Over its eleven-year run, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Greatest Show Of All Time, skewered a lot of terrible films. But in all the years, one stood out, rising above your Wild World of Batwomans, your Castle of Fu Manchus, and even your Werewolfs to achieve true terrible greatness: Manos: The Hands of Fate. This film was so wretched that Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank each apologized to Joel and the Bots for inflicting it on them. And now, because the internet is good, we have a Manos sidescroller.
The Manos: The Hands of Fate game is a heady mix of Super Mario Bros and Castlevania, and it embraces its inspiration. Manos soundtrack is transformed into 8-bit glory, with occasional snatches of the haunting “Torgo Theme” as well as MST3K’s own soundtrack. Best of all, the creators, Sam Beddoes, Chris Ashwood, and Andy Nicholson didn’t limit themselves to one MST3K film: there are cameos from Eye Creatures, Crawling Hands, Hobgoblins, the worms from Squirm, Green Slime, Killer Shrews, and even Screaming Skulls! If you’d like to peer inside the mind of the man who would dedicate precious time in his life to create this game and bring all of us joy, you can read an interview with Sam Beddoes over at Satellite News.
Check out a play-through of the entire game below, and download Manos: The Game here!