Is the PM game?

Singh joins Brian Lara, Rajnikant and Bill Clinton as new gaming icon

Even as Dr Manmohan Singh prepares for another innings in the prime minister's office, a city-based gaming portal has decided to offer an online tribute to him, via a high speed chase game aptly titled Singh is King.

Games2win, the online gaming portal, will launch the flash game on its site today, joining the long list of programmers who have jumped onto the political bandwagon. "We were waiting for an appropriate time to launch the game, and this is our tribute to the PM. Like any other politician, Dr Singh had to cross many hurdles. Therefore, we've used real life situations as roadblocks between the PM and his post," said Mahesh Khambadkone, co founder, Games2win.

The game features a mini Dr Singh complete with his trademark blue turban sprinting away from a tractor filled with yelling opponents.

En route to the finishing line, he has to avoid several obstacles like the nuclear deal, bearish Sensex, gas prices, Left parties and the cash-for-votes scandal.

Topical games on the elections have been a rage this year, with plenty of incidents proving an inspiration to gaming programmers. Take Contests2win.com that launched a special page dedicated to politics, which included nearly 800 quizzes by the fourth phase of elections.

"There was tremendous amount of interest and especially for the two Gandhi scions, Rahul and Varun. Initially, Varun had more quizzes about him, but eventually Rahul won. Other popular figures included L K Advani, Narendra Modi and Shashi Tharoor," said Raj Menon, the website's COO.