. “I was baffled and laughed in disbelief that it was $250 and me and two other people took pictures of it. The vendor laughed and asked if we were taking pictures of the guy game. I said yes and asked if it was that expensive because of the scandal. He said yes and even knew that ebay actively stops all listings of the game.”
TooManyGames didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moreno tweeted out a picture of the game from the convention that immediately went viral. While they were drawing attention specifically to the $250 price, which was even more than the copy of Lunar: The Silver Star for Sega CD behind it, others quickly noted the game’s sleazy history. Commenters in the thread pointed out The Guy Game was banned from sale long ago for containing underage nudity following a lawsuit shortly after its release.
Made by Topheavy Studios and directed by Jeff Spangenberg, the founder of Metroid Prime maker Retro Studios, The Guy Game was hosted by a comedian named Matt Sadler who quizzed women on the beach during spring break. Here’s how it was marketed on the back of the box:
The Guy Game puts you in the world’s wildest party spot for the steamiest Spring Break action ever! Shot live at South Padre Island, this Red-Hot Trivia Challenge lets you play with over 60 smokin’ coeds during Spring Break Insanity, as they proudly show off their ‘assets’ for your personal enjoyment. You bring the party and we’ll supply the game — YOU’LL SCORE EVERY TIME!
Players earned points that filled up a “Flash-O-Meter” which would unlock FMV scenes of real women exposing themselves. Widely panned, IGN’s then-Editor-in-Chief nevertheless gave the game a 7.7 out of 10, calling it “like You Don’t Know Jack with boobs” in a review that has since been removed.
In December 2004, however, an anonymous woman sued Topheavy claiming segments with her had made it into the finished game without her knowledge and that she was underage at the time they were filmed. Though the studio argued that the woman had fraudulently represented herself as eighteen during filming, the court issued an injunction in 2005 prohibiting distribution of The Guy Game, which was ultimately upheld on appeal.
“The Man has decided that our fun and hilarious presentation of spring break revelry just wasn’t appropriate for the world of gaming,” Topheavy Studios wrote on its website following the decision, IGN reported mournfully at the time. “Maybe we should have blown some sh!@ up?”
In addition to being the target of the lawsuit, The Guy Game has also become a lightning rod for politicians seeking to crack down on sex and violence in games more generally. Illinois’ then-governor Rod Blagojevich, later convicted of public corruption, used The Guy Game to push legislation making it illegal to sell M-rated games to kids. It also made an appearance on Capitol Hill during a hearing on pornography.
After tweeting about it being for sale at TooManyGames, Moreno said security for the convention appeared to be aware of the situation and were trying to track down the booth it was at. “Not too long after, they found the booth and confirmed it was pulled from the shelf,” they told Kotaku. “Whether or not someone bought it or he pulled it after seeing the tweet go viral is still yet to be confirmed.”
Apparently it wasn’t the only copy up for sale at the convention either. Someone else tweeted a picture of a PS2 copy of the game, allegedly from the event, that was going for $400. “One guy seemed to genuinely not know about the scandal and pulled it immediately, then admitting that he doesn’t play games at all and is only in the business to resell,” Moreno said. “Other booths seemed to not be so apologetic about it.”
But they also didn’t want their viral tweet to reflect poorly on the rest of TooManyGames. “They knock it out of the park with retro game booths, indie and AAA video game companies, esports, arcades and guests,” Moreno said. “It’s definitely one of the best video game events to attend in the northeast. They can’t be informed of every item every single booth is selling. And once they were aware of my tweet they took action immediately. So I hope people will give this event a chance despite this.”