Cashing in on the Cyberpunk Hype

You know, I fucking love cyberpunk as a setting and an aesthetic. Something about transhumans upgrading themselves with badass cybernetic body parts, crazy killer android waifus, shadowy megacorporations and dystopian hypercapitalism really get my juices flowing, mainly the creative kind. Some of my favorite cyberpunk series include *Akira*, *Psycho-Pass* and the entire *Bubblegum Crisis* franchise, and that's just on the anime side. In fact, I'm also in the process of developing my own cyberpunk fantasy universe/comic series, but that's an article for another time. Probably.

Anyhow, surely by now everyone's heard of CD Projekt Red's much anticipated *Cyberpunk 2077*. Hell, after that stunt at E3 with Keanu Reeves even non-gamers are getting hyped over it. But as with any product that garners attention, con artists will inevitebly descend to shamelessly jump on the hype train without a valid ticket.

Take a look at *Cyberprank Girls 2077*. Yes, you read that right, not Cyberpunk but Cyberprank; you know, cos it's totally not a shameless ripoff meant to make money off of someone else's product and it's obviously just a prank, bro. But this ain't an open world RPG with an insanely detailed world, rich character creation and branching storylines, this is just a puzzle game. I did mention before that cheap puzzle games with unlockable lewd images have their own appeal but everything about this one reeks of being lazily slapped together to cash in on the *Cyberpunk* craze.

Firstly, the puzzle images themselves. The term "cyberpunk" gets thrown around pretty loosely, usually accompanied by obligatory dark cityscapes lit up by neon signs with Japanese characters on them, but even then developer & publisher Streamworks, whose back catalogue consists of two more functionally identical puzzle games including this one, are using the word lightly. I mean, one image is blatantly Rei Ayanami from *Neon Genesis Evangelion*for some reason. While I will argue that *Eva* features a few significant cyberpunk tropes, the use of a character that popular and recognisable in an already shady game strikes me as odd. I wouldn't even be surprised if it was someone else's art that was being used without permission.

Streamworks laughably describe this farce as a "puzzle puzzle game" (sic) and "unlike other games of this genre there are many innovations." What does this title innovate in the puzzle puzzle genre, you ask? See if you can make sense of this, straight from the Steam page.

So according to Streamworks, this is the first ever puzzle game with music and for the first time ever you can view the result of a puzzle after finishing it? ***WOW!*** It gets worse, all three of their works are equally innovative, meaning they have the same description copy/pasted across all their steam listings.

But that isn't even the weirdest thing on this page. Streamworks claims that they made an appearance at the world's biggest fucking gaming show to demonstrate the most innovative puzzle puzzle games in the industry right now. Remember that? When they brought out the guy from *John Wick*? Sorry, I think I might be confusing it with something else.

But the funniest thing to me is the phrasing. "E3 in 2077. We are waiting for everyone!" What, is it cheaper to book one of the stages in advance and they've already reserved a spot at E3 in the year 2077, 58 years from now? If you want a few good laughs then check out the utter audacity for yourself on the Steam page here. I wouldn't recommend buying it, but who am I to tell you what to do with your money? Oh, and in case the game gets removed from Steam in one way or another, ya boi's gone ahead and archived it here.

The people of Steam aren't taking kindly to *Cyberprank Girls 2077*, but what do y'all think? Is it truly a harmless prank or is it a transparent cash-in intended to deceive gamers? Let us know what you think!