Live from Random Lunacy, Its The 2007 Halloween Countdown, Day 20

We're getting close to the end, folks! Expect more AMVs from RL in this space, as well as reviews and other such stuffin's. Today's topic is the Survival Horror genre. (pics to follow Sunday night)

Our humble game genre actually starts well before the name "survival horror" was coined by our good friends Capcom, responsible for giving us a green Brazillain monster who electicutes people like an angrey Pikachu, and a questionable spin on the Italian epic The Divine Comedy that combines slick action with the embodiments of Male Sex Incarnate.


This is Sweet Home, the first and only survival horror RPG on the Nintendo, 1989 (though one could argue that the first would be Haunted House on the Atari would technically predate Sweet Home). 5 people enter the Mamiya mansion to photograph frescoes, only to be locked in by the angry ghost of the household's ghost, Lady Mamiya. Her husband Ichiro painted the frescoes as clues to getting the fuck out of the house. Each of the 5 characters would have specific abilities (healing, lock picking, phorographing, etc), and int he event of one of the characters dying (death is permanent in this game), one would have to find items that essentially took the place of the lost abilities. This is a game that needs to be on the Virtual Console like hoy. Also, if you can find the movie, you'll be in for a three-fold treat: 1) a vintage Japanese horror movie, 2) the most faithful translation of movie to game/game to movie, and 3) bragging rights to watching a film and game that no one now gives a flying fig about. You take your kicks when you can in these End Times, when Dumbledore is gay and Sonic and Mario grace 2 games together.

I'll mention in passing D, Alone in the Dark (with awards for the WORST conversion to movie since Mario and Mortal Kombat Anihilation), and Dino Crisis (beh, dinosaurs don't really scare me) since I'm not going in complete chronological order. We'll jump to some franchises we're all familiar with. Let's start with Capcom's more famous survival horror franchise:


Ah, Resident Evil/Biohazard. I credit it for bringing my fears of zombie infestations to the video game table and for having laughably bad acting and FMVs (don't tell me you've forgotten the live-action bits, have you?). I also credit it for having impossible controls. I can't stand 3-D controls to save my life. Its all fine and good for our FPS friends, but in a game where I constantly get eaten by the first couple zombies cuz I can't run around corners, its just not feasable. Fortunately, in addition to making Leon less boyscout-y and more sexilious, RE4 made nice with the control scheme (which is a DREAM on my Wii). With a convoluted story line rivaled only by Konami's Silent Hill and Crystal Dynamics' Legacy of Kain, I think Capcom gave us a story that previously was mostly reserved for RPGs.


Moving onto another less well known, but equally good romp into the Terroverse, I'd like to call to the stand Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem A LOvecraftian horror type game hasn't really been touched quite like this. If you haven't played ED, lemme tell you what you're missing: THE BEST DAMED HORROR GAME IN THE BUSINESS. Sure, the graphics are dated, never mind that its on the Gamecube, the left out little cousin of the last generation consoles. But can you think of another game that ever made you feel paranoid? No, I don't mean jumpy, like an FPS might make you feel. No, I'm telling you the kind of paranoia that makes you jump everytime a bug crawls across your screen; the kind that makes your stomach drop when the screen goes Blue Screen of Death, but you can hear your character getting killed; the kind that makes your heart stop when the game tells you it can't find your data when you try to save. I'm talking about a game that absolutely, cold-heartedly, unresmorsefully FUCKS with you until you decide you have to stop. But you can't stop. You can never stop. They'll win if you stop.


What's Konami trying to sell me now? As much as I would love to call the Castlevania games horror, we can't. That's a platform game. Just because Capcom's gotta great franchise doesn't mean its the end all, be all horror franchise. If you haven't played a Silent Hill game, then there's something deeply wrong with you. No Octorber should go by without taking a detour through Silent Hill. With one of the best storylines in the whole gaming business (few games can give gamers pause; this award goes to games like Kain, Deus Ex and Bioshock), SH's got everything RE doesn't: creepy and seemingly invincible monsters, beautiful if disturbing music scores (Akira Yamaoka is one of the best composers in the business, bar none), compelling and average lead characters (an everyman who can relate to everyone, from James Sunderland, to Harry Mason, to Heather Morris), and of course, plot twists you couldn't see coming (and who can in a place with that much fog). SH appeals to a different sort of horror fan; RE's action oriented, much like Dead Rising or Evil Dead (which sadly hasn't much of a success in the movie to game conversion), but SH is more akin to games like Eternal Darkness and its sister franchise Siren. There's a feeling of dread that few games can replicate. If you haven't given SH a chance, or have only experienced its movie (which was, after all's said and done, a much more faithful adaptation of the series than any other franchise), I'd suggest picking one up. I'll throw love to Silent Hill 2 because its got the best story, music and characters. BUT! Every SH is a good game, just go in order, or if all else fails, try SH1 and SH3 in that order, then follow up with SH2 and 4 in that order. Course, with Origins coming, you'll have to experience that too....


What's that, Tecmo? You say you've got a game too? This is Fatal Frame aka Zero. And you thought Tecmo was only good for boobies and ninjas. Take the photgraphing element from Sweet Home (however samll that element was), add a dash of the everyman in a hellish world from Silent Hill, add cute Japanese girls, and them mix well with a bit of FPS. Sit, let stand, and there you've got the survival horror sleeper hit of the year. Fatal Frame takes the horror combat in adifferent direction. Sure, you could sit in the back of the room and shoot things and run when they get too close, but try this on for size: you can't hurt ghosts with bullets. But you can damage them with film. The idea behind FF is to let your enemies come in close (the closer, the better the picture, the better the damage), then take a pic right as they come in for the attack. It takes nerves of steel and a good eye for patterns (not to mention a good sense of timing) to get through a FF game intact. And why wouldn't you want to? The main characters of all the games are all cute girls with something or someone to lose (or have lost). Where RE is all American action, SH is all American horror, FF is classically Japanese, down it its horrific (but fictional, I must stress) rituals and ancient spirits out to get you. I heartily recommend FF to horror enthusiests, especially to fans of SH. While its story isn't as complicated or as rich in history as Silent Hill, the characters in FF are all compelling, and they mysteries involving the who and why of each game are equally compelling. Give Fatal Frame a try; I guarantee a grand ol time.

I'm leaving out some franchises, of course, but I feel really strongly about the above games. They all have something to offer and bring to the table a genre that's more than just shooting, running and jumping, or even dancing and singing. The Survival Horror genre is a blast to step into, and I all hope that some of you gamers out there give Miku, Leon, James, Kazuo, Frank, Hana, Alexandra, even Aya, Regina, and Dennis a chance. I guarantee you won't be sorry.

*Fear, Lunies, Fear*