video vixens

This ‘Golden Girls’ parody game is the action-packed RPG we never knew we needed

By · Updated on March 14, 2023
Video game avatars of the 'Golden Girls' in blue and pink squares against a diamond-patterned white background.

If you’ve ever been binging some classic episodes of The Golden Girls and thought “Hmm, I wish I could play as these characters and fight evil”, you’re in luck!

Upcoming JRPG The Golden Girls Take Manhattan DX is set to release this winter, and it’s bound to push the concept of parody law to its limits. The bio on the game’s official Twitter account includes a quick “Please don’t sue us”, and fans’ fingers are crossed that that’ll be enough.

The gameplay is based on the popular game Persona 5, but the lead party are the good ol’ gaggle of gals we know and love (and miss!).

The recently released trailed for the game looks silly and colorful, and jokingly boasts that’s it’s “set in a world that’s 100% canon.”

Something about this trailer makes us think its canonical nature could be in dispute:

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This modern noir involves a dead cop, a white supremacist bar owner, and a deadly plan to wipe out the gay community.

The developer’s website describes this game as “my personal project that has spun wildly out of control” into “a playground of ideas meant to explore just how much we can push our skills and retain our sanity with our own brand of humor.” Basically, it’s chaotic camp fun!

The early gameplay teasers fully reflect it, too. It looks like the main villains are an evil syndicate [read here: Clown College] that the Golden Girls have to work together to defeat.

When we said it’s stretching parody law, we mean it; beyond the Persona format and sound effects, one of the gameplay teasers features a Shy Guy from the Super Mario franchise.

Not their interpretation, just a straight up Shy Guy:

Much of this teaser content has likely been changed in the five (5) years since it was first posted, but keeping a Mario character in the middle of this unrelated game would be bold!

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It’s a game players literally have to have sex with other adventurers in order to strengthen their relationships with each one.

Subsequent unlisted videos on the developer’s site show even more IP implementation. One features a popular Vocaloid and a character from the Barnyard series, one has a viral Yoshi meme, and another features everything from a Danganronpa character to Finding Dory‘s titular blue tang. We may have lost the plot somewhere along the way.

It’s all very reminiscent of the scrappy, parody-laden recent film festival darling The People’s Joker and it’s contentious TIFF debut, but one has to hope this game has an easier time than that team did.

Or maybe it’ll have no trouble at all as it’s set to release for free! We’re no lawyers. Whatever the litigious situation, we just wanna watch our favorite late, great senior sisters kick some serious tail.

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