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"Surreal Gaming"

Surrealism is some what of a mystery to the naked eye, yet it is a recognised form of art across the world which attracts the imagination to run wild and the artistic environments to confuse the human brain. However, surreal environments and characters aren't used enough to bring computer games to life and apart from the odd handful over the last 5 years titles like 'The Grim Fandango' take the lime light for showing off the artistic delights to bring what would normally be an ordinary title, but with surrealism it brought everything to life in an exciting way.

Most of you will have heard of the 'Beetle Juice' films where an ordinary family is dragged into the horror world of the living dead. The 'Beetle Juice' films contain some of the most eccentric forms of Surrealism and some which will leave you feeling in a puzzled situation. With developers today utilising superb artistic design and with the ability to bring environments to life using the most advanced computer graphics chips then surreal environments would feel right at home on our next generation machines.

After the huge success of the 'Grim Fandango' on the PC it's hard to understand why developers aren't looking at different styles and using them to breathe new life into what is going to be just another average game. 'Jet Set Radio' on the Dreamcast brought the world of Cel-Shading to life, it brought gamers a whole new life-line and extreme sports games an alternative that would sell to the gaming public.

With the ability to mix and match different styles and cross environments into each other to re-create a totally new world is an artists dream, yet the gaming world isn't snapping up its opportunities and doing something to consoles which the 'Grim Fandango' did to PC's 5 years a go. 'XIII' which is going to be a multi-platform game is bringing the world of Cel-Shading away from sports titles and introducing it into a genre which at this time excels for realism but lags in imagination. The last blockbuster First Person shooter game was 'Halo' on the Microsoft Xbox. Using huge environments, realistic enemy AI and a great storyline it produced one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences ever to be seen on a console. The game wasn’t a 'bog-standard' First Person Shooter, it was a revelation, yet even though it was a big success and a great title I felt that the lack of something new stretched the genre to the end of its life.

A surrealistic 'Halo' would probably spoil the game as we know it, but if characters used body parts and mixed them with different foods just imagine the fun you could have with your friends designing a Buffet for 'Master Chief' or 'Mario', the create a character modes would once again become something to enjoy rather than the same old serious out-look.

Companies like 'Sega' and 'Nintendo' are renowned for their exploitations of different character designs and although 'Mario' may look like an ordinary plumber the little touches they added made him a character which people around the world can name straight away. With a little bit more thought going into a game then surely the sales they recoup from such an idea would be more profitable than a game that will sell a few but most people will leave well alone.

Over the next few years of gaming and with the battle for Christmas number 1 and all the trimmings wouldn’t is be nice for a few more ideas to be utilised and brought to our next generation consoles? With 'Zelda' (known to the majority of GameCube fans as Celda) on the GameCube going Cel-Shaded and 'Jet Set Radio Future' on the Xbox proving to be a very big hit, will surreal gaming ever take off the ground? We are due by now a new style which will breathe new life into dying genres and I believe that something that puts no limits on the human imagination could prove to be the revelation developers need to introduce before game like 'Blade 2' and 'Chase' become something of a novelty which the majority of us will leave well alone, its time to introduce Surreal Gaming!

Thanks for Reading

Garbe123

That's usually because other than ones from Sega and Nintendo, quirky games aren't always so great...

JSRF and Blinx have gotten a fair bit of limelight on the Xbox.

Strafex wrote:
> That's one reason I like the Gamecube because it offers gaming across
> the entire graphical spectrum from lightly coloured Zelda, to dark and
> detailed Resi.
> Not to mention plenty of uniqueness in other departments too.

*

To be fair though, the same can be said for the other 2 consoles - it's just that on the PS2 & XBOX the more quirkier/magical games don't seem to get as much of the spotlight as the quirky/magical games do on GameCube.

That's right.


That's one reason I like the Gamecube because it offers gaming across the entire graphical spectrum from lightly coloured Zelda, to dark and detailed Resi.
Not to mention plenty of uniqueness in other departments too.

I am a big fan of reality games but every now and again they become a bit boring and it is nice to resort to something that has a high pick up and play value or something that is a little different.

Strafex wrote:
> I know. The point is, with realistic lookers being two a penny, a
> surrealistic game would be a breath of fresh air.
> Originality in any department is good for the same reason - it's
> something new.

*

I crave for games with original graphical styles - but apart from the cel-shaded boom and perhaps games like Frequency, Fantavision & Rez, they aren't forthcoming.

garbe123 wrote:
> I am not saying get rid of realistic games completley,

I wasn't saying you were! :-)

> but it would be
> nice to see more games using surreal environments and a few more
> genres taking on Cel-Shading, something new is bound to sell if it
> catches onto the market at the right time.

I know. The point is, with realistic lookers being two a penny, a surrealistic game would be a breath of fresh air.
Originality in any department is good for the same reason - it's something new.

That's partly why I enjoyed Pikmin so much.

I didn't like the video footage off last months OXM, but I am keeping my eye on that game as it could prove to be a silent hit! Lets just hope the tradition of Multi Platform games not scoring very highly changes with the release of XIII!

XIII looks fantastic, and I think it'll sell well because of it's unique look - the first cel-shaded FPS.
The way the sounds like the enemy's fottsteps are shown visually in words - "tap, tap, tap" - is a great idea. Just like a comic book brought to life.

I am not saying get rid of realistic games completley, but it would be nice to see more games using surreal environments and a few more genres taking on Cel-Shading, something new is bound to sell if it catches onto the market at the right time.

It's doing something different that's important.

In a lot of ways, realistic graphics are better than Surreal sort, but realistic games are so two-a-penny, surreal ones are a HUGE breath of fresh air and their advantages shine through as a result.

JSR and the new Zelda boast AMAZING animation...