How Video Games Changed the World Page #5

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It has never really failed

and I think that Mario represents

all the right stuff in gaming,

all that pure fun stuff,

the essence is all there in Mario.

Again, it's this idea of complexity

hidden behind simplicity

so the Super Mario games look

simple, they look beautiful,

they look like they're for everybody

and they are,

but they're also really,

really difficult games, you know?

'Oh, you idiot!'

It is the hallmark of just how

well judged

Mario's level of difficulty is -

in the process of playing it

you'll die hundreds,

if not thousands of times,

but each time, you'll blame

yourself, not the game.

And it's that constant sense that

next time you can do better

that spurs you on

and keeps you playing.

Argh!

In fact, the Mario platforming

format is so compelling

it appeals to absolutely everyone

from the under fives

to the under fatwas.

I've become a master

of the Nintendo machine.

I think I've become very

good at defeating

all sorts of tiny little

two-dimensional enemies.

Yes, Salman Rushdie

became a Mario addict

during his virtual house arrest.

He even put his addiction to good

use with his children's novel,

Luka And The Fire Of Life, seemingly

directly inspired by the game.

In this, the hero traverses levels,

saves his progress

and has multiple lives, which

probably seems like a particularly

brilliant concept when you're living

under a death sentence.

You can't really talk about

Super Mario's success without

talking about Koji Kondo's

music design.

Mario's music was brilliant

because every melody is memorable.

There were so many of them.

And that's the sickest one, I think.

I swear, any rapper would just be

like, that's the best rap beat ever.

'Labrinth, come in.'

I think video games have influenced

my whole reason for wanting

to make the music I make.

You know, that kind of 8-bit energy,

16-bit energy.

It's kind of inspired a lot,

especially a lot of the earlier

stuff I made with Tinie massively.

It just had a very important effect

on the way I think about music

and see music

and get inspired with music as well.

Mario was created by

Shigeru Miyamoto,

seen here winning

a BAFTA in celebratory scenes.

No other game designer has ever been

able to replicate

the sheer joy of exploration

and childhood wonder

like Shigeru Miyamoto.

People talk about Miyamoto as

the Spielberg of game design.

He very much is.

He's a man who creates wonder

on the screen like no-one else.

In fact, Miyamoto isn't

just the Spielberg

but the Walt Disney of games,

responsible for an unprecedented

number of treats including

the beautifully designed

and widely beloved Zelda series.

Unlike many video game mascots,

which tend to be

a Crash Bandicoot in the pan,

Miyamoto's creations have

endured largely

because the games they appear in

tend to be very well made.

Mario, in particular, has become

almost a kitemark of quality.

If you've grown-up with Mario,

then he's part of your life

and so there are now parents

who want their children

to experience Super Mario

and have the excitement and

joy of problem solving and

winning games that they did

with the Mario characters.

It's a joy

to watch my children enjoying it.

Back on Earth in 1989,

the Berlin Wall fell,

marking the end of the Cold War

and the eastern bloc.

And these weren't the only

tumbling blocks

and falling bricks the Soviets

had to contend with.

I think there's been puzzles

throughout the ages

and I think Tetris

is the perfect incarnation

of a traditional puzzle game

in video game form.

Everybody is familiar with putting

puzzle pieces together

and it just combined that

with reflexes

and that's kind of like the perfect

melding of two worlds,

like sports and puzzles.

When video games started out they

were things anyone could play,

like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong,

things literally anybody

could understand.

Tetris is just like that.

Games have got more complicated but

Tetris was "fit shapes together".

The minute you learn how to play

Tetris you've already succeeded at it

and there's not many games you can

say that about.

The minute you learn,

"Oh, this block goes in here,

"this fits in here, then that

fits in here, that goes boom,"

and you've already

succeeded right away.

The minute you learn it,

you're winning at it.

I think that's the magic of Tetris,

that's what makes it completely

compelling right from the start.

It's just a design

that's so perfect

that every single game designer

who looks at that thinks,

"I really wish

I could've made that."

It's so simple but so beautiful.

Tetris's straightforward design

was largely a result of the way

it was created.

Computer engineer

Alexey Pajitnov wrote it on

the defiantly non-gamesy,

Soviet and utilitarian

Electronica 60 terminal.

It was pretty much at the dying

embers of the Cold War.

It was one of the first products

that moved from east to west

and, interestingly, he never actually

made any money out of it

until very, very recently

because it was effectively

owned by the Russian government.

Tetris was perhaps the first game

that was compelling

to the point of being addictive.

While playing, you were dimly aware

that some kind of irrational appeal

had completely gripped your mind.

It was like a sickness,

absolutely like a sickness,

because it was a constant, "Can

I do this? I can do it, I've won.

"Can I do this? I've won. I've won.

I've won. I've won. I've won."

Panic, panic, panic, and then

eventually, you would lose,

but there was always, success was always

just a couple of button presses away,

it was always a couple of button

presses away

so it was just a constant reward.

There's a concept called flow

in video game playing

and in fact it happens

outside of video game play as well.

It's where a person will be

completely immersed

and engaged in the task at hand

and everything else just disappears

and falls to the wayside.

Years ago, the repetitive nature

of knitting was quite often used

to help people with low-level

mental health issues,

low-level depression,

and Tetris is a similar kind of

environment to that.

If you handed me Tetris right now

I would play for an hour happily.

Tetris, for me,

was a hugely significant game

because it was the first game

I ever got on my Game Boy,

which was basically your conduit to

life and entertainment as a child.

Bundling Tetris with every Game Boy

was a masterstroke.

Here was an addiction you could

carry around with you for

a cheeky hit now and then, just like

cigarettes but a bit less deathy.

I dread to think how many bus stops

and train stops were missed

because of it but it was that sort

of thing, you could just take it out

of your pocket and play it whenever

you had any moment of downtime.

And that's something we're still

seeing today with mobile phones.

Its lineage leads to things

like Angry Birds -

the whole kind of

casual mobile scene

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