The Evolution of Storytelling in Video Games

From the invention of the first arcade cabinets, to when "Pong" was able to be brought into people's homes, to today's online multiplayer campaigns, I think a great many of us have played some fashion of video games at some point in our lives. And while most critics will focus on a game's music, graphics, level of difficulty, ease of controls, and replay-a-bility, one aspect that didn't often factor in until recent years was its story.

Granted, back when people were figuring out that you could use computers for more than just data storage, programmers were lucky they could get a few colored pixels to move across the screen, much less worry about plot and characters. In the days of "Space Invaders" and "Pitfall", it was largely up to the player to fill in the blanks and imagine their own story to go along with all the bleeps and bloops. Even the couple movie tie-in games, like Atari's "Indiana Jones" and infamous "E.T." relied on the films they were based on to provide the story (and franchise tie-in games do this to this day).

But then, somewhere along the way, as the technology evolved, and graphics and memory got better, programmers realized players actually cared about the digital avatars they were controlling. And so, games began to come with full blown manuals that not only told you the button commands, but came with a story you could read and get attached to. (Cartridge and disk space was at a premium in those days. We didn't have too many animated sequences yet to explain everything.)

God I miss these.....

Sadly though, even with all these innovations in providing characterization and voice acting (even simple games like Super Mario leveled up in the storytelling department), it took years for video games to get the respect they deserve as a legit form of art. Anyone outside gaming circles couldn't understand how something like 'Super Mario' or 'Legend of Zelda' could terrify us, or make us die laughing, or bring us to tears. From slaying monsters in the 'Castlevania' series, to solving horrific mysteries in 'Silent Hill', to science fiction epics like 'Halo', 'Mass Effect', and 'Half Life', video games are now just as emotional and complicated and soul-reaching as any television show or feature film. Heck, there was an entire novel-turned-movie ABOUT video games and pop culture nostalgia---"Ready Player One"---that had the main protagonist save the real world via solving a decades-old mystery contained within a puzzle-solving game.

So video games inspired Ernest Cline to write a book about video games, and then the book got turned into a movie ABOUT movies and video games....I think I have to go lie down.

So with all this talk about digital storytelling, I should probably mention the video games that I grew up with and have stuck with me the most. I WILL confess, it hasn't been since the Playstation 2 days that I've picked up a controller. My schedule is so jam packed between working on comics, novels, and conventions that I just can't make the time for gaming anymore (not to mention that I miss the days when you could just plug your console into the TV, pop the disc in, and start playing vs. all the online accounts and downloads you have to go through now-a-days). But back when my afternoons were filled with just goofing around, these were the three trilogies that I adore and quote to this day.

I'll start off with the character that became the unofficial mascot of the PS1: Crash Bandicoot. The production of these games (primarily the first one) pushed the boundaries of what the Playstation could do in terms of graphics and memory storage. At first glance, it appears to be a bog-standard platformer and collect-a-thon, but there IS an underlying story to it, albeit a simple one. In the first game, you're a failed laboratory experiment who escaped from a mad scientist, and now you're fighting your way back to the lab to save your girlfriend. Sure, it's your typical "save the girl and the world" fare, but the wacky cartoon antics set on a tropical Australian island gave it a unique twist. It was so eerie seeing Dr. Neo Cortex's castle looming in the distance in the background of each level, and all the more satisfying to see your goal inching closer and closer the farther you went, until you finally clawed your way back to the place you escaped from. And all of this exposition was done in-game with no words, and became a shining example of "show, don't tell." The many sequels that came after built upon the world that was established, inventing all sorts of iconic villains and heroes set within a world that made you feel like you were playing an interactive Looney Toons cartoon. It blows my mind having grown up with this series that started off with blocky, triangular graphics, and now the latest game looks like a Pixar movie, with just as intricate a story as one of their films.

Next is another kind of collect-a-thon straight out of Japan: Ape Escape. For as popular as this trilogy of games were, they don't seem to get talked about as much as other famous titles like 'Zelda' or 'Sonic the Hedgehog', and I truly don't understand why, because this is one of the wackiest, most unique premises for a game ever. In a time travel story akin to 'Planet of the Apes', a scientist (he's just called "the professor" the entire time) invents a helmet that can increase a person's intelligence. And when the helmet gets into the hands of an evil ape named Specter, said ape uses the scientist's time machine to try and change history so that apes rule the world. Now it's up to the scientist's young assistants (he has a different one in each game) to travel across time, catch all the monkeys on the loose, and prevent history from being altered. From the moment I first booted up the disc, these games made me feel like I was playing an interactive anime cartoon. Even more unique was that the collectables (in this case, apes) didn't just sit still; you had to actually capture them, and each one was given their own special abilities and personality---an attention to detail that even some modern games fail at. And though the main premise never took itself TOO seriously, the trilogy DID make a point to have its kid protagonists slowly learn how to become true heroes and fight for humanity. It proves that you can have the oddest story premise ever, but as long as your characters are relatable or interesting or entertaining, the audience will most likely accept any weirdness you throw at them.

Finally, we have the franchise that's the nearest and dearest to my heart; the very first video game I ever played: Spyro the Dragon. I'm typically more of a sci-fi oriented person, but I count this trilogy as the thing that introduced me to sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Across three games, a young dragon must save his home and his friends from various nare-do-wells, and learns not only how to be a better fighter, but also the backstory of how the dragon kingdom came to be. To my memory, this was one of the first times I ever truly found myself getting immersed in another world, and wanting to spend hours just running around exploring all the dragon realms. As simple as the stories and graphics were, nevertheless, it ignited my imagination; making me want to learn more of the lore behind the dragon kingdom and what their culture was like (since the manual could only fit so much on what few pages it had). And much like 'Crash Bandicoot', this trilogy also received a modern remake that looks like it stepped out of a Disney film.

I also waxed poetic about this trilogy in a series of videos that you can watch HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Truly, video games have come a long way in capturing our imaginations, and can be just as compelling as any book or movie. If you ever were or are still a gamer, what were the video games YOU grew up with? What kind of stories did they tell to YOU?

Things I Got Done This Week

--continued coloring the next "Jamie Jupiter" episode

--continued writing my next "Rini Boe" book

--began uploading YouTube Shorts (these will include time lapses of me drawing and coloring, snippets of my long-form videos, and upcoming project previews. Click my YouTube link up top to check them out!)

 Do you want to see behind-the-scenes photos, short story previews, and commentary on all these projects? All of this is available in my totally free newsletter! The next one comes out September 30th!