5 Oddball Patriotic Games for the Fourth of July

Ah, America. Land of the free, home of cheeseburgers and Coca Cola. Every fourth of July, we celebrate our independence by lighting off multitudes of explosive fireworks that injure over 1,000 people every year. Because what better way to celebrate our freedom by potentially killing one another!?

However you spend your fourth of July holiday, just about everyone in America feels a great sense of patriotism in celebrating the day we declared our independence from the British empire. Yet, if you don't find yourself wishing to spend the holiday clogging yourself with junk food or drinking till it's magically July 7th, why not play some patriotic video games instead?

We've compiled a list of some quite uncanny titles you should check out if you feel the need to pour some America loving freedom directly into your eyes.

5. Patriotic Pinball

PS1

Pinball games were certainly not uncommon back in the early days of gaming. From Austin Powers to the band Kiss, just about everyone and everything got their own form of a pinball video game. So does it really comes as a surprise that America itself would get its own pinball game?

Released for the original PlayStation, Patriotic Pinball has an assortment of levels dedicated to everything we love about the grand ol' United States of America. From landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the White House, to levels dedicated to the military forces, this game is definitely something you should pick up if you want to dust off your old PlayStation and get your fill of MURICA.

4. Blitz: The League II

PS3, 360

You know what Americans love? Football. You know what they really love? Ultra-violence. So what better way to celebrate the fourth of July than popping in an ultra-violent football game?

Blitz: The League II is a lot like an anti-Madden. While EA is perfectly fine with sticking to the same routine more or less over and over again, the Blitz series set out to take a popular sport and flip it upside down. Thanks to a plethora of incredibly gory sports injuries you can deal out to enemy teams, Blitz: The League II managed to become the bloodiest mess of a sports game anyone could possibly imagine, and it was all the better because of it. 

3. Hail to the Chimp

PS3, 360

Considering the fact that politics nowadays has boiled down to nothing more than children throwing sand at each other in a dilapidated playground, you might as well at least laugh at their immature antics by playing this political party game. 

Hail to the Chimp may seem like your typical party-based game on the outside, but with the added fun of presidential candidates in the form of animal counterparts fighting each other for the top spot of President, you know things are about to get silly. After all, if politicians are slinging mud at each and are just mere steps away from throwing the punches, you might as well fulfill your fantasy of seeing it happen in video game form. 

2. Mercenaries II: World in Flames

PS2,PS3, 360, Windows

Pandemic Studios may be gone, but the tongue-in cheek-humor they plastered throughout their games lives on. Whether it was probing as many humans as you possibly could in Destroy All Humans! or romping around in an AT-AT during Star Wars Battlefront, Pandemic was never afraid to have a little fun while making fun games.

Yet, one of the last games they managed to create before going defunct, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, probably contains one of the most hilarious political jabs to ever grace an open world action adventure game. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Pandemic Studios released a patch for their game that allowed for players to commit capers as future President Barack Obama and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. If that isn't the definition of the oddest, yet most hilarious jab at politics in a video game, I don't know what is.

1. The Burger King Trilogy

Xbox, 360

There's no escaping big business American fast food, no matter how hard you try. You could isolate yourself in the deepest woodlands of Alaskan wilderness, and you're still bound to find a McDonald's or Burger King somewhere. So, instead of trying to fight off the inevitability of mass market greasy foods taking over the entire country, we might as well embrace their oddities right?

When the Xbox 360 was new to the video game console market, Burger King decided to release three individual titles, PocketBike Racer, Sneak King, and Big Bumpin', as a way to advertise themselves on the new, advanced hardware. And while this isn't the first time a fast food company has tried utilizing video games to sell more hamburgers, these titles definitely still remain some of the most lazily made, yet undeniably fascinating, examples of American fast food chains gone crazy.

Are there any other games that remind you of being an America loving American? Be sure to comment below and let us know what titles you love playing on Independence Day!