Hands on with VOTE!!!

The race for the White House is, in a metaphorical sense, a battle between two men and their almost diametrically opposed visions for the United States. In the new game VOTE!!!, developers dispense with the metaphor and turn the election into a real slugfest.

Developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games — makers of the insanely popular Infinity Blade series — the freely downloadable iOS game serves a dual purpose: It’s an entertaining game that lets you take on the role of President Barack Obama or his opponent, presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney and then battle first-person style on your iPhone, iPad or iPod for points in a mock debate/battle.

The other purpose is to register voters and raise awareness on campaign-related issues like healthcare and the economy.

Chair and Epic partnered with Rock the Vote, Voters Network and Project Vote smart to provide tools for in game voter registration and information about the candidates and their positions on the issues.

"We’re excited to join forces with Rock the Vote to help emphasize the importance of voter registration and encourage gamers to become more involved in the political process," said aid Donald Mustard, Creative Director, Chair Entertainment.

The game itself is all tongue-in-cheek. The candidates start off in suits and beat each other mercilessly with microphones. Gameplay is controlled pretty much as it is in Infinity Blade: you use gestures to block, hit and dodge. In fact, if you’ve played Infinity Blade before, you’ll recognize many of the moves.

You can customize your character with new suits (“Karate,” “Groovy Threads,” a muscle shirt), special lapel pins (“American Flag,” “Baseball Cap,” “Clown Nose”) and different weapons (hot dog, rubber chicken, popsicle), but you’ll need to win battles and earn points or coins (tapping gets you coins from your opponent, hits get you points). Your other option is to buy some of these costumes and equipment. Coins are obtained during the battle, but you can also buy a couple thousand coins for 99 cents.

Before you play, you select a perk for your candidate. Perks include “Healthcare,” a “Fund Raiser” and “SuperPac,” but they’re really battle enhancements. Healthcare, for instance, means, your opponent can’t knock you down. SuperPac doubles your points. Each of these perks also costs coins.

Different onscreen moves and hits trigger a variety of Debate-related messages, including “Pandering,” “Rebuttal,” and “Damage Control.” Some get you more points than others. All those points eventually add up (or are removed if you’re taking damage) until someone wins. The winners score is tallied up globally. When you start the game you can see which candidate is in the lead. When we last checked it was Obama.

The game encourages you to connect your game to Facebook and Twitter. Sharing your progress boosts the strength of your character.

Overall, VOTE!!! (the all caps and exclamation points notwithstanding) is an entertaining distraction from the somewhat grueling Presidential Election season; though I’m not so sure it will really educate anyone on the real issues behind the election process. Ultimately, I bet most will see it as an opportunity to live out a “fantasy”: beating the candidates with their own rhetoric — in a metaphorical sense, of course.

You can download the game for free today from the AppStore. It’s compatible with the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the iPod Touch (3rd Gen) and iPad. All need iOS 4.0 or later.

What do you think? Is the game a good idea or does it take the whole thing too lightly? Would you start your voter registration process through it? Tell us in the comments.