Video games can be pretty straightforward at times. Super Mario Bros., for instance, is simply an obstacle course, running and jumping from left to right to rescue the princess. Right? Well, maybe not. For those so inclined, it’s also possible to read elaborate allegories between the lines; shape-shifting raccoon dogs, the Bolshevik Revolution, and Alice in Wonderland. Be it art, literature, music, or video games, some people like to suck the marrow out of their experiences by extracting every shred of meaning they can from them.
Other people – I like to call them the Fun Police – get their knickers in a knot over stuff like this. To them, reading into video games at all is reading into them too much. If you are one of those people, I will warn you up front: you will be frustrated by the things you read in this article. But if you like a bit of fun; strap on your coke bottle lenses, because we’re about to read far too much into a handful of treasured video games.
Plants vs. Zombies is my favourite tower defence game, not for its kooky characters or its satisfying gameplay, but for its thematic richness. Here we have two forms of vegetative life – brain-dead zombies, and, um, actual vegetables – locked in an eternal struggle on the front lawn.
On that lawn, there is a garden bed. And in that garden bed, there is a tiny captain, subjugating the local native population. I am of course referring to Captain Olimar of Pikmin fame.
He forces his leafy subjects to wipe out every living creature in sight, ravage the landscape, and load the plunder onto his spacecraft. Then he moves on to the next garden with his captives in tow. If ever there was a space pirate worthy of Samus Aran’s attention, Captain Olimar is it! He won’t stop until every garden in the galaxy is annexed.
"BACK TO WORK!"
I suppose you thought Worms was a battle over garden soil as well, huh? Think deeper, right into the depths of the human soul – no wait – right into the depths of the human digestive tract…
What?! You didn’t think that was a cave, did you?! They’re worms, after all, warring for control of the large intestine, small intestine, and… other bits and pieces.
Pikmin’s rampant imperialism has nothing on Scrooge McDuck’s ruthless pursuit of cash money. Ducktales for the NES details his crusade: swooping into other people’s countries and killing the poor to feed the rich [himself]. But his intercontinental killing spree doesn’t end there! No siree, Bob! He has to go into space and steal money from the Moon people as well! Now how’s that for space piracy?
No, space-duck! Don’t listen to him! He doesn’t come in peace!
On the anti-capitalist end of the spectrum, much has been made of Tetris’ origin as a game developed in Communist Russia. Tengen even released a version called TETRIS: The Soviet Mind Game. The tile-matching puzzler is practically begging for a Communist interpretation. I think at the very least it is indicative of the Communist ethos: a place for everything and everything in its place. Though people come in different shapes and sizes, each person [piece] has their role to play – it’s just a simple matter of the Leader [player] forcing them into line until they fit in. While we're on this topic, why not watch the complete history of the Soviet Union, arranged to the melody of Tetris?
A Trojan Horse for Soviet ideals?
The most popular reading of Pac-Man is that he has a drug dependency; munching on pills like Tic-Tacs to confront his personal demons. But that’s a bit too obvious for my liking.
I first gleaned the origin of the Pac-Man name when I went to the botanical gardens with a Japanese friend. We were feeding ducks by the pond, and discussing the Japanese names for various species of duck. Knowing that the Japanese have an onomatopoeia word for just about any sound, I asked him what sound the ducks were making when they were gobbling up the breadcrumbs. He told me that “pakku-pakku” was the sound for eating, or more specifically, the sound a mouth makes when it opens and closes.
So it follows that “Pakkuman” is the story of a man that can’t stop eating – or can’t stop consuming. We are all of us Pac-Men – consumers – continually buying things to drown out our nagging fear of failure, rejection, loss, and death. And when we finally get our hands on that one thing we’ve always wanted – the power pellet, if you will – we feel powerful enough to take on the world. But sadly, that feeling is only temporary, and our fears rear their ugly heads once more. The cycle continues and we move on through this rat race they call life in search of the Next Big Thing that will finally satisfy us (spoiler: it won’t).
Don’t be fooled by the bright colours – Pac-Man is bleak, man…
Kirby is similar to Pac-Man in two ways: he’s round and he eats a lot. But he’s always hanging around Dream Land, so I say he is a dream-eater (or “baku”) from Japanese lore. He’s always devouring the stuff of dreams and nightmares to gain new abilities. But Kirby doesn’t look like any dream-eater depiction I’ve ever seen. Usually they’re depicted as a Malayan tapir, which no doubt inspired the creation of the pokémon Drowzee.
Two reasons you never remember your dreams.
While we’re on the subject of Pokémon, will someone please ban this sick filth?! This so-called “game for all ages” is a blight on both man and beast alike, but particularly beast. A young boy ventures out into the wild with the sole purpose of hunting and capturing small animals. (I don’t know about you, but that’s called “poaching” where I come from.) At least I hope the animals are small for their sake, for not only are they unceremoniously stuffed within the confines of this boy’s rucksack; they are also trapped within deceivingly playful-looking, ball-like cages, no more than 10 centimetres in diameter! And when does this charitable lad see fit to release these poor creatures from their spherical prisons? When he wants to pit them against other animals in mortal combat!
And when he isn’t doing that, he’s training them to poison, burn, paralyse, and otherwise maim other animals! The damage doesn’t end there – it is also possible, and encouraged, to taunt and psychologically harm other animals! Yes, mums and dads, while you’ve preoccupied yourselves with the social dangers of each Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto release, your children have been indulging in digital cockfighting for years! Next thing you know they’ll be bringing their pets to school for “show and tell” [read: animal battles in the schoolyard at lunch], or raiding the local zoo for their midnight thrills. Cat will be turned against dog; mongoose will be turned against cobra – the harmony of all God’s creatures is at stake!
It's all smiles until he tries to cram Pikachu into that tiny spherical cell.
Animal Crossing – Nintendo’s other animal game – is far less controversial, unless you object to animals dressing up like humans (pants are optional, as always) and walking around on their hind legs. If you do, you must be really concerned for the children, because I practically described every cartoon ever. The animals also talk to the player. Their speech appears as English text on the screen, but the sounds coming out of their mouths are best described as “Animalese”. The fact that the player character can talk back to the animals at all makes me think of Animal Crossing as a Dr Dolittle simulator.
I owe Tom Nook how much money?
Okay, so maybe I got a little carried away back there, but hopefully you can see that video games are one hell of a lot more interesting when you view them in a different light (or darkness). Whether a developer intends a particular meaning or not, we all bring baggage to our video game experiences, and it inevitably colours our perception, and sometimes even our enjoyment of them. But do yourself a favour: when you’re done doing things your way, try reading it a different way and see what tumbles out. Try Tetris as a Marxist, Pac-Man as a psychologist, or Pokémon as an animal activist. It might not sound appealing to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but damn if it isn’t bags of fun.
Do you see a certain game in an unusual way? Tell us all about it in the comments!
Adam Redsell is a freelance writer based in Brisbane, Australia. He would like to thank Lara Croft for wiping out the last remaining dinosaurs. Follow him on Twitter and MyIGN, and why not join IGN Australia on Facebook too?
Source : ign[dot]com
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