Info request

[shapinglight]

Dear flisties

I need some info for my rekindlespangel fic. I know bugger all about computer games and would be very grateful if one of you kind people could suggest a game that Spike might possibly have played during AtS season 5 that was so absorbing he wouldn't be able tear himself away from it, not even to go and kill monsters.

:looks hopeful:

Comments

[sarian71]

Hmm, I don't know... Mortal Kombat? Maybe Grand Theft Auto? Those could be his kind of games.

Or maybe he was addicted to The Sims! ;P

[shapinglight]

Thanks. I've heard of all these things of course. Don't know much about them. What was the game Illyria and Drogyn were playing in Power Play? Can you remember? That must have belonged to Spike, but it seemed more one of those games where you have to collect things.

[sarian71]

"What was the game Illyria and Drogyn were playing in Power Play?"

According to the transcript, something called 'Crash Bandicoot'. I have no idea what kind of game that is.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

That must have belonged to Spike, but it seemed more one of those games where you have to collect things.

It's Spike's, alright.

SPIKE: Well and good. You mind watching over our friend Drogyn? Aw, come on. New place'll do you good. It's nice and cozy. Help yourself to some beer in the fridge. Switch on the telly if you get bored. And, uh, feel free to play a little Crash Bandicoot. Give you lot something to pass the time.

(walks out)

ILLYRIA: "Crash Bandicoot?"

[shapinglight]

Ooh, thanks! I should've just looked it up on the Buffyverse dialogue data base. It looks daft enough to fit the bill perfectly.

[shapinglight]

I should have just looked it up, shouldn't I? ;)

Anyway, BGF has linked to to where I can get a look at it so I'll do that when I get home.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

I would have said Spyro, but it would have to be on the X Box.

[shapinglight]

What sort of game is Crash Bandicoot, then? I suppose it's pre-Xbox?

Also, is it prompt day again?

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

It's sort of like Mario. You play a character who goes around getting power-ups and jumping on little enemies. It's a Playstation only title. I think Sony and WB had a deal or something 'cause CB is mentioned in more than one of their shows.

[shapinglight]

It does sound like a very Jossian thing for Spike to play, though. You think he'd be playing something ultra-violent with lots of car crashes and shooting, but instead he's playing something like this.

[kidcyclone.livejournal.com]

Crash Bandicoot is a kiddy game, not unlike Mario, but with anthropomorphic animals. I could see Spike liking all manner of video games, even the kiddy ones, as long as they were fast-paced and fun and had a good absurdity factor.

I agree, though, that he'd also be keen on games like Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat. If you look up "best selling games for males aged 14-25" for 2000 or whatever year it was that the episode aired, I think you'd find some good contenders for stuff he'd like to play.

The idea of Spike playing The Sims is hilarious to me.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

Crash Bandicoot is what you call a side-scroller puzzle game. They are addictive. He should definitely be playing something with levels and/or goals to feel completely addicted.

I'd like to see him play Odd World. :)

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

I notice no one has suggested the ever-popular first person shooters - perhaps because we're all thinking Spike gets enough violence in real life and would find being reduced to a hand holding a gun annoying. :)

I see him playing something frenetic and violent and quirky... and since he has a 1990's era Playstation in order to play Crash Bandicoot... waaaaaait... he does play Mario at one point - the episode where he tells Lindsey it's for physical therapy? He complains about "the little wop" falling down pits. And Mario is Nintendo's biotch, so either Spike has two systems or the writers are lazy.

(more in next comment)

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

I'd say The Sims as a good game for him to get focused on. XD

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Spike digs Passions and Dawson's Creek. I think Crash and Mario are up his alley in terms of games. I see him more of a less aggressive, action-adventure gamer. More romantic/hero storylines than violence.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

So, keeping to that era and ignoring FPS, I do think the original Grand Theft Auto (1997 release) would be a good bet - we need something engrossing, that would take a long time to play. (Mario, you kinda HAVE to put down after one level. At least I do. This is also a strike against Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter - they are one fight at a time arcade-oriented games, so easier to put down.) Also, GTA is a crashing-cars-into-shit game, and I can so see Spike getting into that.

