tweak the sensibilities of the religious community." The developers received upset responses from many Christian organizations as well as consumers, including one that commented, "The word ‘messiah’ is such a powerful word, I just can’t ignore it or its connotations. I know there are a lot of things out there that already tarnish religious imagery. But I just can’t support a company that would throw around that word so lightly." In August 1999, Interplay recorded several promotional commercials with Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf from The Howard Stern Radio Show. Hank would don an angel costume and wandered the streets of various cities with a sign to publicly promote the game. Part of the game's soundtrack was contributed by industrial metal band Fear Factory, and was later released as Messiah. Reception The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. The earliest review came from Edge, which gave it a score of seven out of ten, nearly two months before the game itself was released in North America, and over two months before its European release date. Computer Gaming World declared the title "truly repellent - I don't even like to think of the sort of sadist who would enjoy it." The review detailed that beside "a level of sexism that goes beyond the usual demeaning stereotypes" and "adolescent edginess" that "there's a general atmosphere of cruelty, of enjoying violence not for the adrenaline rush of the action or even for the fun of cartoonish bloodshed - but for the realistic pain it causes." Jim Preston of NextGen said, "If you can get past some technical glitches, awkward controls, and routine gameplay, Messiah will deliver – for a little while." According to author Erik Bethke, Messiah was a commercial flop, with "fewer than 10,000 units sold in its first three months". The game was nominated for GameSpots 2000 "Most Disappointing Game" award, which went to Star Wars: Force Commander. Throughout the game, the main character makes a sound (referred to as "oof"), which has been taken by the popular game Roblox as a sound effect for when a character dies. There was a subsequent legal dispute over the use of the "oof" sound, which led to a compensation agreement. On July 26, 2022, the sound was removed from Roblox and replaced with another. References External links 2000 video games Action-adventure games Cancelled Dreamcast games Cancelled PlayStation (console)