Red Dwarf is a long-running sitcom that concerns the misadventures of a group of misfits, including the presumed last human alive, onboard a mining ship 3 million years into the future. Despite the depressing subject matter, it is nonetheless very good at mining such a situation for laughs and has proven to be quite successful. How successful you may ask? Successful enough that it has a wide amount of tie-ins, including a superb book series, a magazine, and a tabletop game. With this in mind, you might be thinking, were there any video games? The answer is actually yes, and this blog post aims to give a brief overview (as well as my opinions) of each game.
Simulant’s Revenge (2003)
The first official video game for the series didn’t actually arrive until the show’s wilderness years between Series VIII in 1999 and Back to Earth in 2009. The game in question was a little phone game called “Simulant’s Revenge” which was released in 2003. The game itself was intended to be the first in a whole host of video games for the niche mobile platform J2ME (as noted in this interview, which mentioned other games once in development such as “GELF-Space” ( a “invaders” type game), and “Moon Rescue” (which involved the player having to find and rescue Kryten)) although none of these other games would, unfortunately, come to pass.
As for the story itself, it’s quite simple – sometime after “Gunmen of the Apocalypse”, Starbug has wandered into a Simulant Hunting Zone and the Simulants aren’t happy about the fact that they killed their leader. Luckily, the crew still has their upgrades from the time the Simulants tried to make them more enticing prey, and they’re about to mess things up. This leads to our gameplay – a pretty basic shoot ‘em up where you have to destroy enemies and other objects to pass. There are upgrades that you can get, like shields and stronger lasers, and the game restarts after you defeat the final boss.
I had a look at the game and it’s definitely a cute time-waster. You get lovely quotes in between levels and the enemies are pretty hard (a particular pain in the butt came from Level 3, where I had to navigate what looked like electricity-generating poker things). That said, the controls were a bit of a pain for me, considering the fact that I’m a left-hander who didn’t like the shoot button being on my right side, and there didn’t seem to be an option to change the controls on the emulator. That said, the graphics are surprisingly decent for a game designed for early 2000s phones, with 3D models of Starbug (in an apparent first for mobile phones at the time) and realistic-looking floating heads of the cast in between levels.
Although the game is mostly forgotten, you can still nag a copy of the game here. A playthrough of the medium-fidelity version can be found down below (credit to Ganymede & Titan for the footage).
Beat The Geek (2006)
The next attempt at a game was in 2006 when Grant Naylor and 2Entertain released an interactive quiz game based on the series. In the game, you can choose either version of Holly as the host and you had to answer questions to win, with there being categories for casual fans, hardcore Dwarfers, and general knowledge for those able to look at clips or photos. The game is interesting because both Holly’s actors (Hattie Hayridge and Norman Lovett respectively) created new material for the game. 1 Also included is a games arcade, which includes games like “Black Holes” (where you have to pilot Starbug away from Black Holes), “Whack-a-Flibble” (a whack-a-mole game featuring Mr. Flibble), “Vending Machine” (a memory game featuring the vending machines on board the ship), and “Memory Morph” (a Simon Says-esque game where you have to memorize the sequence of items that a Polymorph shapeshift into).
This review of it does more justice for the game than I can ever really say, but in short, it’s well-made. We get some good one-liners from both Hollys and the questions are challenging and fun, although there are some issues with it, like having too few questions, as well as the arcade games being kinda dull.
It’s definitely not something for everyone but it is worth a shot. In fact, there is some footage that is up on Youtube, which I have provided some links for down below (credit to Duane Dibbley (The duke of dork) for the videos).
Red Dwarf XI: The Game (2016)
The next attempt at a game came about in 2016, at a time when the show was once again airing on TV. This new game was released by GameDigits and was, like “Simulant’s Revenge”, designed for mobile phones, this time for the iOS and Android platforms. The game follows an episodic release, with levels based on each episode of the newest series at the time, Series XI. Each level had various games, with players having to accomplish things as diverse as shooting enemies, sneaking past people, and solving trivia questions.
