Berserk

Berserk or berzerk can refer to:

Media

Music

See also

Berzerk (song)

"Berzerk" is a song by American rapper Eminem, and produced by Rick Rubin. The song, released on August 27, 2013, is the first single from Eminem's eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The song samples Billy Squier's "The Stroke", as well as the Beastie Boys' "The New Style" and "Fight for Your Right", both songs taken from their 1986 debut album Licensed to Ill, which Rubin had also produced. The song was heavily downloaded in its first week of release, resulting in the song debuting at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Composition

The song, produced by Rick Rubin, samples Billy Squier's "The Stroke", as well as the Beastie Boys' "The New Style" and "Fight for Your Right", both songs taken from their 1986 debut album Licensed to Ill, which Rubin had also produced.

The song starts with a "blast of static, hard guitar and Em roaring out of the gate sounding like the long-lost, fourth Beastie Boy", according to Yahoo! Music critic Craig Rosen. According to Rosen, the song samples the Beastie Boys as they exclaim "Kick it!" in "The New Style" and borrows power chords from Squier's "The Stroke". However, Rolling Stone's Eric R. Danton claims that the "Kick it!" sample is from another part of the album, where Ad-Rock introduces "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)". According to Billboard's Lars Brandle, the song is "a punchy, guitar-and-beats driven song which channels Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'n' Roll and Licensed to Ill-era Beastie Boys."

Berzerk (video game)

Berzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago.

Gameplay

The player controls a green stick man. Using a joystick and a firing button that activates a laser-like weapon, the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the player character. A player can be killed by being shot, by running into a robot or an exploding robot, coming into contact with the electrified walls of the maze itself, or by being touched by the player's nemesis, Evil Otto.

The function of Evil Otto, represented by a bouncing smiley face, is to quicken the pace of the game. Otto is unusual, with regard to games of the period, in that there is no way to kill him. Otto can go through walls with impunity and is attracted to the player character. If robots remain in the maze Otto moves slowly, about half as fast as the humanoid, but he speeds up to match the humanoid's speed once all the robots are killed. Evil Otto moves exactly the same speed as the player going left and right but he can move faster than the player going up and down; thus, no matter how close Otto is, the player can escape as long as they can avoid moving straight up or down.