#0014 Missle Command

Alright, time for another segment of “1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die” today I played number 14 on my list, Missile Command.

Released in 1980, Missile Command is an Arcade Shoot 'em Up developed by Atari and surprisingly does not have vector Graphics for once, I'm hoping the vector craze is starting to wear off. Though Battle Zone did make good use of them. So we'll see. Anyhow, in Missile command, you are in charge of defending six cities from annihilation via missiles. You must destroy these city annihilating missiles by firing your own missiles at them. You play as a cross hair and fire missiles from three batteries, two on the sides, and one in the middle. You must be fast as the enemy missiles fall with increasing speed not to mention there are planes that fly across the screen that drop more bombs so you have to take out the plane, as well as missiles that split off into more missiles, as well as weird bomb-oms that fly that I'm sure do something but never drop missiles I'm not sure I was too busy trying to save my country from nuclear holocaust.

This game is a lot like Space Invaders but instead of a turret, you have three battalions and a cross hair, instead of aliens you have missiles, instead of lives you have cities. I've noticed a lot of games falling into the “Like Space Invaders But...” Category. It's interesting to see first hand the evolution of genres. It's why I started doing this list in chronological order like this.

The Graphics for Missile Command are decent, they didn't blow my mind in the way Battle Zone or Galaxian did, but they were good. The variety of attack methods from your enemy was impressive as well, no two games will ever be the same as missiles fall in a random pattern, planes fly in at random points, you never know which missiles will split into more missiles This all adds to become a very hectic and cluttered, which is important for shoot em ups. The sound quality from this game is impeccable. Each missile explosion sounds fairly legit and as you see the missiles falling out of the sky panic sets in as you realize that your three battalions cannot defend against all these missiles No matter what you do, no matter how many you destroy, they just keep coming and city after city is wiped from existence until you run out of missiles that's when you realize in horror that your other two battalions have already been destroyed by enemy missiles All you can do is sit and pray while you watch the sky fall. Your remaining civilian cities vaporizing one by one. Until you're met with a quite jarring game over screen:

“The End” Wow, that's... Actually kind of... Grim... I mean, I'm used to game over screens now 'days saying things like “You Are Dead” but that's still not as final as “The End” as in, that's it. There's nothing left, mankind has been killed because you were not fast enough to destroy all soviet missiles

So yeah, for those who haven’t connected the dots yet, this game was made during the cold war, and it really shows. The game is shocking enough watching as all your cities get destroyed but try to imagine being a kid growing up and coming to the horrific realization that this could actually happen. That nuclear war could break out at just a twitch of a finger... And there would be nothing we could do to stop it. Because no matter how many soviet missiles you destroy, you just can't get them all.

Now! Because AmzRigh mentioned it, I now intend to watch the Extra Credits video and post my thoughts:

Wow... I'm almost tempted to erase my previous post and just say “Go watch this video” because it says everything I said about the game much better. I never even thought about things like moral choices, or being put in the role of someone who probably never thought this day would come. Now when I play it, it's not just a fun experience of shooting pixels at pixels, but a stressful yet none the less enjoyable experience of defending human life from their inevitable destruction.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that they're right. This is one of the few games that tells a very emotional and grim story simply though it's game play. It seems that in most video games narrative and gameplay are two completely separate beasts that cannot be mixed. Early games brushed stories aside, if you wanted to know the story you read the game manual, or watched the title card opening. Things like JRPGs seem to go out of their way to keep the gameplay in a completely separate room from the story. Even games such as Half-Life 2, where the story is told as you play, not interrupting you is still treating narrative and gameplay as two completely separate things that must be forced to work together. Basically, as much as I love games like Half-Life 2, it's story works in spite of being video game, rather than the video game BEING the story. This is where Missile Command is different rather than telling a story, and having gameplay that compliments that story, or vice versa. The game IS the story. And while when I first finished playing I thought it was pretty good. Now it is my favorite classic game I've played on this list so far. I highly recommend this game. Not only to anyone who's bored, but to anyone who considers themselves a gamer.

Next up: Rogue

Now I'm going to go sit in the corner and think about my life for a bit... Wow...