Ever since the first game released that allowed you to throw an enemy into the foreground, and collide with the player's TV screen, games have dabbled with metafiction elements. For those not in the know, a game is getting distinctly meta when it draws attention to its own artifice.This can be pretty subtle at times, making you question your own actions, or inability to act, in a game for dramatic effect, or it can be used for a quick laugh, like having the character address the player (classic adventure games loved to do that kind of thing). What has become abundantly clear is that video games, and their reliance on player interaction, are a perfect playground for people who want 𝓰to get a little weird (and get very meta).
10 The♕ Bard's Tale ꦑ
You can't wantonly lampoon an entire genre without being neck-deep in fourth-wall-breaking, meta humor. The Bard's Tale is a de🅘cent little top-down, hack-and-slash title. However, where it really shines is as a criticism of that self𓄧-same genre. The Bard is never slow to remark on an overused trope.
The biggest problem that The Bard's Tale has is that in criticizing all of the most tedious elements of these types of games, The Bard's Tale itself ends up being filled to the brim with them. Ultimately, as criticism and commentary, it is great; as a game, it is onl𒅌y okay. Still, it does enough interesting things to justify its own existence.
9 🔜 Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 🧸
While you wouldn't expect a fighting game like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 to really dive too deeply into metafiction, once you see that Deadpool is on the roster, everyt𓆏hing starts to make sense.
Yes, Deadpool is up to his old tricks. He references old X-Men Arcade games, talks directly into the camera, and as part of his super move, he beats the opponent with his health bar (as well as his super gauge). It isn't exactly biting commentary on the natu💦re of games, but it is stil🔥l a lot of fun.
8 Bioshock
While the majority of the Bioshock experience doesn't feel like a particularly meta piece of content, once you hit the ending that all shifts dramatically. Bioshock's ending does a fantastic job of reexamining player agency through questioning what aওctions the protagonist ever really had a choice in. Which, of course, calls into question the player's own choices.
Since the release of Bioshock, player agency h🍰as become a pretty important element in games. Bioshock is still, to this day, an interesting experience worth delving into. If you haven't experienced it for yourself, would you kindly do so at your earliest convenience?
7 Eternal Darkness 💯
Famously, Eternal Darkness features a sanity meter. Dealing with the stresses of this Lovecraftian world takes a toll on your mental health. Eventually, the game will start to make things appear that are not there: Actively attacking the player's own grasp on what is real and what is not. Bringing th𒆙is meta element to the game is frankly brilliant.
It isn't easy depicting a fictional character's loosening grasp on reality, but when you are made to feel unsure of what is real, and what is fict🌄ional, then the idea suddenly becomes crystal clear. Eternal Darkness's metafictive sanity system ultimately tethers you to your character in a way th🥃at has rarely been seen in the medium. Once you start getting up from your couch multiple times to see if you can catch that bug that keeps crawling on your screen, you know they have you.
6 The Stanley Parable 🅠
The Stanley Parable takes co🌊nventional elements from narrative media and uses them as a bludgeon to subvert the expectations of the player. In the process, the game acts as playful criticism of video games as 🥂a whole and calls into question the types of linear interactions games are composed of. It begs the question, what choices do we actually have?
The way the game's narrator leads the protag🅺onist, and how it becomes readily apparent that there is no unscripted manner in which you can proceed, has made this game a legend in meta storytelling. Tha꧟nkfully, it is delightfully amusing as well.
5 Disgaea
The moment that Laharl forcefully changes an antagonist's name to "Mid-Boss", completely replacing their name on the name card as well, and leaving them in a state of horrified disbelief, yo🌠u know that you are in for a game that is going to lean heavily on metafictive humor.
Disgaea does an 🌳excellent job of lampooning the traditions of the JRPG series. It is an excellent example of a game that breaks through the fourth wall in order to deliver jokes that satirize the genre and its conventions.
4 Pony Island ඣ
This whole game is about subverting your expectations. It starts with a series of dynꦅamic puzzles that revolve around debugging the game itself. The moment your back button falls to the bottom of the screen (like a sack of potatoes) you know you are in for a trip. However, just as you think you have a grasp on what is happening, and you think you have a handle on what the game is, you will actually begin to play Pony Island itself.
Of course, at that point, the weirdness is only getting started. Pony Island is a game about playing a game, and uses its meta elements as a source of humor, but also♔ as a means for setting up a number of clever puzzles. It is a fantastic utilization that works extraordinarily well.
3 Metaꦺl Gear Solid 2 🐎
While there is a fairly straightforward narrative provided by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metal Gear Solid 2 (by Kojima standards, at least) featuring giant robots, terrorism, and vampires, when you hit the end things certainly get a little stranger. What had, up to this point, been a story of espionage and engaging in counter-terrorism, now introdu🌞ced a plot point where, at least part of, the game is revealed to have taken part in a simulation.
More pressingly, Colonel Campbell, who had previously been providing us with helpful information on our mission, is now telling us to turn off the game. Once t🦄he game hits its final act all bets are off and the story switches gears and starts to 🌸focus, almost exclusively, on choice and freedom. It may be a bit of a mess, but it is a glorious mess.
2 Monkey Island 3 ജ 🐟
The Monkey Island series has long been an irreverent one. This includes a number of meta jokes that drew attention to its existence 🦹as a game. Some of these included asking you to insert a disk that doesn't exist or having a Lucas Art support line in the game itself.𒉰 One of the best examples of this can be found in the third game.
During his adventure, Guybrush encounters a hole that is j🍷ust big enough to poke his head through. Upon doing so, where do we end up? Why, back in the first Monkey Island, o𝐆f course! We aren't referring to the location, either; Guybrush's well-drawn head pops out of a stump encountered in the original game (clashing with its aged, pixelated aesthetic). Guybrush has always been a self-aware character, so he of course brushes this all off. But this is one game franchise that never got tired of relishing in the fact that it was, in fact, a series of games.
1 Undertale
Traditionally, when you play a game you are supposed to make use of the mechanics that are available. Why else would the mechanics be there, right? But with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Undertale, we finally had a game that asks if a game mechanic simply being available means🀅 that you necessarily should engage with it: I🍸nstead, rewarding players who fight against the traditional approach found in most RPGs.
Undertale received a lot of praise for its delightf🌳ully quirky story, its inventive repurposing of bullet hell shooter combat, and its kickass soundtrack, but it is hard to imagine that the game would have been a success if it hadnℱ't so effectively utilized those meta elements.
