Gaming Innovations We’d Rather Not Live Without

Can you remember when we played video games way back in the day? Saving was a rarity, the controller was like holding a brick, memory cards were mysteriously formatted, and playing online was limited to a couple of games on the Dreamcast? Times have changed, and you can hardly walk into a GameStop without running into a crazy innovation in gaming. Let’s discuss some of those innovations and see if your favorite makes the list!

Let’s get this out of the way as soon as possible: online gaming is a huge innovation. You can play online with your friends, access a whole new library of games in an instant, and brings a whole feel-good community atmosphere to gaming in general. No longer do you sit in a basement (or attic) alone playing games with no recognition. Now chaps can view your gamer score to see how rad you are, check online scoreboards to compete with you, and even watch videos of your domination (as games allow, of course).

How about extremely powerful portable systems? That has been a huge innovation that hardly anyone in their right mind can complain about. We went from the clunky Game Boy Advance and worthless N-Gage to the slick PSP and sexy DS. I mean damn, girl. Not only do we still get the classic games imbued with updated technology (Castlevanias, Metroids, and Final Fantasies) but we get them on the go. It is now possible to carry the equivalent of a PS1 and a Super Nintendo in your pants without getting any weird looks. Or mugged.

Instrument controllers have made a huge leap in gaming in the past few years. We went from having only one plastic guitar to having so many varieties and versions that charts and graphs are required to pick out the type that you need at a given moment. It’s not over yet, as DJ Hero has been speculated (a take off of Beatmania) and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until I’m playing Toaster Hero or Lamp Hero.

Now that the obvious innovations have been covered, let’s move on to the more subtle ones. The ones you take for granted even though they exist to make you happy and cry to their psychiatrist when you ignore their cries for help. Autosave/Checkpoints have been an unsung savior of plenty of games (except Mass Effect). No longer is a player forced to restart entire segments due to a mistimed jump or unfair bullet to the head. A death nowadays only means backtracking a few steps and doing something different to avoid spikes or the man with the gun. Some may call this coddling the player, but those who use to have all the time in the world to spend in the basement have grown up and now have careers. We don’t have time to be restarting all these levels from scratch.

Nothing but innovation here, boss.

God did a great job of creating things, so why can’t we? Developer’s have picked up on user generated content and have been running with it like Usain Bolt running in the Olympics. Games now offer players amazing way to customize and create their own player. Spore’s customization was so in depth that it was released as a stand-alone game. With so many players playing online, it would be a shame to have them all look alike, so player customization and creation has become a standard. It’s not just limited to characters, oh no, but now full levels are being created. This has been on the PC for quite some time, but it is more accessible than ever before. A huge draw of Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the level creation and ability to share it with pals. LittleBigPlanet is almost 80% creation on the player’s part (have you seen that LittleBigCollosus video?). Even portable games like N+ and Line Rider boast an extensive level creation tool.

There are plenty of innovations I have not touched upon, but it’s not like this is the end of innovations as we know it. As long as there is competition and money to be made, things will keep evolving.