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Step inside John Wesley Coleman’s Wild Zoo

Most artists release music videos to preview a new album. The Golden Boys' guitarist launched an interactive game instead. 

 

Austin Powell

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Posted on Dec 7, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 12:34 am CDT

Firing swag in Kreayshawn’s 8-bit world is one thing. Try walking in the shoes of John Wesley Coleman.

The ringleader of Texas’ the Golden Boys, Coleman stars in the video game, Wild Zoo, which comes across as a lo-fi version of Mario Bros. with a better soundtrack: new slacker jams from his upcoming solo album, Nightmare on Silly Street.

The game was created by his label Monofonus Press—the madcap, multimedia publishing-company behind “Dry Hump the Game,” an interactive YouTube rubdown released earlier this year.

“I know it’s not the most complex thing out there by a long shot, but my goal was just to play with the music video format in a way that hasn’t been done very much yet,” says creator and label owner Morgan Coy, who used GameSalad, a drag-and-drop game creator. “I’m always looking for ways to engage people, and so I keep trying different things.”

There are apparently three levels, but I couldn’t get past the first—despite there being only two moves in the game: shoot and jump. But in Zoo Land, dying comes with a  perk: users can listen to a digital jukebox spinning three new album tracks.

“The key to this one is shooting all the time,” offers Coy, “but most importantly, you need to double jump to make it up on the platforms.”

Photo by The Accent

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*First Published: Dec 7, 2011, 12:58 pm CST