Topheavy Studios

Background
Topheavy Studios was a short-lived game developer founded by Jeff Spangenberg, previously the head of Iguana Entertainment and Retro Studios, in 2002. Spangenberg was fired from the latter company due to his hedonistic lifestyle clashing with his co-workers, and Nintendo (who approached Retro to help produce what became Metroid Prime) discovering him running an adult website on their servers. Spangenberg started Topheavy shortly afterwards, and they released their first title the next year, the adult party game The Guy Game. That game, which was already heavily panned by critics and sold poorly, became the center of controversy when one of the women featured in the game (whose main gimmick was women flashing their exposed breasts if they got the answers to trivia questions wrong) sued the company, stating she was 17 when she was filmed and was unaware of how the footage would be used. For reasons that should be very obvious, the game was recalled. Topheavy later released a DVD version of the game entitled The Guy Game: Game Over without the offending footage, and then quietly folded. Spangenberg disappeared from the gaming industry, and eventually the public eye altogether, shortly afterwards.

(August 31, 2004-July 2005)


Logo: On an orange-yellow gradient background, we see the white letters "TH" zoom in and shake a bit, shaped in a circular fashion similar to female breasts. They then rapidly zoom back and become a stylized "TH", enclosed in a TV. Next to the TV is the text "TOPHEAVY TM", with "STUDIOS" underneath it in a smaller font and closer to the left. The TV spins twice.

Technique: The text zooming and shaking, the logo appearing.

Music/Sounds: A whistle blow and a crowd cheering, then a short dance tune.

Availability: Very rare. Seen only on the Xbox, PS2 and PC versions of The Guy Game, and presumably on the DVD The Guy Game: Game Over. Due to the aforementioned recall, copies of the game are very expensive and hard to find online, and the DVD is also rare due to it only being sold through Topheavy's website (not that you'd want to buy either of them anyway).

Legacy: A pretty childish and unfunny logo, but considering what this company released, it's pretty fitting with their image.