Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol (video game)

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol is a CD-ROM video game developed and published by Inscape. It was released in 1996. Members of the band Devo helped write the story, compose the music, and oversee the game's graphics.

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol
Developer(s)Inscape
Publisher(s)Inscape
Writer(s)Gerald V. Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh
Platform(s)Macintosh, Windows, Windows 3.x
Release1996
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

The game received negative review from critics.

Gameplay

Set in the fictional universe Spudland, Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol has the players travel from various places with the members of the Smart Patrol. The player has twelve in-game hours to capture Turkey Monkey, "an insane, horrible freak mutant, the result of a rogue recombinant DNA experiment",[1] and finding the cure for osso bucco myelitis, a bone-dissolving disease that forces its victims to walk around in skeleton-like suits. All the while having to face off against antagonists such as the health care provider Universal Health Systems and Big Media, who are suppressing the cure, as well as the right-wing fundamentalists known as the Pilgrims. Helping the Smart Patrol are the scientists Sun Wang Pin and Dr. Byrthfood, as well as General Boy and his son Booji Boy.[1][2]

Development

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol was developed and published by Inscape. Devo's founders Gerald V. Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh co-wrote the story to the game.[3] The band was also involved with composing the music and overseeing the graphics.[2]

A compilation album, Adventures of the Smart Patrol, was released featuring the tracks from the game.

Reception

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol received negative reviews from video game critics. Joe Hutsko from GameSpot criticized the game for being impossible to beat. Ty Burr from Entertainment Weekly considered the game to be "a major disappointment on all counts", citing its visuals, gameplay, and buggy navigational controls.[2]

"To think of the trees felled for this game's packaging, the miles of videotape run through, lines of dialog written and hopelessly rewritten, code keyed in and compiled and recompiled, marketing hype worked up and spun out, and raw energy wasted in producing the however many thousands of CDs Inscape agreed to permanently burn this trash into, one can only walk away feeling pity for all of the resources, human or otherwise, that were inexorably drawn into the band's distressing foray into computer gaming."

— GameSpot's Joe Hutsko.[4]

The game was a contender for GameSpot's "Worst Game of the Year", losing to Catfight.[5]

References
  1. Couplan, Ken (March 1, 1995). "Bringing Weirdness to the Masses". WIRED. Condé Nast. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  2. Burr, Ty (September 6, 1996). "Devo Presents: Adventures of the Smart Patrol". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  3. Kim, Albert (February 24, 1995). "Digital projects in the works". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  4. Hutsko, Joe (September 26, 1996). "Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 4, 2002. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  5. GameSpot Staff. "GameSpot's 1996 Best & Worst Awards". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 3, 2002.

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol at MobyGames

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