New life was breathed into the Mass Effect meme-scene when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was released earlier this year. Although it's been several months since the trilogy's HD rerelease, a viral video that casts Austin Powers as Commander Shepard possibly takes the cake for being the best Mass Effect meme ever made.
Posted to YouTube by user eli_handle_b.wav, the video shows the International Man of Mystery taking Shepard's place during several crucial moments from across the Mass Effect trilogy to hilarious effect. Austin Powers' inclusion in the games fits surprisingly well for a lot of the scenarios that he's put in, but it definitely changes Mass Effect's serious sci-fi drama tone to a much more humorous one.
What's more, the video pokes plenty of fun at the controversies surrounding Mass Effect's sex scenes by having Powers express his completely unsubtle desires with many of the romanceable characters included in the games. That isn't to say that Commander Powers is all play and no work (although, the video spends a lot of time having him ogle at different women, just like in the films) as he grabs a blaster towards the end to help the Milky Way Galaxy take care of a Reaper.
The video's original poster, eli_handle_b.wav has posted several other videos just like "Austin Powers in Mass Effect" that include movie and TV show characters exploring different video game worlds. The two other's posted to the channel are "Patrick Bateman in Fallout 4" and a two-part series: "Walter White Arrives in City 17" and "Walter White Escapes From City 17."
"Austin Powers in Mass Effect" was seen by someone at BioWare and the studio joked along with the video by posting a meme of its own on Twitter. The tweet in question quotes Powers saying, "allow myself to introduce...myself," while attached to a photo of Commander Shepard wearing Powers' iconic glasses with a dialogue tree full of his most iconic phrases.
While the video is certainly in celebration of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, it also has fans talking about the next entry in the series. Mass Effect 4 was confirmed to be in development at last year's Game Awards and fans are hoping to hear from BioWare about the game again sometime soon. Some think that the studio will provide more information on it at this year's Game Awards, but BioWare has been silent on the game since its announcement.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.