Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Heart of Darkness probably. Oddworld had an amazing visual style, a mysterious world and though there were dumb fart jokes in the mix (and even more of that in the sequels) it was still a very engaging journey of saving your people and finding out about your origins. The music and the ambiance as well as the movie-like cutscenes and transitions were super impressive to me. Heart of Darkness is very similar in a way but with that one I was mostly amazed by the animations of the creatures, fantastic stuff. Those two always felt like they were more than "just" games to me.
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What was the first game you played that made you look at games as a form of art?
- Thread starter FlaygletheBagel
- Start date
I did not respect 2D games when I was a kid, nor Nintendo design, so N64 was a no buy.
PS1 was the start. But what a rough start. I couldn't get past the blocky nature of FFVII or MGS1.
But then FFVIII came out.
I think the reason I love games, instead of just 'liking' them comes from that one.
The combination of character design, cutscenes, backgrounds, GF attacks, story, music...
Of course the visuals did a lot in capturing my attention, but the fact that I had never experienced a story like that in books, movies or cartoons, did a number on me.
PS1 was the start. But what a rough start. I couldn't get past the blocky nature of FFVII or MGS1.
But then FFVIII came out.
I think the reason I love games, instead of just 'liking' them comes from that one.
The combination of character design, cutscenes, backgrounds, GF attacks, story, music...
Of course the visuals did a lot in capturing my attention, but the fact that I had never experienced a story like that in books, movies or cartoons, did a number on me.
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While I appreciate the artwork and design work on some games, I don't consider them an art form.
I'm more of a games are entertainment over art kinda person, but I'd say Ico was the first game I saw/played that felt more like a piece of artwork. It was helped by the fact it was a great game, as well.
However, it wasn't the things like the Windmill, although that was great, or running around outside the castle that really had an impact on me. The bit that really stuck with me was later on, when:
However, it wasn't the things like the Windmill, although that was great, or running around outside the castle that really had an impact on me. The bit that really stuck with me was later on, when:
You've fallen off the bridge into the more mechanical, dungeon area below, and there's a screen where the camera zooms out as you're walking along this massive metal pipe in the dark, and the feeling of isolation and being so tiny is so much more pronounced during that single section.
Super Mario Bros.
Coming from the C64 and Atari days, that was a game changer and really elevated the medium to me.
Coming from the C64 and Atari days, that was a game changer and really elevated the medium to me.
Loved Flower. It did so much with so little.
Personally it spans across a lot of different experiences, that make you feel a lot of different things to bring on the idea of video games being an art form. Though I wouldn't say I realized it when I was younger. I think it's when you start looking at maybe how games are developed, and what are the different pieces--that deeper thought initiates it.
I was exclusively a Nintendo-only gamer until I was around fourteen or fifteen. I had only owned Nintendo consoles, played Nintendo-published games almost exclusively, and I never wondered what other video games were like or what else was going on in the video game industry. But during the Wii years, I was really struggling to find games to play. I'd already beaten Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess and Mario Kart Wii. Somehow, I ended up watching an IGN video review for Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, I game I'd never heard of or had any interest in. I saw Leon shoot a scythe out of the air and was amazed this was something you could actually do. I decided to give the game a go.
I played Resident Evil 4 obsessively for months and months and months. I wouldn't even turn the game off. I would just pause the game and turn off my TV and pick up where I left off as soon as possible. What amazed me wasn't the gameplay, which was great, but because it was the first time I played a video game with what I found to be an engaging story. The characters and the voice acting and the locations were the coolest thing I ever played. I had a VCR combo TV and I would record myself playing the game so I could watch it as a "movie." I would make other people watch my recordings too. I was enthralled because I never knew games could be like this. I never knew that this is what gaming was doing when I wasn't looking. I needed more games like this.
In retrospect, there is nothing good about Resident Evil 4's narrative and I would never say it proves the artistic validity of the medium. But it got me looking at games as more than just high scores or completion percentage. It got me looking for stories and feelings.
