My Appendix N: Video Games

Have some tunes for this post.

We are the first generations to consider video games important influence in storytelling. Particularly those in Gen Y who grew up during the biggest shift in the medium stretching from the release of Nintendo's NES and DOS PC gaming up to the release of Sega's Dreamcast and Sony's PlayStation 2. The reach is quite great and the most the medium has changed before or since.

Since my generation spans being born from about 1980 to 1990, it means all of us came of age when Nintendo was still a cultural force (which it has been off and on since) being that the NES burst onto the scene in 1985 and were kings in the scene until around the release of the Gamecube in 2001. At the same time Sega and the Genesis and its attachments, the arcades, the coming of the PlayStation, and PC gaming's meteoric rise, were all at their peak through the same time period.

If you can find me someone born in the '80s in the west and was not somehow influenced by video games they are probably either lying or were sheltered in a way that would make the moral majority weep with envy. You knew about video games back then. They were mainstream more than they are now.

A lot is made due of the Boomers and their parents' quest to ban and destroy video games, but much of it is overblown. They had never seen such a medium and as such they made bad calls. It happens. What we don't have an excuse for are members of Gen X and Y currently in charge who grew up with video games trying desperately to destroy them as if they don't know better. As such I won't be covering the tired "banning vidya" arguments since we are far worse at it then our parents and grandparents were, and we have no excuse for it. I'm not going to be throwing stones.

Still, the fact that it was a topic at all shows how big video games became in such a short period of time. From being pure time wasters in the '70s with simplistic fare such as Pong to more involved products such as River Raid or Pitfall! it was by the '80s when they hit their stride. By the end of the '90s they would be unstoppable.

Blazing Lazers

Of course I was influenced by video games. I had an NES before I can even remember and played the original Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt constantly as a kid. I remember the Console Wars (the only good one) between Nintendo's SNES and Sega's Genesis, and I remember entering high school around the time 3D graphics were all the rage and everyone was bragging about them. I graduated not long after Sega left the console business and the arcades were beginning their slow death. To say they didn't have an effect on me would be to lie.

Video games were a way to live out adventures and experience sights and directly interact with them. It was different than watching a movie because you could influence what happened. It was different than playing around with your friends because they couldn't change the rules on you. It was different than reading a book because you could all enjoy it together at the same time. As a result they really weren't like anything else. To join in, all you had to do was pick up a controller and push the buttons.

If you want some examples of my favorite games you can click the "Video Game" tag at the bottom of this post. I've written about a bunch of my favorites here. So instead I would like to go over some genres that made the difference.

There are many to go through, but I'm going to start with the obvious one. The first is the platformer.

Really coming into its own with Activision's Pitfall!, starting with Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. for the NES (and a pack-in for the console) the genre blasted into prominence where it stayed for 3 full console generations. That was before publishers decided to ditch it, not knowing the highest selling game of the first HD generation would be a 2D platformer from a series that originated on the NES. They're still trying to kill their roots, but the platformer survives regardless. It is one of the most important genres in gaming.

Rocket Knight Adventures

The reason it became a sensation is because of a simple premise and understandable goals. In a platformer the player is tasked with going from a starting point to an end point and dodging every obstacle in their way to reach it. This is as straightforward an idea as you can get, making it perfect for action gaming and the basis for much to come.

Platformers aren't far away from Shoot 'em Ups ("Shmups") and in fact are linked by a subgenre called Run n' Gun which features elements of both. For the best example of this you can look to Konami's Contra series.

Inspired by 80s action movies such as the Predator and Rambo series, Contra was one of the series that really helped the fledgling shooter genre find its feet beyond spaceships. It's also a a great example of mixing genres, and perhaps one of my favorite series in gaming. You only take one hit to die, but you fight waves of enemies who are the same as well as giant bosses who make you feel small and helpless. Getting through a Contra game in one life is quite an achievement and rewarding.

But that is just one many series.

The NES was home to some of the best platformers ever made from the aforementioned Contra to Nintendo's own, and still running series, such as Super Mario, Kirby, and Metroid, but there were plenty of arcade-style games in other genres such as Jackal, Gun.Smoke, and GUN*NAC, not to mention the licensed games that were great from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Disney's Capcom games, to even obscure properties such as Little Nemo, or Yo Noid! featuring the old pizza mascot, the NES had just about everything. Never trust anyone who has bad things to say about the NES, they have missed out on much and have a dark heart. That's not even going into overlooked gems such as Rockin' Kats, Gimmick!, or The Lone Ranger many missed out on.