The unfortunate issue of the matter is that by the time I had learned of this game (as well as the next one), GameDigits had pulled them from the app stores, requiring me to get creative with obtaining these games. 2 Once I did get and try out this game, my opinion is that they’re…okay. It’s a nice mix of games and there were some stages I found genuinely difficult (there was one part in the “Give and Take” level for instance where I was asked the obscure question of “What was the make and model of Rimmer’s first hover-car”). However, there were some segments that I felt went on way too long (Two stages to both Time Surf segments in the Twentica level?! The stages are already as hard as it is, damn you!) and the game feels like something that with the right amount of skills, could be completed in about a mere 6 hours or so (although that was probably deliberate considering its intentions as a game to be played whilst waiting for the train).
That said, it’s a pity that this game was eventually left unfinished by the developer, with stages for “Krysis” and “Can of Worms” being left undeveloped. I mean trying to escape from the Sakenyako GELF Tribe in “Krysis” would have been class and the amount of playable leverage you can get with the Polymorph in “Can of Worms” is theoretically unlimited.
Still, it is a decent game. If you want to see some footage of the game, I’ve included footage of it down below (credit to Ganymede & Titan for the footage).
Red Dwarf XII: The Game (2017)
The latest attempt at a video game was released in 2017, when GameDigits released another video game. The company had listened to the fans and thus went in a different direction with this new video game. Unlike the previous game, it went with a free-to-play model, with players being able to run through environments previously seen in the recently released Series XII, rescue spaceships in space, and take quizzes. You can also play over 75 unlockable and playable characters in the game (with even some surprises like Ray Peacock, whose work mainly involved being behind the scenes).
In my opinion, it’s…not as good as the last game. I found that there was more of a replayability value to the game, what with the number of unlockables you can now get, but it’s much more repetitive and boring. For instance, whilst I liked “Explore Mode”, I would have preferred a more diverse range of ships and threats than what we got (only two threats? How disappointing). After a while, it is possible to start unlocking previously unlocked stuff, which also kills the replayability of the game.
Like last game, it’s not easy to locate, although I was able to find footage of the game at least (credit to Ganymede & Titan for the footage).
Honorable Mention: LEGO Dimensions
Whilst the video games I have mentioned prior were mobile games, there was one time the show was represented on a console release. In the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them level “A Walk In The Park” in “LEGO Dimensions”, it is possible to come across a recreation of the Series XI rendition of the ship as an Easter Egg, being accessible through the Doctor’s TARDIS.
The amount of detail in this level is great and there’s a ton of references to Series XI (Snacky from “Give and Take” makes an appearance for instance, and it is possible to interact with the bio-printer from “Officer Rimmer”). At the same time, however, I’m disappointed by it in the sense that Red Dwarf’s presence in the game is limited to one location intended to be an easter egg. The main four don’t even make an appearance, for crying out loud.
Regardless, if you want to have a look at it here, you can find a video of it below (credit to JayShockblast for the video):
Appendum
Whilst researching for this post, I came across this short demo for an apparent video game pitch by David Banner which didn’t work out in the end. It actually doesn’t look too bad for a game which had been intended for release in the early 2000s (although I found it too dimly lit in places) and I am disappointed that this pitch was never realised in the end. (Credit to Ace Rimmer for the footage).
Conclusion
In my opinion, whilst it is nice to have video games of the series, it is somewhat disappointing that all we get are difficult to locate phone apps and one cameo appearance in a LEGO game. There has been a recent issue with there being a general lack of Red Dwarf merchandise outside of physical media, and another video game could be a great way to revive the franchise.
If only…
- There is also a booklet included in the DVD for the Geek Chase competition, although you can’t play it at the time of writing due to the absolute shambles the website is at the minute.
- I am aware of the moral gray area that is piracy, but I figured that since it isn’t available on a commercial basis anymore, it should be fine to get through dirtier means.