A recent update for Guilty Gear: Strive added Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president who infamous condemned the game years ago.
Bill Clinton, like many politicians since the dawn of video games, took cheap shots at the medium back in 1999 with a now-infamous speech where he condemned Guilty Gear and many other games for their digital violence.
Here’s an old recording of the speech:
At the time, marketing for video games was typically very attention-grabbing and sometimes off-collar, with Guilty Gear promoted along the ad saying “kill your friends, guilt free.”
Clinton actually went through several game advertisements at the time, with many focusing on the guns or action in the latest shooters on the market. Guilty Gear was a relatively niche fighting game, where most gamers likely only knew of Street Fighter or perhaps Tekken.
As such Arc System Works made a cheeky jab with the news that Guilty Gear: Strive added Bill Clinton in its latest post-launch update, which added the reoccurring “Digital Figure Mode” into the game, among other new content and new yet returning character Testament.
Fans quickly began exploring the new mode and all the figurines you can oogle and take in-game photos of. One new level, titled “White House Reborn” naturally recreates the Oval Office from our nation’s actual White House, has a curious framed photo in the background.
Over two decades later Guilty Gear: Strive added Bill Clinton into this new mode, forever memorializing the former U.S. president for his old speech and takes a jab at politicians consistently using video games as an easy scapegoat.
Guilty Gear: Strive is available on Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.