If you're young--or simply young at heart--it probably doesn't take much to laugh, bounce, and spill your Lucky Charms all over yourself. Just a good game. Or a good cartoon. Or maybe one stuffed within the other.
Cartoons have made sly references to video games ever since the first arcade blinked into being. Most often, we see our animated heroes bash randomly at a controller (which elicits equally random bleeps and bloops that are not native to any video game in the world) while they ramble towards a paint-by-numbers lesson about how excess is bad. Sometimes, animation, education, and video games collide in strange and unsettling ways (do you remember being thrilled and/or terrified by Square One's Mathman?).
And sometimes, a cartoon will just throw in a video game reference for a shared laugh and secret handshake between the animators, writers, and the audience. Why not? It keeps us all young at heart, after all.
Super Plucky-O Bros. (1990, Tiny Toon Adventures)
Two properties thrived in the '90s: Nintendo, and Steven Speilberg's Looney Toons spin-off, Tiny Toon Adventures. Though Tiny Toons usually filled out its half-hour slot with two fifteen minute cartoons or a full thirty minute storyline, it occasionally ran clips, like season one's "K-Acme TV," which parodied movies, music, and a certain video game for the "Numb-Mind-O System" (Oh, burn!).
It's a hilarious clip to behold if you're a hyperactive ten-year-old, and heck, it's still kind of amusing to look upon as an adult. Though one kind of gets the impression the writers (one of whom was Paul Dini) ran out of coherent parody material by the time they conceived the "Giant Nyah Nyah of Power."
Buy Me Bonestorm, Or Go To Hell! / Bart's Digital Conscience (1995, The Simpsons)
The Simpsons and video games came of age together, so it's not uncommon for the two to overlap. Given the general quality of Simpsons-brand titles, it's safe to say that the games were portrayed more favorably by America's yellow-fleshed family than the Simpsons family was represented by said games.
Season seven's "Marge Be Not Proud" is one of the most divisive episodes in the show's long history. In it, Bart steals a video game, and Marge's heart is broken when her son is apprehended for the crime. Some Simpsons fans still refer to it as a touching tribute to childhood's end, and others merely regard it as sap. Either way, the commercial for Bonestorm, the game that tempts Bart into wrongdoing, is advertised through the world's greatest commercial.
Marketers take note: If your game failed at retail, it's because your advertisements did not feature fire-breathing reindeer.
Bonestorm is obviously a take on Mortal Kombat. Interestingly, the game that the kids in the Bonestorm commercial dismiss as "boring" seems to pit Liu Kang against a tank.
Aside from the Bonestorm commercial, "Marge Be Not Proud" features two additional references to games. First, while Bart is standing in the Try N Save and contemplating grand theft game, he's visited by his conscience: Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Sonic the Hedgehog--all of whom encourage him to do the deed (Sonic's advice to Bart is characteristically manic: "Just take it, take it take it! TAKE IT!!).
Second, when Bart's pal Milhouse tries to enter his name as "THRILLHOUSE" on Bonestorm's sign-in screen, he's thrown against a barrier that we all encountered our '90s-era games: Space limitations. Welcome, THRILLHO.
Sonic Promotes Abstinence (2008, The Simpsons)
The Simpsons began a long slide into ruin around season nine, and video game references are still on board for the ride into hell. Of special note is the 19th season episode That '90s Show, which plays out a flashback that retcons the events that caused Homer and Marge to fall in love.
The '90s gave us grunge, and it also gave us Sonic, as demonstrated by a billboard featuring Sonic encouraging teens to keep their lust tucked safely behind their quills:
If you're a Sonic fan, you're probably helpless to avoid pointing out that Amy Rose was not a well-known character in North America through the '90s, and that Sonic would probably roll into interstate traffic before considering her as his life's mate. It has been noted. Good work, soldier!
Game Over (1996, Dexter's Laboratory)
Dexter's Laboratory, one of Cartoon Network's most popular franchises, is still renowned for its clever writing and witty odes to geekdom. Throughout its two year run (not counting the failed revitalization in the 00's), the series paid homage and parodied such properties as Dungeons and Dragons, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Speed Racer, Voltron, and Chuck E. Cheese.
One of its most memorable tributes came in the episode "Game Over", where Dexter [boy genius] finds himself in a very similar situation to that of Kevin Flynn in the video game-inspired film Tron. What follows is a sequence of game-related trials, many of which were inspired by the Tron arcade game. Keep an eye out for the ending, which closes on a cameo from another arcade classic.
video games cheats video games online video games stores xbox 360 games xbox game list
No comments:
Post a Comment