An Argument for the Existence of a Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Remaster

September 21 2023

An Argument for the Existence of a Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Remaster

To do it for the meme, or not do it for the meme, that is the question.

BY ELEANOR MITHUN

For many, the resurrection of Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties began in 2009 with one angry Nerd. But Plumbers had been written about and discussed many times before its rediscovery in Angry Video Game Nerd episode 74. It earned a 3% rating when reviewed in PC Gamer in 1994 and continued to haunt the minds of gamers for 15 years, “entertaining” all who sat down to play

James Rolfe’s propulsion of the title into the minds of his millions of viewers gave Plumbers stronger and longer legs than ever before, and it was through his video that many of us here at LRG became aware of this title’s existence.

So, Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is bad. I’m not going to lie. We’ve left it as it is. There was no fixing it. Well, we made it look a little better, but we can only do so much. But gameplay-wise, we couldn’t fix it. More importantly, we didn’t want to fix it. I strain at using the words “artistic integrity” here, but the truth is that the forthcoming remaster of Plumbers deserves to be seen as it was, as it is, as much as a masterpiece like The Legend of Zelda or The Last of Us does. The unfortunate truth is that art is subjective, and if I learned anything from my namby-pamby liberal arts education, it’s that if a piece of media strikes out to make you feel something, anything, it’s art.So how does Limited Run justify rereleasing this dating sim from hell upon the masses of 2023? It’s simple, really: the important part of the game is not the game but everything around it. I don’t think that people go to midnight showings of films like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Eraserhead or Pink Flamingos because they are works of cinematic high art. Cinephiles go to these events to be among like-minded peers, to discuss the making of the films, to gush over their favorite directors, and to mock the hokey bits. We enjoy things like Angry Video Game Nerd, Mystery

Science Theater, and Vinegar Syndrome because they pluck media out of obscurity, tip their hats to the history and culture around a title, and transform it into a new, entertaining product for fans and newcomers. This is one of the most important goals of the Plumbers remaster. It’s not just a re-release of the game. It’s a gentle cradling of it in the context through which it was birthed.

And what is that context? Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties created such a karmic black hole from its unpleasantness that the universe at least gave it an interesting backstory to make up for it. First, you have Jeanne Basone in the lead role, a stuntwoman and actress well known for depicting Hollywood of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Jeanne’s testimony of the game's making was essential to our work remastering. And speaking of making the game, Plumbers was shot over two days, and tight timelines are always a sure sign that your production is going to be special. And the story continues long after the game’s release. The PC port of the game vanished to time until a copy was uncovered decades later at a university in Muncie, Indiana, of all places. I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a CIA agent, a mob boss, or some other wackadoodle curveball in the story.When Limited Run spent real American dollars to acquire this title, we set out to catalog the whole sordid story. The real product Limited Run seeks to put out is not the terrible game but elaborations on facts like the ones I just shared above, told by the people who were there—by everyone who played a part in this game’s greater story. In this remaster, you’ll find hours of interviews with those wonderful folks, including Jeanne Basone, James Rolfe, experts like Kelsey Lewen of the VGHF, our development team, our media curators, and many other wonderful people who gave their precious time alive to talk about this game with us. Presenting these interviews alongside the game, rather than just doing a straightforward documentary, is the best way we know how to put Plumbers in context for you.

And hey, if you like fun, we did add a little dungeon-crawling mode to the game, and we’ve ensured that the presentation is something that you would expect from a Plumber’s Don’t Wear Ties game in 2023. I can safely say that we did not do it for the meme, but there’s no harm in a little memeing from time to time, so the remaster does reflect that important part of the story as well. After all, we are keeping the integrity of this art intact.

It’s just more Duchamp than DaVinci. Because plumbers. Toilet. Plumbing. Haha.Pre-orders for the physical version of Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition launch tomorrow at 10am ET. The digital version for all platforms launches on December 8th, 2023, just in time for Christmas 🎄