A new “triple-a” parody of the classic game Minesweeper offers a comedic take on what an overproduced modern update might look like. The project, called Triple-A Minesweeper, was created by writer and programmer Mike Lacher and is fully playable as a browser game on his site.
Beyond the intentionally pretentious title cards touting involvement from Unreal Engine, Nvidia, Bink Video, and Wwise, the game looks and plays almost exactly like regular Minesweeper. The best way to experience it, however, is by simply not doing anything at all.
The main character, “Sweeper,” sits around repeating lines such as “I gotta sweep these mines” while receiving calls from newly created characters. Lacher appears to have drawn inspiration from Grand Theft Auto 5, Metal Gear Solid, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Among the callers is Nora, a potential love interest for Sweeper. An underworld figure known as The Don repeatedly calls, urging Sweeper to head down to his club while hinting at the character’s sinister past in Singapore. Meanwhile, a chipper DJ named Dan celebrates Sweeper’s efforts on behalf of New Dawn City.
In another comedic touch, Sweeper never acknowledges any of the other characters and keeps repeating the same lines over and over. The game can be completed, which triggers a twist ending that was probably not difficult to predict.
Lacher leaves the parody on that note, though it would have been even funnier if the coda mentioned that Triple-A Minesweeper flopped and cost Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars.
Microsoft hasn’t done too much with Minesweeper in recent years, although it was added to Microsoft Teams as a playable game. The company has also previously created a Minesweeper-themed ugly Christmas sweater.
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