MICHEAL FOSTER-SANDERS
editor-in-chief

The eighth generation of video game consoles will be in stores across the country in two months with the arrival of the Xbox Series X.

The promise of the most powerful game system in history is that it will
bring gamers realistic graphics, no load times, blah, blah, blah. But I don’t care about any of that. Where are the innovative storytelling experiences contemporary gaming
promises? I’ve been gaming since I was 3 years old, meaning since 1986. Yes readers, I’m an old fart. I played on my older cousins’ game systems first. The Atari’s, Colecovison and Matel’s Intel- livision. The basic blocky graphics of the systems with just blips and bloops
for sound made me feel joy.

There were no elaborate stories— it was all about trying to have the highest score on the screen and people dethroning their competitor. Then for my 4th birthday, I was blessed to receive a Nintendo Entertainment System. Sliding those grey cartridges into a VCR-like box — that was where my love for gaming really took off. Being a pair of soldiers

named Bill and Lance armed with a spread gun taking on Alien invasion in Contra made me feel something inside, because I was invested in the story. As new systems started to increase the power of the hardware, the stories became more elaborate, emotional and
innovative.

The Journey that Samus Aran embarked on in the game Super Metroid for Super NES was the first game to provoke an emotional response from me. Samus was near death from the
chaotic fight of the villain Mother brain. Before Mother Brain could land the killing blow, crashing through the wall was the good metroid who took a liking to you and sacrificed itself by attacking mother brain so you were energized to win the fight. I cried tears ofjoy, and that sacrifice meant something.

It brings the gamer into the narrative. That’s what innovative storytelling means. Maybe with the next generation innovative storytelling will become important again.