PixlBit

First, a disclaimer; there are many, many examples of art framed in gameplay, but I can only speak to things I have personally appreciated.  This is true to the nature of art itself.  One can only speak to pieces that have “moved” them  in some way, but that does not disqualify other works of skill, beauty, imagination, and creativity, it simply speaks to their limitations as a single human being.  There are games that may deserve to be mentioned that I simply have not played, and art that I have experienced that went unappreciated because of my own personal tastes.  Please keep this in mind.

What I’m attempting to do is show my personal history of appreciating art through a videogame medium, and give my personal thoughts on how the two are inseparable.

Tennis for Two, and gameplay without art.

I simply love how much Videogame history took place near my home.  Upstate New York is home to Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is located in Upton.  Many look to this location as the birthplace of modern videogames.  It was here in 1958 that Tennis for Two was put on display and playable to the public.  Is this also the birthplace of a new art form?

It is createive, but is it art?

In short, no.

This example is simply to hammer home the point I made in my earlier entry.  Videogames, and by nature the gameplay of these games are the medium to relay the art, but are not art in and of themselves.  Tennis for two, Pong, Spacewar, and almost all early examples of video games are pure gameplay, and are the roots of modern games today.  Games in their rawest forms are not artwork anymore than the architecture inside the statue of liberty is.  The game itself is the frame in which the painting rests.  It’s the rock the sculpture is made out of, It’s the language the book is written in.  An artist always has a vision and a means by which to make it appreciable.  One would not point to a paintbrush, canvas material, or even the paint itself as an example of art, but they would talk about it in a discussion of the materials they used.  Of course the developments are notable when discussing the history of the medium, but are more akin to the discovery of tools than how to use them.  In relevance to the definition established in my first entry, this contains creativity, but lacks the other required elements.

 The 8bit era: birth of chip tunes and musical integration.

Two things strike me about the 8bit era of gaming, specifically on the NES, the console I played at the time.  First, it’s the first time I ever really appreciated music in games, and second, it’s the first time I ever saw a game try to tell a cohesive story. 

This stuff is crazy.

Previous to the NES, games had music, but the theme for Super Mario Bros was probably the first time I remember having the music get stuck in my head.  Even now, the theme screams fun, but does it hold any significance in the game?  Well, if we’re able to set aside nostalgia for a second, I honestly doubt it.  The song is just as catchy and entertaining once removed from its setting.  It’s honestly good music regardless of its association.  Let’s consider for the sake of argument, that the NES sound chip is an instrument.  I would certainly debate that it is, but that’s not the point of this article.  What I’m stating is, if the sound chip is an instrument, than significance needs to be placed on the game by the music to make it art.  When I hear the Super Mario Bros theme, I associate it with Mario, the NES, and fun, but not necessarily the remainder of the aesthetic in the game.  I don’t see what it has to do with giant mushrooms, overly aggressive turtles, and a kidnapped princess.  So while the theme is a great piece of musical art, it’s not a good example of using a game to appreciate art.

Now this may not rule out Super Mario Bros as a work of art, but it certainly makes it more difficult to argue.  Skill, creativity, and imagination are present in spades, and beauty could be as well, but it lacks cohesion, as is required to create a complete work.  Now that may not disqualify as disparate elements can come together to make something work by modern, or postmodern artistic standards, but as I mentioned, when trying to apologetically defend a point, examples like this make poor subjects.  Another popular extreme example would be Mega Man 3’s Gemini Man stage, which seems to be made intentionally bizarre in context with the rest of the game.  The level features disco light coral, insane penguins that spew balls half their size, flying tadpoles spawned from gigantic frog eggs all set to chip tuned salsa music. This is certainly a strange mix of elements, which I personally appreciate, but wouldn’t cite as evidence.

I love it when a game comes together.

Speaking of Mega Man, here’s where the previously mentioned separate constructs started to come together for me.  This was the first time themes really seemed tied to the environments and other artistic elements they were associated with.  Metal Man’s theme from Mega Man 2 is a perfect example.  Not only do the character of metal man and his weapon match with the stage perfectly, but so does the music.  Does each element stand alone?  Yes, but together they create something more than just music, sprite art, and creativity.  This is something that as a whole can be appreciated at another level and, without playing through the level, would really go unappreciated.  It’s not the only gem in that game.  Air Man, Bubble Man, and of course the Castle Theme all have excellent cohesion.  It’s when things like this happen that the medium shines.

This presentation is the most common form of the formula music + game = art.  Other examples are the SNES Donkey Kong Country, which has a perfectly appropriate theme for almost(jungle) every (ocean) environment (cave),  or SEGA’s Sonic The Hedgehog, which may not be perfect, but has moments of greatness in Casino Night Zone , Star Light Zone, and Labyrinth Zone.

Probably the most covered video game theme ever starts at 2:40

Then there are examples where art exists, but is inappreciable because the game it is housed in is, for lack of a better term, a complete turd.  Take, for example, The Silver Surfer.  This game has, arguably the best soundtrack to ever play on an NES, but the game is garbage.  This is the inverse of the Super Mario Brothers example.  In that case, the dissonance between the game and the music came because the two were unrelated.  This time, it comes from just plain lousy presentation.  Imagine if an architect created a fascinating structure that collapsed because it was structurally unsound.  That’s what this is.  It’s not art, which is a shame.  Seriously, give this stuff a listen. I can’t believe it came from an NES.

Finally, we have what may be the pinnacle of this argument, a little game that I only recently discovered that never made it off the island of Japan; A gem called Otocky.  This may be the first appearance of a pure music blended gameplay, and the one example on this list I can state is art.  This music in the game cannot possibly be appreciated outside the game, because the game literally creates it by your play.  The artist, in this case, is one Toshio Iwai of Electroplankton fame.  The game makes a better argument than my words really could, so just watch the video.

Oh Japan, how could you keep Otocky from us?

In my next entry I hope to cover the 16 and 32 bit era and the art of cinema and story in games.   While examples of cinema in games had their roots in early gaming, with sequences like the story boards in the NES Ninja Gaiden games, they didn’t become as integrated, integral, or developed as they did on later, more advanced hardware.