That's pretty much it, that's the whole formula for making a video game. Okay, admittedly we can add "save the
From Super Mario to the Legend of Zelda and even wrapped within Halo 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Gears of War, and pretty much any video game you can there lies the simple formula. Given it's simplicity, the formula is easily maleable and can be formed to fit nearly any storyline. For instance get the bad guys and save the world can be adapted to get the bad Covenant and Librarian and save Cortana and the local universe for Halo 3 and get the Locusts and save (what's left of) humanity for Gears of War. Or in a quite litteral sense for Mario and Link, get the bad guys and save the princess. I'm not trying to completely diss the video game industry for lack of creative ideas or originality because clearly they know their target audience, someone like me who will play a good series forever even if bosses, temples, stories, and quests clearly get reused over and over again. There are plenty of people who would complain about that, understandably, but to those people I say "go play WoW then".
Let me dissect one particular series in general: The Legend of Zelda. Upon pondering the laundry list of games that has come out featuring our hero Link I realized that there was a slight divergence to the formula once the Gameboy hit the scene. As you see, starting with The Legend of Zelda, all the way through Twilight Princess, and with the exception of Majora's Mask the console versions of our hero's adventures have pretty much stuck faithfully to "save the princess"and "oh yeah, Ganon or Ganondorf is out there somewhere causing trouble"(I know I sound like I'm trashing these games, but they are honestly some of my favorites), but it is the handheld/portable adventures that somewhat stray from the tradition trouble that Zelda gets in to for something a little more out of the ordinary. From waking up on a mysterious island that's really all just a dream (aka General Hospital), to a set of games about time travelling through the seasons and ages for some reason I can't recall at the moment, to navigating boats and trains across the ever changing terrain of Hyrule. Clearly this planet or continent of Hyrule is on some seriously unstable tectonic plates or something because either its flooded or not.
Anyway, while I appreciate the almost direct correlation between Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, 3 temples in one world and approximately 7 in the other world, all to kill Ganon in the end how is it possible that this guy keeps coming back? I mean, Link clearly isn't doing his job which is part of the freaking problem
Now, for more nitpicking about how to change the formula to make it seem less obvious, or to point out how obvious it is, but make it enjoyable anyway we turn to my other example Braid. I recently picked up Braid from the new Mac App Store, and in case you aren't aware it's a side scrolling puzzle platformer with a twist of time manipulation with the goal of, you guessed it, saving the princess. It's the way that the main character Tim goes about this is more interesting. Piecing together parts of his past together with the princess and his seeming ability to manipulate time much like the Prince of Persia in Sands of Time, he rushes through each world only to find that his princess is in another castle. Yes, that's right, a straight salute to Super Mario. The story is actually interesting as Tim reads books in the beginning of each world that describe how he's tried to use his time altering powers to protect the princess from mistakes he has made and other such interesting uses for time manipulation (hey wait a second, his name is Tim and he manipulates TIMe), and it is definitely the gameplay that really distracts you from the simplistic formula and keeps you playing. Some puzzles are easy such as jump on this guy to reach that puzzle piece, but others are just crazy difficult at times that I've wanted to smash my keyboard in a bit hoping that I could jump higher to reach the freaking piece that inexplicably is ten feet in the air. But coming back to it later I can put together all the tools available to solve it which is indeed satisfying. I recommend it to someone who likes what they've heard so far and doesn't get overly angry when they can't solve the puzzle right away.
So you may be wondering what's the point of all this if you've made it this far in the article. Well I'll tell you. While reviewers and critics in today's entertainment industry will always find a way to criticize (as it is their job) creators about how unoriginal an idea is. When every idea can be boiled down to a simple one, it's hard to say something is not original, but you really need to look beyond that and maybe actually judge a book by its cover and not the 8 pt font footnote in the appendix that mentions "oh yeah we kind of sort of took this idea from the first story ever written down in the history of stories". Plus, you've got to think that all these board meetings and brainstorming sessions in different parts of the world over discussing how to make the next big thing have at least three of the same people in all of them. One says, hey we should do what we did last time, but better. Another says, no we need something completely new but recognizable. And the third guy just says whatever the two of them said and mashes them together until the head of the project hears cliché cash register sounds in his ears. I know, I guess I'm a bit of cynic here, but on the whole I do enjoy the formula and a lot of the games that sit in my video game library follow it to the T and those games are on worn cartridges and disks that have been played for decades. I mean, even Super Smash Bros. Melee fell victim to the formula and it's suposed to be a straight fighting game. What's with that? Still, it's fun, and that is all we are looking for right? An escape from the somewhat mundane and ordinary moments in our lives to something that is completely unrealistic and fantastic.
Do what you will with this information, this was just all part of a not-so-clever observation I made while playing Braid and Megaman Legends recently. Maybe I should get back to being a grad student sometime soon...
Play on.
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