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Every Game is Special


On 10/11/2017 at 08:17 PM by Blake Turner

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So I posted this in a reply on facebook in a discussion about how Super Metroid may be the most important game of its time.

My favourite is Dark Souls followed by Bloodborne, Resident Evil 4, MGS 3, Silent Hill 2, and Abe's Exoddus. I left out Super Metroid because I already placed that.

However I think all of those games have the staying power SM has. Dark Souls is a game that teaches you that although life can be tough you can get through it, you just have to try harder. It's a masterclass in atmosphere and it's oblique storytelling brings together themes of faith, hope, and the different ways history can be remembered or fabricated.

The Way the Storytelling is achieved in Dark Souls also presents itself as a portrait of the way life can feel life can seem fragmented.

Resident Evil 4 is maybe the most perfectly designed game in terms of mechanics ever. It aims for horror action and succeeds on both fronts. It uses it's budgetary restraints to reminisce on b movie nostalgia.

MGS3 was the first game that ever made me cry. The final boss fight, meeting the Sorrow, the fight with the end, the 5 minute ladder climb... it mixes camp with genuine emotion and the result is the video game version of Macklemore's The Heist: Something so sincere yet falled that you can't help but fall in love with it.

Silent Hill 2 tackles themes of abuse, Euthanasia, ptsd, sexual frustration and it accomplishes this with the maturity of another medium, especially for when it was released.

And finally, Abe's Exoddus is a parable of industrialization versus the organic. The conclusion it seems to draw is that there needs to be a balance to support human life, but if we tip too far into factorization it will be our undoing.

I could do this to every game in my top 10. Skate 3 is a protest against authority, emphasizing expression of self over conformity. The mechanics emphasize this beautifully with the open world and flowing movement mechanics.

Just letting you know, every game is special. Even the 3-7/10 range can offer meaning and help us come to grips with this terrifying existence of ours


 

Comments

KnightDriver

10/11/2017 at 09:18 PM

That reminds me. I got to play Silent Hill 2. The first one was great. 

asrealasitgets

10/12/2017 at 02:47 AM

I'm replaying through Bloodborne right now and it is still very streamlined gameplay. I think it would make it hard to go back to other souls games, not saying they're bad. I appreciate the horror and atmosphere as much as the mechanics here. Although I still have the same problem I had at first, which is having to farm bloodviles. It's a peeve, not a game breaking thing, but last night I was fighting the '3 grim reaper ghost' bosses and I ran out of blood viles, so I have to log in to farm just to retry the fight and it just killed the mood for me.  I ended up watching more Exorcist TV show and reading before going to bed which is not what I planned on doing. Very annoying.

I love all these games you listed by the way. Now you're posting precious game blogs on Facebook? I'm sad to miss out on them. I really like this blog. Where is old whatsacow? Come back to us...

Machocruz

10/12/2017 at 09:50 AM

Considering that Ultima 7 came out in 1992, and Doom came out in 93, I think anyone would be hard pressed to make that case for Super Metroid, which you can say was just refining already well trod ground, not advancing the state of the art of game design or causing a paradigm shift. In any case, I vehemently am against this need to heirarchize games that people have. I roll my eyes everytime a game site rolls out their arbitrary Top Games list. I don't see that it benefits anything to hold one game above all others, and I don't even think a rational argument for such can be made that isn't rife with bias fueled by emotionality, nostalgia, etc. I don't think any kind of thorough and cool-headed analysis would come to such a conclusion.  So essentially I agree with you, although I wouldn't say EVERY game is special. We gotta let garbage just be garbage sometimes.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/12/2017 at 11:34 AM

Every game IS special Blake. There's a Jorge Luis Borges quote that says "Every book is divine." I believe that is true. Just because something is perfect or crap to some people, doesn't mean someone else won't have an entirely different experience.  

SanAndreas

10/12/2017 at 01:52 PM

What about Plumbers Don't Wear Ties? What's special about that one?

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