Culture

Drive the Pope-Mobile Through Pothole-Filled Paraguayan Streets in This New Videogame

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In case you forgot that it’s 2015, today we present to you the latest vehicle for social critique and protest: making a video game. It comes to us in the form of Papa Road, a game created to bring attention to the condition of the streets in Paraguay. Papa Francisco is currently on his three-country tour of Latin America, and he will be visiting Paraguay on Friday. Four programmers – Your Neighbour Totoro, Progresivjose, Alexandre Gonzalez and Mr. Davito – came up with the game that has El Papa sitting inside the Popemobile hogging the road as he tries to dodge potholes in Asunción.

The game borrows elements from other games, so if you’ve played Spyhunter, then you might enjoy it, though it is much slower. (Safety first. The pope is in that car.) But ‘90s video gamers will most likely appreciate the nod to Mortal Kombat. Anytime the pope hits a pothole, the president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, pops out with a sign that says “sigamos” while he says “toasty.”

And then you get this amazing image when you lose.

Play the game here and check out how the game plays in this short video, which was buried under many Papa Roach videos on YouTube.

you internet.