During the Devolver Digital E3 2019 conference this Sunday, one of the most meta things ever happened. As we watched their highly entertaining and highly sardonic conference, they presented something that we weren't entirely sure was real or not. Devolver Bootleg seemed to riff on the grey markets of Steam Direct and G2A, and it seemed too absurd to be real. First, we gave it the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was real, then we thought better to assume it wasn't, and finally, we realized that it's real, and it's actually on Steam already.
Devolver Bootleg contains "eight original rip-offs of Devolver Digital games, made by doinksoft. Pay money for it now," the Steam page says. Which looks about right for Steam Direct shovelware, but except the games do look pretty cool, with the titles all alluding to the indie publisher's most critically and commercially successful titles. You have Enter The Gun Dungeon riffing on Enter the Gungeon, with this evocative description: "Imagine a dungeon crawler but instead of swords it’s guns. But also everything is made out of guns and bullets and stuff. Like, everything."
Hotline Milwaukee is obviously a riff on Hotline Miami (Our Review), and the description seems to be more cryptic and bizarre. Ape Out Jr. is obviously a mix of Ape Out (Our Review) and Nintendo's classic Donkey Kong Jr.. Then you have Shootyboots, which I can't parse, Catsylvania, "It’s a cat...In full plate armor. What else do you want?" Then there's PikuBiku Ball Stars, Luftrousers, and Super Absolver Mini: Turbo Fighting Championship.
This is the stuff good satire is made of, and it's now available for sale with a 1% discount, so make sure to get your copy and support the world's weirdest indie publisher.
If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2019 Coverage Hub.
