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Post-Modern Video Game Stuff
17 years ago
Alright, this is my second little article here. This time something a bit more light hearted.
I want to talk about video game things that have nothing to do with video games.
I've always been into video games since I was a kid. I'm finding though that as I get older and my tastes broaden, there's elements from video games that I search for in the movies, television and comics I'm into that I just never seem to find. Battle Holiday is my attempt at telling that kind of story. The mascotish characters and ultra-graphic kung-fu are my own little bits of homage to stuff like Sonic, Mario, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The story reads with lots of action (game play) and has tons of characters, like the character roster in a fighting game. Now, I don't know if what I'm writing is "good" necessarily (since one is the worst judge of their own work) but writing this kind of story makes me all the more frustrated when video game oriented stuff ends up not cutting the mustard.
Take Mortal Kombat for example. It's one of my favorite game franchises, and I never get bored of it. I'm constantly groping for the next new bits of info on the games, and recently, I really really enjoyed MK vs DCU. Despite my love though, and much like with a lot of other video games, once the characters in Mortal Kombat are taken out of the context of game play, they just don't work. Their world seems like it's existing in several different time periods at once, and the characters don't seem to ever change clothes or have a normal way to travel from place to place. They all speak in a kind of martial-arts-movie-cliche dialect and the characters seem to die and come back to life willy nilly. The problems here seem even worse when they are stood next to the DC characters, who all work on many levels. They change clothes, they have plausible ways of getting around, they have personality, character and history. The gamer in me mourns this, because the Mortal Kombatants were defeated in their own medium in this way.
By the way, I think my dream gig would be to write a Mortal Kombat movie script that actually works. But that's going way off point.
Okay, anyhow, I think the reason I get so frustrated in the crap storytelling in a lot of video games is that there are so many instances of people using game-oriented material that totally works, that are completely removed from video games and game playing. An obvious example right away is Tron. Great story, great characters, and hell, the games they play in Tron actually look like a lot of fun.
Here's some other stuff that you should definitely check out if you haven't yet. These are all game-oriented things that have nothing to do with video games.
Scott Pilgrim: My current favorite comic right now. It's a slice of life romance story about a boy in a band dating the girl of his dreams, except it seems to take place inside a game of River City Ransom. Scott can only stay with his lovely lady Ramona if he's able to defeat her seven evil exes. Mr. Pilgrim has to gain experience and level up between fights, all while trying to maintain the everyday dramas in his life. It's a fantastically funny and exciting book, and hits the mark in just about every way. It uses video game elements to further the storytelling, and it works in a format that it gleafully defies, managing to stay fresh despite it's formulaic premise. I imagine if they ever did make a Scott Pilgrim game, it'd play like a combination of River City Ransom and Persona 4 (but funnier). http://www.scottpilgrim.com
We Are The Strange: A feature length multi-media animated film that primarily uses video game elements to tell it's story. It's by a dude named MdotStrange, who I honestly haven't researched yet, but I already love his style. The funny thing about the movie is it at first comes off as being very arty and experimental, but it doesn't take very long to see it for what it really is: a total fan boy project. One of the characters speaks in the Sinistar voice ("I hunger. I live") and the movie even starts with a character select screen. It's very strange and very nerdy, but ultimately great. Any fan of weird animation should definitely give We Are The Strange a viewing. What I found really funny about listening to the director's commentary on this film was how much all the game elements turned the festival crowds off from the movie. It must've been the kind of thing they couldn't connect with. You can decide for yourself here, since the entire film is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jlD.....e=channel_page
The Short Films of Paul Robertson: I just recently got into this guy, and he is one of my new favorite people. His blog is amazing, and his shorts range from being epic and action-packed to depraved and depressing (and sometimes both at once). He creates his own pixel animations that look like they are pulled right from classic SNK games, and uses those to make short films. If you're a fan of pixel art and game animation, but have never seen his stuff, go and youtube his name. All his material is pretty damn worthwhile, but my highest recommendations go to Devil Eyes and Kings of Power 4 Billion. http://probertson.livejournal.com
Those three things are prime examples of how good story telling can arise in video games, mostly because they manage to tell a decent narrative entirely in the language of games. This sort of post-modern way of thinking is certainly used in games themselves, but there seems to be a lack of it in movie adaptations of video games. If Scott Pilgrim and We Are The Strange prove anything it's that there's no reason for the Street Fighter movie to suck as much as it does, or any other game adaptation for that matter. I love this stuff, and I want to believe in the characters and stories portrayed, but they always so consistently fall short, and it just clearly isn't necessary.
Anyway, have any of you guys read or seen anything game-oriented like the stuff I described? Any opinions? Let me know.
