Video Games: The Movie Review

Video Games: The Movie is a 90 minute documentary that covers topics about how video games are made, marketed, played and the culture of gaming. These are examined by celebrities, game publishers and game developers. The doc features industry giants such as Cliff Bleszinski, Nolan Bushnell, Hideo Kojima, Peter Molyneux,

The main thing about the documentary is that it lacks focus especially with the chronological  order of the game industry. It starts off with the invention of Pong, to the time line of late 90 into the 2000’s, then the future of games with things like the Oculus Rift. It then goes back to the 80s on the game crash back to the 1950s on the first game tournament then the 1500s on techniques of storytelling and then back to this generation of games.

The history it gives is a basic overview. It does not go into any game defining a certain game generation or how any system has changed how we play games today. It will not add any new information for people who have been following the industry for years. It also focuses on the celebrities rather then the people who have influenced games and game culture.

The movies ends with ending scenes from video games all the way from Pong to The Last of Us. I did not realize this until the good ending for the original Bioshock game popped on the end credits. This contained some major spoiler alerts for people who have not completed any current games.

This documentary was funded on Kickstarted in 2013 with 1,134 backers and was released May of 2014. Directed by Jeremy Snead and produced by Zach Braff with narration by Sean Astin.