5/5

Kids Ahoy (from Pit to Boy)

09/26/22 — by George Smrekar

Kids have been in games for as long as I can remember. Seen if not heard. Noticeably un-noticed. Arbiters of consequence. Okay that’s a bit wordy. But the implications of having them around have shot up over the years. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes both (hello Clementine). Portrayed as everything from heroes to villains, providing comic relief and dramatic beef. They’ve evolved from cartoon caricatures to serious dramatic foils. From one-offs to recurring characters, it’s been an interesting evolution, but one most of us have probably not thought about in any great detail. Let’s fix that.

In the early NES days, kids in games were often us. Namely our pixel avatars. Kid Icarus, Kid Niki, Alex Kidd etc. Kid Icarus in particular (a horizontal and vertical platformer set against a wonderful Greek backdrop) had a character named Pit. A character that resonated with me. He was your bow and arrow main, physically not unlike Atreus from 2018’s God of War. An early inspiration, starting from nothing at the bottom of the world. Climbing literally and figuratively ’til he passed the clouds. The ultimate power fantasy: a kid that could fly. The evil Medusa stood no chance as Pit slowly became overpowered with a design on winning. And so he did. Meaning so did I. Repeatedly. Sorry Medusa, but kids outsmarting adults has often been a popular theme (see Hansel & Gretel) and the 80’s were no exception. At least the better games like Kid Icarus.

Hudson’s Adventure Island on the other hand was a platformer that unfortunately cranked the difficulty to a level that made the character feel ineffective. Perhaps coincidentally, the industry began to somewhat get away from kid characters around this time. At least in my circle. Rougher/tougher ‘toons like Ryu Hayabusa, Solid Snake, and the Double Dragons began popping up and taking their cool back. Perhaps a response to the Schwarzenegger/ Stallone action heroes of the era? Who knows. But who doesn’t remember the Michael Biehn looking badass on the cover of Metal Gear, or Fabio on the cover of Ironsword? Okay maybe not that last one. But for a while there, kids became invisible again.

It was shortly after the SNES era that I took a long hiatus from gaming, but I came back just in time to catch up with Sherry Birkin in Resident Evil 2 (1998). While not playable at the time (later remedied in the 2019 Remake), this was still an interesting kid in an interesting scenario. A harrowing police station unlike any I’d seen before. Check. More straight-faced than Resident Evil 1? Check. Resident Evil 2 took it upon itself to turn her dad into a monster and leave her alone to survive in the shadows. Not unlike Newt from the movie Aliens. Much like Ripley found Newt though, Leon and Claire found Sherry and the group helped each other escape the nightmare. Sherry wasn’t a full hero like Pit, but was a capable NPC in her own right with a great survival acumen. Despite this, Sherry lost both her parents by the end of Resident Evil 2. A child losing a parent in-game was somewhat of a first time for me, but it wouldn’t be the last.

The modern era of gaming took this theme and ran with it, significantly. Telltale’s 2012 The Walking Dead won numerous Game of the Year awards and it was done with a little girl (Clementine) who not only lost her parents before the game started, but also her surrogate father (Lee Everett) as the game ended. The Walking Dead was a harrowing romp through Georgia during a zombie apocalypse where much like the comics, character development took center stage. Clementine would continue to grow and grow up before our eyes for a few more games, eventually taking on the role of surrogate herself. Arguably the best portrayal of a child lead until 2013 introduced the world to another apocalypse baby.

Ellie (The Last of Us) would go on to arguably match Clementine beat for beat, as The Last of Us became a Game of the Year winner in its own right with an emphasis on characters and exposition over explosions. Ellie had no parents to speak of to start the series and would lose her best friend Riley along the way as well as her own surrogate, Joel (who himself had lost his daughter, Sarah). More trials and tribulations piled on the pair than arguably any pair in gaming before. A definite escalation to Leon and Ashley from Resident Evil 4 (2005). These themes were not lost on other developers either.

Ni No Kuni (2013 NA) and Ni No Kuni II (2018) both had child protagonists lose their parents. Oliver’s mom died on his watch as did Evan’s dad, the King. What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) took things further than any game had before by having the player play through the final moments of several young family members’ lives (including a bathtub drowning), culminating in the main character dying during childbirth. Things had gotten dark, but this wasn’t the first time. Parents losing their children was another theme that started around the time I had played Resident Evil 2. My introduction to this was none other than Silent Hill.

