How a the tiny flash game outdid the AAA giant

So, to start this off lets take a look at a flash game, called Flight: http://www.kongregate.com/games/ArmorGames/flight

As you can see, Flight isn’t exactly the most challenging game on the market. It also isn’t the most innovative — it’s about a task we can do ourselves in real life. How is it, then, that it is so important? Because, it does what so few games actually genuinely accomplish these days — it inspires an emotion. By listening to I’m Still Here from Treasure Planet (seriously, what’s your excuse for not watching it?) while playing, I almost became one with the plane. I didn’t feel ripped out every minute by a glitch or stupid attempts at “realism”, I was just flying.

Now not everyone will feel the same about this. But the fact is, there are games where you actually feel genuine emotion. Imagine talking down a mad gunman in Deus Ex: HR or trying to survive an apartment fire in Heavy Rain, or the sensation of fear mingled with discovery in Penumbra, or the odd feeling of regret and pity that you have to leave in the ending of Portal 2. These moments should be treasured highly, more highly than they are. They teach us something about ourselves, they make us think, and they make the medium as a whole more than just a “game”.

And so,
Fairwinds