What Sonic the Hedgehog and eco-activists have in common, what was the inspiration behind the creators of Final Fantasy VII, inventing radicals from Avalanche, and how werewolves guard the forests
Environmental activism is becoming more popular every year. Elon Musk is concerned about the energy efficiency of mining , Greta Thunberg is offered a role in the game , environmentalists are attacking consoles , and SEGA is promoting recycled packaging . Game plots have been telling about man-made disasters for more than a decade – and it’s not just about Fallout. Let’s take as an example several games, the heroes of which confront potential threats to the environment.
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja
Many 90s gamers will surely remember this addictive and challenging 1993 game from Konami for the NES. A cultured blue-skinned Zen ninja saves the Earth from Lord Contaminus, who dreams of turning the whole world into a garbage dump.
Born from nuclear waste, Contaminus is the personification of people’s disregard for nature and punishment for thoughtless consumption. Steve Stern and Dan Cote, creators of the original Zen the Intergalactic Ninja comics, made no secret of their environmental concerns. The name Zen itself refers to one of the directions of Buddhism, which the authors consider the best guide for living in harmony with themselves and the world around them.
In the late 80s, increased attention to environmental issues swept the world, and the comics of Stern and Cote are one of the manifestations of the trend. In 1990, the organizers of Earth Day contacted the authors to discuss the possible involvement of Zen in activities aimed at promoting environmental concerns. So in 1993 a special edition of Zen appeared, the Intergalactic Ninja Earth Day Annual. Today it can be bought at online auctions.
Sonic the Hedgehog
The environmental agenda of the late 80s captured the minds of not only the creators of the blue-skinned ninja Zen, but also the authors of the no less blue Sonic the hedgehog. The plot of Sonic the Hedgehog is based on the confrontation between the forest dwellers and Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik. The brilliant scientist dreams of turning the whole world into Eggmanland, inhabited by robots obedient to him, and uses all kinds of machines to achieve his goal, simultaneously abducting animals and destroying nature.
Game designer Yuji Naka said in an interview that the team was influenced by the growing environmental awareness and people’s concern for nature conservation. The confrontation between Sonic and Eggman is conceived as a conflict between nature and industry, the animal world and the world of machines. The blue hedgehog symbolizes the fight against the mindless destruction of the environment by plants and machinery.
Eco Sonic is a form of Ultra Sonic that appeared in the comics of Archie Comics
New games about fighting animals and robots are released regularly, but for many years they have not been able to achieve the same as in the days of SEGA MegaDrive. In 2021, the franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary, in honor of which the remaster of Sonic Colors, released on the Nintendo Wii and DS, as well as a full-fledged new part, were officially announced . Perhaps, in the wake of environmental awareness, the developers will be able to finally reinvent the Sonic formula and return the hedgehog to its former glory.
Final fantasy vii
A textbook example of the aggravation of environmental issues in video games. The plot of the first chapters of Final Fantasy VII tells how the main character, together with the group of eco-terrorists Avalanche, confronts the Shinra corporation. The company pumps out the life force of the planet from the bowels of the earth, along with the souls and memory of the dead. This substance – Lifestream – is processed into mako-energy, which in the world of the game feeds all mechanisms and illuminates cities.
The mid-90s of the XX century, when the cult role-playing game was created, was one of the peaks of Greenpeace’s struggle with excessive oil production. In 1995, there was a high-profile incident on the Brent Spar oil platform . It led to a drop in Shell shares, a series of attacks on the company’s gas stations and even the detonation of an incendiary bomb at one of them . But the activists nevertheless achieved their goal – to cancel the flooding of the platform.
This action, the media hype she sparked and the aftermath, which included accusations of “non-violent” Greenpeace of inciting several felonies, were partly reflected in FF VII. The Avalanche’s struggle for its ideals resulted in the destruction of the peaceful area and the loss of life. In the 2020 remake, this was further sharpened by focusing on the consequences of the reactor attack in a lengthy episode at the very beginning of the game.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
The relationship of a person with the outside world is just one of the many topics that Hideo Kojima raises in his games. An example would be the recent Death Stranding, with its post-apocalyptic and oil-like black slurry from a parallel dimension. But back in Metal Gear Solid 3, released in 2004, Kojima told a story not about combining the worlds of the living and the dead, but about trying to prevent a real nuclear war between states.
In August 1964, Snake lands in Tselinoyarsk (a fictional city somewhere in the Tajik SSR) to prevent World War III. To do this, the agent must stop the development of a super-tank carrying a ballistic missile on board and capable of launching it on the move. The entire Shagohod project is a reflection of fears of the potential danger of an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Literally – the physical embodiment of the nuclear threat to all mankind.
November 1962 – ship “Metallurg Anosov” with rocket transporters on board moves towards Cuba
It is no coincidence that the events of the game unfold in the 60s – the most tense period of the Cold War, when the Berlin and Caribbean crises almost led to an exchange of nuclear strikes between America and Russia. The consequences in the future could make the ecology of the planet unsuitable for the further development of civilization in its current form.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood
A game that no one should play, but which speaks so straightforwardly and with childlike spontaneity about environmental problems that it is impossible not to mention it. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood was released in the winter of 2021, in the midst of a pandemic and amid numerous major project transfers. The game is based on the famous RPG franchise World of Darkness and is dedicated to the fight against an oil company.
In the “World of Darkness” setting, werewolves are very concerned about the state of their native forests and are trying in every possible way to undermine the activities of industrial corporations. In the case of Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, the corporation is Endron Oil Company. How evil she is and how the hero fights her throughout the game, you can find out from the review .
How in reality oil production is harmful to the environment, the game dedicated to this very ecology does not say. Just remember that pumping oil is bad, okay? And killing a bunch of people in the name of an idea and revenge seems to be a good thing. In any case, the authors of Earthblood think so (if this is not an encouragement of ecoterrorism, then what?).
If the goal is to draw environmental activism by the ears, the problems of human relations with the environment can be found in almost every second game. You don’t even have to disassemble the plot of The Last of Us, where nature is so cleansed that giraffes wander among the city ruins overgrown with lush greenery.
In Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, Alenda Chung argues that video games can teach understanding of natural processes , and examples include GTA. According to the author, a realistic game world contributes to the development of knowledge about the world and respect for it.
