Trust the makers of VLC media player to melt my AI cynicism

VLC were hardly the only outfit to be showing off a new AI-powered feature at CES 2025. The crew behind the freeware media player weren’t even the only one showing off AI-powered subtitles!

Of the many AI related announcements at the world’s biggest consumer electronics tradeshow this year, this one hit different. The reason why? It came accompanied by the giveaway of a golden Game Boy.

Alongside the launch of AI subtitles, the team at VLC was also keen to celebrate the fact that the media player has now accrued over 6 billion downloads since it launch back in 2001. Rather than pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion, VLC’s “Chief Space Officer” Julien Navas developed a bespoke puzzle game for original Game Boy.

Titled Conefuse, it’s a top-down adventure that tasks you with sliding sets of traffic cones around a set of levels. Navas based the heroine of the game on his daughter and even incorporated the launch of VLC’s AI subtitles feature into the plot.

Over the course of CES 2025, Navas has been running a competition that promises to reward the first visitor to VLC’s booth who can beat Conefuse with a golden Game Boy. If you can’t squeeze in a quick trip to Vegas though, you can always find and play Cone Fuse via Itch.io.