Ok, so last time I concluded that there were three ingredients to epic games. Concluded... or confirmed with the findings of what I've been taught (which is always a good thing). Epic musical score. Great hierarchy of challenges. Strong narrative. Specifically, the use of all three of these elements turned out to create some of the finest games of our time.
But... You know that kid that, despite all psychological analysis and discipline and direction, still acts irrationally? There are games like that. And they can be annoying for trying to work out sound design. They have been extremely successful and maintained the title of "epic" while not using all three of these vehicles for affect. Here are a few I thought of.
Super Mario Galaxy. Or any Mario game for that matter. Most of them have been the most successful titles of whatever platform they were on. Super Mario 3 for the NES. Super Mario World for the SNES. Galaxy for the Wii. People just can't get enough of that fat plumber, his plastic girlfriend who has been stringing him along for 25 years with no sign of marriage in sight, and an old OCD lizard with red hair. But thinking specifically of Mario Galaxy, because it wasn't just me who enjoyed it; it actually did quite well in terms of sales. Many reviewers (IGN, GameSpot, GameTrailers) described the game as epic. Funny, cause that's the word I used to describe other games like Zelda and Metal Gear Solid. So let's look at the checklist again:
Powerful music? Definitely. Some of the finest tunes to date on any platform.
Hierarchy of challenges is well portrayed? Certainly, although tried and true. People have still found it fun to be told you need to rescue the princess by obtaining 120 stars, while on the way having intermediate challenges of different worlds and atomic challenges of that great platforming mayhem.
Narrative... *sigh*. Mario, Mario, Mario... you have to confuse our design concepts. The storyline of Mario Galaxy is admittedly NOT epic. Yes, it provides context for the game. Rescue the princess. For the 50th time. There have been additions to the formula: Bowser steals the whole castle this time rather than just the princess. Outside of that, still fairly barebones. Still, Galaxy has been given the status of epic. Perhaps this is because of its great mastery of the other two elements. In the case of Galaxy, reviewers have specifically praised the music for affect (see this review as an example). Either way, the game is weird in the sense it doesn't fit this framework entirely.
As much as it depresses me to seem like I am paying out my faithful Nintendo... Super Smash Brothers Brawl is another such anomaly. However, it is in deficit in both its challenge hierarchy and its narrative.
No criticism could ever be levelled at Brawl for its lack of music. In fact, its music is probably what has given it such a close spot in so many people's hearts. Over 200 fully orchestrated tracks from the Nintendo universe. The mixture of nostalgia and loud, big band numbers makes it a winner in every sense of the word in affecting players' emotions.
However... narrative is a mixed bag. There are a few single player campaigns... but they don't go past much more than "fight all the baddies and beat the Master Hand". Another tried and true Nintendo strategy, and brilliantly it still works. There is a longer campaign involving all the characters in the game, which contain some cinematics to add a feeling of grandeur. A quick search of Google and you'll find that a faithful contingent of gamers still found this narrative quite enjoyable and, dare I say, epic. Although, the fact that players are able to control many of these different characters somewhat lessens the sense of immersion as it is enforced by the narrative.
Strangely, it is the challenge design that is the unmaking of this "design stereotype". This is probably because it is part of the 2D fighting genre. Where the other titles would apply the style "Here's the final goal, here are the steps to get there, utilise your combat skills", Brawl adopts more of an incentive-based model. Beating the Master Hand does not mean the game is over, but instead rewards you with one of several hundred trophies you can collect for doing so. The game does not even present you initially with a critical path or a visible end state, but rather lets you pick up a player and revel in the atomic challenge of combat (which is very well designed, mind you). I'm not saying that Brawl's challenge design is terrible, merely that it presents a model of play structure that prevents the statement "narrative, music AND challenge design make a game epic" from being true. To put it like Penny Arcade so brilliantly has for another well-known title, "it's like the sales assistant replying 'Sure, that will be money dollars'".
Surely there are many more games out there that have an influence on an affection template. Genre seems to heavily influence it, as does the power of each of the elements. A good finding, and hopefully one to remember as I go out with my own designs.
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