Fred Durst is multi-faceted and multi-talented. After guiding the world into the new millennium like a rapping, rocking Pied Piper, Durst quickly found himself not just a generation’s poet laureate, but also a filmmaker, guitar virtuoso, the last guy to popularize red baseball caps as an apolitical fashion statement, and, most importantly for our purposes here, a character in multiple video games.
The last of these accomplishments is the subject of a video from YouTuber Matt McMuscles, who launched an expedition deep into the murky, hot dog-flavored waters of the past to bring a history of Durst’s involvement with games back to the surface.
The story of Digital Durst begins, as you’d expect, in 2001, the year he appeared in WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It. As the video tells it, the wrestling game’s creators needed permission to feature Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’” in the game as the Undertaker’s entrance music and, as part of the deal that made this happen, Durst wanted to be turned into a playable character. This marked the very first time kids in oversized Korn t-shirts sitting cross-legged in front of giant CRTs across the world were able, at last, to play as Fred Durst in a video game.
After this, Durst was put into 2002's WWF Raw, which is notable mostly because, as the video points out, he walks into the ring with the swagger of a baby trying to hide the fact that they’ve just shit their diaper. Unfortunately, Durst’s video game career rose and fell about as quickly as Limp Bizkit itself. In 2004, during the last gasps of nü-metal, he was a part of the ridiculous Fight Club video game adaptation, probably because he really wanted to be in it. (We noted before that Durst is a noted Club-head, telling listeners at one point that he’s seen the movie “about 28 times.”)
Sadly, we’ve now gone 16 years without another appearance from Digital Durst. The video says that we missed an opportunity for this to happen back when Jonathan Davis of Korn was trying to make a game called Pop Scars, starring his band, Durst, Aaron Lewis of Staind, and Marilyn Manson. That this game was never made available is one of life’s many small tragedies, but, as a minor consolation prize, you can still make your own Fred Durst Mii by following these simple instructions.
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