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Deleted Section from the Fourth Wall.
Intending to find reliable sources. Once accomplished, will re-add to article.
In video games
[edit] | This section possibly contains original research. (August 2008) |
Breaking the fourth wall in video games is common, mostly because the players play an active role within the game. It's done as a comic relief, as a part of the game, or to increase the player's awareness of the game's fictional nature. Some games use this technique very often, such as Super Smash Bros, Tales of Symphonia, Max Payne ,Super Smash Bros Melee, Teen Titans, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Crash Bandicoot, Ape Escape 2, Sim City 4, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee, Banjo-Kazooie, Final Fantasy V, Donkey Kong Country, Paper Mario, Super Paper Mario, the Metal Gear series, Contact, (where it is actually the main theme) Spyro The Dragon, Destroy All Humans 2, Destroy All Humans! 3, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed, Monkey Island, Earthbound (series), Disgaea 3, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Godzilla, No More Heroes, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Conkers Bad Fur Day and Jak 3.
Tutorial method
[edit]The most common way to break the fourth wall in video games is in a tutorial fashion. A character in the game instructs the player’s avatar (or in some cases, directly instructs the player) how to perform a specific action within the game world.
In the game Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, when the player gets the item 'Running Shoes', their 'mom' says "Here, let me read the instructions. Press B and blaze new trails of adventure!". Notable instances occur in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid as the character must input a radio-frequency which is never given in-game, but instead printed on the video-game's manual (in Metal Gear 2) or back CD cover (in Metal Gear Solid). This particular kind of phenomenon was also seen in the NES game Startropics, where the user is asked to enter coordinates that are found in the game manual. (An alternative interpretation of this technique is to prevent software piracy, with the assumption that pirated game owners will not have access to the original packaging.) In the video game Super Paper Mario, when Mario is instructed to press the A button, the instructor says, "You ask what is this A button? I believe that if we are watched from another dimension, the beings there will know." In Soulcalibur III, Olcadan often breaks the fourth wall in this fashion because he serves as the instructor in the game's training mode. In Eternal Sonata, the tutorials have the characters (such as Polka and Allegretto) explain the battle commands by speaking about the X button, Y button, B button, etc.
Story-driven
[edit]The fourth wall can also be broken through story-driven elements within the game.
In the game Tak and the Power of Juju, the Shaman addresses the player as an omniscient being throughout the story.
The player in the seventh Fire Emblem game is represented in-game as the tactician of the army. Characters, particularly the Lords, have conversations with the player; the gender of the player (entered as a new game is created) alters this, as the flirtatious knight Sain will flirt with female players and the timid pegasus rider Florina will be more shy towards a male player.
During the nightmare sequences in Max Payne, when the character answers a ringing telephone, a voice will say that "You are in a graphic novel", referring to Max. When Max picks up the phone a second time, the same voice will say "You are in a computer game"; Max will have visions of the actual game's HUD and will therefore gain partial awareness that he is being controlled by the player and is not a real person.
In the Prince of Persia games, where the whole plot is a story being told to the player and if the prince dies, the narrator will acknowledge their mistake and ask to tell the bit again. Also, when the player reaches a save point, the narrator asks if they can continue from there if they are interrupted.
The narrative of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty breaks the fourth wall a number of times, by communicating to the player indirectly through the protagonist Raiden. For example, during a codec conversation, Raiden (and by extension, the player) is told to "Turn the game console off, right now!" Later on, the message "Fission mailed" appears on the game screen (instead of "Mission failed") as the artificial intelligence of the GW program in the narrative (and by extension, the game itself) begins trying to defend itself by any means available to it, including making the player quit.
In Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd Irving becomes frustrated that he must go through a particular tower for the second time. When the other characters berate him about not being able to fly to the top of the tower, Lloyd suggests a "Quick Jump" option to which the players are confused, and Lloyd himself does not appear to know what he is talking about. In the game, the option to quick jump appears when an area has already been passed through, allowing a player to skip through certain areas.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem breaks the fourth wall in several ways if the player's character goes insane, these includes the game going mute with the word mute going on screen, the volume turning itself down, the game suddenly going back to the title screen, the game informing the player that game was just a demo, and a DOS prompt informing the player that their memory card has been deleted. After a short period of time the player's character cries out that "this is not happening" and the game appears as normal.
In the game Sonic Unleashed, Sonic looks at the camera after falling on Chip and asks the player "Uh oh, did I fall on him?"
Physical interaction with the player
[edit]The advent of force-feedback and controller vibration gave a new way for a game to reach out for the player. The use of such feedback is prominent in the Metal Gear Solid video game series on the PlayStation systems. In Metal Gear Solid, during an encounter with Psycho Mantis, the player is asked to place the console controller, the DualShock, on the ground so Psycho Mantis himself might move it with the powers of his mind. The controller vibrates causing it to move erratically as to mimic the forces of telekinesis. Later, after the torture scene, the player is asked by Naomi Hunter to press the controller against his or her arm; then the controller vibrates as a kind of massage to compensate for the stress done on the arm during the torture. Some claim that breaking of the fourth wall enhances the player's interaction with not only the game but also the story of the game while others contend that this only further enhances the players' awareness of the game, thus drawing them out of the story and forcibly ending their suspension of disbelief. This physical interaction between the player and the protagonist is further employed in its sequels Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and its prequel Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
Unusual player actions
[edit]Another common method employed by video games is to address the player when he does something unusual while playing; e.g., clicking numerous times on a character in a Real-time strategy game, such as the Warcraft Universe or Starcraft, or waiting a long time without moving their avatar. In the video game Bubsy, if left idle for some time, Bubsy will knock on the TV screen, trying to get the player's attention, or the video game The Bard's Tale where, if left idle for some time, the narrator of the game will state that "there was a long period where nothing much happened". In the videogame Destroy All Humans, if left Idle on the mothership, Pox will begin to make different comments, such as "The game is called 'Destroy All Humans!', not 'Screw around on the mothership!'." All of the Destroy All Humans! games essentially break the fourth wall. The series of "Sonic the Hedgehog" games routinely break the fourth wall, if Sonic is left idle for a certain period of time. In the early games, Sonic would look towards the screen and tap his foot. In Sonic CD, if left idle for too long, Sonic tells the player off and leaves, resulting in a game over. In Ultimate Alliance, if a player is using the character Deadpool and runs into a wall, Deadpool will sarcastically say:"It's as if I can't go this way." He also makes in-game wise-cracks refering to his health bar. In the Animal Crossing series if the player resets a mole named Mr. Resetti will pop out of the ground and lecture you about saving properly, including the player to type the words "I'm sorry" in apology. In Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, defeated characters from the field sometimes "hit" the screen as if the simulate how hard that they were ejected from the battle field scene.