I would say the first game that made me understand the potential of video games as literature was BioShock. I wrote a lot about BioShock in college, but I would always hide that it was a video game. I would refer to it as "Ken Levine's BioShock" or something. I had a professor who who taught Sex & Gender Studies who asked me for a copy of BioShock because he "would really like to read it." He seemed disappointed when I told him it was a video game, but he kept giving me As on my papers.
I played Resident Evil 4 obsessively for months and months and months. I wouldn't even turn the game off. I would just pause the game and turn off my TV and pick up where I left off as soon as possible. What amazed me wasn't the gameplay, which was great, but because it was the first time I played a video game with what I found to be an engaging story. The characters and the voice acting and the locations were the coolest thing I ever played. I had a VCR combo TV and I would record myself playing the game so I could watch it as a "movie." I would make other people watch my recordings too. I was enthralled because I never knew games could be like this. I never knew that this is what gaming was doing when I wasn't looking. I needed more games like this.
In retrospect, there is nothing good about Resident Evil 4's narrative and I would never say it proves the artistic validity of the medium. But it got me looking at games as more than just high scores or completion percentage. It got me looking for stories and feelings.
I would say the first game that made me understand the potential of video games as literature was BioShock. I wrote a lot about BioShock in college, but I would always hide that it was a video game. I would refer to it as "Ken Levine's BioShock" or something. I had a professor who who taught Sex & Gender Studies who asked me for a copy of BioShock because he "would really like to read it." He seemed disappointed when I told him it was a video game, but he kept giving me As on my papers.
I like how you just driveby with this as if it's some sort of proof. It is so ironic that a film critic like Roger Ebert can't see the similarities between the two mediums, historically film was treated very similarly and it still is to an extant, hence the existence of auteur theory as a means of justifying films as "art" when they're typically a collaboration between hundreds of people. Even if you wanted to go by that definition there are artists, active in the gallery space, exhibiting games, so to say that the medium itself isn't art is really just a matter of ignorance.
Probably Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA). Someone told me that all of the characters in the game came from drawings and it blew my toddler mind.
It was probably Metal Gear Solid: Tactical Espionage Action on the PlayStation. I enjoyed games before that, a lot, but MGS blew my mind. It was so immersive. Leaving footprints in the snow. Making a noise to distract a guard and then run around them. Fighting a tank with just grenades :D It was awesome. Pulled me back into games after a sojourn away from them for my teenage years. Elevated them to movie and novel status for me. Ever since I've been watching movies and reading books and playing video games. All give me Art to greater or lesser degrees. Journey though was straight up Art. No ifs and's or buts.
This made my morning.
On Topic: ICO, but recently Flower, and Abzu.
You're right on the money OP. The first game I played that really felt like art for art's sake was probably Journey. It was basically a one-off experience of emotion and wonder - heightened for me by the chance circumstance that I was joined midway through by an experienced stranger, who proceeded to lead my dumb ass through the rest of the game and form a wordless bond I didn't think possible.
I wrote a whole blog post back in the day about how it affected me. One of those games where the title really does perfectly describe the contents.
I wrote a whole blog post back in the day about how it affected me. One of those games where the title really does perfectly describe the contents.
I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single game. When I was really young, I thought art just referred to stuff like painting and sculpture but once I learned it included books, movies, music, etc., then of course I included video games. Their inclusion is not even debatable as far as I'm concerned. Even the shittiest advertisement you have ever seen is still art; quality is a separate thing.
As a kid I would draw characters from games like Q*bert, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man. I think I realized even then that the games themselves were interactive art.
As a kid I would draw characters from games like Q*bert, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man. I think I realized even then that the games themselves were interactive art.
All games are a form of art if you want to be technical, but the first game to feel like "art art" to me was Metal Gear Solid. The way the game breaks the fourth wall in a way that is only possible in this medium really made me ruminate on the incredible wealth of potential experiences video games have to offer. The cinematic and incredibly compelling narrative elements (which were rife with politcal intrigue and actually had something to say about the military industrial complex) were also just such a welcome change from all the "mindless," politically neutral platformers and fighting games I'd primarily been playing during the NES and SNES days. And, of course, all the perverted easter eggs helped make the game feel flamboyant and weirdly bold. I don't know that another game will ever expand my expectations for the medium as an artform the way MGS1 did.
