Techie
9:05 PM | Sunday | 14 March 2010

Philippine elections are always interesting, especially with the increasingly unique ways candidates promote themselves. This latest gimmick by MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando, however, takes the cake – the urinal cake.

BF's "Be the Chairman" flash game is a clever and – dare we say it? – cute way of campaigning for a 2010 presidential bid. Predictably, it's loaded with the trademark MMDA Pink and Blue colors plus not-so-subtle plugs/reminders of the baby-faced chairman's accomplishments during his years in office.

As cute as the game is, however, it sucks. It's a lame Guitar Hero rip-off that tries to emulate the gameplay sans the precise musical timing.

Various objects fly toward you, like pedestrians, vegetable carts, and road signs. The moment they reach the sign posts, you'll have to press the corresponding key (up, down, left, right, or spacebar). Playing the game is pretty easy, but without a soundtrack for you to time your button presses to, it becomes difficult.

Levels begin with a briefing on the problem at hand, e.g. horrible traffic, and end with an explanation on how BF and MMDA mitigated the said predicament followed by his slogan "Sa political will, titino at yayaman tayo."

Despite each phase being visually different, they're essentially the same, only with increasing difficulty. Stages 1 and 2 are a drag, but  stage 3 is when things start to get interesting. We have to confess, though, that we suck at this game as we haven't gotten past level 4 – yet.

Everything within the game is written in Filipino – a trademark of the chairman himself. The instruction screen reads like an MMDA road sign except it doesn't say the word "nakamamatay." Here, it specifically says that the highest scorer will win an ASUS EEE PC. It doesn't say which model, but whatever it is, it just made this game worth playing over and over.

The best part of the game, however, is saved for last: The "game over" screen shows the animated version of the chairman rushing to a pink urinal. Funny, because that's exactly what you might want to do after this game pisses you off. Damn those jaywalkers!