Genre Spotlight: Full Motion Video Madness

[McTom]

then how would you call it?

[Joe Redifer]

Panic can't really be classified as anything other than a bizarre point and click game.

[wayne919]

I received an interesting reader email about the future of FMV games and wanted to share it.

Interesting thing is, FMV games seem to be making some sort of a revival on DVD.
Don't have a whole lot of examples at the moment, but MegaRace on Spykids 3D: Game
Over sounds just like a racing FMV game. Never played it myself, but was reading an
article in the iDMAa Journal (Spring 2005) that mentions this game:

"The advance between the relatively simple games discussed earlier [choosing a
response to a question or highlighting an object and selecting it to advance the
game - or end it by making the wrong choice] and MegaRace is the result of a much
more fluid use of pre-rendered video clips. In MegaRace, the clips have been
designed to fit together around segments actually taken from the film in such a way
that the movement on the racetrack appraoches the visual look of real-time
rendering. However, the racetrack never varies; the obstacles and accidents remain
the same each time the game is played. After a few tries, it becomes relatively
easy to win the race repeatedly."

(John Reid Perkins-Buzo, "Poised to play: The Evolution of Games on DVD Releases,"
iDMAa Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring 2005), pg 31)

Elf also has some FMV games that use the same concept, only it appears that some of
them like "The Race Down Mt. Icing" randomize the pre-rendered video clips
representing the obstacles.

Unfortunately, the author of this paper doesn't bother to reference FMV games, which
were doing the exact same thing DVD games were, only with much more limited
technology. The better processing power of the DVD, its greater storage capacity,
and the concept of randomizing video elements means that you can actually begin to
approach something resembling respectable gameplay.

However, DVD games will probably continue to be limited by the same limitations of
FMV games: gameplay consists primarily of pressing the correct button during a video
sequence. The shorter the clips and the more variety and randomness, the more this
can appear to be simply a pre-rendered game. But as the Model 1 arcade board
demonstrated, and as advancements in videogame graphics technology continue to
demonstrate, the video and pre-rendered sequences will continually be outdated
unless they stick with a strong aesthetic style rather than an ideal 'realistic'
style.

[Mendicant]

MegaRace IS an FMV racing game. The horrifying thing is... there just might be an epidemic of cheap FMV games, waiting to hitch a ride on the coat-tails of DVD movies.