The Quest for Innovation: An Introduction

Posted by Jonathan McNamara at 9:59 AM May 16, 2008

Ganon lay quivering as my master sword protruded from his slumped form on the fields of Hyrule. Evil was once again vanquished. Peace had returned to the land. I’d completed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and I couldn’t have been more pissed off.

Normally I’d prepare readers by labeling a lead paragraph such as that with the words “spoiler warning” but considering a Zelda game spoiled by revealing that Ganon dies and Link rescues Zelda is like trying to keep the fact that drinking water is essential to your survival under wraps. We hold these truths to be self-evident.

Why then was I pissed off?

How about because Ganon wasn’t so much as mentioned until the last hour of Twilight Princess? How about because in a dramatic twist that I never saw coming, Princess Zelda actually sacrificed herself halfway through the game and then is brought back during the end sequence without any trace of explanation. Let me say that again: Princess Zelda died halfway through the game only to be resurrected in the last half hour because…well that’s just the point, isn’t it? There isn’t a good reason.

The real heroine of Twilght Princess

If pressed, I suppose the only reason I can think for having her not be dead after showing the player that she clearly died is that there’s some sort of rule at Nintendo that every Zelda game must end with Link squaring off with Ganon while Zelda cheers him on from the sidelines. It’s as if Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata left the bulk of the work to a bunch of bright-eyed interns who decided to get a little creative with the formula only to pulverize their intentions by trying to retrofit the typical Zelda ending onto Twilight Princess before patting themselves on the back for a job well done and going to a board meeting to see how they can ruin the next Star Fox game.

Undoubtedly many of you are reading this and thinking to yourselves that it’s perfectly natural for Ganon and Zelda to show up at the end of Twilight Princess. It is, after all, a Zelda game and that’s how Zelda games end. And now we’ve stumbled upon the point. Too many games suffer from the same “let’s slap on some shinier graphics and emphasize how new it is” mentality that reduced Twilight Princess from an revolutionary classic to just another Zelda game.

Consider this: We’re long into the current console generation’s lifespan and despite all the power and in some cases interesting controlling aspects these machines have there has yet to be a console game released that uses these tools to produce a new way of playing games.

“But what about the Wii,” I hear you cry. Admittedly Wii Bowling delivers a game play dynamic that looks and feels like true bowling, but tell me that Wii Boxing delivers an intuitive boxing experience that is fun instead of mind-numbingly frustrating and I’ll happily give you the name and number of a shrink you might want to talk to. In general this is the problem with most Wii games, the only titles that get it right are Nintendo titles and I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but Mario Galaxy barely used the motion sensitive control mechanic and Smash Bros. Brawl didn’t use it at all.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the graphic powerhouses of the current generation’s console war. The Xbox 360 is happily printing money for Microsoft by serving up a never-ending line up of first person shooters while the PS3’s last stab at innovation was to steal the motion sensing idea from Nintendo and piss everyone off by using it to make Lair suck.

Still, there must be some brave games out there that forego the cookie-cutter strategy that produces so many games these days in favor of pushing the boundaries of video gaming as an art form.

To find them, I will be delving deep into previously uncharted gaming territory to discover who the movers and shakers are convince them to get off their asses. My adventures will be chronicled right here on Joystick Division in a series I’m dubbing “The Quest for Innovation.”

Don't think this thrill ride is merely about finding out who's got the narrative goods. I'll be looking for developers that are reinventing gaming as a total package. The new Strong Bad Wii probably has a great story, but is a point and click adventure title going to keep the kids coming back to play?

Strong Bad and the Home Star Runner in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People

Keep checking back for the lowdown on homebrew gaming, how companies like Telltale games are innovating through episodic gaming, how independent game developers are teaming up with web comic masterminds and how some of the mainstream directors are breaking the mold. Metal Gear Solid 4 anyone?

Just don’t expect me to find eight of anything or save a princess who never fails to get captured but refuses to put out once you save her along the way.