Who needs better weapons in a video game? Decision-making is my power fantasy.
Category Archives Video Game Essays
Let me talk about the tension between the realism gamers want from their enemy characters and the lack of realism players need from their enemy characters.
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Shoot. Jump. Run. Samus Aran and I, we both came into existence this way.
For video game creator Yoshio Sakamoto, those three verbs described all he knew about the project he was told to create, a game that would become 1986’s Nintendo classic Metroid, a game that would seed a cherished series and inspire an entire video game genre. Sakamoto handled the responsibility of those verbs with dignity.
My father—never one to care about the gratification of others nor one to welcome responsibility—handled the experience of creating me with the same verbs, though in a different context: shoot (impregnate), jump (get dressed), run (leave).
Samus and I, we might as well be siblings, right?