InnerSloth's multiplayer social deduction game Among Us continues to snowball in popularity on YouTube and streaming services like Twitch, with the developers announcing the game peaked above three million concurrent Among Us players in September. With that popularity has come many fans designing their own characters, maps, and even custom Imposter kills.
In each round of Among Us, players are split into crew members and Imposters, the latter asked to complete tasks around the map before they are all potentially killed by their masquerading enemies. YouTube creator Landonardo uploaded two videos last week depicting animated Among Us kills based on iconic anime moves, including the Kamehameha from Dragon Ball and summoning Dark Magician from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Today, they came back with another set based on video games.
A number of titles are shown off in the minute-long video, including an Imposter dressed like Yoshi who turns the crew member into an egg, one who builds a Fortnite-style wall to snipe from, and a particularly heartfelt bit replicating Aerith's death from Final Fantasy 7. There is also a kill based on blocky Minecraft characters, which feels fitting given Super Smash Bros. Ultimate just announced Minecraft Steve as its next DLC fighter.
The Imposters in Among Us can shapeshift into different alien forms to kill players, similar to the parasitic beings in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), so the possibilities for how many animations could be added into the game are theoretically limitless. InnerSloth decided to cancel Among Us 2 in favor of simply improving the game it already has, and it could be fun to see the developer take a page from Landonardo's book by slipping in references to pop culture iconography along the way.
Among Us' popularity has extended into social media as well, with fans widely sharing creations like tabletop adaptations of the game online. Many have taken to creating their own Among Us "Crewsonas" based on the way players are able to customize their little bean-shaped astronaut characters with different hats, clothing, and pets.
Any game that becomes as huge as Among Us as quickly as it did is also subject to growing pains. Some players have complained about an influx of cheaters in Among Us, which seems like something the developers will want to address as they flesh out the game with extra content like death animations. In the meantime, artists like Landonardo should continue to give the game interesting fan-made content to consume.
Among Us is available now for Mobile and PC.