The idea that someone could create the future of video games in the garage of their own home. College drop-outs could help shape the way video games are made today. It’s hard to fathom the way video games and computer games were made in the 1970s and 1980s. Any time I dive into information about that time, I feel a sense of nostalgia for a time period that I wasn’t ever a part of. A want and need to return to a time of wonderment. Not a time of corporations cranking out cash-grabs. Or a generation that doesn’t think twice as to what goes into making their current video games so life-like.
The Start of It All
As someone born in 1990, I did play the original Nintendo video games. I was…okay at Super Mario Brothers. I loved Kirby, Donkey Kong, and I spent an insane amount of hours playing PC Games. If you’re someone like me, then perhaps you will like Netflix’s High Score. Or, maybe you’d like to learn the origins of that latest version of God of War or Grand Theft Auto. Be transported back to a time of low-grade pixels, simple commands, and text-only PC games.
Exploring The World of Video Games
Netflix’s High Score does well in going through all of the components that created the boom of the video games. How Space Invaders really helped thrust Atari and the console giant Nintendo even came to be. The research that went behind these games – the legal battles. This documentary covers all of it. High Score highlights all of the different aspects of video game’s history. The development of shooting games, RPGs, all of it. How Dungeons and Dragons inspired adventure games. How college dropouts were responsible for so much. It was average people – not corporate conglomerates who started it all.
Pop Culture and Video Games
The documentary explores pop culture icons and their creations. Pac-Man, Mario, Sonic. And the inspiration behind these characters. What I loved especially about this documentary, was that it highlighted unsung heroes in the video game world. People who history had forgotten, because they were overshadowed. People like Jerry Lawson. Or Ryan Best.
I could sing this documentary’s praises up and down. It was informative, engaging, and revealed aspects of the video game world that you probably weren’t ever aware of. It explored the real human stories and what this process meant to so many people. Even if you aren’t into video games, this documentary was more than just 18-bits, a speedy hedgehog, and an analog stick. Not only did video games inspire our modern world, but video games were influenced by the world around them. It gave a voice to those who were just looking for a means of expressing themselves.
Rating: 5/5
High Score might just be one of the best documentaries I’ve watched recently. It’s an easy watch and just like video games, you’ll find yourself submerged for hours. Not wanting to leave.
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A girl with too many fandoms to count.
