Revolution X

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Music is the Weapon!

Revolution X is a 1994 mounted light gun game from Midway Games. In it, you play a revolutionary who fights against a military faction known as New Order Nation (NON) who have criminalized all things fun and are arresting anyone between the ages of 13 and 30. You set out to stop them and all their heinous actions against the youth with your assault rifle and explosive CD launcher.

Yeah, it's just that kinda game.

For a side-scrolling shooter, the game was pretty impressive, using live action technology and camera zoom-ins and outs to create a rather frantic experience. The game was, of course, also notable for its use of Aerosmith pretty much just as a marketing vehicle for the band (and oddly, it worked; many people who never heard of Aerosmith before became fans of them due to their exposure to the game).

While Revolution X was very successful at the arcades, many game magazines and review sites put it as one of the Worst Games Ever on their lists. Though this is probably due to the ridiculous premise and live-action graphics more than to actual gameplay, which isn't as bad as they make it out to be (being a Spiritual Successor to Terminator 2 the Arcade Game, YMMV, of course). It may also be due to its horrible ports to Genesis and Super Nintendo. The PC, Sega Saturn and PlayStation ports fare slightly better, probably due to the fact that they had more tech power behind them.

Tropes used in Revolution X include:

• 100% Completion: Finding the hidden Aerosmith members in the game. Don't and you get a "Congrats, you win but didn't get everything" ending upon beating the game.
• Abnormal Ammo: The secondary fire function of your gun unleashes explosive compact discs.
  • "Yes, death by exploding CD's!"
    • Add to this the "Lazerdiscs", which upgrade your CDs to flaming CDs.
• Bad Bad Acting: While Steven Tyler hams it up as usual, Joe Perry delivers his lines in total monotone with no discerning facial expression at all. He just does not care.
• Bullet Hell: With missiles, fireballs, shurikens plastic cogs, tribal spears... And that's only mentioning the deflectible ammunition.
• Culture Police: The New Order Nation.
• Excited Episode Title: Steven shouting the game's name after you insert a quarter.
• Expy: Helga's second form may as well be Mutoid man.
• Fan Service: All of the hostages are female... wearing bikini tops!
• Game Over: Steven shouting "Don't give up!" when all the player's health is gone.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The vast majority of NON's foot soldiers.
• Guide Dang It:
  • The game isn't very clear what you're supposed to do in certain battles. Such as the scientist who chucks grenades at you (you have to shoot the sign above him), the caterpillar boss (you have to keep it back during the chase then destroy the bridge when you reach that point) or the battle against Helga (you have to position her in front of the throne then blow her into it).
  • Additionally, Finding each member of Aerosmith (for the score-multiplying wings that unlock a bonus room at the end of the game) is also frustrating. You have to take an exact set of actions to find them, and you only get one shot for each. With one specific exception, it's nearly impossible (if not outright impossible) to find a member by accident:
    • Tom Hamilton appears in either the male or female restroom (which not only do you not know you can end up going into, but is determined randomly at the start of each game) early in level 1. Which one he is in is dependent on the very first movement after you reach the rooftops.
    • Steven Tyler appears on an alternate route that requires you to destroy a pair of fish with CDs and then break a mirror after reaching a certain point in the Lounge of level 1.
    • Brad Whitford actually has a map in the level (Pacific Rim) showing where he is, but getting to him is annoying: You have to go to a specific gate, shoot a box, shoot a sign that becomes exposed when the box is shot, and then quickly shoot the arrow that appears afterwards.
    • Joe Perry is located in a secret room inside another secret room accessed via a secret elevator (specifically, he's behind a grate in a room full of hostages) in the Amazon.
    • Joey Kramer can easily be obtained by pure coincidence: the unlock condition is to obtain 3 golden CDs from Sphinxes in the Middle East level. And fortunately, they're all pretty early. Unfortunately, the entire level is spent fighting against that freaking school bus.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: The Big Bad, Helga. By the way, that's her on the side of the arcade cabinet as seen in the flyer above.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: The enemies you come across during the Pacific Rim Warehouse level. Heck, they look more like wrestlers than ninjas.
• La Résistance: What you are essentially doing.
• Limited Animation: One of many examples: the NON soldiers forcing Aerosmith out of the stage at the beginning of the game, followed by Helga appearing to taunt you.
• Marathon Boss: All of them, save for that insectoid thing in the Amazon stage (which only needs a gimmick to be beaten). They need an ungodly amount of hits to be taken down, and don't even stop shooting at you while they're being punished. Notably, the armored school bus has a time limit to be destroyed, but it can take so much punishment, you sometimes wonder how is it even possible to beat it.
• Metal Scream: Steven does his occasionally in response to the ongoing action.
• Never Say "Die":

NON pilot: Land the chopper now, or we will destroy you! Helga: I will destroy you!

• Nintendo Hard: At least, if you play solo, this game is a pain in the ass. Supposedly, with more players to share firepower, it becomes more of a cakewalk.
• One-Winged Angel: Helga, the final boss of the game; after you knock her into a chair, she suddenly turns into some minotaur like monster.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: Yeah, said monster (named Mondor) is a guy. The implication was Helga was actually some evil alien thing in human disguise trying to brainwash us all.
• The Power of Rock: "Music is the weapon!"
• Redshirt Army
• Refuge in Audacity
• Twenty Bear Asses: You have to find all five members of Aerosmith to get the real ending. The members of the band are ridiculously hard to find, and you only get ONE CHANCE to find each of them. These are five particularly annoying asses.
• Zerg Rush: NON troopers have the resiliency of tissue paper. Trouble is, they never stop coming.