My most recent piece for Unwinnable is on the upset victory of the indie game Undertale in GameFAQ’s annual Best Game Ever contest.
I’ve written before about how one of the primary ways that members of the gamer subculture prove their worthiness is through their familiarity with the “canon” of classic games from the 80s and 90s. And so on one level it makes sense that a certain subset of gamers would be upset about an upstart like Undertale defeating classics like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario World.
But Undertale pays homage to many of those classics, both in its meta narrative and game mechanics and its classic gaming aesthetic. It is a game designed with gamers in mind, and knowledge of the classics is practically a requirement to get the complete experience.
So why is Undertale getting so much hate? Politics, of course! Click on over to Unwinnable for more. And if you haven’t played Undertale yet, give yourself an early Christmas present and download it on Steam. You won’t regret it!
Megan Condis 