Colossal

If game developers have recently realized this weakness, they’ve come up with an equally lame answer: to license the originals. Hence, Electronic Arts’ “addendum” to The Godfather for Xbox 360 is sitting on my desk right now, and Vivendi Universal’s Scarface: The World Is Yours is on the way.

Then there was EA’s big announcement last year that Steven Spielberg had signed a deal to develop three video games with their studio. Although I will always stand by Spielberg the filmmaker (except, maybe, for the crosscutting orgasmic execution at the end of Munich— huh?), EA’s move seems like a step in the wrong direction. Spielberg is a master of character-based storytelling and catharsis. That may be of limited use in a medium that calls itself “interactive digital entertainment.” The whole point of video games is open choices, whereas the power of great films like Spielberg’s resides in the director’s singular vision.

Shadow of the Colossus: Looks like a film, plays like a game.

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More About

• Steven Spielberg
• Sony PlayStation2
• Microsoft Xbox 360
• Joe Pantoliano
• Video Games

All this reflects an industry in a state of confusion. Just as early film production copied the stage, the new medium of video games has yet to escape the gravity of film. And it’s getting worse now that growth is slowing, because the honchos are grasping for straws. Their way forward? Expensive concept visuals, original soundtracks and Hollywood talent voice-overs. In a few short years, video-game publishers may have even become more commercial and risk-averse than their movie-studio cousins. All this has made it difficult for video games to shed the cocoon of product and metamorphose into art.

Then there are games like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, providing a flash of possibility. If there is any hope for video games, it’s in the strength of entirely new ideas. Grand Theft Auto’s success lay not in Joe Pantoliano’s voice talent, but in the innovative system of open play. Quirky little Katamari Damacy, with its rudimentary graphics, bizarre pop songs and strangely compelling game play, caught fire because no one had ever seen anything like it before. Nintendogs tops the market for DS (double-screen) handhelds because it put a pet in your pocket. ICO and Shadow’s visuals are exquisite enough that one enthusiast called the game “a beautifully crafted piece of software,” but its cinematic sweep frames a bold, original concept, one that entrances players without cheap narrative gestures. Shadow may be as beautiful as a film, but it never forgets it’s a game.