Weezer Goes 8-Bit With The Unbeatable “End Of The Game” Game

In a time when next-gen superstars like Billie Eilish don’t know Van Halen, one band has stepped up to soothe the dad-rock aficionados of the world: Weezer. The alt-rockers will return with Van Weezer on May 15, while lead single “The End of the Game” is clearly indebted to the eponymous guitarist who inspired the album title. 

And now, the four-piece just unleashed a new browser-friendly game of the same name to promote the track, which dropped back in September. The free-to-play project is a team-up with Jason Oda, who’s responsible for other music-adjacent works like Emogame and Skrillex Quest. In a statement to Rolling Stone, the game designer called the quasi-shoot ‘em up an “ode to the boss levels that are notoriously impossible to beat.” Spoiler alert: the treasure chest is unreachable. 

Weezer’s music isn’t exactly 8bit-ified, but there’s plenty of meta-references to their discography. Ahead of the final (and only) boss, you instantly level-up as band-related memes flash before your eyes. Among the assortment of flying 1Ups, there’s a familiar can of “Pork and Beans.” When you inevitably reach the game-over screen of this “unbeatable” side-scroller, the text reads: “You died, say it ain’t so.” 

Meanwhile, the song itself gets self-referential, as frontman Rivers Cuomo contradicts Weezer’s 2001 hit, “Island in the Sun,” with this line: “I’m on an island with no sun.” He told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe that the song features “at least 100 guitars.”  

The band previously compared the hard-rock approach on their 10-track album to their 2002 LP Maladroit. “The inspiration came from our live shows, where, in the middle of ‘Beverly Hills,’ unlike on the album, everything stops and I just break out with this crazy guitar solo,” Cuomo told Entertainment Weekly last year. “We noticed that, recently, the crowd just goes crazy when I do that. So it feels like maybe the audience is ready for some shredding again.”

This isn’t Weezer’s first foray into the gaming world. Last year, the group promoted the Black Album by inserting ‘Weezer World’ into Fortnite. The Creative Island played four tracks from their 13th studio offering, although the standalone location didn’t work like Epic Games’ real-time event with Marshmello in-game (which drew 10 million concurrent players at the time).  

The End of the Game also presents an interesting bid at viral advertising in music amid the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the entertainment industry. Sony recently revealed that the music side of their business is undergoing significant disruptions due to factors like release delays and concert cancelations. However, the company reported that its gaming section would experience “no material impact on this business for the current fiscal year.” (Van Weezer will release under Crush / Atlantic.)

Last year, Weezer dropped two self-titled albums: the Teal Album and Black Album. At the moment, it appears that their Hella Mega Tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy will still kick off this summer — but it remains to be seen how coronavirus concerns will affect future concert dates. 

You can shoot lasers at a beanie-adorned alien while listening to “The End of the Game” here.