Anime and Gaming: The Perfect Pair Posted Oct 24, 2021
When asked to think of two things that go together perfectly, most people’s brains will likely conjure up images such as, salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, knife and fork, or shoes and socks. However, for those that are in the know, they recognize that a great answer to that question is anime and video games. This is because the two have fed off of each other since video games started gaining popularity in the 1980’s, and since then their bond has become welded together.
Gotta Catch Them All
The most obvious example of how the two have inspired each other is the Japanese game company Nintendo’s mammoth hit Pokemon. The first two games, Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Red were first released on Game Boy in Japan in 1996, and then globally in 1998. It didn’t take long for the whole world to seem to be obsessed with trying to catch them all.
Since those first two games, there have been an immense 120 games released throughout the years. The popularity of the games allowed Nintendo to release an anime television series that aired successfully in Japan and then went on to be shown in 169 different countries. You can still catch the latest episodes in the US on the streaming subscription service Netflix.
A Legion of Games
Beyond Pokemon, anime has gone on to clearly influence a massive amount of games on many different consoles. There’s Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is a direct tie-in to the hugely renowned manga and anime show, there’s the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy which actually went on to also have a decent live-action movie, and even Starlight Princess, which is a slots game by Pragmatic Play, that has an incredible anime art style.
If you want to give Starlight Princess a spin, or any of the other huge range of pragmatic slots that are on offer, then you can find them all on Vegas Slots Online. Their website has all of the top free games made by the award-winning game studio Pragmatic Play, which crafts some of the best online slot machines around. They all feature impressive artwork, unique sound effects, and an abundance of bonus features. There are also great reviews of every single game, so you’ll go in with all the details you need to enjoy yourself.
The World of Metal Gear
Whilst the video games previously mentioned all wear their anime inspiration loudly, there are some classic video games that have been influenced by anime that might not be so apparent to those that aren’t wise to the genre. The Metal Gear series of action-adventure video games are the brainchild of acclaimed Japanese game designer and auteur, Hideo Kojima. The first entry in the series, came out way back in 1987, on the MSX2, and then the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The game that propelled the series into the spotlight though, was 1998’s Metal Gear Solid, which came out on the original Playstation. To say that the game was well-received, would be a severe understatement, as it was both critically adored and sold in massive amounts, with a staggering seven million copies being sold worldwide.
The game series is celebrated for the way that Kojima had taken a whole array of different influences from other media and mixed them together to create something that felt brand new, especially for a video game series. Many of the most overt influences came from Kojima’s love for western cinema.
This is reflected in the stealthy spy action that makes up the gameplay of most of the titles in the series, which was born from his fondness for James Bond movies. The third game in the series, called Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, was especially reliant on Bond themes, and some pundits went on to call it Kojima’s espionage letter. There’s also characters in the games that are based on ones from films as varied as the horrifying Hellraiser, to the science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Ideas From Home
However, it wasn’t just western movies that Kojima took inspiration from, as he also found media from much closer to home to draw ideas from. The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was a smash hit in Japan in the mid 1990’s, is such an example. The series is what’s known as mecha-anime, and it is about robotic warfare set during an alternate reality and features a highly stylized world.
Well, guess what the storyline of the Metal Gear series is? Yup, it’s about robotic warfare set in an alternate reality and features a highly stylized world. In fact, the Metal Gear that gives the series its title, is a range of mecha weapons whose designs look remarkably like the robots witnessed in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
If you haven’t yet watched Neon Genesis Evangelion but love the Metal Gear series then have no fear, as all ten episodes of the show are available on Netflix for you to stream and enjoy. Plus, once you’re done watching them, there’s actually a couple of movies that were released after the series, which are both on there too, called The End of Evangelion and Evangelion: Death (True)2. Watching these after playing some Metal Gear will truly show you how symbiotic the world of anime and video games are.