Character awareness
[edit]The fourth wall is broken by the game Pathologic. During the last day of events, the player can visit the Theater (which is somewhat a metafictional entity throughout the entire gameplay). In a dialogue taking place there the player will be presented with a choice to answer the question "Who is saying this?" either as "It is me, Bachelor" (or another playable character) or as "It is me, the player". In the latter case the NPC will show the full awareness that he is "merely a bunch of triangles on your monitor". In Shadow Hearts, the character Roger Bacon can be named by the player, but he will appear in the far-foreground afterwards and emphatically reject the name. The main character, Yuri, asks him who is he talking to. In Tales of Symphonia, the main character, Lloyd Irving will sometimes reference the usage of a warp option in a dungeon, often in the form of a complaint that there is no way to use it at the time. In Jak 3 a monk scolds Jak and Daxter "This isn't a game!", causing Jak and Daxter to look at the player with confused expressions. In Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, a badly disguised Lord Crump addresses the player ("you in front of the TV!"), and tells them not to tell Mario who he is, to which the other characters react in confusion. In World of Warcraft, the players can emote a random joke by the /silly command, and if the character is a human female, one of the jokes is, "Do you ever feel like you're not in charge of your own destiny, like... you're being controlled by an invisible hand?" In the SimCity series, if the game is paused for a short time and then resumed, the news ticker will mention a citizen being institutionalized for raving that everyone was just standing there, and nobody was doing anything, as if he were the sole person who was NOT paused. In Paladin's Quest, an NPC says that the game doesn't use an MP system, with spells consuming HP instead. In The Sims 2(PSP version) the main antagonist told the Protagonist "..And take control of the being that is controlling YOU! This horrible CREATURE thinks that it is merely playing a harmless game. It feels no compassion for the lives it destroys!". The Sims 2 story arc is about hunting a mad scientist that is trying to escape from the control of the player(via the iconic Sims' Green Diamond) by taking control of the Green Diamond itself. The MMORPG Runescape makes a reference to the real world too. When the player speaks to a bartender, the bartender states that the entire world (RuneScape) is just a video game. Your character assumes the bartender is insane, and leaves him. And in The Simpsons Game, the fourth wall is broken frequently--The Simpsons discover they are in a video game, that is being played by God, who appears as a character on Ralph's computer screen. Ralph then appears to notice the player. Also, in the game MLB Power Pros 2008, in Success Mode, Marvin (the main character's sidekick) starts to suspect that this is a game, saying "Don't you feel that all your decisions are made for you? That someone is choosing your actions? Controlling your mind, even?" You can choose whether you agree or disagree. If you do disagree, then another event might come up where Marvin tries to "break the game's balance" by giving you items such as a Pricey Handbag (given to girlfriends as a gift), POWERIN (Energy Drink that restores vitality) and others, claiming that at some point a random event might happen to stop him, such as being bitten by a dog or waking up to find out it was all a dream, when it really isn't and Marvin is probably paranoid (or so your character thinks). In Destroy All Humans! 2, during a conversation with Ponsonby about modern art, Crypto states "You realize the player's in the kitchen makin' nachos at this point right?". In Destroy All Humans! 3, upon arriving on the final game location, Crypto will say "Well, here we are on the final invasion site of the game.", to which Pox with reply "Crypto! The player doesn't know that yet!" Also, on the final location of the game, Pox will assume the player is a "he", to which Crypto promptly states that a recent THQ public survey revealed that over 20 percent of the Destroy All Humans! audience, is of a female perspective. In the DS game Looney Toons: Duck Amuck, based on the episode, the player tortures Daffy Duck, resulting in Daffy screaming at the author. He often mentions that it is a video game.
Easter eggs
[edit]Easter eggs are another way to break the fourth wall. Easter eggs in video games are objects, quotes, characters (either avatars or NPCs), levels, or any other element of the game that makes a reference to the exterior world. The references may be to a picture of the programmer, a reference to another game of the same or affiliated company, an element created by a rumor circulating about the game or a previous one in the same series, or any other entity which does not exist directly within the game world. This breaks the fourth wall by introducing an element that is superfluous to gameplay, reminding the player of the virtual nature of the game. One such example is in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. After finishing the game as on both the light and dark sides, Atton Rand will say this quote when you find him:
"I'm Atton. I actually wasn't supposed to make it into the final game, but I was created at the last minute. Blame my agent. I was actually slated for a spin-off to Jedi Knight, but I don't want to talk about what happened there."
Old-fashioned
[edit]By far the most uncommon way to break the fourth wall in a video game is the "old-fashioned way," in the same manner as in theater or television. However, it has occurred. For example, in the Super Nintendo game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, after the battle with Culex (the final boss in the original Final Fantasy), Culex breaks the fourth wall in this manner by saying "Perhaps, in another time, in another game, we were mortal enemies." The fact that there are other games in the Banjo-Kazooie series is often mentioned by the characters (with the sequel even referred to in the original).