Cunt (video game)

Cunt is a shoot 'em up Flash game developed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl and featuring music by John Erik Kaada. It was released in 2008.

Gameplay
Cunt's gameplay is similar to Atari's Tempest (1980) and also seems to be influenced by Digital Eel's Dr. Blob's Organism (2003).

Players control a penis that orbits an anthropomorphic vagina. The object of the game is to defeat the vagina by firing semen at it, after which play continues with a different vagina taking its place. The penis is moved left and right by the player, orbiting around the vagina a full 360 degrees. During play the surface of the vagina produces sexually-transmitted diseases and parasites such as pubic lice from pustules; these can be destroyed while still in pustule form or by the player once hatched and mobile. Diseases move towards the penis and attack once they collide with it. Players can get rid of these "bugs" by moving the mouse back and forth to shake them off. Players can receive power ups such as penis-enlarging pills and fluids that gives them rapid-fire capabilities.

Development
McMillen described the game as "a tasteless joke showing being independent means you can make or do anything without being censored." He compared the way he delivered Coil and Cunt, stating that there's two ways to present an argument: "the 1st way is the hard way, explaining your view in depth to get your point across, the 2nd way is to just punch whoever you're arguing with in the face. Cunt is definitely a punch in the face, but does that make it any less meaningful?" He said they were both equal methods of expressing ideas.

Norwegian composer John Erik Kaada provided Care from his debut album Thank You for Giving Me Your Valuable Time for the game's soundtrack. Kaada had previously supplied one of his music tracks for Coil, a previous Himsl and McMillen collaboration. McMillen was surprised that Kaada agreed to supply music for Cunt, despite being willing to provide a track for Coil.

Reception
Cunt elicited outcry from feminist gaming blogs, and Kotaku's Maggie Greene described the game as "a rather graphic representation of a fear of women that goes back a very, very long time". "Brinstar", a community manager in the game industry, described the game as "shallow and boring" in her blog Acid for Blood. She added "Cunt is a violent and extreme manifestation of an irrational male fear of and revulsion towards women and women's bodies". "Mighty Ponygirl", a poster at the blog Feminist Gamers, stated the titular vulva looked "for all the world like a wizened creature out of the H.R. Giger convalescent home for aging genital monsters". Both bloggers stated that other games they viewed as misogynistic tended to be amateur efforts, but were concerned due to the backing the game received from Newgrounds and McMillen's profile in the gaming community.

Other video game journalists were more light-hearted about the game's content. Alec Meer described Cunt as "worth seeing for its audacity alone". Independent game designer Derek Yu joked "this game represents a very real threat by “electronic cyber-terrorists” to destroy the American values you hold so dear, so you should probably play it before they take it away from you". Santa Cruz newspaper Good Times ' reporter Anna Merlan stated that McMillen was bemused by the feminist gaming community's response. She noted that a woman at the next table abruptly left the room when McMillen offered a "vivid explanation" of Cunt in the Santa Cruz coffee shop where she was conducting an interview with him. McMillen stated in a later interview "If people want to use it as an example of misogyny in games, then kudos to them for wanting to fight for something they feel passionately about. I know what my intentions were when I made it, and I’m glad I did it."