EA Sports released their popular FIFA soccer game line in 1993, and that was available on Nintendo.

Given his love for Man U, maybe he'd spend a week trying to play through an entire 'season' of matches.

Now a shout-out to a less popular game I think Spike would like: Oddworld, Abe's Oddysee - 1997- a side-scrolling platformer with quirky humor. Your character has to escape a factory where his species are made into meat pies. It's dark but cute and you have to fart to solve some of the puzzles.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

Well, both the games he's shown playing are platformers, but then again, so are most console games of the era.

Still, I don't see him playing Final Fantasy VII. Maybe because it didn't work for my attention span and his has to be even shorter. I think for real hero roleplay he'd be more attracted to Oddworld, Psychonauts(though that's a 2005 release, way too late, dang it), or maaaaaybe Legend of Zelda.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

Also Abe's a REAL HERO who's goal is not just to get out, but save his people.

And I clearly care way too much about video games! It's like you can see my wasted youth right before your eyes!

I was going to recommend Assassin's Creed or Thief, but I think Spike would not be able to have his character hide and wait. :P

[quinara]

I'd like to see him play Odd World. :)

Ooh, yes, I'd second this, Deb! Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee would be perfect for Spike. It's on the right platform (XBox) and was realeased in time for him to have it on a low budget. I've only played it for a little while, but the other two in the series were definitely up Spike's alley - linear, uncomplicated, but heavily story-based, where you're a slave-like food-source underling in some strange corporate fantasy world, trying to save everybody else. It rewards goodness too - at the end of the game, it depends on whether you've saved enough people along the way as to whether you can win or whether you just get killed off as a final sequence.

Crash Bandicoot might be easier to make sense of, though. I suppose it depends how long this is after NFA - you'd be able to get through Crash Bandicoot pretty quickly, I reckon, if you were addicted and trying.

[helenkacan.livejournal.com]

Spike was never your average vampire (ha! as if), so he could play so many different games. I rather like the idea of him playing something that wasn't mentioned in the scripts (but that would fit the type of game player he's already using).

As for myself, I know how easily I can sink into that altered brain-wave pattern and spend hours on a computer game. I think it would be hilarious to read how Spike's unwilling to drag himself away ... protesting that he'd nearly reached the level of - whatever it is - and that it'll take him hours (HOURS, he whines and pouts) to rack up those points again. Can't those monsters wait? Hee! Spike as a complex character is so much fun!

[quinara]

Have you played Abe's Exoddus (the 1999 sequel)? You just know that if Spike got to the big reveal about SoulStorm he would be in floods of manly misery!

[quinara]

If Spike had enough time to get into them, I think he'd love Final Fantasy - all the melodrama! I'm not sure he'd like VII or VIII (VIII's my fave, but Cloud from VII's an army dude and Squall is much more of an Angel hero in VIII; it would just depress him when Seifer doesn't get the girl), but he'd get on with IX really well - travelling theatre rogue Zidane and warrior princess Garnet as the leads! Vivi trying to understand his nature! He'd love it.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Nah, no FF for Spike. I think he'd find the idea of MP and HP ridiculous and tedious, so the standard RPG stuff is out. The only FPS I can see him playing might be RE4.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Looks like you've got a really good ready-made solution with Crash Bandicoot... I was going to suggest a MMORPG of some sort. WoW didn't debut until November of 2004, but the Beta was going before that (I played in the Beta and I remember starting during the summer of 2004, I think), but there were a few others going at the time. I played Asheron's Call, but I had a lot of friends playing Everquest. Both of them were very addictive.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

It is prompt day again. I am on it (as long as my intermittent wi fi holds out)