Michael Hilliger

Back in 2013 middle school, one of many popular activities was to rag on teen pop stars who alway seemed in controversy for some asinine behavior. Not that I’ve ever listened to a Justin Bieber song (except this one), but I did develop an entire video game about him. Lo and behold…2013’s Justin Bieber: The Game!

Starting development in 8th Grade and wrapping up on October 12th, 2013, Justin Bieber: The Game was an adventure game where you portrayed the young pop star going about a day of his life.

Bieber was fairly simple, a choose-your-own adventure game. The player is often faced with two choices, which either leads to moving the story forward, or inadvertently killing Bieber in some excruciatingly absurd way, such as watching him climb into a tank of “pure cyanide”.

The middle school humor was on fire here, man.

Justin Bieber (and his trusty rodent sidekick Justin Beaver) then go on the lam after Bieber accidentally blows up his butler with dynamite. Then, a conspiracy unfurls… fellow pop star Harry Styles is doing…something evil. I don’t remember exactly what. I use macOS these days so I can’t run the executable.

Though I’ve made a ton of clunky software since 2008, Bieber was my first game that had some level of polish, even if the fidelity was still MS Paint graphics. Bieber paved the way for many more excellent adventures down the road, including a few more titles mocking celebrity and political figures.