Are Video Game Characters Getting Too Powerful?

In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the player is the secret and mysterious character who serves as the apprentice of Darth Vader. This character, who has the last name Starkiller, is tasked with stopping the Rebellion against the Empire, but then discovers that he can help out the newly forming rebellion. Yeah that is confusing, but fortunately, Starkiller’s very complicated quest is lined up in nice, easy conquerable levels.

Perhaps easily conquerable is not the best choice of words, as there are some tough bosses to deal with at the end of the levels, such as Darth Vader and the Emperor. Yet the other ninety-five percent of the game is spent dealing with pathetic minions who are easily dispatched, as Starkiller is armed with telekinesis that can move very heavy objects as well as a lightsaber that can cut through about anything. Did I mention that he can also shoot lightning bolts?

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was hyped a year before its release, and it was not well received by critics. Despite the fact that it was the first game where you play a very powerful kick-butt dark Jedi, there isn’t a lot of challenge to it, is there?

I’ve played the game, and to have so much great power with no great responsibility is fun when you first take on some foot soldiers, but the power trip quickly becomes a buzzkill after you take out endless waves of cannon-fodder minions. It becomes like the repetitive scenes in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace when Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor chop up endless battledroids like they were Kleenex. It’s fun to watch the first time, but after a few more scenes that were just like it, it just gets old. It’s not like the battledroids were any challenge to the Jedis.

Unless there is some sort of challenge to the main character, there isn’t any real reason to play a video game in the first place. Anyone can shoot the ground and hit it, can’t they? Sadly, this is the way a lot of video games are going. Players are still one person against a hostile world, but they are more than capable of conquering it.

Another example of video game characters who are way too powerful is the latest offering from the Lara Croft franchise: Tomb Raider Underworld. The game starts out with just Lara and her guns, but it ceases to be a challenge during later levels, when Lara Croft finds Mjolnir, the very hammer of the thunder god Thor from Norse mythology.

If you’re like me, then you remember reading about the Asgardian superhero Thor with his mighty hammer from Marvel Comics. He used it to take on super powerful enemies like Loki, Surtur, and various other gods. Imagine how unspectacular those battles would be if Thor decided to face weaker opponents, and to take out non-superhuman villains like the Joker or the Riddler.

In the same manner, Lara Croft uses the awesome power of Thor to take out lowly thugs with guns. The hammer may make the minions go flying in a satisfying and spectacular way, but it is no challenge by any stretch of the imagination. Eventually, Lara ups her game by taking out larger trolls, but they get blown to pieces in just one hit. Easy.

Do you remember back when video game characters could only do one special ability that barely gave them the advantage they needed in order to win? I mean, Mario beat Donkey Kong by jumping and occasionally using a hammer. Dig Dug had a mere air-pump, and it was an equalizer! And Pac-Man? Nothing but the joystick and occasional power pill, baby!

Most video games are usually about one man versus an unjust society, and part of the fun was that one man could truly make a difference, even if they only had one small ability. If Pac-Man were released today, he would have to have an infinite supply of power pills on hand along with a full arsenal of guns.

So what does this matter? After all, it is only video games, right? Personally, I think it is a sign of the times. Perhaps we are now living in a society where we don’t want to fight the man, but we want to be the man. It’s like video games are teaching us that we can only fight the system if we are more powerful than it. Video games should inspire us to beat the system, not be a vicarious way of imagining ourselves “sticking it to the man”.

Fortunately, there are still some games where you are still the little man versus the big man. I recently purchased De Blob from THQ, and it is the most fun I’ve had since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. De Blob has one of the most interesting back stories that I have ever seen. It takes place in a colorful world that is invaded by an evil organization known as INKT. INKT believes that color is wrong, and so it has sucked all the color out all of it. The end result is a sterile, joyless, monochromatic world.

The title character of this game is one in a Chromatic minority who repaints the rainbow in a world that knows nothing but rain. The Blob takes out the villainous painbots and uses their paint to color all the buildings and other various landmarks in his gray and drab world.

All the title character has is the ability to jump and paint, and that is about it. There are no special moves that allow you take out all your foes at once with lighting or telekinesis. If you’re lucky, you can take out two bad guys in one bounce. You bring color to the black and white world, one block at a time. You really make a difference. De Blob is the exception that should be the rule with video games: the main character needs to fight the system, but not be more powerful than you are in real life.

If you really want your video game protagonists to be powerful, I would highly suggest God: The Video Game. In this game, you play the big man, and you just smite stuff. You don’t have to be humble, just kick butt. Of course, if you want a quicker video game fix, then you might want a quick round of Shooting Fish in a Barrel. Coming Soon!