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

What I should also bring up are arcades. Never trust anyone born between 1970 and 2000 that has never had a favorite arcade game. Particularly up to 2003 or so when the consoles caught up tech-wise, arcades were considered the peak of video games and in many ways the loss of them and their influence has changed the medium for the worse. Games are not the same today.

There was a community aspect to arcades since you both had to wait in line for them and since anyone could drop in to challenge you or work with you it could lead to developing new relationships. Couch co-op at home isn't like this, and certainly neither is online multiplayer. There is something strange in meeting someone you've never met and achieving a goal alongside them.

Because of the fact that the publishers wanted you there in the arcades, the best way to do that was to make the games difficult. You had to keep coming back to beat the games. This is why difficulty is synonymous with with video games and why those who seek to eject it from the medium are missing the point of the hobby. You're meant to stick with it and get better. Why else would you keep playing it?

As for some of the best arcade games, well, there is so much you could mention. From Shmups such as Detana!! TwinBee, Gradius, and Fantasy Zone, to shooters like Gunforce 2, Sunset Riders, and Rolling Thunder, to racers such as OutRun, Hydro Thunder, and Initial D, to fighters such as Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter II, there was more than plenty to play. Genres such as rail shooters mostly died with the arcade as series such as Virtua Cop, House of the Dead, and Time Crisis, have since fallen into obscurity despite how big they were at the time and how many gameplay possibilities they could still offer. I haven't even gone into hidden gems such Elevator Action Returns, The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, and Boogie Wings.

But my all time favorite arcade genre was the beat 'em up. Capcom and Konami were the clear winners in the genre, though Data East would randomly throw out a bizarre title and Sega had a few of their own such as Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. Heck, even the guys behind R-Type, Irem, made Undercover Cops and Ninja Baseball Bat-Man. But Capcom and Konami were easily the best at the genre.

Metamorphic Force

Capcom made their mark with the original Final Fight in 1989, taking the Double Dragon formula of buddies taking on the world and simplifying it while making it faster. They released many great games in the genre up to 1997's criminally under-looked Battle Circuit which had a full on shop and upgrade system, complicated combos, and varied level design. The genre had come a long way before it was unceremoniously abandoned for 3D. Thankfully Capcom has at least recently released a brawler collection featuring some of their best non-licensed work from mech action Armored Warriors and the aforementioned Final Fight all the way up to Battle Circuit. If you're never experienced the genre before, this is a place to start.

However, my favorite beat 'em ups in the arcade were probably made by Konami. Their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games were great (The SNES version of Turtles in Time is better, however) but my favorites from them are a bit more obscure. They did some licensed work including the only good The Simpsons game to date, to Bucky O'Hare (developed by guys who would go on to form Treasure), to Cowboys of Moo Mesa, and yet in other genres such as shooters, but their forgotten original work is the Crime Fighters trilogy and it is their best.

The original Crime Fighters is a busted, cheesy game with a draining health mechanic that needs quarter munching to raise. The game has some good music, but it's otherwise forgettable. However, the follow-up, Crime Fighters 2: Vendetta, might be the best in the genre ever made. Essentially a Cannon Film movie starring Hulk Hogan and his musclebound pals, they are a neighborhood gang of good guys who have a woman taken from them and they fight through enemy territory to take her back. The sprites are big and lively, the weapons and levels are inventive, and the difficulty is actually manageable. That this has never been re-released is a crime itself. Then we come to the third game Violent Storm.

Violent Storm

Violent Storm was Konami's final beat 'em up, coming out in 1993, and it might be their best. It takes pieces of everything of the time from the obvious Fist of the North Star-style post-apocalyptic setting to Final Fight's more popular two button fighting controls, to the large and expressive sprite work, but it added its own twists.

