The District of Columbia War Memorial has been transformed into a game room thanks to the anonymous protest art collective “The Secret Handshake,” who have installed several art pieces around the District in recent months.<\/p>\n
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Newest National Mall protest art installation features vintage video games<\/p>\n
The District of Columbia War Memorial has been transformed into a game room thanks to the anonymous protest art collective \u201cThe Secret Handshake,\u201d who have installed several art pieces around the District in recent months.<\/p>\n
Inside the marble memorial are three arcade-style video game cabinets. But they\u2019re not the classic Pac-Man or Mortal Kombat games. Instead, \u201cOperation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell\u201d is a role-playing game where you can play as President Donald Trump, with dialogue options quoting his actual posts on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
Instead of addressing Trump\u2019s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, like in much of their previous work,<\/a> this installation was inspired by the Trump administration\u2019s war in Iran.<\/p>\n Derrick Epps, who stopped by with his wife and rode their bikes from Northeast D.C. to play the game, said \u201cthe characters that you fight on the first level are angry terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe second level was schoolgirls. The third level was the Pope,\u201d Epps said. \u201cYou had to do pushups with Robert Kennedy to beat one of the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n While in Mario Bros. mushrooms give you power, in Operation Epic Furious, you use Diet Cokes and Big Macs as power-ups.<\/p>\n There were a lot of people trying their luck at the game, including tourists like Kay Tye, who thought it was \u201chilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSort of a sight to see video games up in these pillars,\u201d Tye said. \u201cI\u2019m honestly astonished that they\u2019re up and that no consequences have befallen those who created this game.\u201d<\/p>\n Tye\u2019s favorite part of the game was the reference to Kid Rock\u2019s helicopter,<\/a> and she said the installation proves \u201cfree speech is still active.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicole, who drove from Takoma Park to see the video game display, said she\u2019s a fan of the Secret Handshake.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you use the magic setting, you can heal his bone spurs,\u201d Nicole said of Trump\u2019s 8-bit character.<\/p>\n Nearly every person who walked up the marble steps to see the trio of games walked away laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important to laugh about the current events and stuff, because they can feel heavy,\u201d said tourist Jianna Cressy.<\/p>\n Epps, who is a former D.C. Public School teacher, found a different purpose for the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good educational piece in a time where satire and comedy and things can go over a lot of people\u2019s heads,\u201d Epps said. \u201cThat\u2019s actually a really good thinking game.\u201d<\/p>\n While it\u2019s unclear how long the physical games will be up at the memorial, the Secret Handshake has made Operation Epic Furious available online.<\/a><\/p>\n