Untapped potential in gaming genres?

[mcj metroid]

I'm not the best at writing good grammer so you'll have to forgive me very quickly:D Someone else could probably write a badass essay on this.

Anyway with that in mind..

 

Tell me something... What is the funniest game you have ever played? I don't mean funny in the unintentional way like big rigs

I simply mean in an intentional way, in terms of story telling and narration.

You could of course argue with me and say " Yo Mike, I have a great laugh playing Mario kart wii, while my mates takes it completely seriously". Well that's true too. Maybe a lot of it should be left up to the player and whether they want to take a game seriously or not.

 

I've just been thinking recently about genres in movies, music and literature that just have not happened in videogames all that much.

 

My main focus here is comedy. I know most people when answering the opening question are probably going to say adventure island or house of the dead: overkill. Why aren't there more? I know the challenges are there, but I personally believe that videogames can do ANYTHING any other genre can do and have its own bits as well. Gamers LOVE to laugh.

Why isn't there a game been developed that is a direct parody of halo or whatever? You can kinda see games like splinter cell taking digs at metal gear solid now and then but nothing major.

 

Suppose my questions here are do you agree with me? Are we doomed to be tied to the action genre forever?

[Hero-of-Time]

I think the likes of Monkey Island, Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle are funny as hell, even more than movies that are supposed to be a comedy. Of course these are all one genre ( point and click ) but other games such as the Uncharted series game me a few laughs aswell.

 

I think it comes down to the writing/script of a game and the majority of games that are made don't usually focus on these aspects but rather how the game plays/looks instead.

[Jonnas]

I'm pretty sure that the Mother series and the Mario RPG series (both of them) love to make fun of the RPG genre. Hell, even Golden Sun has a few jabs ("I love welcoming people to our city!")

Also, visual gags in the Worms series, and the crazyness of Theme Park/Hospital.

 

Comedy-based games aside, there are instances of good writing in games that have some other focus (like some of the skits in Tales of Symphonia). Or even light-hearted games where dialogue can't be anything other than light-hearted fun and humour (like Mystical Ninja and its glorious laughtrack)

 

As for games that are direct parodies of others... I don't think they would be very good. I mean, the Mother series was successful (I don't mean business-wise) but that's because it is mostly parodying the entire genre, and the game series they're directly parodying is never actually mentioned or referenced, they're much subtler. If they weren't, who would buy and fondly remember a Dragon Quest parody?

[Grazza]

I know the challenges are there, but I personally believe that videogames can do ANYTHING any other genre can do and have its own bits as well. Gamers LOVE to laugh.

 

Agree. The funniest ones I've played are probably:

 

Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

 

To be funny, a game has to be a bit cheeky, a bit surprising - that description fits the above. Also, almost everything in Dragon Quest IX is a pun, although maybe not laugh-out-loud.

[or else you will DIE]

Earthworm Jim 2

 

You're a blind cave salamander that is swimming through a house made out of intestinal villi that is filled with fish and pinball bumpers and exploding sheep, then you answer random trivia questions on a game show then play simon says, while all this is going down Moonlight Sonata is playing in the background

 

What's not love about this?

[flameboy]

Anything that Tim Schafer/Double Fine worked on so your looking at the likes of Monkey Island and their more recent games like Brutal Legend, Costume Quest, Stacking. Honestly Stacking is one of the funniest games I've played in a long time and without a hint of spoken dialogue (the odd scream and such like or laugh) which is something you don't see a lot of these days.

[Kav]

The Monkey Island games for sure!

[drahkon]

Earthworm Jim 2

 

 

 

What's not love about this?

 

I need to play this.

[nekunando]

Conker's Bad Fur Day has to be one of the funniest games I've played.. or, at the very least, it certainly was when I played it! What I found funny when I was younger is considerably different from what I find funny now so it's hard to say if I'd still find it as brilliant.. but I'd hope I would

[Cube]

Left 4 Dead is an amazingly funny game.

[LostOverThere]

Left 4 Dead is an amazingly funny game.

Upon seeing a Nietzsche quote on the wall reading "God is Dead"

Zoey: "Oh no! They killed god!"

[Rummy]

I get a feeling there's a few that would spring to my mind, I mean...well, a lot of games actually do have a nice amount of humour in them, we probably just don't notice it much. For massively, constantly humorous games, I think I might have to second the way the Mario RPGs do the things they do, top class stuff. For some reason another title to spring to mind was Ninjatown, though that isn't exactly hilarious so I don't know why.

[darksnowman]

Also, almost everything in Dragon Quest IX is a pun, although maybe not laugh-out-loud.

 

Only this week past did I hear the term "half inch" used in every day talk. I knew it was a thieving pun in DQ but I'd never heard it in context before.

[Grazza]

Only this week past did I hear the term "half inch" used in every day talk. I knew it was a thieving pun in DQ but I'd never heard it in context before.

 

Yep, half-inch = pinch. I suppose it's Cockney Rhyming slang.