Happy Monday, folks! This is Wolfman Jew, welcoming you to the Weekly Video Games Thread.
I’m not quite in the mood to make a dedicated, planned “April Fools’ Day” thread. Had I the time, wherewithal, or recognition that I’d be covering the internet’s day today, I’d probably come up with something special. Like, who’s your favorite troll, and why is it Waluigi against my deep (and well justified) consternation and dismissal? Nah, nah. That’s too basic. Gotta come up with something special.
Well, perhaps I can use something from my own current gaming life. A day early for my monthly project, I decided to start Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. Don’t play it. Like, I’m finding it historically interesting, but don’t play it. But that’s a comedy game, and, well, it’s a good example if we needed any more that video games both need comedy and are very bad at comedy. I mean, the other game I’m playing is Xenoblade 2, a game that is very funny when it’s campy and mostly blisteringly unfunny when it’s trying to be funny (though my love for it forgives such failings. You’re nothing like Matt Hazard, Xenoblade 2).
I would like us to use this comedic day to discuss different kinds of comedy in games. This prompt is no simple “what’s your favorite funny game;” it doesn’t need to be. They’ll come up as examples anyway. The prompt is, instead, analyze the kinds of video game comedy out there, how they work, and how they can work. ‘Cause there are, like, your modern action movie style of quips for optional barks; those can be good. More broadly, there are many kinds of great video game writing, from Obsidian to Nintendo of America to Capcom. There are also games that are more about creating comedy, like Hitman or Untitled Goose Game. This is a field that is really interesting to me because just like how horror games try to create an atmosphere, comedy can be used for the same thing. And while it can use the tools of humor you get from literature and film and stories, the interactivity provides a giant new dimension.
I’ve probably had this as a prompt before—I have been doing these once every two weeks for years by now. But I’m most interested in the gaming element, as I always seem to be, so I’d love for you to dig in deep and discuss this on a mechanical, granular level.
And in the meantime, what did you play this weekend? I hope it was better than at least one of the games I played! And hey, in case you missed it, Lovely Bones’ latest Game News Roundup is out! Make sure to read it!