I have wanted to do a video/computer game review for some time, but it seemed incongruous. How to reconcile a game with Yearning for Wonderland’s whimsical tone. Then again, I’m as much geek as dreamer, so that dichotomy must be addressed.

So I had to write when I discovered a perfect blending between literary and geek in the game, Arm Joe, which is a Street Fighter-style fighting game based on Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Yes, you read that correctly.

Eponine vs. Marius

Jean Valjean vs. Cosette

Marius vs. Robojean

Thernardier, bear trap, tossing Mmme Then
farts, dies butt-up, exposed
banks of the seine
paris streets
sewers of paris

graveyards of Paris
javert

held by police as Javery punches
summon meteor storm

enjoralas – butt of rifle, shoot soldier that flops down from barricade

Marius

summoning his dead amis

Pardon, pourquoi

Judgement, muscle-bound dark Javert

levitates off field

huhuhuh

smoke bomb, throws off coat

pon pon

mustachioed baby, car

Robojean

spurts gears, explodes in shower of sparks and sprockets, ice gun, laser gun, gogo gadget

cosette, hat blows off, throws Valjean at you

police, purple blood