As much as die-hard purists are loath to admit it and as skin-deep as it is, graphics do matter. Video game companies have been trying to wow people with their graphics since the days of Donkey Kong. Altered Beast became a Genesis classic because it was just a step or 2 less flashy than its arcade version. What Starfox lacked in frame rate it gained in wow factor with its 3D graphics.
Then there are cutscenes, the boon, and bane for many gamers. Tomb Raider’s cutscenes showed Lara Croft as Core Design wanted her to look, rather than the pointy figure consoles limited her to. Then series like Wing Commander on the PC went one further and had live-action cutscenes with famous actors. But no matter how live the action is, or how high-end the cast is, the result can still end up silly. Take these games for example. These are five good video games with ridiculous, live-action cutscenes.
5 Twisted Metal
Before he came up with God of War and struggled with Metroid Dread, David Jaffe co-created the car-combat sim Twisted Metal. The franchise has gone from strength to strength, but it was popular enough to make its crazy clown Sweet Tooth a recognizable Playstation icon. The series even included live-action cutscenes later in its run, to varying degrees of success. However, the funniest ones were actually left on the cutting room floor.
The original Twisted Metal was going to have live-action endings for its characters. They were all filmed, edited, and ready to add when they were junked. According to Jaffe, they were pulled because they were too mature. Maybe they were by 90s standards. In 2022, they’re pure cheese from the corny acting to the terrible makeup and masks. The endings were added as an extra in 2005’s Twisted Metal: Head-On and can now be viewed in full on YouTube in all their VHS quality glory.
4 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
The C&C series has always been tongue-in-cheek to one degree or another. So, like those Twisted Metal endings, it was meant to make people laugh in between the button presses and mouse clicks. Unlike that game, C&C got a stellar cast of some rather big names. Red Alert 3 in particular had J.K Simmons and David Hasselhoff as the President and Vice-President of the US. George Takei led the Empire of the Rising Sun. Then there was the Soviet Union, run by the legendary Tim Curry.
Everyone was given carte blanche to chomp onto the scenery as they caricatured militarism, nationalism, and stereotypes. Whether it’s Takei and Ronald Yuan daring to retake Pearl Harbor, or Ric Flair telling the player the red oil drums are actually full of candy to prank them. Yet the most famous serving of ham goes to Curry. He delivers his lines with such relish and barely suppressed laughter. Especially when he declares he’ll go “to the ONE PLACE that’s not CORRUPTED BY CAPITALISM!! …SPACE!”
3 It Came From The Desert
Cinemaware lived up to its name in delivering film-like games for the Amiga and PCs back in their day. It Came from the Desert was particularly popular for its 1950s B-movie setting, high-quality 16-bit graphics, and the variety of mini-games that mixed things up from the regular point & click gameplay. Like playing chicken with other cars or escaping from the hospital to save time.
When it got ported to the TurboGrafx-CD in 1991, the studio decided to give it a new storyline, new characters, and new, live-action cutscenes. For the early 90s, the quality isn’t that bad technically. By today’s standards, they’re pixillated and washed out with fuzzy sound. The acting is also cheesy with its quips and jokes, mixing intentional laughs with unintentional ones. Though it’s a bit sad that it taints the better Amiga and PC versions by association. Gameplay-wise, it's best to stick with the original It Came From the Desert and find better TurboGrafx goodies elsewhere.
2 Devil May Cry 5: Deluxe Edition
It is standard practice to use storyboards to design filmed scenes. Everyone has to know where the actors are going to be in the frame, what effects are going to be in which position, etc. Video games aren’t any different in this regard. Devil May Cry 3 had an easter egg where players could see a montage of the motion capture actors providing the motions for its cutscenes. Over a decade later, Capcom decided to do something similar with the Deluxe Edition of Devil May Cry 5.
Only instead of giving players a montage, they gave players the full Monty. If they so choose, players can watch the development team’s visual storyboard in place of certain cutscenes. There are men flapping in hoodies in place of flying enemies. Nero’s stunts are shown via a Nero action figure stuck onto a stick. While Nico’s van driving is the most glorious thing since the ‘car chase’ in Red Dwarf’s ‘Back to Reality’ episode. The package is also available as DLC for people who got the regular DMC5, and this peek behind the curtain might just be worth the price.
1 Resident Evil
What else could’ve taken this top spot? It might be a cliché to talk about Resident Evil’s infamous intro. The choppy editing, the awkward line delivery (“Nooo…don’t…go!”), the screaming, the blood that was too mature even in the supposedly uncensored ‘Director’s Cut’. For a game that was meant to herald the nascent ‘survival horror’ genre, its opening was more hilarious than horrifying. But not out of place given its infamous voice acting.
The cast rundown afterward isn’t any more serious. The moody rock song (“I got a shotgun!”), the cheesy announcer and the actors’ poses make it seem more like an action game than anything else. Most notably is Chris breaking out his cigarette and looking as badass as the direction would allow. Except this also got censored for the West. The game was full of blood, death, and zombies, but woe betides anyone who sees actor Charlie Kraslavsky with some tobacco. Truly, Resident Evil is the series that keeps on giving when it comes to silliness.