Violent Storm's world is both post-apocalyptic yet features Utopian societies bubbled up all over that present more questions than they answer. It has Final Fight's two button controls, yet is far deeper than Final Fight, with smoother controls and more plentiful moves that require digging to find. The giant sprites are some of the best ever made with many hidden inside levels and used for one-off jokes. The soundtrack is the best in the genre, and if you've heard some of the soundtracks in this genre you know that is a bold claim. From cheesy synth rock, to '50s rock n roll, to groovy early '90s hip hop, to surf, to atmospheric beats, it goes all over the map. As far as I'm concerned the genre never got better than this which might be why it was abandoned not long later.

The Crime Fighters trilogy highlights the evolution of the genre perfectly, and two of them are some of the best in the genre. It is great stuff.

Suffice to say there were a lot in the arcades back then. Much of it is still worth playing today. If only more companies were more interested in preserving the past and making them more available many would understand that. The fact that one can't legally purchase Violent Storm and hasn't been able to in over 25 years is ridiculous.

But as influential as the arcades were I would say the ultimate peak was the 16-bit generation of consoles. I am talking about the Super Nintendo, the Sega Genesis, and (technically) the Turbografx-16/PC Engine. If one wants to include PC games that came up during this era (because there are a lot of them), portables such as the Game Boy and Game Gear, and the aforementioned arcade games they can do so. Heck, even through in the Neo Geo. But I'm referring mainly to the consoles that really perfect what the 8-bit systems put out.

Terranigma

Should one every question how competition could ever make anything better, I don't think you have to go any further than the 16-bit system wars. Nintendo's system had a slower CPU so it required games that took advantage of its superior graphical and sound capabilities. Sega's system was faster but weaker in most other aspects, so it used that speed to create different sorts of games. Both console as a result featured vastly different games, but both had fantastic libraries. The PC Engine was more of a bridge between 8 and 16 bit, but its CD technology allowed it to have a unique approach of its own during this war.

To be sure, this is the only console generation where every player had their own tremendous library of games that could go toe to toe with the others and somehow every gamer could still be jealous of the other. Games still had their roots in the arcades, new genres were coming up every day, older ones were getting interesting spins, and the gamers made out like bandits.

It was never that good for us again.

Of course I'm still a gamer today, but even at the time I knew that things changed with the 32-bit generation, and not for the better. For one, it's aged the worst of any console generation. Just about every 3D game from that time needs a remake, and 2D was cast into the trash as if it didn't matter as most of those 2D games look worse than they did on the SNES and Genesis.

It was a downgrade of a generation.

Mega Man X

At the same time the CD format had gone the wrong way from the Turbografx CD being used solely to pack in movie cinematics in a desperate bid to make games respectable by turning them into movies. Even soundtracks began to move away from the excellent Redbook audio from that system to becoming more interested in licensed music and, eventually, wannabe movie scores. It moved away from the strength of the medium.

Nintendo and Sega both shot themselves in the foot with bad hardware choices brought about by hubris over a successful previous generation, so Sony's movie approach started to become more and more accepted and seen as the norm.

And that's why we are where we are today. Games are "respected" now, but they're barely games most of the time. They're glorified movies. Good games used to be common and now they are the minority.

That isn't to say I didn't like any post 16-bit system. The Dreamcast is one of the best systems ever made, with great hardware and software made for it. It was the last Sega system and the last fashioned after arcade gaming. The Nintendo Wii was the best system of its generation with an attempt to actually do something other than mindlessly make graphics prettier and as a result has an excellent library of both big name and lesser known titles, and tons of hidden gems. Both of Nintendo's DS systems were great fun, but their Game Boy Advance was superior, featuring the last stand of 2D gaming and the best library of portable games by far.

But aside from them? Eh, it's dicey.

Ninja Five-O

As for how video games could possibly influence anyone, well, I would say it is because of their aim to allow the player to connect directly with a world beyond their own. There isn't anything like that. That is how they got big to begin with.

For a writer it helps me get that tactile feel of dealing with a high stress situation that hearing a story 

from someone or just reading a book about it just doesn't quite give. It allows that extra bit of connection to the action itself. It also helps the writer understand the value of stakes and effort to achieve a goal.

So yes, video games were a very important part of my life. I grew up with them and don't remember a time I had without them. They have helped me to understand things I might not have otherwise understood and connected me with fantastical worlds and ideas far out of my comfort zone. These are things I never would have imagined without them.

Even though I think the industry right now is in a terrible spot and has been there for a very long time, I cannot deny that it has its place. Video games are here to stay.

Here's hoping we can still say that ten years from now.