This idea came to me as a topic today as I had cooked a vastly large breakfast this morning. Bacon, eggs, french toast, and banana bread with a side of a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch. The meal was rather delicious and the meal itself looked just as good as it tasted. Video games have been featuring as items, decoration, and story elements in games since the 80's. Today I will analyze their incorporation into the interactive medium.
Food has been most commonly used as items in video games. Their most common use is as a healing item. I've found that a good amount of RPGs and beat-em ups like to use food as the primary healing item source such as the chicken in Tekken Force Mode and the various drinks in Threads of Fate. Earthbound has a nice take on food as healing items. They function much the same as they do in most games, but the amount they can heal you can be dependent on applied seasoning. You can buy seasoning in Earthbound and whenever you eat a food item rather in combat or on the field the seasoning or condiment would be applied automatically. If the combination tastes bad to the character then the item will heal less than if it didn't have the seasoning, but if the character likes the taste then it will heal more than it normally does.
In addition to that at the beginning of the game, the player is asked to name Ness's favorite food. This food has some significance as it plays into a couple of aspects in the game. Occasionally Ness will get inflicted with the homesick while in battle. Occasionally during your journey while in battle instead of following the command you give Ness during battle, he may start to crave his favorite food. This is one of the options that come up when you're inflicted with the Homesick status. One of the ways to get rid of this status effect is to eat your favorite food. This is comparative with how food can sometimes be an element of nostalgia to us and how overall it can have affect our feelings. You also have a tie-in with dumpster diving for food as you can dig in trash cans to find food like hamburgers.
Kirby Super Star also uses food as restorative items, but in the Gourmet Race mini game it provides a different use. The object of that mini game is to beat King Dedede to the finish line while also eating more food than him along the way. If you entirely ignore the food and head straight to the finish line you lose. If both characters make it to the end at the same time, the character who has eaten the most items along the way will be the victor. Kirby Super Star also has my favorite invulnerable power-up in the lollipop. The Gourmet race is comparative to the gluttonous eating competitions in the real world except in Kirby you're also running and flying while you're eating which would be highly dangerous to do in real life.
On the commercial side of food, a few games have had either direct advertisement from a restaurant chain like Church's Chicken in Tekken 6 or have included references to real life restaurants. The Grand Theft Auto series have done this. In particular their inclusion in San Andreas was pretty neat. If you overeat in the game your character will grow fat and he could vomit if you binge eat. The game also makes reference to fast food Mexican restaurant chain Taco Bell with Cluckn Bell and Burger Shot is a play on various fast food joints such as McDonalds' Burger King, and In -N- Out. Their absence from the recent Grand Theft Auto V was missed.
Metal Gear Solid 3 brings in the hunting aspect of food. In the game you're stamina will drop over time which when depleted will start to drain your health. In order to replenish stamina you must eat. There are rations you can eat in the game, but most of your source of food will come from hunting and gathering. See a rabbit bouncing around, shoot it or tranquilize it to catch it and eat it. See a bird flying? Shoot that down. See a rat crawling through a basement, eat that too. MGS 3 also does something a little unique with food. The game tracks the time of passage in real life and if you leave food sitting too long it will grow rotten. Eat it and you'll lose health. Same goes for eating a poisonous frog or snake.
One of my favorite mechanics with food is the inclusion of cooking. Square Enix announced that you can make camp in the game while in the field and during so you can cook meals. The food will have various effects on party members. These effects haven't been revealed in detail, but I think it would be similar to Legaia 2: Duel Saga in which they can provide the party with temporary stat boosts. Dragon's Crown also does the cooking mechanic well. While tackling multiple dungeons in Dragon's Crown a cooking sequence will pop up after completing one and at this time players can put various ingredients in pots or pans to cook the food and eat it. You can burn the food which will decrease your health and if you're spiteful or just want to annoy a friend you can burn some food and put it on another player's plate. The art of the food is also rather gorgeous in this game and food you cook restores health and can temporarily increase your Max HP and other stats.
I have yet to play any games primarily centered around food or cooking like Cooking Mama, Burger Time, or that old arcade Budweiser game Tapper, but I might get around to one of these eventually. Though their inclusion is mostly rudimentary, food is one of my favorite things that game developers pull from reality.
What are your thoughts on food in video games? What are your favorite use of them? Comment below.
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