Trigger Happy
323
combinations of these must be manipulated in time with
their corresponding symbols floating down the screen.
Other “rhythm games,” as they are known, include
Parappa the Rapper, in which the player must help a
paper-thin rapping dog undergo musical training from
an onion; Guitar Freaks, playing on the Japanese
penchant for heavy metal by requiring the user to strum
a simplified rock ax; and Drummania, in which the
player sits on a stool and hits electronic drum pads in
time with symbols.
All these games show funny, colorful digital
animations on their screens: pulsating cartoon embryos
for a rave track;
anime
heroes performing six-string
heroics—but these icons are completely irrelevant to
the gameplay. But even these simple games boast a
unique structure of semiotic interaction. Notice, for
instance, that the symbols on the screen in Dance
Dance Revolution are also functioning indexically,
because they are pointing to the symbols that need to be
stepped on by the player, and the symbols themselves
(arrows pointing in four directions) are quite special in
that they are utterly content-free—they do not stand for
anything else in the context of the game.
