When I started playing video games, a wide-eyed child fascinated with the concept of taking the moving pictures on the television and telling them what to do with my NES controller, the core ideas behind gaming were simple and concrete; you’d move Mario to the right because that was the only damn direction to go, you`d jump on top of enemies for points, and it ended with you fighting some inscrutable boss creature. Essentially the idea of distinct levels, a lives system, and points, hoo boy were there points to accumulate.
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There’s got to be something in the water over at Double Fine Productions. I mean it, the folks over there seem utterly crazy.
“Oh hey, what video game are you working on right now, Double Fine?”
“You know, the usual. An adventure game about a summer camp for psychic children, a band roadie getting sucked into a world created from metal music, a group of trick-or-treaters who use the power of imagination to fight off a goblin invasion, RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS WHO SOLVE CHILD LABOUR. Just the same-ol’ same-ol’.
It’s really a breath of fresh air, coming from Double Fine. In a world where video games are synonymous with angry, bald, mono-syllabic space marines toting ridiculous guns, where two years and tens of millions of dollars are the bare minimum to getting a mainstream game out the door, here comes a group of obviously unhinged people making games about whatever the hell they feel like, and doing a pretty damn decent job at it.
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I’m a rather huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. A strange thing to begin when writing a review on one of the games in the series, but it’s like the game’s makers, Ubisoft, tried to find the exact topics in a story that would get me going. A setting steeped in history? Check. Crazy, pants-on-head retarded conspiracy theories? Check! An almost comedic level of violence, bordering at times on genocidal? Check and mate!
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As it’s now officially that time of year, when under-sized children wear witch costumes and fiend for sugar, over-sized children wear slutty witch costumes and fiend for Bacardi, and I invariably get stuck inside reading about international war law (who sets up a midterm for Nov. 1, I ask you!), I’ve decided to get into the “spirit of the season” and talk about some of my favourite video games, both classic and contemporary, that managed to scare the hell out of me. Though some of these titles may, by current standards, seem outdated, when I had gotten my hands on them they scared me shitless.
I’m also trying to focus on some titles that are somewhat “off the beaten path”, so to speak, in the horror genre, and I’m hoping to get away from the more well-known Silent Hill’s and Resident Evil’s in exchange for games you don’t always see written about ad nauseum during this time.
So here are, in no particular order, a couple of games that caused me to shake, shiver, and sleep with the lights on.
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Before I even start talking about this game, I need to get something off my chest: Deathspank is a fucking terrible name for a game. I know that it’s supposed to be all about “the funny”, but when you give a game a name like Deathspank you’re making it sound juvenile as all hell rather than giving off the idea that it’s actually funny, which is a shame because there are a number of situations within Deathspank *shudder* that are actually quite humourous. I’m going to try not to bring it up again, but seriously, DEATHSPANK? God damnit.
Alright, take two. *Ahem*. Deathspank is a downloadable action-rpg for the PS3 and Xbox 360 made by the up-and-coming development house “Hothead Games”, who were also responsible for the “Penny Arcade: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness” series, an awesome series of cartoon games which hold a very special place in my heart. In addition to Hothead, however, famed developer Ron Gilbert (one of the creators of the popular “Monkey Island” series) had a hand in this game’s creation, and as a man known for bringing the funny there were a lot of high expectations held for this game.
(I mean really, though, Deathspank? Come on now…)
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The concept of “Video Games as Art” has been a hotly contested topic, with its origins coming into the mainstream only within the last decade. Many see gaming as nothing more than the puerile pursuit of young boys and bloodthirsty, mal-adjusted teenagers, and have been quickly dismissive of the “Games as art” belief. Roger Ebert himself wrote that he believes games could never be as artistically worthy as literature or cinema. Many others, myself included, beg to differ, and can attest that there are moments within video games that have struck us with such sadness, passion, or joy that no other word but art could possibly describe what we had been playing.
To be fair, the definition of “art” is a bit…murky, and depending who you ask could mean any number of things. And to be even MORE fair, there are an exceeding number of games out there which are most certainly NOT art… at least from my opinion. For every “Shadow of the Colossus” that gets released we get dozens upon dozens of forgettable first-person shooters. But the point of this article, as I fumble to get back on topic, is to display a couple of games, in no particular order, that I feel are unequivocally “art.” These are solely choices of my own opinion, and if you disagree with my opinions, or are absolutely horrified that I missed your favourite piece of gaming art, feel free to call me a moron.
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