Silent Hill (1999) for me, started the theme of children being used as plot devices. Not in a negative way, simply a reverse of the previous scenario. Instead of kids losing parents, parents were now losing their kids. Silent Hill had Harry Mason searching far and wide for his daughter Cheryl in the fever dream hell on earth that was Silent Hill. This search drove home the powerful bond that parents feel towards their children. Seen in other media before but not so much videogames, kids were now being used to heighten emotion, stakes and attachment to characters. While Cheryl was eventually found, another video game would soon put its own spin on the theme.

God of War (2005) introduced the world to Kratos. An ash-covered Spartan General who was tricked by the god Ares into killing his daughter Calliope. The ash on his skin was the ash of his dead family. A forever-reminder of his folly. Forever bound to the player, however, was a moment in God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008). A prequel where Kratos visits his dead daughter in the Elysian fields and the player is forced to button mash Calliope away. Kratos is forced to make a choice, stay with Calliope or do what’s right and save the world. A powerful gameplay moment where the player in the parental role, must lose their child all over again. This sets the stage for several tales as the bond between Kratos and his dead daughter fuels his thirst for revenge until Olympus itself has fallen. Not to mention Atlantis and… basically the world. Beware the power of love?

So where does a developer go from there? Escalation of course. Like never before, kids were now used as lightning rods to fuel stories and character motivation. Heavy Rain (2010) featured a serial killer of children. You truly felt like you were on borrowed time to save your son. The shock tactics don’t end there. Detroit: Become Human (2018) featured incredibly lifelike human looking androids, not the least of which was a child in an internment camp/ concentration camp depending on your choices. Visage (2020) begins with the murder/suicide of a family and child which the player must experience in first person. In 2022 you can pick up ‘Who’s your Daddy’ on Game Pass, which takes a more tongue-in-cheek approach, albeit a bit morbid in its own right. Quests include sticking your baby avatar in the oven, in the freezer, drinking cleaner, the list goes on. So how does a developer top that? Perhaps they shouldn’t, but they’ve gone so far as to also feature children as enemies. Games like Concrete Genie (2019) and Bully (2006) had..well..bullies. BioShock (2007) introduced the Little Sisters who the player can either save or harvest. Dante’s Inferno (2010) boasted hordes of unbaptized babies with a trophy to boot. Dead Space 2 (2011) featured human baby hybrids trying to kill you in a nursery while Days Gone (2019) had child zombies of its own. A far cry from the innocent optimism of Donkey Kong Jr. But has it all become doom and gloom?

Rest assured there are still games that present younglings in a more positive light. Persona 5’s Phantom Thieves, The Last Guardian, Lou/Louise in Death Stranding, Kratos getting another chance to be a dad with Atreus (affectionately known as BOY). Haruka and her Orphanage coming together to end Yakuza 6, Raiden meeting his son for the first time to end Metal Gear Solid 4, a young Nathan Drake in both Uncharted 3 and Uncharted 4. These scenarios all presented far more character development and opportunity for storytelling (if not positivity) than ever before. One thing these extremes have in common is they generally portray children in a much more mature fashion, in whatever role they may have. And roles they have, more than ever before. Should we be concerned? Not really. Video games have evolved as a medium the same as every other form of popular entertainment and should be judged accordingly in my opinion. There will always be outliers, but the average is batting a good game all things considered.

All told, it’s been an interesting evolution to live through and play through. Where we’re at now, is itself an interesting time. The outliers aren’t who you might’ve expected as industry leaders have taken different paths to get the status quo to where it is. Realism in games with children has come a long way, also doing a good job of showing the grey areas. Not just the black and white. The Witcher 3 is teeming with NPC kids and one of the better quests/lessons involves Geralt rescuing and then befriending a young girl, who thanks him by drawing a picture of them holding hands. She sees past the Witcher prejudice of her time and trusts Geralt with her gratitude. A telling image, perhaps showing us that if video game kids can see past prejudice, maybe we can too.