High Score

So I'm going to mix it up this week.

I'm not really a big tv/movie person, but when I heard there was going to be a documentary miniseries about the history of video games, I had to check it out.  At this point, there are thousands of different pieces of media that chronicle the history of gaming. Video games are here to stay, a multi-billion dollar industry that has mainstream appeal and coverage.

I don't think High Score breaks any new ground.  It does a lot of things well and in many ways, it does a good job of not trying to do too much.  The history of gaming as we know it today isn't particularly long, but it's very complicated.  There was no way they were going to cover it all in six episodes, they probably wouldn't have been able to do it in 12. A lot of that history isn't pretty, so covering some of that stuff would require proper handling and I understand why they elected to just skip over some of it.  But overall, I think they did a good job.

First and foremost, it's incredibly well made. I absolutely loved the pixel art style graphics they used to tell some of the high points of the stories.  I mean, what else were you going to use?  It really made the series stand out from other gaming related docs. I especially liked when they incorporated it into real world footage. It was clear that a lot of thought went into the presentation, and not just with the digitized sections. The interview segments look great and they did a really good job deciding when to include old footage.  

The series is broken into six episodes, each discussing a different point in gaming history. There is little to no discussion of the really early stuff like radar equipment games or even the Magnavox Odyssey. It starts with the late 70's/early 80's and picks up from there, probably the right call for a series with a more "fun" tone and a less informative one.  Most of the focus is on console gaming, but computer games, especially early ones, do get some love as well. Most of the episodes focus primarily on one subject and those do seem a bit random.  It was cool to see an RPG episode for me personally, but not everyone would feel that way.  I also find it weird that Sega had almost an entire episode dedicated to its rise while Nintendo didn't. 

That leads me to the biggest problem with High Score: inconsistency.  The Sega episode goes into great detail about how the Genesis came to be, the five point plan to make it a success in the U.S. and how they became a gaming heavyweight. The rise of the NES and the origin of Mario get far less fanfare, though the series focuses pretty heavily on Donkey Kong. Maybe it's because they thought people had heard that story enough?  I get that Sega's marketing campaigns were revolutionary, but that doesn't change the fact that Nintendo had more long term appeal.  Remember, only one of those companies actually still makes gaming consoles.  Other major events/major talking points are glossed over, including the not-so-great work culture at Atari, the gaming crash and the senate hearings on violent games. The latter is discussed in the fifth episode, but it really should have gotten its own.

I think a lot of the problem comes from having too much content for their own good. For one, the list of interviews they landed is incredibly impressive. Becky Heineman, Nolan Bushnell, Roberta Williams, Yoshitaka Amano, John Tobias, Toru Iwatani and many others lend their insight to High Score, each commenting about their various major contributions to the industry.  When you have someone that influential, it almost seems like a waste to only give them a few minutes to talk. Hell, any of those people I just mentioned could probably have an entire series dedicated to them.  I guess it's a good problem to have, but it's kind of a shame that you were able to get someone like Roberta Willliams and only have her talk about high level stuff. I would have loved to hear about the early days of Sierra, or about what was going through her head when she was putting together a game as sick and twisted as Phantasmagoria. Side note, how that game didn't cause more controversy, I don't know.

But overall, I still think High Score is worth a watch. There wasn't any new information in here that people who follow this stuff didn't already know, but it's cool to get some insight from true titans of the industry. Even if they don't get much camera time, they make the most of it when they are on the screen.  I also think this would make a great "gaming history 101" for someone that's a more casual gamer or even someone who doesn't game at all.  It's not a video game, so I'm not going to give it a score, but I would definitely recommend.