Monday, January 21, 2013

Crash Bandicoot fear jkin263


That annoying double headed monster

On the topic of feeling emotion in a video game, I feel it is important to note that we can feel all kinds of emotions when playing games. There are numerous ones like: Relief, fear, anger, frustration, happiness, despair. It does seem kind of silly that we do feel these emotions, but I guess it’s because of immersion. Perhaps one of my most silly examples of feeling fear in a game is a level featuring a double headed monster in Crash Bandicoot 3. In this level the setting is a medieval style England of sorts, with wizards, frogs, swordsman and yes double headed monsters with large clubs. When entering this level you certainly sense that something is not right, previous incarnations of this level are set with the sun out. The rain is pouring on you, it already makes you feel uneasy because it is combining feel good music with the rain, you are feeling mixed emotions about this level. Something isn’t right. Then the first villain you see in this level is the double headed monster. You get close and then in happens. Crash gets slammed right into the screen with the controller vibrating and a shaking screen, your heart immediately begins to quicken its pace, you didn’t expect that to happen. What’s worse is there are more double headed monsters, and you have no idea how you’re going to complete this level. This level is perhaps the scariest level you will ever play on the Crash Bandicoot series, as your fear levels erupt every time you get hit. What is the reason for this? I believe the reason for this phenomenon is that this villain has a unique effect on the player as no other villain in Crash Bandicoot makes your PlayStation controller vibrate along with a sudden and frightening hit, that is much like a horror movie because it happens so suddenly. A combination of a shaky screen, a vibrating PlayStation controller and a sudden assault make the player feel as though they’ve been hit by this gigantic monster themselves.  That’s an example of emotion in video games. Don’t make anyone play this level.

jkin263

Jordyn King

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