Mani Pulite

"Mani pulite" (Italian for "clean hands") was the official name of a judicial investigation on political corruption in Italy, which led to the "Tangentopoli" ("Bribesville") scandal and to the dissolution of many political parties of the time.

As opposed to the more serious take of Il grande gioco di Tangentopoli, the game Mani pulite approaches the subject in a purely satirical tone, using caricatures a la Spitting Image placed in a traditional platformer game. The player controls senator Umberto Bossi, at the time one of the most vocal opponents to corruption in the country, here portayed in shining armor and wielding a flaming sword. The player ventures through a series of fixed screens, each infested by creatures with the heads of other known politicians of the time. Most creatures can be attacked by shooting fireballs, and some of the will drop money bags that must be collected under the pretext of "reducing the degree of corruption". At the end of each level is a boss, also resembling a famous Italian politician, who drops a large bribe when defeated.

The game got a very limited release in 1993, being available only by contacting developer DoubleByte and in a few selected Italian stores.