Non-game influences evident in games

[flamepanther]

I want to discuss influences on video games that come from outside of video games. I'm not talking about common knowledge stuff that's instantly obvious (Blade Runner and Terminator for Hideo Kojima's game Snatcher, or Greek mythology for God of War) or that's common knowledge (we've all probably seen plenty of interviews where Miyamoto divulges his many inspirations for Mario games). I'm more interested in smaller, or less well known influences that seem to be evident in games, that remain unacknowledged or are not obvious to everyone until pointed out.


I'll get started with the evident influence of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series on Sonic The Hedgehog:

Chaos Emeralds. Seven mysterious stones, scattered afar and difficult to come by, that have unbelievable power when united in one place. This is very similar to the titular Dragon Balls of Toriyama's manga, with the exception that they do not summon a wish-granting dragon. Dragon Ball in turn got this from Journey to the West, but it's almost a given Sonic Team had Dragon Ball in mind given all of the below:

Super Sonic. Sonic's transformation sequence when he becomes Super Sonic is almost identical to Goku's when he becomes a Super Sayan/Saiyajin. The hovering, the hair turning yellow and spiking upwards, the burning golden aura... it's even the same pose.

Eggman's iconic Eggmobile vehicle looks very much like Capsule Corp technology.

Both Sonic the Hedgehog and Dragon Ball are set in a strange, whimsical, futuristic version of Earth with bizarre landscapes (since this is about influence on games' creators, we will accept Earth and not Mobius as the setting, per Sonic Team's intentions, if only for the purposes of this topic. Argument on the setting can go elsewhere.) In both, humans also inexplicably coexist with anthropomorphic animals.

I may be missing more.

[Gamerforlife]

I think lots of people have seen the Sonic/DBZ connection

I would mention Chinese history as told in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a culturally significant boook that loosely tells the tale of well known characters in Chinese history like Liu Bei, Guan Yu, etc. It's been the basis for a beat'em up by Capcom and the Dynasty Warriors games

Parkour in platforming since Prince of Persia: Sands of Time came out, but that may kind of obvious I suppose.

[ProfessorK]

I actually remember seeing somewhere that members of Sonic Team admitted to being influenced by Dragon Ball and also by Star Wars (Obvious; The Death Egg). Also, I noticed that originally, Sonic's eyes turned green when he transformed, as did Goku's and the other Saiyans. Super Sonic's have been red since Adventure though so it may have just been a fluke.

[flamepanther]

Heh. I've seen where people thought Dragon Ball copied Sonic, since the early Sonic games hit the West long before Dragon Ball Z did.

I've also seen people make the connection with Super Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds, but not so much the general setting or the mechanical designs.

[flojocabron]

OH! I've got one!

beware this is not for the squeamish!

In the movie "John Carpenters The Thing" when the alien takes over the dogs in the kennel the dogs head splits open and turns into the monster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3I2rDZAJQg

resembles the boss character from Parasite eve, where a dogs head splits open and turns into a monster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR7hrXqus88

a classic horror movie given props in a classic ps1 game?

[ZeroAX]

The special stages in S&K and Sonic 3 are also influenced by Dragonball (from the small planet Songoku trained on when he died for the first time)

[lisalover1]

Everything is symbolic and referential in Xenosaga, despite if it has actual significance or not.

[AppleQueso]

Everything is symbolic and referential in Xenosaga, despite if it has actual significance or not.

I sort of feel like saying you can blame Evangelion for that. It's like after that show's popularity people all thought that symbolism was an instant ticket to "deep".

[noiseredux]

I always felt that Resident Evil 4 was basically Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth."

[J T]

Silent Hill was directly influenced by this scene from the movie Jacob's Ladder.

H.P. Lovecraft's writings have been a direct influence on many horror games including Alone in the Dark, Call of Cthulu, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 both included a lot of background research to make the settings feel more realistic. They researched the Spanish Influenza, the flu epidemic of the 60s, and the swine flue to understand how disease spreads and how society responds to it. They studied FEMA's response to these kinds of situations and tried to exaggerate the spread and severity of the disease in Left4Dead so you felt like you were involved in a real societal crisis that had spun out of control, despite the government's (CEDA's) best attempts to help.

They also researched the locales that would become the settings for the games. Left 4 Dead is basically Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Left 4 Dead 2 is New Orleans. They wanted the locales to feel like real, recognizable U.S. cities.