Playstation 3
| Playstation 3 |
|---|
|
| Original YTMND: |
| Metal Gear Solid Giant Enemy Crab Battle |
| by xSerothx |
| May 17, 2006 |
| Worthy Spinoffs: |
The PlayStation 3 has been the inspiration for series of mini-fads. The first PS3 sites were made in mockery of the "boomerang" controller as shown at E3 2005. In 2006 this design was withdrawn, but another wave of sites about the Sony machine appeared. After E3 of that year, the front page was for a short time loaded with sites making fun of Sony executive Kaz Hirai's infamous "Riiiiiiiiiidge Raceerrr!" speech and the Genji 2 "Giant Enemy Crab" presentation from the Sony press conference. In recent times, most PS3 sites have been console-war propaganda.
Origin
When the PS3 was first unveiled at E3 2005, it featured a controller with a shape variously described as being like a banana, a boomerang, and a lady's plaything. Naturally, people were quick to capitalize on such comedy gold and a few YTMNDS were made at the expense of this peripheral. Due to the generally derisive reaction to this controller, the design was withdrawn the following year, leaving the YTMNDs about it obsolete.
The real PlayStation 3 fad took off in the summer following E3 2006. During Sony's embarrassing press briefing, they revealed that the console would have an expensive launch price of $599 US, Kaz Hirai got completely overexcited while emulating Ridge Racer on a PSP, and a producer for the game Genji: Days of the Blade (then called simply Genji 2) insisted that ancient Japan had been terrorized by huge malevolent crustaceans. The entire conference was ridiculed by the internet community for its risible hypocrisy, unfounded hyperbole and general aura of stupidity.
Fad Structure
In general, PlayStation 3 YTMNDs include one or more of the following elements from the 2006 press conference:
599 US Dollars
At the very end of his speech, Kaz Hirai announced to the less than enthused audience that the 60GB version of the console would have an initial retail price of $599 US. This was far more than expected, and angered many gamers who felt they had been priced out of the market. A number of YTMNDs spawned depicting Kaz declaring that all manner of objects would retail for $599 US or generally demanding that sum of money randomly. One of the most famous sites about this is $599 Burning a Hole in Your Pocket?, which compares the price of the PS3 to a Wii.
Ridge Racer!
During another segment of the conference, Kaz was discussing emulation of PS1 games on the PSP, and demonstrated a PSP emulating the popular Namco racing game Ridge Racer. When the title screen appeared, Kaz exclaimed, "It's Ridge Racer!" This elicited almost no response from the audience, so Kaz shouted, "RIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACEERRR!!! Remember that one?" to the excruciating embarrassment of everyone present. Naturally, this quote (without the last three words) has been included somewhere in most PlayStation 3 sites.
Giant Enemy Crab
At one stage of the conference, a presentation was given for Genji 2. The game's executive producer, Bill Rich, played a demo and narrated it for the audience. He started with the statement that the entire game was "based on Japanese history", and therefore "the stages of the game will also be based on famous battles which actually took place in ancient Japan", battles of such an epic scale that they "can only be made possible with the power of the PlayStation 3". Later, during gameplay, a crab suddenly appeared as one of the boss fights to which Rich proclaimed "so here's this Giant Enemy Crab." He then proceeded to flip said crab onto its back and "attack its weak point for massive damage" (it should be pointed out that no historical evidence for such events actually occurring in ancient Japan has ever been brought forward). Rich also outlined some of the mind-boggling next-gen features the game would include; features such as "real-time weapon change" and "real-time character change".
YTMNDs on this subject vary greatly in scope, but usually have some manner of Enemy Crab appearing in unusual places. Sometimes a Giant Enemy Crab is photoshopped into ancient Japanese tapestries or onto the blackboard in Japanese history classrooms. There was also a spate of vandalism on the Wikipedia entry for crabs, with people inserting references to certain large, malicious, ancient Japanese varieties.
