Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

Most people would define a forerunner as those things the Covenant keep fussing for in the Halo series (your Gods are like cake, icky ones – and the cake is an chocolate-layered lie!). Going by a more logical notion, forerunners of gaming would suggest those that kick-started a majority of the trends we see today. But they also include games that threw concepts at us first, some raw and archaic, others classic and oh-so inviting. Technological achievements also figure especially in the department of art-style and rudimentary. Innovators and the categories or genres spawned have also been intangible and inseparable – nonetheless, we detail the different categories of forerunners, as well as how their mechanics have manifested in some current and critically acclaimed titles. Almost everyone knows about Final Fantasy, Doom and whatnot, and how they revolutionised gaming so we thought we’d touch on some lesser known (or remembered) games and their effect on modern gaming.

Shenmue

Basic gameplay idea: Three letters – QTE.

Shenmue was famed for its ultra-realistic and detailed (for the time) facial expressions, clothing and character models. Not to mention the animation, environments, voice-acting and action sequences. Well, everyone had their reason for being impressed with Shenmue. However, this Yu Suzuki RPG/Action combo introduced one of the most current and over-used mechanics in gaming for the past 5 years: Quick Time Events or QTEs. You know how it is: The icon appears on screen for a specific button. Press the button. Watch something impressive happen as a result (or screw up badly, and restart). Between exploration, puzzle solving, racing, talking to folks and item collecting, Shenmue’s core gameplay was built entirely around QTEs.
Kingdom Hearts 2, Resident Evil 4&5, God of War, Final Fantasy X (in some places), Godhand, Ninja Blade – the list is endless and shows very little signs of clearing up. Considering how these sequences look extremely enticing, much more stylish than anything the player could possibly do himself yet by taking control away from the player, it’s just funny how dull the game becomes at those times. Most games only put it in specific places (RE 4 and 5) while some make it an option (KH2) and others have nothing but QTEs (Ninja Blade).

Urban Chaos

Basic gameplay idea: Third person action adventure. Open world design full of various optional missions and a main story quest. Player can either cause havoc or apprehend criminals.

Grand Theft Auto, after the third game in the series, faithfully captured the rough vision that Eidos and Mucky Foot had with Urban Chaos. They expanded it to create the most feature packed 3D sandbox game ever. Jacking vehicles, robberies, assassinations, vigilante missions, escort missions – all of this was the mere tip of the iceberg in what GTA set out to achieve in the variety department.

GTA has since become a forerunner of its own. GTA: San Andreas inspired a wave of mediocre gangsta games that flooded the market like 25 to Life, 187: Ride or Die, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, etc. Some of the more progressive games to take up GTA’s model included the more outlandish Saint’s Row series by Volition Entertainment and Illusion Softworks’ Mafia franchise, with its themes American organized crime. Of course, the copy-cats had their copies as well (EA’s Godfather series, for example). Though none of them quite achieved the success of GTA, they nonetheless represent a desire by developers to take the genre into new directions – as Sucker Punch’s inFamous shows.

Metroid

Basic gameplay idea: Explore a large environment divided into several interconnecting areas. Solving puzzles and upgrading equipment opens up new portions of the environment. Back-tracking is a major element, though opening up new areas mitigates any repetition.

EA Redwood Shores’ Dead Space allowed you to visit several stations to upgrade weapons, purchase new items, restore health and save, etc. It also incorporated the mechanic of gaining new abilities to open up new areas previously unreachable to the player. Dead Space, perhaps unwittingly, captured the element of deep space desolation and paranoid isolation well. Enemies could come from anywhere, true, and they weren’t above evolving or playing dead to take a bit out of you. However like Metroid, the game was an enormous mystery – namely, to discovery why the Ishimura suddenly became a Necromorph playground.

Metroid also spawned and influenced the gameplay mechanics now dominant in Konami’s Castlevania series from Symphony of the Night onwards. That series eventually diverged on its own track by incorporating several RPG elements like stats, interchangeable armour and items, and magic spell systems. Ironically, Castlevania is probably more successful than Metroid.

Jet Set Radio

Basic gameplay idea: The graffiti ends with you, and the world is your oyster. Claim as much territory as possible through various missions against rival roller-blading gangs, before standing up to The Man. Tricks, grinds, wall runs, races, copter battles, etc. make up the entire experience.

Not so much in terms of gameplay, Jet Set Radio influenced many in its choice of aesthetics and culture, namely its revolutionary cel-shaded graphics. After releasing on the Dreamcast nearly a decade ago, several games took up the art-style. Whether to give an anime outlook (Fear Effect 2), a cartoonish sense of expression (The Wind Waker), breaking new grounds in artistic achievement (Okami) or lending new dimensions to realism (Borderlands) and noir (Madworld), Jet Set Radio set the stones upon which many beautiful games were built.

It also brought forth an interesting composer to the world of video game music: Hideki Naganuma. JSR’s eclectic mix of pop, electronica, techno, grunge rock and hip-hop netted the game quite a number of votes for best soundtrack in a game. Probably unconsciously, Square-Enix/Jupiter’s DS RPG The World Ends With You resembles JSR in many ways: The placement of real-world monuments, urban Japanese culture, and a mix of the street-life with the music and ways of the Shibuya youth. Though much less grim and well-known than TWEWY, Jet Set Radio is much more relevant.

Alpha Waves

Basic Gameplay Idea: First game to introduce 3D platform gameplay

No guesses for how much influence this had on the genre, albeit unknowingly. Coming a good 6 years before Super Mario 64, Alpha Waves featured simple platforming that involved hovering a simple geometric craft across cubic rooms by way of various trampolines. Interestingly, the DOS port was handled Frédérick Raynal – the same man who went on to develop Alone in the Dark. He later stated the large influence Alpha Waves had on AitD. So Jak And Daxter, Sonic Adventure (and the unending horrendous sequels), Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, and so many others aren’t the only ones to benefit from Alpha Waves’ innovations.

There are doubtless tons of titles that have introduced important, innovative or otherwise unique concepts and haven’t received their due. Which one do you think was the biggest underdog? Let us know.