(One day I'll write something that isn't ridiculously long-winded)
I want to talk about video game things that have nothing to do with video games.
I've always been into video games since I was a kid. I'm finding though that as I get older and my tastes broaden, there's elements from video games that I search for in the movies, television and comics I'm into that I just never seem to find. Battle Holiday is my attempt at telling that kind of story. The mascotish characters and ultra-graphic kung-fu are my own little bits of homage to stuff like Sonic, Mario, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The story reads with lots of action (game play) and has tons of characters, like the character roster in a fighting game. Now, I don't know if what I'm writing is "good" necessarily (since one is the worst judge of their own work) but writing this kind of story makes me all the more frustrated when video game oriented stuff ends up not cutting the mustard.
Take Mortal Kombat for example. It's one of my favorite game franchises, and I never get bored of it. I'm constantly groping for the next new bits of info on the games, and recently, I really really enjoyed MK vs DCU. Despite my love though, and much like with a lot of other video games, once the characters in Mortal Kombat are taken out of the context of game play, they just don't work. Their world seems like it's existing in several different time periods at once, and the characters don't seem to ever change clothes or have a normal way to travel from place to place. They all speak in a kind of martial-arts-movie-cliche dialect and the characters seem to die and come back to life willy nilly. The problems here seem even worse when they are stood next to the DC characters, who all work on many levels. They change clothes, they have plausible ways of getting around, they have personality, character and history. The gamer in me mourns this, because the Mortal Kombatants were defeated in their own medium in this way.
By the way, I think my dream gig would be to write a Mortal Kombat movie script that actually works. But that's going way off point.
Okay, anyhow, I think the reason I get so frustrated in the crap storytelling in a lot of video games is that there are so many instances of people using game-oriented material that totally works, that are completely removed from video games and game playing. An obvious example right away is Tron. Great story, great characters, and hell, the games they play in Tron actually look like a lot of fun.
Here's some other stuff that you should definitely check out if you haven't yet. These are all game-oriented things that have nothing to do with video games.
Scott Pilgrim: My current favorite comic right now. It's a slice of life romance story about a boy in a band dating the girl of his dreams, except it seems to take place inside a game of River City Ransom. Scott can only stay with his lovely lady Ramona if he's able to defeat her seven evil exes. Mr. Pilgrim has to gain experience and level up between fights, all while trying to maintain the everyday dramas in his life. It's a fantastically funny and exciting book, and hits the mark in just about every way. It uses video game elements to further the storytelling, and it works in a format that it gleafully defies, managing to stay fresh despite it's formulaic premise. I imagine if they ever did make a Scott Pilgrim game, it'd play like a combination of River City Ransom and Persona 4 (but funnier). http://www.scottpilgrim.com
We Are The Strange: A feature length multi-media animated film that primarily uses video game elements to tell it's story. It's by a dude named MdotStrange, who I honestly haven't researched yet, but I already love his style. The funny thing about the movie is it at first comes off as being very arty and experimental, but it doesn't take very long to see it for what it really is: a total fan boy project. One of the characters speaks in the Sinistar voice ("I hunger. I live") and the movie even starts with a character select screen. It's very strange and very nerdy, but ultimately great. Any fan of weird animation should definitely give We Are The Strange a viewing. What I found really funny about listening to the director's commentary on this film was how much all the game elements turned the festival crowds off from the movie. It must've been the kind of thing they couldn't connect with. You can decide for yourself here, since the entire film is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jlD.....e=channel_page
The Short Films of Paul Robertson: I just recently got into this guy, and he is one of my new favorite people. His blog is amazing, and his shorts range from being epic and action-packed to depraved and depressing (and sometimes both at once). He creates his own pixel animations that look like they are pulled right from classic SNK games, and uses those to make short films. If you're a fan of pixel art and game animation, but have never seen his stuff, go and youtube his name. All his material is pretty damn worthwhile, but my highest recommendations go to Devil Eyes and Kings of Power 4 Billion. http://probertson.livejournal.com
Those three things are prime examples of how good story telling can arise in video games, mostly because they manage to tell a decent narrative entirely in the language of games. This sort of post-modern way of thinking is certainly used in games themselves, but there seems to be a lack of it in movie adaptations of video games. If Scott Pilgrim and We Are The Strange prove anything it's that there's no reason for the Street Fighter movie to suck as much as it does, or any other game adaptation for that matter. I love this stuff, and I want to believe in the characters and stories portrayed, but they always so consistently fall short, and it just clearly isn't necessary.
Anyway, have any of you guys read or seen anything game-oriented like the stuff I described? Any opinions? Let me know.
(One day I'll write something that isn't ridiculously long-winded)
Story telling seems to been dropping lately, hence sometimes I would prefer a game way back then that was deeper than one of the newer games.