Stray is a video game where you play as a cat, so of course, the internet is obsessed with it. It helps that this feline cyberpunk adventure is also a pretty good game (check out our Stray review). But even if it wasn't, lots of curious players would still probably give it a look just to do some virtual scratching and meowing. Stray's viral success proves something I've suspected for a while: A surefire way to make a video game instantly more interesting is to let players embody an animal. And I’m not just talking about Mario in a fursuit.
Nature Calls
There are plenty of fighting games better than Fight Crab. In Fight Crab, brawls almost instantly devolve into flailing around in the open arenas, whether you use buttons or motion controls. So, why did I enjoy Fight Crab so much? In Fight Crab, you play as a crab that fights other crabs! With guns and knives! Occasionally a lobster shows up! The idea of crustacean combat is so cool I'm looking forward to the upcoming crab-based action-adventure game Another Crab's Treasure, despite the fact it takes influence from Dark Souls, a franchise I loathe.
Animal simulators bring us back to video games’ core strength: letting people act out fantasies. While these fantasies can be wholly fantastical, they don’t have to be. For every game about shooting aliens in outer space, there’s another about playing sports as real athletes. One of this generation's greatest surprise joys is touring real-life locations in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Grounding the fantasy a little bit, and giving our minds something familiar to latch onto, can sometimes make the new experience that much more enrapturing. We all know what animals are like and what they can do, but what is it like to become one? It’s the difference between running away from two horrible geese in real life, and you and your friend controlling two horrible geese in Untitled Goose Game.
Animals, by their nature, also give players fresh mechanics and control schemes to explore that are distinct from the boring arms and legs we already use with our real bodies. When it comes to structure, Ecco the Dolphin and Maneater are a pretty rote 2D sidescroller and open-world RPG, respectively. However, they feel completely idiosyncratic because you swim through levels as a dolphin or use your shark jaws to chomp on beachgoers to level up. Deadly Creatures turns an ordinary American desert into an epic wordless battlefield as you swap between a scorpion and spider out for revenge against Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton. Carrion’s creature is more monster than animal, but it puts you in a similarly alien and exciting predatory mindset.
Playable animals can lead to genres beyond classification. Goat Simulator and Octodad turn the tension between unwieldy animal bodies and the fragile human world into slapstick physics-driven comedies. Ape Out shares some DNA with Hotline Miami, but carves its own path as a top-down, jazz odyssey where a gorilla busts its way to freedom. Flying around flowers and collecting honey in Bee Simulator looks like the kind of game National Geographic would make. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor emerged as an early iPhone gaming darling by marrying the novelty of a touch screen with the novelty of weaving webs to catch prey.
Man's Best Friend
You don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel to gain the benefits of adding animals to your game. Animals can also serve as a shorthand for a particular mood you’re trying to evoke. Their connection to nature adds an extra layer of spirituality.
Play as wolf deities in Okami, Lost Ember, Spirit of the North, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Become a deer god in The Deer God. The extrasensory perception in Assassin’s Creed uses an eagle metaphor, or sometimes just actual eagles. The Good Life, from bizarre Japanese auteur SWERY, mixes Twin Peaks surreal small town murder mystery drama with the ability to become a cat or a dog. And who doesn’t love some classic werewolf action when human players turn into animals in Altered Beast and Bloody Roar?
Even just a good, old-fashioned animal sidekick can improve the overall mood of a game. So many people flocked to the Nintendo DS, saving Nintendo in the process, because they wanted to take care of virtual puppies in Nintendogs. We cherish our moments with our D-Dog in Metal Gear Solid V, our horses in Red Dead Redemption 2, and our hundreds upon hundreds of Pokemon. There’s a Twitter account doing absolutely vital work by keeping track of games where you can pet the dog.
Developers won’t stop making games about humans. We’re too vain. However, they can still apply some of these lessons to games where you control a regular person. Some of the most creative games out there dig deep into what it really means to map something as complex as the human body to a simple set of inputs. QWOP and Manual Samuel turn the involuntary actions we take for granted, like moving our legs or blinking, and turn them into demanding coordination challenges. Helheim Hassle’s puzzles ask you to consider what’s possible when you can separate your head and arms from the rest of your body. Turns out, it’s a lot.
Born to Be Wild
I’m not a pet person. Personally, I would’ve been happy if humanity left animals undisturbed in nature. But animals are a huge part of our world, and they can serve as a great jumping off point for creating inventive video games. The people have spoken. They don’t want to be people, they want to be animals.