Trigger Happy
152
slavering slow-motion reiterates the final, lethal
combinations of kicks and punches when a fighter in
Tekken 3 is brutally floored. Television sports directors
have understood for a long while that, when it comes to
the electronic mise-en-scÈne of fast movement in three
dimensions, several heads are better than one; the
cutting together of different viewpoints gives a better
and more visceral understanding of the action.
Here, however, the term “replay” is particularly
misleading. Play is still primary; what comes next is not
a “replay,” a playing again, but a
watching
. The
carnival of camera angles in a videogame replay does
not impinge at all on the basic functional requirements
of in-game viewpoints. The two are properly separate
“modes” of the game. But this is exactly what I meant
earlier when suggesting that videogames are potentially
a more flexible form than film. Such borrowings from
cinematic techniques can indeed enhance the visual
experience of a game without compromising its unique
intensity.