I never thought they weren't. Never understood the idea that games had to be artsy or narrative driven to be considered art. I'd say how well a game plays, feels, and is designed is also art, alongside its sound, music, visuals, and narrative. It sure speaks more to me and leaves more of an impact than a game's narrative does, at any rate
Going to have to say Metroid Prime. Didn't really click with me until years later reading some retropsectives on what it did right but it really did so much right. The scanning system as a completely optional form of interactive storytelling is something really only games could do and it was executed brilliantly.
I would definitely say either one of these for me. I played them very close together. I was absolutely amazed at the time.
Honestly none, I never needed a specific game to have me know that. Games are art in a medium that people don't understand as artistic and thus when thinking in a "games are art" mindset tend to put a narrative over gameplay such as Dear Esther or Gone Home. It's a pretentious mindset that fails to understand why games as a medium are unique and interesting. I'd consider something like The World Ends With You moreso art due to its unique gameplay concept and how it ties to the game as a whole but something like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture isn't a game but an interactive audio drama for example. That's always been where I stand, what makes a game art is an understanding of the medium and an execution that takes advantage of that. To think any less of the sum of a game's parts is to belittle video games as an art form, it's a medium that can do things others can't do and so it's important to remember that instead of making glorified movies or audio dramas. I'd rather read a visual novel at that point because at least then I'm getting a better written story that has more time to establish its plot like Muv Luv or Steins;Gate.
TL;DR Games are art, and I didn't need an inspiration to feel that way but that terminology leads to a flawed expectation and mindset.
TL;DR Games are art, and I didn't need an inspiration to feel that way but that terminology leads to a flawed expectation and mindset.
The opera scene from FFVI is what made me care about music as an art form. The irony is, it's not even a good opera. But it sparked my kid imagination anyway.
While I've always been enamored with video games for as long as I can remember, Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first to show me that games can actually try to say something instead of just being relatively simple escapist fantasies. This isn't a knock on simpler stories (I mean, Tetris doesn't have any story at all but it's undoubtably one of the pinnacles of video games) but MGS2 was quite ambitious with its message (both literal and meta). Regardless of whether one thinks that message was delivered effectively or not (I'm in the "effective" camp), that sheer ambition opened my eyes to the heights that games could aim for.
Kirby's Adventure. As a kid, I picked up pretty quickly on the game's bold use of color and music to really express the transition from morning into night. I'd never seen a game do something like that, and it's still impressive, to this day. Grape Garden's hazy blue midday colors and sleepy music were like nothing else at the time.
Always wondered to myself why anyone even mulls this question around.
Loom, the adventure game by lucasfilm games, because of its Swan Lake theme and emphasis on music, for both story and gameplay.
Ocarina of Time when I was 5. If not that, then Majora's Mask.
I remember also being completely blown away by Final Fantasy 7-9 at the same ages, to my core believing that they had better stories than most of the books I was reading at the time. Granted, my opinions have somewhat changed over time, but I was under the impression that those games were the epitome of narrative.
I like all of those still (well, except maybe FF8) but yeah. Those were probably the games that influenced my views on games as a serious medium the most as a kid.
I remember also being completely blown away by Final Fantasy 7-9 at the same ages, to my core believing that they had better stories than most of the books I was reading at the time. Granted, my opinions have somewhat changed over time, but I was under the impression that those games were the epitome of narrative.
I like all of those still (well, except maybe FF8) but yeah. Those were probably the games that influenced my views on games as a serious medium the most as a kid.
Maybe Ico or Rez. At least, in a more abstract sense.
In a "movies are art, and this game hit me like a movie and then some" department, I'd say FF7 and MGS were some of the first where I felt like the medium had taken the world of film (where you already get the combination of writing and visuals and sound and music, all different kinds of artistic expression that come together) and added another element: interactivity.
In a "movies are art, and this game hit me like a movie and then some" department, I'd say FF7 and MGS were some of the first where I felt like the medium had taken the world of film (where you already get the combination of writing and visuals and sound and music, all different kinds of artistic expression that come together) and added another element: interactivity.
