#digitized actors

Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi 

Take one look at Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi (“Gakkowa” by its fans) and you might find it patently absurd. You wouldn’t be wrong; its digitised actors look goofy and unflattering, but there’s more beneath this campy surface. 

Control

If you’ve heard the name Remedy recently, it’s probably because of Control. Ever since the first Alan Wake, the studio had been sort of in the background, surviving on small phone releases (like a remake of Death Rally) and getting some significant attention with the ambitious Quantum Break before quietly going back into the background again. Quantum Break caught some attention as an interactive TV show, and sold well, but it never quite hot a cultural vein to keep it being talked about. During this time, the studio was perfecting their mixed media style, figuring out what people associated them with and perfecting it while branching out in small ways to make something exciting and unexpected. They succeeded with flying colors.

Control was both well received and the fastest selling IP that Remedy has put out since Max Payne, getting to two million units sold in short order. The fact that they not only released a great, extremely creative game to the masses that showed us a glimpse of next gen graphics on PC, but surprised everyone by revealing it as a stealth sequel to Alan Wake of all things in a DLC campaign, is the strongest, most confident move that Remedy has ever done. It marks the next major transitional step for the studio, the team finally nailing their strengths and weaknesses and designing around them to make something whole and satisfying, a confident and distinct game that could only possibly come from Remedy. 

Simulacra

In 2016, a small group of indie developers released Sara is Missing, a free game where you are presented with a lost phone and explore it, discovering a horrifying mystery and becoming central to its outcome. It was inventive, immersive, and clever, though ultimately a small experience with a rather dumb endgame that deflates some of the mood it made. It was a base for something amazing, and the development group, Kaigan Games, quickly fulfilled that presented promise a year later with Simulacra, an inventive horror adventure that managed to be more than just a cool gimmick. 

WWF WrestleMania (Midway)

Please check out Wrestling with Pixels, our comprehensive look at the history of wrestling video games!

After the steroid trial and a storm of other allegations had dirtied pro wrestling’s name, the mid-90s were all change for the World Wrestling Federation. Out were the over-inflated physiques and in were the goofiest gimmicks imaginable, with a circus clown, plumber, garbage man, and Minotaur all making regular appearances. Midway, creators of the seminal Mortal Kombat series, acquired the licence to produce a WWF arcade game in 1995, and dialled up the daft in a game even more round the bend than reality.

WWF In Your House

Please check out Wrestling with Pixels, our comprehensive look at the history of wrestling video games!

Both the World Wrestling Federation’s product and business were in the toilet in 1996, as Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling had usurped the WWF’s place as the number one promotion (and pilfered a lot of the leading talent). It wasn’t hard to see why: WCW had edgy storylines and fresh ideas, while Vince McMahon’s federation was still mired in stale angles and hokey gimmicks, even by pro wrestling standards.

Sculptured Software had developed the home ports of WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game the year previous, a wild and wacky take on grappling that owed more to Mortal Kombat than it did a wrasslin’ game. The sequel, WWF In Your House, was released in 1996, and ramps up the ridiculousness even further.

This Means War!

In the mid-90s, the real-time strategy train had accelerated to full speed. Classic series like Command & Conquer and WarCraft had been established, with others such as Age of Empires and Total Annihilation to follow soon. Understandably, others wanted a piece of the real-time cake, among them MicroProse. Until then, MicroProse’s publishing ventures into the world of strategy had largely been confined to turn-based strategy titles such as Master of Magic and UFO: Enemy Unknown.

Tasked with the development of said strategy title, This Means War!, were StarJammer Studios. This Means War! is StarJammer Studios’ only game ever, implying that the studio was established specifically for this title. That said, most of StarJammer Studios’ staff worked on other games before and after This Means War!. Furthermore, the help of Illusion Machines was enlisted, though the extent of their contribution is unknown.

Streets of Fury EX

To properly explain the surprising level of quality in Streets of Fury EX, it becomes necessary to describe a few factual statements about the game. The game itself is a highly enhanced remake of a game previously seen on XBOX Live Indie Games, a service that typically featured small, shareware-esque games, often made by a singular person. The characters on screen are digitized actors with varying levels of martial arts training, many of whom are likely friends and family of the developers. The divisive internet personality The Nostalgia Critic is an unlockable playable character. All these factors should result in a game that should be awful, and yet by some total cosmic fluke, it all results in a surprisingly solid, even deep brawler. 

Twisted - The Game Show Club 3DO: Station Invasion Zhadnost: The People’s Party

As one can gather from the title, Twisted: The Game Show is a game show set in the world of television. Not a game about a television studio, or the people who work for it, to be clear; the game is set in a little world behind the TV known as the Palindrome, which the six playable characters are all vying to escape from, probably because the place looks like some sort of surreal cross between the Red Room from Twin Peaks and the colorful geometric shapes that defined the early ‘90s aesthetic. Also present, but not playable, are Twink Fizzdale, the host of the game, and his assistant Hannah, who doesn’t do much besides make wacky hand gestures as various events in the game occur.